Creating Computer Animation

[River Boy]

Hello Forumers!

Just wondered if anyone here had experiences of doing their own animation or related filmmaking?

I'd enjoy hearing about anyone's experiences, also if anyone has any advice as to good computer software/programmes that suit the practice of computer animation techniques, even if they're a bit crude?

 

[Lenny]

I suppose a lot depends on what sort of animation you want to do.

If it's simply 2D, something like Adobe Flash is all you need. Obviously, you can add in a proper drawing package like Photoshop, and import the frames as pictures into Flash, but that can hurt flexibility. Unless you have static backgrounds, in which case importing pictures from Photoshop may be the best way to get high detail into your animations.

For 3D, however, you'll want something you can build the models in, maybe a simple program like Google Sketchup to allow you to rapidly design and build the backgrounds, and something like 3DSMax or ZBrush for the character models. I'm not sure what you'd need to do to animate the models, though. Blender, might do the trick.

EDIT: Then, I suppose, there are the less digital forms of animation - claymation, stop-motion, all of which you'd do using a camera and a simple package (again, Adobe Flash will suffice) to stitch the images together.

I'm afraid I can't name any free alternatives.

 

[River Boy]

Thanks Lenny!, don't worry didn't expect anything good to be free. I'll check all those out and see what I think is appropriate.

To be honest I'm not trying to get into animation, but I'm after something I can use to put together a mock-up form of a screenplay I'm trying to get made. I think they did something similar with The Lord of the Rings to give the producers they were selling to an idea of the vision they had. Your list at least gives a technical dinosaur like me something to go on so ta very much!

 

[sloweye]

Fuzzy modem would be a good person to quiz on this. His animation for The USS Enterprise competition was fantastic, but its all beyond me.

 

[Fuzzy Modem]

Thanks sloweye. Glad to help

For ease of use, nothing touches Bryce, especially for outdoor environments. It doesn't have it's own modeler however, so I'd recommend Blender or Sketch-up to get started, then import those objects to Bryce for texturing animation and rendering. There is a plethora of free 3D models to play with at Turbosquid.com, and for character models try Poser.

If you're up for something a good deal more challenging to learn, but far more powerful (and expensive) look into Maya or 3DS Max.

 

[chrispenycate]

I'm sound side, not the graphics, but I do go in and watch the animators from time to time.

It's amazing how the work is democretising all the time; when we started on our Neurone system (computer generated characters, real time facial expressions and lip movement following prerecorded dialogue) It ran on a Silicon Graphics platform that cost a fortune, and an overnight rendering would produce maybe five minutes of image to be keyed into a background. Now it's a perfectly ordinary (if fast) PC, and you have just about time for a coffee during the rendering process. Real time soon, I imagine; and HD at the same time.

 

[River Boy]

Thanks people, I'm very keen to see what works best for me and you've offered many excellent clues and avenues to look down.

I'll report back on how I get on, in case the experience of a complete novice to these techniques is illuminating at all, especially as - as chrispenycate suggests - the techniques are developing all the time.

 

[Metryq]

Blender has already been mentioned for 3D, and is both free and powerful.

I used to do Flash animation, but the package is now a dinosaur. Check out Anime Studio instead. It is "Flash-like" in that it uses vectors, but it also has many features found in 3D packages to facilitate animation, such as "bones" and particle generators. You can even import bitmapped images (photos) and apply the bones to them. While Anime Studio is technically 2D, it also has multi-planar "3D" features (what some call 2-1/2D).

The poor man's version of Poser (meaning a free alternative) is Daz3D. If you are trying to create animatics (an animated storyboard to sell or block a film), this might be sufficient.