Calendar Animation V1.0
This setup guide from www.3dnames.co will guide you through how you can create the following Calendar Animation using our Blender file.
We have designed this download file to be used by anyone, and you do not have to have any knowledge of using Blender as long as you follow this step by step guide.
We have made this guide interactive, with checkboxes to tick off at each step, so you can keep track of your progress.
Happy Animating!
👆 Sped up demonstration of this text effect!
Video Previews
Create these animations with any text you like using our Blender file and this guide!
Need help? Chat to us on our Discord Channel
Join our DiscordYou will need Blender Installed...
Please make sure you have Blender v4.0.1 installed on your computer, you can download it for free from https://www.blender.org/download/releases/4-0/ - this file was made using Blender v4.0.1
Interactive Guide - toggle the switch on each step to mark it as completed!
Steps quick overview
1. Open Blender File
Mark as completedDownload the ZIP file, extract it somewhere and open up the CalendarAnimationV1.0.blend file in Blender, we recommend using Blender V4.0.1 or higher.
2. Launch the 3D Names Panel
Mark as completedWhen you open the file - all you need to do is press the small play icon â–· at the top as per the first screenshot below - then in the 3D Viewport there will be a new Panel called "3D Names" - this panel contains everything we need for this files effect to work.
1. Press the Play icon as marked, 2. The new panel will appear on the right hand side, to show or hide this panel you can press the "N" key on your keyboard
3. Set the date
Mark as completedIn the "3D Names" Panel you can now set the date on the calendar, just select the day, month and the year, and press the "Apply Date" button to update the calendar to any date you want. If you press "Todays Date" button - well pretty obvious what that does!
4. Edit Text
Mark as completedNow select the Text object that says "Edit Me" and press the "TAB" key on your keyboard to enter edit mode. You can now edit the text to whatever you like. To exit text edit mode, press the "TAB" key once more
5. Position/Resize Text
Mark as completedMove the text using "G" key to grab, and then move it around, or "S" key to scale it! Make sure it fits within the black box surrounding it.
6. Setting Up the Physics
Mark as completedOnce you have your text in place - first press the "Setup Physics" button - this might take a few moments but once run all the mini calendars will be set up with Physics ready to land all over your text.
7. Baking the Physics
Mark as completedNow the Physics has been setup - if you try to play the animation it will be very slow, so we need to bake the physics, to do this press the "Bake Physics" button - this will take a few minutes to complete, and all animation data will be saved internally in the Blender file. If Blender freezes up while it's baking this is totally normal, and you can go make a cup of tea/coffee and come back when it's ready!
👆 If your screen freezes up while it's baking... then no need to worry, this is normal, and it'll be back to normal once it's finished baking! Windows users will see a console window popup to show the progress of the bake
8. Play the animation
Mark as completedOnce baked we can now play the animation either using the "Play Animation" button, or using the play icon in the timeline at the bottom!
9. Now Render the animation
Mark as completedIf you'd like to render a still frame simply press the "F12" key on your keyboard, or if you'd like to render the animation, press the "Ctrl + F12" keys on your keyboard (or "CMD + F12" on Mac) - the rendered frames will be saved in the ./renders folder.
Turn your PNG frames into a Video
To turn your rendered PNG frames into a video, please take a look at the following Video Render Tool guide
"Your Text" as a video:
Advanced Tips
Increase Particle count
To have more of the mini calendars falling down, you can increase the particle count on the "cubeEmitter" object, this will automatically increase the height of the cube to match the particle count - but be warned this can take a while to bake the physics - we tried 5,000 count and it took about 2 hours to bake!
Change the font
To change the font, simply select the "EDIT_ME" text object, and in the "Text" tab in the properties panel, you can change the font to whatever you like! We have included a 2nd font called "Bebas Neue" or you can use any of your own fonts.