best program to make 3d animation

[gunit]

I was just wondering what is the best out there right now?

 

[DaveSimmons]

Probably some piece of Software

 

[robcy]

Ive used animation master

 

[everman]

There's a free version of Maya for educational use if you interested in learning. I think there's some kind of watermark thing though.

 

[gunit]

Sorry that I didnt put this in software (didnt see it at the time but now do). If a mod could move this do so. Price isn't important. I dont care if it cost 10 million dollars for it.

 

[SickBeast]

It depends on what it's an animation of. I do animations of buildings that I design as an architect within 3D Studio Max 6. It's a very sexy program for buildings. I hope you have a very powerful processor or you'll be waiting a month to render your video.

 

[gunit]

is a 1.8b. 512 sd ram, and a 4200 good enought

 

[SickBeast]

It depends on the resolution and the complexity of the scene.

If you want to render in PlayStation-1 quality, then your system will be fine. If you want things to look like Finding Nemo, you'll need something considerably more serious. Just because your computer can run Serious Sam doesn't mean that it's a serious machine. I just love how that game asks you "are you serious?" when you try to quit.

ANYHOW...like I said, if you're just starting out and doing basic things then your computer should be fine. To give you an idea, my Athlon XP running at 2500mhz can render a 1600x1200 image in say 10-20 seconds. So 30FPS means maybe 10 minutes per second of video at that resolution if you get what I'm saying. So then 1 minute of video would take 600 minutes, or 10 hours. It's kinda depressing to think about.

 

[manko]

Originally posted by: gunit
is a 1.8b. 512 sd ram, and a 4200 good enought

If you can afford 10 million dollars for software, you might think about upgrading your hardware.

 

[gunit]

Originally posted by: manko

Originally posted by: gunit
is a 1.8b. 512 sd ram, and a 4200 good enought

If you can afford 10 million dollars for software, you might think about upgrading your hardware.

i just want to know whats the best out there. i never said i would buy it.

BTW: thank you SickBeast for being a hell of a guy

 

[NFactor]

I like Maya more than 3D Studio though they both are good programs.

 

[Czar]

you could use blender which is free, but the interface is very odd compared to other software
but I highly recomend wings3d to get you started with modeling before you start animating, just to get used to 3d

I have never tried Animation Master but it is supposed to be very very easy and fast for animating, and it can model and do everything with the latest version I belive

Then there are the free versions of the big programs, Maya, XSI and 3DStudio Max. I'm a max user so I would recomend you try 3dviz I think it is called which is the free version of 3dsmax, has alot of features but also is kinda limited.
The free version of maya or was it xsi has a very anoying watermark on everything you do.

Of all those I would recomend you stay clear of Maya because its interface is wack compared to all the others. Blender also isnt recomended much because its interface is kinda good but its so vastly different from other 3d programs.

I would recomend 3dstudio max, xsi or lightwave and maybe animation master (if I knew more about it that is).

 

[rbV5]

Of all those I would recomend you stay clear of Maya because its interface is wack compared to all the others

Hey, I like Maya's interface 3Dmax has a free version called Gmax(3dViz is the architect version of 3DStudio Max)

Houdini is perhaps the most powerful and difficult to learn 3D software (for me) and has an apprentice version/program(now there's a tough interface!). Softimage just released a HL2 version that includes the entire toolkit! for modding HL2 if it ever comes out, I've not spent much time mucking around with it...but it looks great.

3DMax is the one that I'm most comfortable with personally, and the "best" is probably some in-house software used by one of the big animation firms.

 

[gunit]

I used byrice 4 (not sure on spelling) in my school. How does 3d max compare to that?

 

[Czar]

Originally posted by: gunit
I used byrice 4 (not sure on spelling) in my school. How does 3d max compare to that?

well bryce is basicly considered a joke to everyone along the lines of poser, not realy a 3d program but more of a photoshop filter fest

 

[Rottie]

I have used Maya 5.0 and 3D Studio MAX 6 and Byrce 5 so they all are good programs.

 

[krackato]

Originally posted by: Rottie
I have used Maya 5.0 and 3D Studio MAX 6 and Byrce 5 so they all are good programs.

Excellent logic.