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OT animation software [message #78465] Tue, 16 January 2007 05:11 Go to next message
Don Nafe is currently offline  Don Nafe   UNITED STATES
Messages: 1206
Registered: July 2005
Senior Member
Hi all

My daughter wants to try her hand at computer animation and graphics.

What programs should be looking for?

Are there such things as animation software for beginners

I'm totally clueless when it comes to this end of the biz

thanks
Re: OT animation software [message #78473 is a reply to message #78465] Tue, 16 January 2007 08:17 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Jamie K is currently offline  Jamie K   UNITED STATES
Messages: 1115
Registered: July 2006
Senior Member
There are many choices. What's your budget? Do you have a preferred
platform? Is she interested in 2D or 3D animation?

Blender is open source. Not the easiest program to use, but fairly
powerful, and free. http://blender.org/cms/Home.2.0.html

She'll likely need more than one program, depending on her goals.

Cheers,
-Jamie
www.JamieKrutz.com



Don Nafe wrote:
> Hi all
>
> My daughter wants to try her hand at computer animation and graphics.
>
> What programs should be looking for?
>
> Are there such things as animation software for beginners
>
> I'm totally clueless when it comes to this end of the biz
>
> thanks
>
>
Re: OT animation software [message #78475 is a reply to message #78465] Tue, 16 January 2007 09:14 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Doug Wellington is currently offline  Doug Wellington   UNITED STATES
Messages: 251
Registered: June 2005
Location: Tucson, AZ, USA
Senior Member
Don Nafe wrote:
> My daughter wants to try her hand at computer animation and graphics.
>
> What programs should be looking for?
>
> Are there such things as animation software for beginners

Does she want to do 2D or 3D? If she wants to do 2D animations, Flash
is a pretty useful thing to know. Some of my favorite flash animation
work has been done at:

http://www.homestarrunner.com

For three dimensional work, well, the sky is the limit! I started with
Hash Animation:Master (http://www.hash.com) which costs about $300.
Victor Navone created Alien Song in Animation:Master. You can check out
Alien Song at: http://www.navone.org/Media/Movies/AlienSong_mp4.mov
(The cool thing is that Victor got a job at Pixar based upon that clip!)

After A:M, I started working with Lightwave which does more, but costs more:

http://www.newtek.com/lightwave

I'm dating myself here I suppose, but I think all of the space scenes in
Babylon 5 were done with Lightwave.

If you don't want to spend any money to start and you're not afraid to
spend big bucks if she gets serious (complete version is $2k, unlimited
version is $7k), I'd suggest that you download the Maya Personal
Learning Edition:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112& ;id=7639525

Maya is a fantastic program, used by many, many studios on many films.

On the other hand, if you're not afraid of the open source world and the
various issues that come with it, check out Blender:

http://www.blender.org

I think the tool is probably less important than learning the basics of
animation. She'll need to know things like "squash and stretch" and how
to create gravity in a scene. Have her start by making a bouncing ball.
Once she's worked with the animation tools, you may have to start
looking into compositing and other production tools to combine images
and arrange clips...

I haven't been there in a while, but there was a great animation
community at CG-CHAR:

http://www.cgchar-animation.com

Doug

http://www.parisfaqs.com


Re: OT animation software [message #78476 is a reply to message #78475] Tue, 16 January 2007 09:32 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Don Nafe is currently offline  Don Nafe   UNITED STATES
Messages: 1206
Registered: July 2005
Senior Member
Thanks for the suggestions Doug...the hunt is on


"Doug Wellington" <doug@parisfaqs.com> wrote in message
news:45ad0877@linux...
> Don Nafe wrote:
>> My daughter wants to try her hand at computer animation and graphics.
>>
>> What programs should be looking for?
>>
>> Are there such things as animation software for beginners
>
> Does she want to do 2D or 3D? If she wants to do 2D animations, Flash is
> a pretty useful thing to know. Some of my favorite flash animation work
> has been done at:
>
> http://www.homestarrunner.com
>
> For three dimensional work, well, the sky is the limit! I started with
> Hash Animation:Master (http://www.hash.com) which costs about $300. Victor
> Navone created Alien Song in Animation:Master. You can check out Alien
> Song at: http://www.navone.org/Media/Movies/AlienSong_mp4.mov (The cool
> thing is that Victor got a job at Pixar based upon that clip!)
>
> After A:M, I started working with Lightwave which does more, but costs
> more:
>
> http://www.newtek.com/lightwave
>
> I'm dating myself here I suppose, but I think all of the space scenes in
> Babylon 5 were done with Lightwave.
>
> If you don't want to spend any money to start and you're not afraid to
> spend big bucks if she gets serious (complete version is $2k, unlimited
> version is $7k), I'd suggest that you download the Maya Personal Learning
> Edition:
>
> http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112& ;id=7639525
>
> Maya is a fantastic program, used by many, many studios on many films.
>
> On the other hand, if you're not afraid of the open source world and the
> various issues that come with it, check out Blender:
>
> http://www.blender.org
>
> I think the tool is probably less important than learning the basics of
> animation. She'll need to know things like "squash and stretch" and how
> to create gravity in a scene. Have her start by making a bouncing ball.
> Once she's worked with the animation tools, you may have to start looking
> into compositing and other production tools to combine images and arrange
> clips...
>
> I haven't been there in a while, but there was a great animation community
> at CG-CHAR:
>
> http://www.cgchar-animation.com
>
> Doug
>
> http://www.parisfaqs.com
Re: OT animation software [message #78861 is a reply to message #78465] Mon, 22 January 2007 23:50 Go to previous message
TC is currently offline  TC   CANADA
Messages: 327
Registered: September 2005
Senior Member
Download Maya learning edition. It's free to learn on, and generally industry standard for 3d animation and post production vfx work.

Cheers,

TC

Don Nafe wrote:
> Hi all
>
> My daughter wants to try her hand at computer animation and graphics.
>
> What programs should be looking for?
>
> Are there such things as animation software for beginners
>
> I'm totally clueless when it comes to this end of the biz
>
> thanks
>
>
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