#81 Nishaan Singh: We Hired This Blender Artist at 16... He's Now Animator of the Year

About this episode

Nishaan Singh discusses his journey as a young Blender artist and his evolution in the animation industry.

In this episode, we sit down with Nishaan Singh, a 20-year-old Blender artist and 3D generalist whose journey started at just 13 years old. Nishaan was hired as a 3D apprentice at 16 by our company Bigtooth Studios, and we catch up with him to see how his animation career has evolved since then. We dive deep into the process behind his award-winning Blender short films, Joyrider and Detour, both created entirely in Blender 3D. Nishaan breaks down his pipeline, storytelling approach, and how lessons learned working in a professional studio environment helped him refine his 3D workflow. While Joyrider was less structured, Nishaan explains how applying stronger planning, pipeline discipline, and storytelling techniques, developed during his time at Bigtooth Studios, made Detour a far smoother and more confident production. 🏆 Awards → Young Animator of the Year UK 2022 – Joyrider → Young Animator of the Year UK 2025 – Detour This conversation is packed with insights for anyone interested in: → Becoming a Blender artist → Creating award-winning Blender short films → Learning Blender from a young age → Building a real-world animation career → Moving from self-taught work into…

People in this episode

Guest: Nishaan Singh

Topics covered

• Blender artist
• 3D animation
• award-winning films
• animation career
• storytelling techniques

Keywords

• Blender
• 3D generalist
• animation workflow
• short films
• professional studio

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Bigtooth Studios

Books & works: Joyrider, Detour

More episodes of The VFX Process

• #84 Nikola Todorovic: Spielberg Backed This AI Filmmaking Tool… Here’s Why · March 6, 2026 · 1h 33m
• #83 Seiji & Dave: How We Adapted a Classic Novel into an Unreal Engine Cinematic | F451 · February 20, 2026 · 1h 19m
• #82 India Barnardo: Disney Animator Shares the Truth About Successful Animation Careers · February 6, 2026 · 1h 4m
• #80 David Stapp: This Battlefield Cinematic Proves Unreal Engine Is the #1 Filmmaking Tool · January 9, 2026 · 1h 49m
• #79 Aaron Blaise: The Emotional Story of SNOW BEAR: A Hand-Drawn Animated Masterpiece · December 26, 2025 · 1h 12m
• #78 Denver Jackson: What It REALLY Takes to Make an Animated Feature Film ALONE · December 12, 2025 · 1h 20m