animation programs?

[hunter Pollock]

i want to start doing some animation so i was wondering what are some good, easy to use/beginner animation programs?

[Kyoshi]

Flash or toonboom

[Annie]

You can start with paper and pencil which is a traditional animation and also support it with flash.

[Kyoshi]

1D - Paper, Pegbar, Photo Lightbox (Cheap), a pegbar punch ( Not so cheap ), & pencils. 2D - Toonboom or flash, 3d - Maya, Lightwave, or Max, Very cheap Microsoft Paint & Windows movie maker.

[Vincent Veidt]

That's funny, I've always thought that a first dimensional limitation was a logical anomaly that couldn't exist in the physical universe...

[Capmconnundrum]

Well ,a line or line segment would be 1D but only in a kind of geometric abstraction. This, like you say, might not exist in the physical universe. Then again, who knows :^) _____________________________

[Kyoshi]

Ok fine... Traditional 2D

[SudsySutherland]

Try Pencil its an opensource pencil test program thats been developed for us just starting out. Depending on if you use Mac OS or Linux you can export in various video formats. If you are like me and use windows, sadly it only will export the animation as individual .png files which will require another program to piece them together as an animation. One program used for stop motion with clay is Anasazi by animateclay.com which might be able to put the pictures together. Since I don't know if it works, I'll try it and let you know.

Hopefully this helps a bit. I didn't catch these programs mentioned here yet, and I like to experiment with open source software. Its only gotten so much better over the years! I don't even think of buying Photoshop because the GNU Image Manipulation Program (the GIMP) has worked just fine for me right now as a basic RASTR graphics drawing tool. I've used the GIMP to make some very basic animated .gif files before, and its possible for flashing icons or basic banners for web sites. A 3-D animation and drawing program would be Blender . My brother uses that a lot, and its capable of great CG Animation effects. More and more plug-ins are being developed for these programs, and graphics tablets are being supported more and more.

[hunter Pollock]

thanks

[Karen Miller]

Hi hunter, I am new to this site and thought I would respond to this post. My recommendation is that you check out http://www.doink.com Full disclosure, I work for the company, so I can vouch for its tools. DoInk provides drawing and animation tools through a browser so it works on both pcs and macs. DoInk is designed to be easy-to-use, but the results are pretty sophisticated. Check out some of the "featured" animations. The site has a very supportive community sharing drawing and animation tips. Might be a great place for you to learn animation. If you have any questions, contact me at: [e-mail]

[John Martyn]

you are on correct place. if you are beginner and think for making your own animation program or movie i suggest you to use iKITMovie. It's a free trial stop motion animation software with 2200 sound library and back ground music. also you can export your animations to different formats.

i have used iKITMovie for my school animation project and i got 2nd prize.

you can download iKITMovie from http://www.ikitmovie.com/free-trial-stop-motion-software.php

[Ramona D. Parker]

I'm a beginner myself, but if you have a tablet, I recommend EasyToon.
It's FREE, the only thing is that you can't upload your own images, you have to draw directly into the program.
I've seen some amazing animation done on that program.

[CartoonImp.com]

I use Toon Boom Studio 4.5 (paid $350) and love it to death but still find in need after effects for some compositing issues. It's a wonderful program though. Toon Boom Animate looks like what I would need but the base version is like $699 I think.