Which software would you use?

I am considering adding animation to my knowledge base for marketing services and would like you to answer this question if your like...

"Which software would you use for SL avatar animations and commercial animations outside of SL for the marketing community?"

Is the free ware powerful enough... or should I consider Poser 7 or Maya or another more powerful animation product... Purchase cost is not an objection for me and your answers would be a great help. Thank you in advance.

If cost is irrelevant, maybe you should start with Motion Capture, or Mocap.

Lee, Thanks for your response to my post. Would you have any names that stand out in your mind as cutting edge, reliable and reputable ModCap softwares? or companies? Thanks

Just go with Poser.

Sorry, I am not familiar with the Mocap industry. I think they are pretty expensive, though, so do you seriously mean money is not an object? I think we are talking thousands of dollars, if not tens of thousands.

There's a thread here linking to a Youtube video of one motion capture creator. In the story it said that he paid $40K for his motion capture equipment. But, they didn't say who he bought it from or give out any other technical details. (=_=)

Yes... thats what I was looking for... like anything prices are probably all over the board.
$40 K is probably out of my range but several thousand I would expect to pay. Since no one here is talking much about using it I suspect that it is extremely expensive.

But like all things computer wise... give it a few years and the prices will drop... then everyone will be using it because the time savings nature of the software and the realism it can provided. Thanks for everyones input... I appreciate it.

Mocap is overkill for mosth things in sl. You can get Poser for a couple of hundred dollars or DAZ Studio is free. You can download the default Poser versions of the sl avatars on this site.

If I was in your shoes, I'd just start simple and small... do some sl animations and find out if you really want to spend the time and money to go on to commercial endeavors.

It depends entirely on what sort of commercial animations you are doing. Mocap is good for getting realistic motion - provided you have a person who can actually do the movement you want to capture. You find top athletes and prima ballerinas and the like, are not all that easy to come by.

A lot of commercial work involves more cartoon animation and the action is pushed outside of real motion - mocap can't help you with this at all.

So - my answer is that you need a variety of tools and methods.

Search for Animazoo, both in SL and Google, and look at their Mocap equipment. It looks pretty good.

Q-avimator for simple stuff no walking, Poser for walking and multiples (if Poser using Poser 2 regular guy is the manequin to use, not sure if still available but I got Poser 5 free from content paradise), Maya if ya got the bucks I hear is good though never seen it (I'm a poor toon ),

If you're looking for a product that will not only allow you to do animation for SL but also professional animation work for the corporate market, Maya would be your best bet. Just be prepared to invest the time to learn it and become competant enough to compete in the professional market outside of SL. That may easily take you a couple of years. 3ds Max is another excellent choice, and someone was working on an SL animation rig for it, but I don't know the state of that project currently. It's also very complex and will take a long time to master. Poser is your best choice if you just want to do stuff for SL, but it isn't capable enough for much else.

Chip, do you happen to have the SL rig for Maya ? It was around somewhere on the internet and then dissapeared.

To answer Bigmo.

It depends on what you want to do. In SL, the nicest dances seem to be made with mocap (or derived from mocap data). For the rest, I think Poser is what is used most. Outside SL Maya is indeed used a lot, together with a dozen or other programs and of course the good old pencil ...

I just thought I'd mention that Maya is very expensive - 2000 to 5000 US $ depending on version. You can download a Learning Edition free though - it can't be used to export anything as it is all very cleverly watermarked - but you can, at least, try before you buy.

[I have to disagree slightly with Chip - you can do more with Poser than just SL animations, but it is not Maya and it costs one tenth of the price. "You pays your money and you takes your choice". )