How Does CGI Animation Work?

CGI animation is now essential across advertising, marketing, and branded content. From high end TV ads to product explainers and virtual environments, CGI gives brands a way to create visuals that feel polished, premium and flexible. But how does CGI animation work?

If you’re a UK business or part of a marketing team without in house CGI expertise, understanding the process helps you manage creative briefs better, set realistic timelines and assess whether CGI is right for your next campaign.

This guide walks through the full CGI animation process, the tools involved and how CGI can support your goals.

Concept and Storyboarding:

Every CGI animation project starts with an idea.

Writers and artists work together to shape the creative direction. Storyboards are created to map out each scene. These are a series of sketches that show camera angles, key movements and timing.

They help align the animation with marketing goals from the start.

Modelling:

Once the storyboard is approved, 3D models are created.

This stage involves using CGI technology to build digital representations of every object, person or environment that will appear in the animation. Whether it’s a physical product, a stylised character or a location, modelling creates the visual assets used throughout.

Software like Blender, 3ds Max, Cinema 4D and Maya are commonly used for this. Each model is crafted with enough detail to look convincing from any angle and lighting setup.

Good modelling sets the foundation for a believable animation.

Texturing:

After the shape and structure of models are built, the next step is making them look real.

Texturing involves applying materials to those models including colour, roughness, shininess and visual imperfections. This is what makes a product look like polished steel or soft leather and what gives a character skin tone, clothing and detail.

Creating effective textures is part technical, part artistic. Artists use scanned materials or photos to build a texture library. These are then applied to the 3D model using UV mapping inside the animation software.

Without this stage, even a well shaped model will appear flat and lifeless.

Rigging and Animation:

For any model to move, it needs an internal structure.

Rigging is the process of giving a 3D model bones and control points. This allows it to move naturally for example, bending at the elbows or rotating the neck. Rigging is essential for anything that moves in the animation, from characters to mechanical parts.

Once rigged, animation begins. Animators use software to define how each object or character moves over time. Movements are created by setting keyframes and adjusting curves. Depending on the style, the movement can be realistic or stylised.

When accurate human motion is needed, studios often use motion capture. This involves recording a real actor’s movement and applying it to a digital model. It’s how CGI characters in Lord of the Rings were animated so convincingly, blending human performance with computer generated imagery.

Lighting and Rendering:

Lighting gives depth and realism to a CGI scene.

Virtual lights are placed into the environment, simulating the behaviour of real world lighting. These lights are adjusted to match the desired mood, whether that’s warm and inviting or dramatic and shadowed.

Once the scene is set and lit, rendering begins. Rendering is the process of taking all the digital information, models, textures, lighting and animation and converting it into final image frames. Each frame can take seconds or hours depending on the quality and complexity.

Rendered frames are then compiled into sequences, forming the visual output that will be used in the final project.

Post-Production:

After rendering, the work moves into post production.

At this stage, additional visual effects are layered in. Compositing is used to blend various passes of lighting, shadow, reflection into a final shot. Colour correction helps match scenes together. Sound effects, music and voiceover are also added here.

This is where animation becomes a finished piece of content, ready for campaigns, presentations or publication.

For businesses, post is where the message is sharpened and synced to visuals that meet brand guidelines.

CGI animation is used in more places than most people realise. It appears in advertising, social content, product demos, training videos and more.
The flexibility of CGI makes it ideal for marketers working across different platforms and sectors.

In film and television, CGI is used to build environments that don’t exist, simulate explosions or weather and bring imaginary creatures to life. Lord of the Rings used computer generated imagery CGI extensively for both characters and large scale battle scenes.

In advertising, CGI helps brands show off new products before launch. With photorealistic models and animation, you can create visuals that are indistinguishable from real footage. This is useful for products still in development or hard to film.

In explainer videos, CGI helps turn abstract or complex topics into visuals. For example, a software company can animate its user interface in 3D to demonstrate features. A logistics company can show a process from warehouse to customer with simple animations.

Virtual reality also relies heavily on CGI. All 3D environments, objects and interactions inside a VR experience are built using CGI. This allows brands to create immersive experiences for training, events or product testing.

Gaming is powered by CGI. Characters, environments and cinematic cut scenes are all built using the same tools used in advertising CGI. The overlap between gaming and commercial content is growing, especially with the use of real time engines like Unity and Unreal.

Each method has its strengths. CGI offers the most control and versatility, especially when working across digital platforms.

The Tools and Techniques

CGI animation is built on a range of animation software and tools.

For modelling and animation, Cinema 4D, Blender, Maya and 3ds Max are the most common choices. Houdini is used for visual effects like fire, smoke or simulations.
For real-time visuals, Unity and Unreal Engine allow fast rendering and support interactive experiences. These tools are often used in VR and gaming-style presentations.

AI tools are also beginning to assist CGI production. They can automate tedious tasks like background clean up or frame interpolation.
However, the real value of CGI still comes from people, from artists and animators making creative decisions at each stage.

If your next project involves product visuals, service explainers or immersive content, CGI could be a strong choice. It’s especially useful when you need visuals before a product is ready or when live filming is too expensive or impractical.

CGI animation allows you to:

Create visuals before launch

Control every aspect of the image

Tailor output to different platforms

Show detail impossible to film

Final Thoughts

CGI animation is a practical tool that allows brands to communicate clearly and creatively. It combines strong visual impact with full control, helping you stand out and explain your message effectively.

At Emotive 3D, we work with businesses across tech, travel, automotive and more. If you’re planning a campaign that needs clear, professional visuals, we’d love to help.

Explore our recent work or get in touch to find out how CGI animation could support
your next project.