How did the Enigma Machine work?

Let's use 3D animation to go inside the Enigma Machine!

Thanks to the Dan Perera for his help creating this animation.

This video has been dubbed in over 20 languages, you can change the audio track language in the Settings menu (click the gear icon in the lower right hand corner of the video).

⌚Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
01:01 - Encryption
02:42 - Enigma Machine
04:23 - Simple Circuit Example
05:23 - Inside the Machine
06:15 - Rotors
08:51 - Plugboard
10:08 - Keyboard Mechanism
12:14 - The Circuit
13:15 - Circuit Recap
14:38 - Rotor Mechanism
17:06 - Machine Settings
18:14 - Brilliant

Further reading on a some things that I couldn't include in the video:

💻Follow me on social media:

🌐Sources:


🟠This animation was made with Blender 2.93 - then I rendered it with Blender 3.0(Cycles Render)

"Swan" by Enoch Yang
"A New Horizon" by Cloud Wave
"Dawning Sprite" by Lincoln Davis

I purchased a 3D model of the Enigma Machine for this video (I then had to create most of the inside):

🎧Here is some of the gear that I use for animation:

📼Video Summary:
The Enigma Machine was used during WWII by the German Army to get keep messages encrypted. It looks almost like a typewriter. There are 26 keys and 26 letters that can light up. These lights tell you how the keys will be scrambled up. The machine works like an electrical circuit. The rotors towards the back of the machine do most of the scrambling by mixing up the wiring. The plugboard in the front also another layer of encryption. Keyboard mechanism connects or disconnects the circuit to turn on a lightbulb. The path of the wire is difficult to follow so I recommend following it through in 3D! Each time a key is released - the rotors in the back will turn. This is done by the mechanism which includes the actuator bar, ratchet, pawl, and the index wheels.

#b3d #enigma #howitworks

[MacchiStrauss]

Jared, the only thing more incredible than Enigma was the amazing description of every part that you did. This was by far the most clear explanation I ever saw, thank you very much for doing it.

[BranchEducation]

What an amazingly well-done explanation of something that is rather complex. I now understand why it was such a hard code to crack. Keep up the great work!!

[Max_Griswald]

I've read several books about the enigma machine, watched a documentary, and even looked at schematics of one, and never had everything fall in place like it has after watching this video. Thanks so much for this amazingly detailed breakdown of such an iconic piece of history!

[DominickGiammarinoAZ]

As somebody who used to break codes in the US Navy, I really appreciate your description, graphics and narration, well done.

[scottie_]

You've cleared up 30 years of confusion in 20 minutes. Just, wow.

[dwolfe]

Don't know what I'm more impressed with- the Enigma machine, the people who cracked it, or this guy who made this animation...

[PapaStroit]

Просто невероятно, такое придумали еще в то время! Вроде все просто, но как же сложно.

[The_Viscount]

Back in college, my best friend asked me to assist her on her final project for her cryptography class. While half her class did papers or presentations on crypto-currency, She, myself and another class mate got together and built an eigma machine from scratch. It didn't look anything like the real thing. We used cardboard rotors with fastener pin contacts and a few scattered lego pieces. You had to manually rotate each rotor for every input, the whole thing was a mess of wires and looked like trash. But it worked. We got the cryptography right. The mess of parts that looked more like a middle school art project than an electro-mechanical computer successfully scrambled messages and decoded them. In the end we got an A- on the project because it was only 90% finished, but we proved to the professor we understood the process and mechanics and this was his favorite project of all of them. In hindsight, I wish we had gotten a group photo with the thing.

[smaouh]

So, we have 3 geniuses here :

- The man who built Enigma
- The man who cracked Enigma
And this man with such an incredible explanation and animation. Bravo !

[ydvimen]

Наконец-то я узнал благодаря вам, как она работает. Это гениально. Всё понятно, но фиг расшифруешь без ключа и без знания устройства. Инженерам большой респект.

[SilentKnight]

Imagine what the inventor(s) of the Enigma would've said if they'd known that someday you'd post such an incredible 3D-rendered video that describes in minute detail the inner workings of the machine. Just an incredible video. Fascinating to watch. Love your vids. One of the very best channels on youtube today!

[matthewcoleman]

The sheer genius of the minds that came up with this is just incomprehensible to me, as is the utter brilliance of the people that managed to design a machine to crack it.

[brom-rus]

В видео не упомянули следующее:
1) что выемку на пяти из пяти ротеров можно было передвигать. Это было придумано ещё китайцами в глубокой древности.
2) что храповик можно было снять и установить на любой из пяти ротеров, причём ротер с храповиком использовался обязательно.
3) храповик можно было ставить с любой стороны и от этого зависело изменение последовательности справо налево или слево направо.
4) клавиши можно было менять т.е. делать расскладку.
5) штекеры можно было ставить как проводом вниз, так и проводом вверх, что изменяло порядок также.

[DannyMonkey]

Words cannot describe how much I love you, Jared. I have been puzzled by the plug board for days. Your elegant and simple explanation has elevated my brain to a new form of knowledge and understanding. I greatly appreciate this video, Jared.

[Erin-Thor]

I almost didn’t watch this, thinking “I know this.” I understood the electrical part, the dials, and the random plugboard key swapping. But while I thought I understood it, I had NEVER been able to visualize it, to actually understand how the machine worked. Kudos! Excellent visualization and Graphics!

[_BangDroid_]

I can only imagine how long it would have taken to animate this! Let alone all the research. Great work, very well explained

[chowchowtales]

Amazing Jared. Thank you for bringing us common people some understanding of Enigma. I am so fascinated with Bletchley Park and the code breakers, reading books and watching documentaries about it. They use terms or even descriptions but I could never picture how the machine scrambled, nor a little about what they were trying to unscramble to break the code. I appreciate your great effort to animate and explain how the machine works. Truly incredible. Thank you.

[TheCleanasyougo]

WOW - understood that very easily - but to create that machine is pure genius - well done Jared - you're very good with your voice to explain things like this - I'll share this with my friends who are interested in such things

[gabrielmenezes]

I had an embedded systems course last semester, and we had to program the enigma using assembly language. But the first step was to really understand how the enigma worked. I owe it all to this video.

[Damaged]

This is probably the easiest to follow, visually appealing and informative explanation of the Enigma machine i've seen. Well done.