The Amazing Digital Circus is a stunning show, both in its visuals and storytelling.
In particular, I'll be breaking down how The Amazing Digital Circus approaches its visuals, which are actually rooted in the past of 3D art and animation!
A look rooted in the 90s and 2000s
The core look of The Amazing Digital Circus actually originates from 90s and 2000s-era 3D art. This style was characterized by the use of simple and limited lighting, bright colors, and a focus on abstract and nonsensical imagery using everyday objects.
The use of simple checkered tiles in some teasers and parts of the show helps evoke a more 90's feeling, since that was a common texture found in popular 3D art programs at the time, making it widely used among artists (in fact, there's an entire node in Blender just for a checkerboard texture).
Surreal scenes and old-school renders
Some scenes, such as Caine's office in Episode 7, create surreal imagery very reminiscent of old renders made in programs such as Bryce, especially with the emphasis placed on water and reflective surfaces in the second image below.
Why it doesn't look dated
Despite the inspiration from 90's CGI however, the show doesn't look dated at all! As each episode has come out, the models and materials have continued to be refined and polished over time.
It's been stated by Gooseworx that the show doesn't look like a 90's CGI production to reach a wider audience, as well as to represent what the 90s/2000s animations looked like to kids that watched them growing up.
Another likely reason is that the old rendering style is ironically hard to replicate in modern programs, despite being simpler in nature.
How it's actually made
While it might be easy to assume the show is animated/rendered entirely in Blender or Maya, those are actually used for modeling the characters and other 3D elements!
To render and put everything together, GLITCH uses Unreal Engine. The use of Unreal Engine is important, as several aspects of the characters such as their pupils leverage Unreal Engine features like decals to ensure they look correct.
The work that goes into producing The Amazing Digital Circus is absolutely incredible, and the show deserves all of the praise it's gotten over the years. In an effort to explore the artstyle of the show and understand how it's constructed, I actually made a FREE model of Pomni available to download!
It's animation-ready and you should be able to adapt the character to be used in a game too!
Download it for free here: crashsune.com/pomni-rig
If you're curious about how to get into 3D modeling because of the Amazing Digital Circus, my character modeling course is the thing that helps complete beginners create their first original characters.
From there, you can easily build on that base skillset to create incredible models and characters using Blender.
At this point more than 4,500 people have gone through the course. Many of them had NO experience with 3D art coming in, and they got to walk away with their own modeled and rigged character by the end!
You can check it out here: crashsune.com/low-poly-course
