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Animation Software
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I hope you realize that rendering even simple animations will take a very long time with a MB.
For starters:
3d animation, or cel (2d) animation?
If you want to go 3d, IIRC both 'pro' packages, Maya and Lightwave have yet to go Universal, so while they may function on your MacBook, they will not be running native, and therefore be very slow.
Look in to Blender. It's free, and universal. I think the learning curve is a little steeper, but that's the trade off.
3d animation, or cel (2d) animation?
If you want to go 3d, IIRC both 'pro' packages, Maya and Lightwave have yet to go Universal, so while they may function on your MacBook, they will not be running native, and therefore be very slow.
Look in to Blender. It's free, and universal. I think the learning curve is a little steeper, but that's the trade off.
This only applies to OpenGL (game rendering and 3d quick-shade) type renders which utilize the GPU almost exclusively. Ray tracing (renders done by modeling/rendering packages) on the other hand utilize the CPU almost exclusively.
Just checked, and it appears that Maya 8.5 is universal, and Lightwave 9.2 should be out in a few months or so and will also be universal.
FWIW, I loaded Lightwave 9.0 on a friend's MacBook CoreDuo with only 512MB of RAM, and not only did it load, but it kept pace or performed better than my PowerBook 1.25Ghz with 1.5GB RAM even though it was running under Rosetta. I'll bet that running native, a MacBook Core2Duo with 2GB of RAM would perform rather well.
OK. In that case I recommend Cheetah 3D. It's simple to learn but still quite powerful.
If you want something with more features try Cinema 4D, or After Effects.
I haven't really tried it but Kinemac looks pretty good.
Difference of Blender and Cheeta3d
Whats the difference between Cheetah3d and Blender?
I am interested in touching 3D for design purposes, I think cheaper way to learn this instead of the demo of Maya which is too much to get my feet wet with.
Thank you
Whats the difference between Cheetah3d and Blender?
I am interested in touching 3D for design purposes, I think cheaper way to learn this instead of the demo of Maya which is too much to get my feet wet with.
Thank you
I was going to go out and purchase something expensive, mainly because I could. The fine folks on this forum suggested Blender. Since I was just starting to learn the basics, I downloaded it. It is a very good program to learn with.
2D - Toon Boom Studio, Flash, Combustion, Motion.
3D - Maya PLE, 3D Studio MAX, Modo, Lightwave 3d, Blender
They are all a good start in the animation direction, however there's way more to animation than just hardware and software it's about timing, stretch/snaps, anticipation to name just a few animation principals.
Either way have fun on you MacBook.
3D - Maya PLE, 3D Studio MAX, Modo, Lightwave 3d, Blender
They are all a good start in the animation direction, however there's way more to animation than just hardware and software it's about timing, stretch/snaps, anticipation to name just a few animation principals.
Either way have fun on you MacBook.
Is Blender a cheap, way to learning 3d animation and what I learn in this program be able to apply in Maya? because blender has a special i am interested.
Blender has the largest feature set of any 3D program out there. And it costs nothing, and experiences significant upgrades about once every two months. That being said, it doesn't do all these things better than other programs, but it does do them.
Example: mutli-resolution meshes with sculpting capabilities are only presently available in Blender, ZBrush, Mudbox, and Silo. Blender isn't as efficient as this other programs when dealing with digital sculpting, but it also lets you do it in a full scene, instead of forcing you to work on one water-tight mesh with nothing surrounding it. Eventually, with faster computers, this will be a boon, but for now, it has benefits and drawbacks.
Blender has an awesome interface, the best I've seen for 3D modeling, but although very fast and powerful, a lot of it is very ugly and even difficult to look at (the save, load, and import/export menues come to mind). It doesn't use the Aqua interface at all. Then again, neither does ZBrush or Shake.
I'm presently using Cheetah3D because it is very much more "Mac", but I'll probably move back to Blender after they redo its look this fall, and after they get animation exportation to Unity working.
Example: mutli-resolution meshes with sculpting capabilities are only presently available in Blender, ZBrush, Mudbox, and Silo. Blender isn't as efficient as this other programs when dealing with digital sculpting, but it also lets you do it in a full scene, instead of forcing you to work on one water-tight mesh with nothing surrounding it. Eventually, with faster computers, this will be a boon, but for now, it has benefits and drawbacks.
Blender has an awesome interface, the best I've seen for 3D modeling, but although very fast and powerful, a lot of it is very ugly and even difficult to look at (the save, load, and import/export menues come to mind). It doesn't use the Aqua interface at all. Then again, neither does ZBrush or Shake.
I'm presently using Cheetah3D because it is very much more "Mac", but I'll probably move back to Blender after they redo its look this fall, and after they get animation exportation to Unity working.
Not to crack wise but the easy difference is about $100. Blender is free but seems difficult to learn. Cheetah looks better documented? I don't use either one but tried to use Blender. I have also tried Carrara Pro, Bryce, Poser, Daz 3D, Hexagon etc. I am sticking with Carrara 3D basics, Bryce, and Poser 7.
Toon Boom Studio
http://www.toonboom.com/
This looks like what you are looking for. Another idea would be a 3D package with a vector output. Maya has this, I'm sure a few others do as well.
This is actually low-end animation; higher-end illustration and story writing. Focus on something like Illustrator/Photoshop then bring your characters and backgrounds into Flash, Toon Boom, Motion, or Final Cut. Most of the animation is two way movement, simple positions, panning, and DOF. Heavy focus on in-depth story lines and deep characters. Develop everything on paper first then scan into Photoshop/Illustrator. Have fun!
_
peace | neut
An alternative and practically equivalent foe FAR less money is Anime Studio 5 from e-frontier.
It's $49.99 for the regular version and $199.99 for the pro version.
Honestly, for $50 you seriously won't be disappointed.
It utilises a bone feature, whereby you give your character bones and animate them, not the characters/objects themselves. It makes things exceptionally easy to do and highly rewarding.
I was surprising myself with what I could do the first day I used it!
Only one problem.. the documentation that comes with it is the same for the regular and pro versions! As such you will see the tutorials mention one function regularly which isn't in the standard version File->Render. This will render a scene as you go along.. In the standard version you only see your file rendered once you actually export it. It's not a big problem!
The only other real limitation between the regular and pro version is that the regular one only lets you create up to 2 minutes long. It's easy enough to paste scenes together in iMovie afterwards though.
It's $49.99 for the regular version and $199.99 for the pro version.
Honestly, for $50 you seriously won't be disappointed.
It utilises a bone feature, whereby you give your character bones and animate them, not the characters/objects themselves. It makes things exceptionally easy to do and highly rewarding.
I was surprising myself with what I could do the first day I used it!
Only one problem.. the documentation that comes with it is the same for the regular and pro versions! As such you will see the tutorials mention one function regularly which isn't in the standard version File->Render. This will render a scene as you go along.. In the standard version you only see your file rendered once you actually export it. It's not a big problem!
The only other real limitation between the regular and pro version is that the regular one only lets you create up to 2 minutes long. It's easy enough to paste scenes together in iMovie afterwards though.
I have only been using it for about a week so I'm no pro even by a long shot!
But for a beginner, it's really easy.
I sat down on it and managed to do something on the first time using it and having only bothered looking at the first 2 or 3 tutorials.
OK, I didn't do anything revolutionary! but it was a sun moving across the sky with the shadow of a tree moving in response to it, plus a few clouds moving about.
Very simple! but the thing is, it only took about 5 minutes to do and it looked really good!
I've used Flash before (badly) and can say this is a thousand times easier!
Animation is as simple as defining a frame point to start and drawing an object.
you then select a point later on, move your object there and press play.
The application will do the bits in between for you. No plotting pathways or anything like that.
The first tutorial gets you making a circle and rotating it and changing it's shape.
Press play and watch it do all the morphing for you.
I'm still using Demo and haven't had more than a few hours on it but I can already see the power of it and will be buying it for sure.
Only more time to get a handle on it.
It's truly deepest program I have ever come across. OT, this may be of no interest to the OP but Rhino is coming to the Mac and Brazil is not far behind. I also heard xStream is working on a Mac port. Good news this week for 3D apps on the Mac.
Only more time to get a handle on it.
OT, this may be of no interest to the OP but Rhino is coming to the Mac and Brazil is not far behind. I also heard xStream is working on a Mac port. Good news this week for 3D apps on the Mac.
now if we could just get vray for maya...
There is work being done on that too, when and what platforms is hard to say.
http://www.chaosgroup.com/pr/20051122_01.html