[G4ME]

I am taking a film theory class and one of the projects that we need to do is create a 5 min long animation and I am wondering if there is any software out there at a reasonable price 250 max that would allow me to create a simple animation, nothing as complex as Maya but something along the lines where I can create a person make him walk and simple movements, bouncing a ball, and is there any type of how to guide that goes with the software. Thanks

[ 03-21-2002: Message edited by: G4ME ]

[raferx]

Poser 4??? I don't know how much it is though... try a search on Google.

[mdcarter1]

Originally posted by G4ME:
<STRONG>I am taking a film theory class and one of the projects that we need to do is create a 5 min long animation and I am wondering if there is any software out there at a reasonable price 250 max that would allow me to create a simple animation, nothing as complex as Maya but something along the lines where I can create a person make him walk and simple movements, bouncing a ball, and is there any type of how to guide that goes with the software. Thanks</STRONG>

Maya makes a free personal learning edition. It has a big watermark on it
which is annoying, but it's free.

[G4ME]

I need to present it in class so the water mark is out. I am looking at Bryce 5 right now has anyone had experiance with this, good for a newbie?

[JayTi]

Poser 4 is $249 I believe, and if you've got the time to learn it before hand, it is much better than bryce for that kind of thing (Bryce is much more geared towards landscaping)

[Cipher13]

Originally posted by G4ME:
<STRONG>I need to present it in class so the water mark is out. I am looking at Bryce 5 right now has anyone had experiance with this, good for a newbie?</STRONG>

Yeah, Bryce, as wonderful as it is, won't do what you want.

It's worth every cent of your money, but only if you wanna do landscaping or whatnot. That, and a 5 minute animation will take days to render... Bryce has a slow rendering engine (slowest I've used), though the quality is impeccable.

[tomra]

Originally posted by G4ME:
<STRONG>I am taking a film theory class and one of the projects that we need to do is create a 5 min long animation and I am wondering if there is any software out there at a reasonable price 250 max that would allow me to create a simple animation, nothing as complex as Maya but something along the lines where I can create a person make him walk and simple movements, bouncing a ball, and is there any type of how to guide that goes with the software. Thanks

[ 03-21-2002: Message edited by: G4ME ]</STRONG>

Hi.

250 is not much when you are shopping around for 3D animation packages. Not sure how much Pixels 3D is these days, but it could be worth checking out.
http://www.pixels3d.com

You also want to have a look at the 3D toolkit from DvGarage.
Basically a donglefree version of Electric Image Animation System v.2.9.
http://www.dvgarage.com

Be aware of the learning curve here.
Making a character walk in a convincing way is not done overnight
in any of these packages. You will however find plenty of tutorials and reference material on the net and there si also a slew of good books at Amazon.

If you quickly need character animation stuff, Poser is probably an alternative since it has presets you can use, but i believe it will fail for pretty much everything else

Good luck
Tom.

[architim]

I'm not sure of the price for these packages but check them out.

Lightwave - Excellent for high quality stills... but you're doing animation. http://www.lightwave3d.com/

Cinema4D GO - good all around, i think it's cheaper than most. (I'd go with this, it's got what you're looking for and is $195) http://www.maxoncomputer.com/product/go.asp http://www.maxon.net/usa/index.html

Strata - cheap.... crappy (forget it I just mentioned it to warn you off of it)

Also a free alternative would be to use the POV raytracing engine. http://www.povray.org/
It's slow if you push it for hyper-realism (and by hyper I mean better than real) but it's pretty quick with simple scenes and can animate. The catch? It's just the rendering engine, no modelling interface. There's a big community that uses this though, so there are applications that will allow you to model, and maybe animate. It's all free though.

Basically if you're thinking "I've got to animate a human/lifeform/robot/something with appendages" you're going to want to find something with an Inverse Kinematic system or plugins for one. IK will let you model pretty realistic motion and it's pretty easy to pick up the basics.

Ahh.. if only you had a PC and 3500 bucks you could pick up a copy of 3DS Max. There's a great beginners 3D package... (Maybe you could talk you school into getting a copy...)

Make sure whatever you do, if you buy something you get a student edition. You'll save yourself big bucks and you probably won't ever even know about the features that you won't get.

Anyway... good luck and post a link to some of your work here so we can all check out what you've done.

[ 03-22-2002: Message edited by: architim ]

[G4ME]

I looked at Poser 4 and it seems really nice, can grab a copy of it for 129 with the ACD and there seems to be a nice how to guid for only 35 buck, seems very nice. I just need my sister with her collage ID to come home so I ca nget the package.

My only question is what is the major differances between the normal version and the ACD version, some features missing, or is it a compleatly dumbed down version?

[iBookUser]

Hi,
Very few (I don't know of any) student copies of software are "cut down". They are all the full packages, just at a lower price with a license that bars you from using anything you create for commercial purposes.

So yes, the academic Poser will be the full thing. Not sure exactly what you are doing, but Poser is ONLY for working with characters. It does nothing else. So you would be limiting yourself if you got that.

The post or 2 above that mentioned the DVGarage version of LightWave and Cinema4D Go are much better choices.

I should also add that starting with no experience (I'm guessing) and expecting to produce a 5 minute 3D animation with character animation may be a tad bit much. Realize that 3D software is very complex and there is a significant learning curve.

With all that said, goodluck!

Matt

[G4ME]

Originally posted by iBookUser:
<STRONG> Realize that 3D software is very complex and there is a significant learning curve.

Matt</STRONG>

I am up to the challange

when you say characters, you mean just people, no real back gorund? if so I could care less other people in the class are doing other types of animation, Cell, stop, flicker. so I just want somthing that will be impressivem on a low standard. I think I will be the only one in the class history to ever do a computer animation.

After looking at the 3d Toolkit from Dvgarage, I am wondering does that also come with rendering software or is it just a 200 tutorial?

[ 03-23-2002: Message edited by: G4ME ]

[tomra]

Originally posted by G4ME:
<STRONG>

After looking at the 3d Toolkit from Dvgarage, I am wondering does that also come with rendering software or is it just a 200 tutorial?

[ 03-23-2002: Message edited by: G4ME ]</STRONG>

Hi.

The 3D toolkit features the "fullblown" version of Electric Image Animation system v.2.9. This includes modeler, animator and camera ( render app ). There`s one catch though....this version is unable to use any of the plugins developed for EI....at this point in time. Electric Image Inc. also has some nice upgrade prices if you would like to upgrade to the current version of Electric Image Universe v.4.0.5.

The EIAS v.2.9 that comes with the toolkit has/is been used at ILM for effects work at the Star Wars movies among many other feature films.
Take into consideration that this is a "true" 3D package just like Cinema, Lightwave, Max, Maya, Soft, etc. so there is a learning curve here, but it starts low and you`ll be rendering within a few hrs after installing

Also take into consideration that dvgarage has it`s own dedicated userforum for 3D toolkit users. Very useful when starting up for the first time with a 3D package.

Tom.

[Scotttheking]

I'm sending this to the art and graphics design forum

[godzookie2k]

If you are interested, there is a free (like beer) copy of poser 3 on the cover Cd to Computer User (UK) magazine this month. the magazine costs like 12 bucks us but its a great mag with a great tutorial on animating humans with poser 3.

free vs 150 bucks for poser 4......

[mrchin]

Poser would be great for the character, but not the animation. Good idea to get that $12 issue. 3D toolkit seems pretty good.

Hash Animation Master is said to be excellent. I think it's max $199 if that?

I've got Infini-D 4.5 if you wanna buy it. Full boxed CD with manual. Legit. I haven't used it in over a year. It's like 3 years old I'd say but a great program. $500 bucks new. $50 if you want it.

[G4ME]

Sorry but I want to stay in OSX
So it seem like DVgarage if if has all of the different apps, modeler, renderer, and so forth, and I saw the demo tutorial and if they are all like that then this seems great.

I did a quick serarch on mysimon, and i got the lowest price on Dvgarage, 179 but the thing is I can't really tell if its the OSX version or the DVD version, tell me what you think
here

[ 03-23-2002: Message edited by: G4ME ]

[tomra]

Hi

Might just be the "old" DVD version from before they added the OSX toolkit. If so, the OSX upgrade is 49$ from dvGarage.

Tom.

[registered_user]

Bryce5 will do exactly what you describe. It has no physics engine, so to bounce a ball, you'd have to manually trace its path, but it will do it. However, as said, it will take days to render. (depending on quality, and the scenes themselves, you might be looking at weeks.) I did a 2 minute animation at 640 x 480 res / 30fps in Bryce4 with very few complex textures and it took 3 days. (Render in a pict sequence and reassamble them in QuickTime Pro or Final Cut Pro. That way, if your Mac or Bryce crashes half way through, you can pick up where you left off.)

Bryce4 is noticably faster than version 5, but it's a classic only app. Also Bryce 5 has a rendering client for networks, so if you have several machines at your diposal, it should speed up render time.

Strata3D Base is free (from strata.com), and it will animate. I've never used it to animate, so I don't know how good it is. As a modeling tool though, Strata is great (considering it's free).

[G4ME]

if its the old version and I need the OSX up date thats 180+50 =230 wheres I can get the full OSX version for 200, not that good of a deal