The Ultimate Animation Computer Guide

[@SirWade]

Watch all the way through for all the little tidbits of info, and share what you know down here as well! Let's build the best computer guide together! :)

[@arh1701]

Ok Sir,hoping Ill get a reply although i should have posted this on your older video about how u became an animator,so i watched many of your videos and decided to do some research on animation mentor courses based on ur video..i didnt see too many reviews except for some old Yelp reviwes which all shares one thing in common.they all said these courses are informative but a zero knowledge person in MAya and animation in general cant take much out of the courses as they are designed for those with some animation background,but again the reviews where for 2014 ish so maybe the curriculum or course structures has changed ever since?idk..my main question from you is that if someone with 0 knowledge in animation/graphic design/3D is willing to learn,would animation mentor courses(course 1 to the end) train her step by step or should she have some background to be able to get something out of the courses. I checked ur linkedin and seemz like u did have some software experience i general and u were already a tech savvy. Sorry for this long essay but im taking it very serious and trying to find the best way to step into animation,design,etc

[@arh1701]

:( i left my question in the comment section as u have said in the desciption . Still waiting

[@filmfreak4359]

Question, did you get any degree or certificate before working your 2 years at Dreamworks? And to become an animator that big, should you have a degree or certificate?

[@enwertayir2174]

Sir Wade Neistadt has hi,what do you think about The new MacBook Pro 16 inch? It’ll had the same issues with rendering?

[@parthapratimroy8282]

What do you recommend macbook pro or a gaming laptop for 3d animation? Reply please 😁

[@JessicaNeistadt]

go husband, that's my husband

[@bibhasroy3815]

He really is!!!! Have a great life

[@SpeedyNS_]

I lowkey didn't believe her until I saw her videos with him XD

[@sahilshaikh6292]

Nice

[@ianremenar6634]

Aw you're soo adorable 💕😭

[@Screw064]

oh wow that really is ur husband lmao

[@_6-6_]

*Here’s what I’ve gathered from months of research (updated 6/21)* Maya: get an i7/i9/ryzen 7/ryzen 9/threadripper/xeon processor. 16gb(or more) ram is a must. Arnold can render with the GPU or CPU, so a nice GPU goes a long way. Toonboom: at least a i7/i5/Ryzen 5/ryzen 7. The graphics card is whatever. Stay above 8gb ram though, memory is key. TB renders with the CPU. Blender: i7/i9/ryzen 7/threadripper, 1060/rx580, 16gb ram. So blender can render with the GPU as well! So spend a little more the graphics card. If you can afford the 30/20 RTX series, they are WORTH IT for blender. But with all of these, make sure you get a Solid State Drive!!! If this seems crazy, *JUST GET STARTED* . You could run all of these on a 500 laptop, especially if you're just beginning.

[@SirWade]

Arnold actually now has an option to render with GPU! As do lots of the other renderers you can bring into each piece of 3D software, but out of the box yeah it's default a CPU renderer

[@anggarakun8786]

Thank you, Im actually using blender and I dont know how to build pc that suitable for blender.

[@ShiroCh_ID]

how about c4d??

[@ILLRICARDO]

Was thinking between a RTx 2060 or rtx2070 i7 laptop, still not sure which way to go .

[@lukas_g243]

INGSOC same

[@actingupwithjustinkealey8107]

This was an excellent video. It is a very confusing subject understanding how all these hardware types function together. I'm also an animator. I worked on the film 9 with Tim Burton. I'm a little older now and have been out of it for a bit but I explored participating in The animation mentor program to get right back into it. I loved your energy and really found this to be the most helpful video on this subject that I've seen yet and I've looked at allot of them. Thanks man!

[@sock3715]

loved that movie btw

[@bijoyp]

I think it's very much worth mentioning that the choice between AMD and Intel can make a big difference. At this point (before the release of Ryzen 3000 series), AMD has almost caught up with Intel. For someone who renders a lot, and uses CPU as well, going with AMD would be ideal. However, for animators, things get tricky. Animators (in maya at least) benefit more from faster cores than number of cores (as long as you have 4 cores). So at this point, intel would be a better choice as some of them can be overlooked to 4.5 Ghz in air. However, they cost too much.

[@bibhasroy3815]

Yes!! Im using a 7700k with 32 gb ram and 2 gtx 1070 and its great

[@JoseSanchez-dy7sg]

Now more than ever AMD is definitely a better choice for most ppl

[@IGarrettI]

@@JoseSanchez-dy7sg why

[@BULLITT1]

@@IGarrettI Because you get a lot more performance for a lot less dollars. For years Intel dominated the single threaded performance. Now amd is just better both at single threaded and multi performance and cheaper.

[@sharath2273]

If you are on blender though, an AMD cpu with an Nvidia gpu would be the best.

[@minimoi366]

Where was this when I was lost and needed a computer for college 😭 thankfully I took my time and got what I needed but this would have saved a lot of time, worries and solved questions much more quickly 😅 thanks for taking your time to make this video anyways!

[@tgamer4662]

I appreciate this breakdown. It will probably take me 3 or 4 years to get the budget for the beast I need. Always wanted to be an animator for movies and games since I was a kid but finances were never there and as an adult I had to settle with a trade. I'm looking to get a different trade skill so I can get a job that pays more so I can finally get started on my animation dreams.

[@habiba4767]

Good luck!

[@weberxfabian]

how's it going?

[@BarKeegan]

Appreciate videos like this, hard to narrow down the perfect config when working off a budget, future proofing, and making sure you don’t ‘waste’ components

[@excellenceinanimation960]

IDK why but i thought the glasses were not real. scared me when you took them off

[@LishaGirli]

F trump 💙

[@excellenceinanimation960]

@@LishaGirli petty

[@LishaGirli]

@@excellenceinanimation960 who's in the lead again? Thanks.

[@excellenceinanimation960]

@@LishaGirli We will not know for weeks. Why do you ask?

[@LishaGirli]

@@excellenceinanimation960 because he's our president now. No hard feelings 😂

[@NosyVoldemort]

i have a I7-4770 CPU, 8 GB ram and a GTX 970 GPU. and maya, Zbrush, Photoshop, VR,.. works just fine, its not slow at all. 120 GB SSD for important programs and the system (this could use a upgrade), then i own a total of 2T of HDD, i have more then 30 games installed (including VR) on my HDD and it works fine, my Desktop needs +- 18 sec to start up (+- 1000$ when i bought it). if you are just animating as a beginner don't go to overboard on costs, its not neccesary. And when you start in a studio they probably give you a PC to use. so i appreciate this video, but you went WAY overboard with the stuff you have in your Desktop (4500$ from what ive seen), and thats fine.. thats your choice, but this video sounds a bit sponsored imo, even though its not. if you want to get sponsored in the future, companies will like video's like these.

[@chocofro3]

This makes me feel amazing. I built my own PC for the first time 3 years ago just because it was the best bang for my buck and it has an i7 processor, 16 gbs RAM, an NVIDIA graphics card, and learning animation was not even on my mind yet. This PC is GOOD TO GO!

[@Fanimation_Studios]

You've just got a subscriber because of how clear you explain this stuff. Thanks man!

[@MayhemMaya]

Some Tips: for those of you who don't know, Arnold uses the CPU for rendering in Maya, It doesn't use the GPU. So the more cores you have the better and faster rendering with Arnold will be. Another thing if you can overclock your CPU then you may get a performance boost from that. But not all CPU's are overclockable and your motherboard has to support overclocking as well. The GPU is mainly used for displaying objects in Maya's viewport 2.0.

[@zedus_official5850]

You have no idea HOW MUCH I NEEDED THIS! THANKSSSSS!!!

[@Braniean]

Thank goodness this amazing CHILD exists !!!!! Id be lost without him 👑💫🐘😭😱

[@conner121100]

Lol XD just bought my entire computer set up for Maya, I went Ryzen 2700X, with a RTX 2070

[@AdrianParkinsonFilms]

I got the exact same things last year for Blender and Unreal. So far they're great.

[@wavyy_juan8784]

Harshit Singh bottle neck must be a pain in the ass

[@jordaborodo6626]

@@wavyy_juan8784 There is no bottleneck, Ryzen 5 3600 is up there in performance with an i7-8700k, also it's not a gaming PC dude

[@jordaborodo6626]

@Harshit Singh Yeah I just wanted to clarify that bottleneck is only in gaming. By the way do you use a 2560x1440p monitor with the 2070 Super?

[@jordaborodo6626]

@Harshit Singh I feel you, I'm still on a 60hz monitor with a GTX 970 and an i7-3770, but I still watch these videos on current tech

[@GeckoStudiosLtd]

Thanks for the heads up on the Puget bench tests - a useful self-build guild resource for those of us outside the US. Currently looking at retiring my laptop and replacing with a small form factor as working onsite results in half a suitcase of gear anyway - may as well fill it with something I can repair and upgrade.

[@maddi6732]

I really needed this! My laptop just broke and I’m in need of a new one!!

[@Lifeisjustlikethat]

this is really helpful now i can see what i should start considering in my computer and the website is going to help me a lot in choosing the best software BTW Love them Glasses !!

[@TimeIsMine93]

The quadro cards are considered “professional modeling cards” but they will break your bank. Personally with blender a prebuilt with an rtx card will cost less than just a quadro card alone and for beginners will do great.

[@CVerse]

I was in a similar position as you were, not knowing what my pc should have and all for content creation. Puget Systems website really helped me pick the parts I needed, and this ended up being the system I built and bought myself: AMD Ryzen 9 3900x ASRock x570 Pro4 32gb DDR4-3600 Gigabyte RTX 2070 Super Windforce OC Samsung 860 EVO PLUS 1TB (x2) 2TB Seagate Barracuda HDD 7200rpm Fractal Design Meshify C w/ Glass Panel Windows 10 Education This ended up really well and was a lot of fun to build it. And with the recent announcement of my college going fully online next semester, I am FULLY ready to take on learning Maya and other 3D programs from home. I just found out about your channel and I'll sure to be using it as a great resource to learn about the industry!

[@galestrikefgc]

AMD is actually a super compelling option because you get a ton of performance for a lower price. Rendering and such really benefits from adding extra cores and threads, and AMD Ryzen gets you 8 cores and 16 threads for much cheaper than Intel. Please be sure to recommend this for people with lower budgets!

[@notleah8700]

Really great info! I would also say that with processors make sure it’s the latest generation. I have an i7 processor but it’s a 6th gen. and it doesn’t help with anything.

[@NoeliaEncarnacion]

first off got to say I almost spilled my drink seeing you with those glasses XD but I really liked this video and it was really helpful as for me right now I've been using the desktop I have going on 3yrs now and it's been working great but I do see how I'll be needing an upgrade too but I know I would have to customize it. It's amazing how these people just know what you need and do it for you that's what I need lol XD when ever the time comes to change I'll defenetly go to them and see what they offer

[@chadbailey7038]

Great Wade! Thanks so much for this! My tidbit to add, or to support, is what you said about clock speed. That is KING for Maya. The higher gHZ the better! 3.6, 3.7, 3.8... ⬆️ And Maya I’ve heard is a single core program for the most part. The additional cores come into play when rendering. Awesome video again Wade 👍🏾👍🏾✨

[@lukeferguson80]

I'm pretty sure that vfx simulations also benefit from more cores, but you of course still need good clock speed

[@gustavoneriart]

Your video helped me a lot to figure out what I need in a computer to start animating. Thank you! Love it!

[@dallastoko4932]

Thank you Sir Wade, (love the name) I'm wanting to become a 3D Animator even at my age. So at the moment, I'm a wannabe 3D animator, until I've earned my scars and stripes...hahaha and listening to this about the hardware you need for 3d Animation (Maya) is so helpful. Thank you

[@Bookauru]

This video is a godsend 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾 Thanks Wade

[@genesis2934]

Great stuff, here. Thank you so much Sir Wade Neistadt. This information was greatly needed.

[@TheMagnel777]

I gradually realised that I needed a more powerful and specialised computer. Dreaded having to figure out what to build and then building it ... time ... money ... mistakes :0|. Thanks for posting this Incredibly helpful video.

[@alisakazarnovsky5738]

Thank you so much! Your video and the information you gave was so helpful, now I at least know what to look for when buying a computer as an animation major! Thank you💛

[@ikakemalasari4850]

I need a pc for Gaming Animation And Online class ;-;

[@feliciediaz]

Same hahaha

[@dominik.jokiel]

Just buy a Gaming PC and not one for 600$ or less alot of these under that budget dont even have a Graphics Card. And if you want it cheaper than just watch a couple KZbin videos and do it your self, because its actually not hard to build one. I build one for my self and it was pretty easy when you just do it. Just watch KZbinrs like LinusTechTips or one of the other like 300 000 Hardware KZbinrs.

[@OK-iq7ls]

Amazing vid as always!!

[@SirWade]

thanks!

[@YummyFables1994]

All my videos are playblast videos generated in Autodesk Maya. I followed one of your videos titled "Your Animation Playblasts Can Look Like Renders!" and it is working just fine for me :).

[@hotcheetos304]

Dammmnn wish I had this last year. I'll keep this in mind when I have to upgrade

[@merabagheeramererides6259]

Bro you are awesome alot helping then anyone else love u bro

[@littlevoodooochild]

Thanks sooo much for sharing this info!! I'll be buying a macbook as laptop, cause my desktop is Mac too and don't want to struggle with Mac/Microsoft formats over my animation learning. Signed up for Animation Mentor this fall and cannot wait to learn more :D

[@psychonauturiel005]

damn 1st vid and i already love your ocd/ over energy lol, niceeee

[@muttmcdog4308]

Excellent video. Thanks for the info!

[@OWmofat]

To be fair, Intel and AMD both have clear advantages in specific work loads, In blender at least intel seems to have better viewport performance while amd has much much better render times.

[@Menelik.videos]

Fast and to the point. Great video.

[@biancapietersz]

This was so helpful!! Thank you for making this!!!

[@mambaman2007]

Great presentation there, I've learnt a lot.

[@jjhg]

So glad I found this video. Keep it up, man! God bless.

[@dominik.jokiel]

Just build one, it's pretty easy and it's cheaper. Don't say you can't do it or so. If you can hold a pencil in you Hand, you can build a PC, it isn't Vodoo stuff. It's just a couple parts (just 7 main parts: Mainboard, CPU, CPU-cooler, RAM, GPU, storage HDD/SSD, power supply) and you put it in a Case. If you don't know what parts to pick just USE the Internet(it is a magic thing where you can look up things). And only buy a Laptop if you Animate on the go or in school(if they don't have any PCs)or if you have a lot of money and i mean a shit ton of money, because Performence wise there are like 5-10 times more expensive. You would thank me if you just do it. Sorry mostly i hate my self, because it took me so f***ing long to just build one. I first bought a Laptop for about 1000$, because i thought i would use it on the go(only used it once or so on the go) and as my PC "starts to happen" i soon realized that i basicly crippeled my self for the whole time.

[@deva_771]

Thank you I was waiting for it

[@MeelisMatt]

Thank You for making this video!

[@deva_69]

2:10 you say that because you (in this video 😛) are living in past. I think AMD is just killing it right now. Power at a affordable price.

[@jasminepauljk]

Thank you this was VERY helpful 🙌🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

[@mojito248]

Thank you so much for taking your time to make a video on this! Honestly, it made such a difference for me and I understand computers much more better now and I'm much more confident in doing my own research for my own purposes :D Once again you're amazing Sir Wade for helping us out on topics like these, because I don't see other KZbinrs talking about it clearly and concisely like you do. Thank you once again! You're the best!! 🙌🏼💛

[@themissmay]

Wow you are so helpful, thank you so much🙏🏻

[@GlebNikolaevskii]

A gaming laptop with a NVIDIA graphics card and Intel i7 works perfect with blender. I’d recommend Acer Predator Helios 300

[@Vegall1992]

Thank you SO MUCH. This is all I really ask out of life. Explain things to me like this and my world will change

[@nazmulislam5217]

Thanks Wade I didn't know much about PCs this was very informative

[@Weronika-oh4mx]

Thank you so much this really helped me

[@007shabeeb]

Thank you brother . Many don’t really know a lot about the Quadro cards . They are the best for 3D visualisation and maya.

[@carlosmeneses7493]

Thanks for all this great information :)

[@leefisher5549]

Great video no nonsense about some next shit you have it very well structured

[@Celtravels]

I have a surface book 2, been using it for oved a year now (Maya, Arnold, Redshift, Nuke, Substance, Adobe,...) its been very great so far, rendering is just extremely slow. Im upgrading to a proper workstation for houdini now!

[@Athens3192]

Why did it take you so long to do this video!!!?? either way I'm glad you did!! Thank you!! (I trust your opinion) :)

[@bhuwnanaik3425]

You explained so well... really it made so much easier to understand my needs of the system.💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜👌👌👌👌

[@nikhilchama6634]

That's amazing man

[@HamzaAli-lk5ul]

thanks for the valuable information

[@theartoframos]

Ah man this is 3 years old! Would it be possible to make an update video. I bought an HP Z440 for my graduating year and it was awesome. Always built my own but still use this pewter 8 years later. Time to upgrade. But back to should I build or buy ...another hp but this time the gaming desktop and laptop OMEN less headaches of the build. ...or should I build🤔🤔🤔

[@hamaajstudios1812]

am gona start saving for this pc

[@CVerse]

Good luck finding a graphics card lol

[@luanmaia]

I have similar specs but i build it myself and the best thing for me is using After effects with no loading in the timeline on light projects. I have to use AE on my pretty expensive macbook pro because of this now. I do only still work on my mbp right now because of the speed difference on a performance windows machine.

[@mmoVSmmo]

As a student of animation and a tech enthusiast, I'd be more than happy to answer any wandering questions about building your own PC for animation. Step One. Buy one to build one. Never buy one pre-built. Chances are you're never going to get what you want. Step Two. If you ignore step one, buy a mid to high end gaming rig, and you'll be fine if you replace the air cooler with a liquid cooler.

[@SirWade]

Didn't you watch the video? With companies like Puget you can totally bypass having to build one yourself and still get everything you need, plus liquid cooling is overkill for even the best animation rigs. Plus a gaming setup isn't necessarily what you want for animation

[@SirWade]

*unless you go laptop, then I take it back- that's exactly what you'd want haha

[@mmoVSmmo]

@@SirWade always overkill the cooling. Air coolers just don't do it anymore, unfortunately. You can use one, but it's more of a thing to keep your temperatures low under heavy loads than anything.

[@daddychill7863]

Is the MSi Gs75 16gb good for 3d animation ?????????

[@mmoVSmmo]

@@daddychill7863 it's pretty great for a laptop and for animation. But it'll cripple itself on rendering.

[@pkminpkmon]

This is amazing!! Could you also do a video on storage\backups\archiving?

[@henreebee6561]

Great video!

[@Doolan-Williams2024]

I wish i had found this video before i bought my computer! But im pretty sure my computer i have now is good for what i want to do.

[@midnightplum1760]

For somewhat complex animations on toon boom done from home, do you think I can get away with 8GB? Or is it cutting it close and I should get 16GB instead?

[@CVerse]

Go for 16gb instead. 8gb nowadays is just the BARE minimum for internet browsing

[@StalinRanjithTheGreat]

A lot of RTX cards seem to be faulty causing artifacts, freeze frames, black screens and such. A lot of people are ranting about it. Mr. Neistadt, have u heard anything as such from any professionals? And after testing your card, please let us know how yours works as well

[@SirWade]

Yeah I'll keep you posted, so far I haven't had any issues! The new drivers have been great too

[@StalinRanjithTheGreat]

@Danny Morales Hope so ;)

[@StalinRanjithTheGreat]

@@SirWade Thanks!

[@carolineee2032]

As luck would have it, the notification for this video popped up just when I needed it. Spooky...

[@tejasshirsul9858]

I appreciate sir very genuine information 💯💙💙

[@ohneweil2644]

so helpful! Thanks

[@davidmozaffari6260]

Thanks so much man :D

[@SloppyLarry]

I am not liking how high the paywall is looking. I am interested in animation, but maybe I will stick with digital art?!

[@jennelle4545]

Exactly how i feel 😢 i really want to do 3D animation but we really gotta invest in a good/pretty pricey computer to get up and running smoothly

[@SloppyLarry]

@@jennelle4545 Maybe start with digital art?

[@canopusinfosystems6411]

Hey I am just beginner, Will you please tell me which laptop should I buy for Maya Or Blender??? Please help me!!!

[@daddychill7863]

Hey dude any tutorials about body mechanics? As I am studying animation on my own

[@aiarch]

i have i5 and RX580 with 16gb ram working on a 40x40km map with 2k assets in unreal and blender without any problem only problem I face is longer rendering times

[@jacksimcox]

Great video

[@DonTNguyen]

Yeah that 2018 macbook pro has a lot of issues when it was released. On paper the core i9 processor in that thing should be a beast and should be able to handle Arnold but the issue was cooling as computational intensive tasks like rendering produces a lot of heat. Fitting all that power into a thin apple laptop design means there wasn't an efficient way to cool the laptop so your computer would under-power itself to keep itself from frying. It's the reason why the 2018 Macbook pro sucks at rendering Arnold. All that power but you wont be able to use most of it.

[@qwame41]

Can I get your old laptop?

[@jameslau854]

THX 4 sharing!

[@Devsingh01985]

Expensive but make life much more easier😋 you have pretty cool stuff needed for everything

[@felixbenitez6169]

Desktops are design to be more powerful than Laptops.

[@maxfire444]

I would think that you would prioritize framerate for the graphics card to ensure that your animations play smoothly. Why is it better in your opinion to prioritize the detail and accuracy?

[@SirWade]

Yeah I'm inclined to agree! At least, that's how I've interpreted it. The detail/simulation one would potentially be better for FX simulations as an example. I would have also said surfacing/lighting/rendering, but the RTX cards now may be the best for those, so Quadro seems to lean more towards hair, cloth, and FX sims.

[@treas888]

It's sufficient for 2d animation 👇 i5 6th generation processor 128 gb SSD (nvme) 8*2=16 gb ram Ddr4 2 gb graphics card (nvidia company) It is sufficient for smooth animation Plz Reply respected sir 🙏

[@jaxgoodboy7886]

I'm looking for a prebuilt desktop for $1,500 or less that will run and render on Blender smoothly. I found the Skytech Legacy Mini. It has Ryzen 7 but only 16GB ram and NVIDIA GeForce 1660. Is that okay or is there a better computer in that price range?

[@Spider-Ham]

Idk if you'd be willing to use a Mac, but you should check out the M1 Mac Mini! It's really cheap and you can't find a windows computer nearly as powerful for the price. Look up some videos about it and tell me what you think!

[@PowerfullUs]

I do a lot of stuff in blender, with a ryzen 3 and 8gigs of ram :D

[@jordaborodo6626]

Everything depends on how much polygons or animation you're doing, I'm on an i7-3770 and 8GB of Ram and am running out of Ram really fast, however Blender is nice on the CPU

[@MiniMatthias]

I can't believe I haven't subscribed already. please forgive me.

[@bungladore]

Arnold GPU rendering only works with NVIDIA cards - and Macs don't support NVIDIA cards. The CPU rendering should have worked fine however.

[@AffablyAndrew]

I would be interested to know about the new m1 macs and how those would perform.

[@CVerse]

My 3D animation professor tried it out. He said the potential is there and the performance is insane. But as of now it's not very compatible with most x86 based programs (Ex: Maya and Adobe) so it won't work that well yet. Also they dont support external GPU's yet

[@iresolver]

if your using regular SSD storage try using NVMe SSD most are 3x faster

[@paimee1092]

what's the cheapest laptop I can buy for 2d animation?

[@hyacinthh_x]

Would you recommend a lenova laptop for animation and graphic design students who will use programs such as Adobe, Illustrator, in design, 3ds max, blender, phtoshop? The laptop model :lenovo 82d4002 mtx ideapad creator 5

[@rinusworldzm]

There's 1 video I've found on gpus for work. It's "The right GPU for work" by GamersNexus

[@torobche79]

So if I want to start online animation school and am not doing anything professional, and I want to get a laptop, but not just for animation, what would be best? Apple or windows?

[@vinayakrajeev118]

Did you know basic animation before doing your animation course, or did you just learn everything you know, from there?

[@Icecodes]

What are your views on Wacom Mobile Studio Pro

[@shannonhadden6217]

I have that I find it great with animation :) 3D and 2D