General Category > General Anim8or Forum
Hello! New user with a 'hello' and a question!
wolfsong73:
--- Quote from: ENSONIQ5 on September 12, 2016, 09:12:16 am ---Looks like a nice, clean model :). While I spend most of my time with other animation packages (chiefly for render speed) I still always start with Animator. The interface is clean and uncluttered, utterly free of malarky and I still think it's the best modeller around. This is a shot from a web series I'm working on, while it was rendered elsewhere all the modelling was done in Anim8or using the same set of tools you used to build your house (took a little longer than an hour though!). Good luck with your Anim8ing and welcome to the forums.
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lol... Yeah, like I said, it's nothing earth shattering, and certainly not posted to show off any modeling skills. Just me sharing my excitement at finding (or re-finding, I guess) a program that not only appeals to my preference of a program as a tool to get things done, but also easy to pick up and get to work with. I hate having to first figure a barrage of fancy bells and whistles that look great on a "Features" bullet list, but really only place more steps in the way of achieving the same results.
Steven nails it with Anim8or, I think. Straight-forward tools, with easy to remember shortcut keys. Too bad I didn't come back to this sooner heh. Could have saved a lot of wasted time.
So far, the only thing that trips me up is working between World, Object and Screen space. Some tools, I notice, won't work in certain modes, and others seem to work kinda weird in some lol. I had an object I was working/learning with yesterday, and found that if I wanted to move a couple vertices in the Y direction, I had to lock it to X. Never quite figured out why that was happening. It never happened again after that.
That model looks great! Is an animation anywhere to be seen, yet?
Also, what external app do you use for rendering, if you don't mind me asking?
Thanks!
daniel99:
Welcome to the forum, wolfsong73. Yeah, anim8or has many amazing new tools nowadays.
Steve: Forgot to mention in my other posts, but I also love an8 because is an executable file. I hope you won't change that.
ENSONIQ5 Very nice render, man! You are very meticulous. Great job! :D
nemyax:
--- Quote from: wolfsong73 on September 11, 2016, 01:43:49 pm ---I just finally said "okay, enough" to a stint with another one, from a fairly well-known company, whose developers seem to place more importance on "doing everything differently", than on creating an intuitive and approachable app. Not going to name which, 'cause I don't want this to be a "this vs. that" type of post.
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Hash Inc.?
ENSONIQ5:
--- Quote from: wolfsong73 on September 12, 2016, 01:42:54 pm ---Is an animation anywhere to be seen, yet?
Also, what external app do you use for rendering, if you don't mind me asking?
Thanks!
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Cheers wolfsong73 and daniel99. This is from the webseries Mission Backup Earth (http://missionbackupearth.com/) which is a zero-budget production based mainly in Berlin but involving 3D artists from all around the world (I'm Australian). The image is a frame from an animation, though I don't recall which episode it appears in! One of the earlier ones I think. (EDIT: It starts at 4:53 in episode 1 of the prequels here: )
The render was done with Carrara which is similar to Anim8or in that it is a comprehensive modelling/animation/rendering package, however it's not free or open source. Its modeller is kinda terrible to be honest, which is why I still prefer to build in Anim8or, however it has an excellent renderer that is able to make use of multi-threading and network-rendering. If I engage both my i7 machines that's 16 threads of rendering power, which equals speed. Since I'm mainly rendering HD1080 at 24 fps, speed is essential to maintain workflow. While the sample image above could absolutely have been rendered with Anim8or (in fact, ART renders look nicer than Carrara's in my opinion) it would have taken many times longer to render (2-3 minutes per frame in Carrara, possibly 20-30 minutes or more in Anim8or depending on settings).
Carrara's renderer also has a few cool things like light cones, lens flares, secondary illumination etc. which could all be done in post but it's cool to have them there. There's a few other things Carrara can do that are yet to be added to Anim8or (eg. physics) but since Steve has been releasing updates the gap has reduced considerably (eg. inverse kinematics - something that has been on my Anim8or wishlist for years :). I haven't had a chance to play with it yet but plan to asap).
While loath to invoke the name of Blender as I have no interest in starting another Anim8or vs. Blender thread, it does have a pretty awesome renderer and is, I believe, approaching the power of Maya, 3DS Max etc. However, it's interface is almost the antithesis of Anim8or's, being one of the nastiest GUIs I've ever had the displeasure to work with. There are also a few stand-alone renderers out there such as Kerkythea, some with steeper learning curves than others.
I will continue to work with Anim8or as long as I am able and will continue to sing its virtues whenever I get the chance. As an introduction to 3D animating it's hard to beat, and as a basic modelling toolbox I'm yet to find its peer.
daniel99:
ENSONIQ5 Nice job, man. Congrats!
Btw, when I first heard about Carrara, I tried using it for the same purpose: fast rendering with ambient occlusion! But I think I didn't have the patience to learn it, or I was unhappy with it, so I ended up not using it.
So, I render with scanline in anim8or most of the time and sometimes use ART Ray Tracer. Maybe Steve will improve the render speed for ART in the future.
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