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Creating Quality Animation Is Now Within Anyone's Reach

by rweven

Animation is an art form that is loved by many. However, it is
not an art form that many could enjoy creating. There is a need
for not only artistic talent, but complex audio and video
equipment, and fairly large teams of creators. Even with those
elements in place, creating traditional quality animation was
still lengthy and hard work. Just think, every second of screen
time required 25 to 30 separate drawings.

These days, computers have made the animated playing field much
more even. Now anyone with an idea can create an animation of
considerable quality, in a lot of cases for little or even no
money, and a lot less time. With a computer and the proper
software creating 2D or 3D animation is very much a reality.

Let's take a look at some of the software available, both low
cost and free, for 2D and 3D animation.

2D Software

There are many programs on the market for creating 2D animation.
Some require drawing out scenes like traditional animation, and
some use cut-out animation, which is more like working with
puppets. Unlike traditional animation where everything was hand
drawn frame by frame then filmed, today computer animation
programs allow for tweening. This means you can draw or position
two scenes on a time line, and the computer fills in the frames
in between. This makes creating an animation much faster.

Let's focus on two of the more popular programs here. Toon Boom
and E-frontier Anime Studio. Toon Boom allows for cut-out
animation, but the real strength is the ability to draw frames as
in traditional animation. Anime Studio on the other hand is a
cut-out animation powerhouse, allowing the animator to rig and
manipulate characters with an internal bone structure and vector
graphics directly in the timeline.

Depending on your personal style, there is not much you can't
create with these products. They both offer different price
levels for introductory versions and the full featured versions
and both are also used by professional animation studios.
Introductory versions start around $50 and go from there.

But, maybe that is still too expensive. Well there is good news
as there are many free options to create 2D animation as well.
Creatoon was once a competitor for Anime studio in the cut-out
animation field, but the producers stopped development of the
software. The good news is they left the final version for
download free of charge. They no longer support the product, but
there are many online tutorials that show how to create animation
with Creatoon. This is not a second rate product, but a very
powerful tool and a real bargain.

3D Software

Here is where things get fun. The trend in animation is 3D CGI,
with studios like Pixar leading the pack. The software used can
get prohibitively expensive, such as Autodesk Maya and 3ds Max,
and Pixar Studio's own Renderman. 3ds Max alone is just under
$4000.

But, there are many cheaper, or even free alternatives.

E-frontier not only makes Anime Studio for 2D work, but they
also make Poser, which is a 3D character program that allows for
character creation and animation. Poser costs around $250.

There are even cheaper options. For around $200, you can get
Reallusion iClone. This program is very powerful as it not only
allows for custom character creation, but is also a 3D virtual
movie studio complete with motion control, lip synching, 3D sets
and props, and full camera control. You can make a full movie
inside this one program. It even comes with stock motions for
characters that can be used until comfortable with the program.

Even $200 is a bit much for some burgeoning producers, so how
about free? This is where Movie Storm comes in. This bit of free
software shares a lot of features with iClone. You can make full
movies, but you are limited to the characters, props, and sets
that come with the program and have a bit less control over the
3D environment. Other than that, this is a very powerful tool to
create 3D animated movies.

So there is a brief overview of the programs to help you break
into animation, without breaking the bank. The great thing about
the programs above is that they are not toys, but powerful
animation systems. All can produce high quality animation and
bring stories to life.

It is fun and rewarding to make films, so give animation a try.
Everyone has stories to tell, but not everyone has a studio
behind them. Now, that no longer matters. With video sharing
sites like Youtube, you can create your movies and share them
with the entire world. So get animating!

Finding the titles in the article is just a quick web search
away.

Internet marketing guru Ryan Even has been experimenting with
using animation and video in his internet marketing. Read more
about how to <a
href="http://www.ryaneven.com/succeed-in-internet-marketing/">Succeed
In Internet Marketing</a>...

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