Best Animation Software--Advice

Since I seem to be having difficulties finding the poses and animations that I need, I would like the advice of you experts to a complete newb when it comes to 3-D. Yes, I have read the info on the wiki but it seems so sterile. I would prefer input from those of you that are actually working with the software. I have read and looked at AVimator and QAvimator...but know little about it and no user manuals to speak of for help.

1) What would you recommend for a newb just starting out who has never touched nor knows anything about 3-D modeling? What is the easiest to use? What software has good user manuals? What software seems intuitive?

2) Any one using Adobe's Flash? I have the opportunity to purchase C4 with Flash included but I know nothing about it.

Thanks All!

Avimator and Qavimator are fine for simple poses and short animations. I wouldn't try to do anything complicated with them like dances because you have to move each joint individually. A bit better but still free is DAZ Studio, which has inverse kinematics, meaning you can pull the limbs around by moving the hands and feet, and the rest of the body moves somewhat naturally. Of course, free means it doesn't have all the capabilities I'd like, such as being able to see where keyframes are for individual joints. But it works for the simple animations I make. DAZ Studio has a user manual but it isn't very complete.

Beyond that, I couldn't tell you. I bought an old copy of Poser but it's still in its box after a year because I can do pretty much what I need to do with DAZ studio.

I think there's now a bvh plug-in thingie for blender, which is free. The interface takes some getting used to (bit of an understatement..) but if you're also thinking of getting into modeling, you can do sculpties in blender, too..

There is, Sindy. I included a link to Jacek Antonelli's plug-in and tutorial for Blender animations to the Animation Software sticky thread in this forum.

It depends on whether you want to spend money and how much of a learning curve you can take.

If you are completely new to animation, I suggest you start with QAvimator, which is free, and see how you get on. It is comparatively quick to learn and there are a number of Tutorials and in-world classes to help. If you learn how to use QAvimator, this will form a good basis for more complex packages such as Poser or Blender.

If money and learning time are not an issue, then Maya is the professional choice - but it can take years to become proficient.

Flash is a great 2D animation tool, but completely irrelevant as far as animating for SL. If you want to produce animations for your website Flash could be good to learn, and there are tons of resources (online tutorials, books, etc.) available to help with that. But again, as far as SL animating specifically, Flash is useless.

I was hoping since Flash comes with the package deal at work it would be useful, but alas sounds rather like something I won't use since I do not have a website. I appreciate the info.

I checked out DAZ and am really confused about what it is suppose to do other then static graphic pics. Was able to pose the figure easily enough but other then that not sure what else I was suppose to do with it so will have to read up.

I will check out Blender as well. Learning can be so painful when your totally clueless...LOL. Thank you everyone!!!! I will do some more research.

Laugh while you still can...

/me uses blender and it's actually kinda nice once you get used to it. More of a learning cliff than a learning curve, though.

Here's a basic DAZ tutorial.

http://secondlife.dolphpun.com/daz3d/

There are also some Youtube videos. It is harder to learn than Avimator, but worth it IMO.

I'll throw my hat in with the DAZ crowd as well. I've used it for probably nearly a hundred animations by now, and while it's by no means a professional animation environment, the price just can't be beat.


I agree with this for the most part, and there's a lot to be said for removing distractions and having a tool that is 100% focused on creating Second Life animations. What is learned there can translate very well into other programs.


Sure, once someone has a bit of experience and knows that they need/want a more capable tool than something like DAZ|Studio, that's a logical and excellent choice if the budget supports it. There is also information available here on the forums about using 3DS Max for the purpose of creating SL animations.

For that matter, the OP should probably read the "Animation Editors" sticky, as all of this has already been covered there.

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