3D animation

[Agentarrow]

I am starting a 3D animation class today, we're starting with google sketchup, but does anyone else know of something good for 3D animation that is free or cheap? I'm not sure what else we're working with, but I hope we get something better than sketchup

[Destron]

They're using Sketchup to teach animation? Seriously? Maybe I'm just being naive here, but that's like teaching somebody how to drive by giving them a moped.
If you're looking into professional animation, I would suggest something else. I'm pretty sure Sketchup doesn't have more advanced controls like inverse kinematics, particles and fluid/liquid physics like a lot of the big-name packages have.
I'd suggest you look into the Maya 8 Personal Learning Edition - just Google it. It's free, but I think the export functions and probably some of the high-level rendering controls are disabled.

[Agentarrow]

aparently we are learning bryce too... that still doesn't thrill me

[Destron]

Warning: Rant Alert!
*sirens*

aparently we are learning bryce too... that still doesn't thrill me

For animation? You have GOT to be kidding me. Bryce's animation system is so janky it would take days of tweaking to get anything good out of it. Don't get me wrong - there's nothing bad about keyframe animation, the pros use it all the time - but Bryce basically works with paths and that's it. You can't even rig models. Besides, the program is practically built on a preset framework (i.e. the materials, skies, objects) so it's nearly impossible to get anything good that's completely original.

[Agentarrow]

so sad, however it is a freshman high school class.

[Trougedoor122]

i know its old, but maybe you should use AOI http://www.artofillusion.org/

[Agentarrow]

I have AOI
it does decent renderings, but the animation portion and modeling portion are very unfriendly to users and more of an afterthought than anything else.

[sankha93]

What about Blender?

[bernie]

Blender? I can't imagine anyone using that, the interface is so bad. It takes 3 weeks to learn how to make a simple box. Seriously though I am looking for a simple model or two made from blender in .obj format to try out in the upcoming release of Equity. The *.obj format is incorrectly saved from a lot of programs and I can't for the life of me work out how to make or save anything from Blender. I haven't got the time or patience to learn it's interface and I am too busy with other things. So, if anyone can help me in that direction it would be appreciated. We would like to know if Blender does save correctly before we release Equity v5.0.3. At present we have got it working for 3d-coat, Lithunwrap, Milkshape & Nems generated obj files (they are all different). If anyone would like Equity to support Blender obj files then please help otherwise ... well, we will be moving on to deal with Motion create and edit once we have released v 5.0.3 and Blender may be left behind unsupported.

[dylanwinn]

What about the softimage mod tool?

[dylanwinn]

What about the softimage mod tool? It is an all-in-one modeling, texturing and animation studio that exports to hl2 models. It doesn't do any prerendering, but the animation can be played back in garrys mod and captured via sourcerecorder at a fair quality. You can also concert the models to an actor for RF.


As for object file manipulation, meshedit does it well!



Both programs are free, btw

[Destron]

Blender? I can't imagine anyone using that, the interface is so bad. It takes 3 weeks to learn how to make a simple box. Seriously though I am looking for a simple model or two made from blender in .obj format to try out in the upcoming release of Equity. The *.obj format is incorrectly saved from a lot of programs and I can't for the life of me work out how to make or save anything from Blender. I haven't got the time or patience to learn it's interface and I am too busy with other things. So, if anyone can help me in that direction it would be appreciated. We would like to know if Blender does save correctly before we release Equity v5.0.3. At present we have got it working for 3d-coat, Lithunwrap, Milkshape & Nems generated obj files (they are all different). If anyone would like Equity to support Blender obj files then please help otherwise ... well, we will be moving on to deal with Motion create and edit once we have released v 5.0.3 and Blender may be left behind unsupported.

It's honestly not that bad... I've been using it a little lately and it's actually pretty intuitive. And it has a lot more features than your usual free 3D modeler.

[Agentarrow]

Apparently, I can get the full version of Maya 8 through my school at a huge discount

[MakerOfGames]

Beware of educational discount. I almost was stuck with a 3DS Max 2008 that had a license that limited it to educational work only, you cannot use anything made in the program for anything else. And there was a "forced update" clause in the EULA that basically lets Autodesk have the right to make you upgrade to a new version if they like, terminating your license of their software. Not to mention 3DS Max was a massive program that took 3 hours to install all of its pieces and activate them. I returned the software after disagreeing to one of the EULAs, I hated it. I will never use any Autodesk software again. Also had a problem trying to contact them to terminate my registered software as I was returning all software with a disagreement with a EULA. My advice stay away from it.
EDIT: I almost forgot to mention that Autodesk only supports workstation graphics cards. GeForce and equivalent ATI cards are not supported, they may work, but if you have problems its not Autodesks problem.

I use trueSpace. many dont like it but I found it the easiest to use for everything but UV maps.

[Agentarrow]

Good advice, I'll keep that in mind.