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