Animation software?

[Nazrat]

I'd like to mess around and learn some animation on my pc. What are some good programs to use for beginners? Can I get something cheap or should I just get software like Maya? I don't know how much animation software costs but currently I can't afford much. Maybe I'll have to save money to get something decent?

My pc is about 5 years old and I don't know how much it will support. It also is not hooked up to the internet so I can't download anything to it.

Where should I start?

 

[Red Prince]

I produced my Like Father Like Son (which you can see on the Summer Shorts 2007 page) entirely in Poser, except I made the background in Vue. Poser is commercial, but on occasion they offer an older version free.

Also Blender is very powerful and completely free. The famous Elephants Dream movie was animated entirely in Blender.

 

[Nazrat]

Thank you Red Prince.

I just checked out Blender. It looks pretty nice.

I don't have internet for my pc. I use somebody else's computer to get online, which is old and slow and doesn't have much room on the hard drive. I wonder if I could hook my pc up in place of it so I could download free software. I don't know why I never thought of that before. I don't know if my graphics card will support this kind of software though. I don't know what kind I have, but my pc is about 5 years old. I know it won't support Guitar Hero III. I already tried that. LOL.

 

[Nazrat]

I think I figured out my graphics card. I see Nvidia GEforce 2 mx/mx 400

I have Windows XP and a Pentium 4 processor.

The Blender website says it will work with Windows XP, but I don't know if it will work with my processor and graphics card.

 

[Red Prince]

Nothing wrong with Nvidia GEforce. 5 years is not terribly old. It should work.

 

[Nazrat]

I'm going to try to unplug this other perons's computer and hook mine up and see if I can get online. I hope it works. I want to try animation so bad.

 

[Nazrat]

I got Blender downloaded onto the other person's pc, but I can't figure out how to copy it to get it to my pc.

 

[Nazrat]

I've got everything on my PC and it's all working. I'm learning from a tutorial I got online and it's a lot of fun. I'm creating a yellow submarine and it will be an animation when I'm done.

I've seen videos on Youtube of people's creations using Blender. I saw a few really good ones. I can't believe free software can be that good. I don't think it's as good as some of the Maya videos I saw, but it looks alright.

 

[Red Prince]

So, you got it working, very good.

 

[Nazrat]

Yeah. I was able to download everything straight to a flash drive and transfer it to my PC from that.

 

[kashak]

Blender is indeed powerful software and that it's free (at least for now) makes huge respect to those who made it. Elephants Dream should be viewed by anyone who wants to see Blender capabilities! Awesome work
If one is interested in commercial, industry-standard software 3D Studio Max, Maya, Softimage XSI and Houdini are most common. Each has it's individual features where it's more powerful then others but still they all are software of
"do modeling, texturing, lighting, animating and rendering in one"

Blender gives you the same capabilities, don't let any information screw your intention to deeply plunge into Blender.
I myself use heavily 3D Studio Max and found it awesome. But it costs around 3500$. Students and so am I usually can't afford this much of money (I better be silent how I got max :shock:, but that's for learning purposes). I started a little by little learn Blender although I look for sticking with max and
lookin for work to get money to purchase it in future

Happy Blendering

 

[jcarter]

I was going to say you might want to try Antics, but your PC isn't online... www.antics3d.com

I've just started using it and it's awesome and much easier to use than Maya.

 

[Fallingsunz]

my personal

my personal

I been using poser and 3ds max. i ithank that is the best 3d software

 

[Brandou]

Blender is very powerful and completely free.

 

[RadicalOrange]

I use Animaker. It is an online tool for animation that offers plans for all kinds of users – from beginners to enterprises. Following are some interesting features of this software-

Features:

• A library of pre-designed templates.
• 6 styles of videos: 2D, 2.5D, infographics, handcraft, whiteboard, typography.
• Horizontal and vertical video layouts.
• Full HD video support.
• Animated infographic maker with over 100 charts, 1000 icons, and 3000 maps.
• A deck feature allowing you to use the animation as a video or an animated presentation.
• Advanced features for animation such as record, multimove, curve, camera in and out, transition effects, enter/exit effects.
• Audio features: text-to-speech, background music tracks, sound effects, voice recording, plus the option to import your custom sounds.

 

[igypichardo]

I would recommend Blender

 

[luanchen]

3DS Max, Maya, Cinema 4D and Blender might work for you.. depending on how professional you want it to look.

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