Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

andypolack · Feb 7, 2001, 08:42 PM

Has anyone heard of this cool program Animation:Master 2000? If you have not go to Hash.com. This program does pro animations for only $300! The system requirements are low and the final products are realy something to ooo and awww at!

Let me know what you think!

andypolack · Feb 7, 2001, 08:47 PM

Woops, typo in the title SORRY!

Bryce 4 and Strata 3D are both cool too!

dannyn · Feb 10, 2001, 01:30 AM

Animation:Master is a very good 3D animation program. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once you get the hang of it, you can produce some nice results (as the gallery pages show). At $300, it's quite the bargain, especially considering that other Mac 3D programs like LightWave and Cinema4D cost well over $1000 each.

The important thing to remember, however, is it's the talent of the artist not the program that produces great art. 3D programs are just very very fancy pencils.

------------------
Danny Ngan
Animator & 3D Artist
http://www.dannyngan.com

Cake · Feb 10, 2001, 03:31 PM

It's a great program, but holy smokes!, what a steep learning curve. It's just so unMac-like! I've had it for over two years and the interface just turns me off. I ran Infini-D for years and that program was so intuitive. I'm not comparing the two - AM is waaay more powerful, but Infini-D is the type of program that you can just open and start being productive.
I bought the handbook and even bought the instructional videos for AM. And now I confess that I haven't opened the program in at least 6 months.

Great program, but not for me. I'm actually very excited about Maya for OS X and I'm planning on taking classes to learn it (trying to get out of Audio Post Production and into Graphics).

andypolack · Feb 10, 2001, 03:58 PM

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who thinks that the program is not Mac Like! I'll agree with you on that. By the way, if you know how to effectivly use bones (the videos don't help!) could you please explain?

Thanks!

dannyn · Feb 10, 2001, 06:53 PM

As un-Mac-like as A:M is, Maya isn't much better. Check out the screenshots -- other than color differences, the interface is the same as the Windows and IRIX flavors of Maya. When you add the fact that you can customize Maya's interface, it's very interesting jumping to someone else's machine to get stuff done. Also, if Alias|Wavefront prices Maya like the other platforms, it's going to cost around $7000 per seat.

A:M's bones system is one of the best ones on the market, but it does take some learning. I'd recommend checking out http://www.anzovin.com for more information on working with A:M's bones. They've got a pretty complex setup going, but it works very well.

------------------
Danny Ngan
Animator & 3D Artist
http://www.dannyngan.com

andypolack · Feb 10, 2001, 09:00 PM

Thanks, that's a really great site!

Cake · Feb 10, 2001, 09:23 PM

Yeah Raf's site is awesome and there's lots of useful information there.
Regarding Maya, I really don't find it as daunting as A:M. It just seems a lot more refined.
I actually met Jeff Paries, author of the Animation:Master Handbook at last years Siggraph and he told me that A:M originally started out on Amiga - maybe that explains the interface.

andypolack · Feb 11, 2001, 12:21 PM

That is nice to know! The bones make more sense to me now.

I have just started to model but I have ideas for many different things! Thanks alot for the help!

andypolack · Feb 15, 2001, 06:54 PM

By the way...?

Is it possible to make QTVRs in Master?