Computer Animation Software?

[garlad]

Hi!

Does anyone use animation software to create their own animation/cartoons?

Can any recommend some (free) software to try?

Any one care to share their work??

I'm not going to lie.. I just watched UP and was thinking "wow.. how cool.."

I mean, where would one even begin?

Suggestions appreciated!

[quirkmanly]

Originally Posted by garlad

Hi!

Does anyone use animation software to create their own animation/cartoons?

Can any recommend some (free) software to try?

Any one care to share their work??

I'm not going to lie.. I just watched UP and was thinking "wow.. how cool.."

I mean, where would one even begin?

Suggestions appreciated!

Hello Garl, mate.

I've done some tentative investigation on 3d animation in the past and Blender certainly seems to be a viable freeware option.

Here is an example of it's capabilities.

Cheers!

[Maximus]

Blender is great freeware.

3D Studio Max is awesome, but expensive. Also Maya is great, but they cost a lot of money.

If you're looking at getting into 3D animation I would start with Blender...

[JonD7]

I've been trying to get into this as well, thanks guys.

[androvsky]

Did someone say Blender? Another example of what can be done with Blender.
Big Buck Bunny
Elephant's Dream
The fun thing about Big Buck Bunny and Elephant's Dream is that the full Blender scene files are free to download, so you can render the movie yourself, or play around with the characters and sets.

The Blender Foundation is working on a third open movie, called Sintel, that's meant to be more action oriented. It's at http://durian.blender.org/, but the server is down at the moment.

edit: also, an excellent website with plenty of tutorials and forums full of people willing to help with people new to Blender and 3D modeling: http://blenderartists.org/cms/

[garlad]

thanks for the suggestions quirk, max and androvsky

androvsky, Big Buck Benny was made entirely from the free Blender software??? That's incredible! Will def check out the tutorials and videos etc..

Jon, your drawings on facebook are fantastic, espectially the inFamous one. You should be doing this 3D art and bring your work to life!

[androvsky]

Originally Posted by garlad

androvsky, Big Buck Benny was made entirely from the free Blender software??? That's incredible! Will def check out the tutorials and videos etc..

Not only was all the modeling, animation and rendering done in Blender, but Blender was also used for the final editing and sound mixing, as well as the final compressed video output for several formats. The same is true with Elephant's Dream, I've been rendering the first part out at native 4k uncompressed for use as demo material.

I think the only thing Blender isn't used for in the production of those shorts is the actual recording of the audio. I'm not sure on that part.

All the Big Buck Bunny stuff, from videos to raw uncompressed 1080p frames to the original scene files.

[garlad]

Wow, im stunned. A free piece of software can make something that looks as professional as that!!

Now, just how easy…or should I say hard…is it to use/understand?

[garlad]

And can someone advise a time frame on how long something like Big Buck Benny would take to make? Would this have been done by a group of people?

It amazing that this was done solely on Blender. No external plug ins/devices?

[JonD7]

Originally Posted by garlad

Jon, your drawings on facebook are fantastic, espectially the inFamous one. You should be doing this 3D art and bring your work to life!

Thanks buddy!
I'm actually writing a story/drawing out characters at the moment... hopefully with Blender I could do that.

And it looks like a lot of people worked on Big Buck Bunny... the credits looked pretty long!

[garlad]

Ah yes, the credits.. I only watched the first 7/8 mins of it so missed the credits!

[androvsky]

Originally Posted by garlad

And can someone advise a time frame on how long something like Big Buck Benny would take to make? Would this have been done by a group of people?

It amazing that this was done solely on Blender. No external plug ins/devices?

The reason the Blender group makes these short movies is to focus development on what people actually need, so there's usually a bunch of improvements for the Blender used to make a short (2.48 I think was used for Big Buck Bunny).

Don't misunderstand, Blender isn't easy. Although Big Buck Bunny is free to use and modify, the artists that made it were paid for their work (iirc) and for good reason. The goal with Blender is to make a professional-level package, and the user-interface reflects it, but 3DS Max and Maya aren't going to be any easier to dive into.

I strongly suggest starting by looking at some of the Blender tutorials; it'll give you a better idea of what one person can do in a short amount of time. They'll also help cut down on the anxiety when you load up Blender for the first time and see a ton of buttons.
http://blenderartists.org/cms/content/view/17/53/

http://blenderartists.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=32

[garlad]

Seriously androvsky, thanks for the tips! I'm downloading a tutorial right now!

BlenderCourse - Basics teaches you how to work with Blender 3D. This course is suitable for everyone who can use a computer.

Perfect for me!

do you use it yourself androvsky? Any work to show us??

[Elandyll]

Yeah Blender is very good and free, hard to beat that.
On the other hand, its interface is ... nothing short of medieval, so the learning curve is sortof steep, but there are some pretty good tutorials online.

Now, if you are serious about things, you have other options (albeit pricey ones), which are:

3D Studio Max, Softimage or Maya (Autodesk): about $4000 for the basic core software
Cinema 4D (Maxxon): About $1000 for the core package
Lightwave 3D (NewTek): about $900 for the core package

I was surprised to see that Autodesk acquired Softimage XSi from Avid in 2008. Those guys want to make themselves a monopoly as fast as they can it seems. I hope C4D and Lightwave will stay independant...

[androvsky]

Originally Posted by garlad

do you use it yourself androvsky? Any work to show us??

I'm no artist, I'm a programmer. The only reason I use Blender is because the company I work for needed some challenging 4k uncompressed footage to show off our display; the early part of Elephant's Dream is brutal for many displays (and codecs!). Unfortunately, the source files for Elephant's Dream are a bit of a jumbled mess (BBB is much better), so it took some work to get several scenes rendering properly again. Maybe not the best way to learn Blender...

[Maximus]

I remember trying my hand at Maya once. I couldn't make heads nor tails of it and I'm not an awful programmer (though admittedly still learning).

Started concept phase on an iPhone game over the weekend with two friends, we're hoping to release it around October if all goes well but it will be strictly after work/weekends only. I can't afford to give up my day job, not yet anyway!

[ronaldia]

"3D Studio Max" is cool tools,unfortunately I only have chance to try this out when I worked as video editing assistant 2 years ago.