3D+Animation

3D Animation
A Already installed SR In Student Resources (MS Multimedia / Resources) D Download your own! PC There's a PC version

Alice SR PC
This is really a programming environment that just happens to use animated objects. Have a look - you might like it. It isn't very difficult to learn and uses a drag and drop environment to create computer animations using 3D models. Alice is designed mainly to teach programming. [|Alice Homepage] [|Alice Tutorials] [|Fantastic Alice Resources] [|More 3D Models] [|Another Alice Project Page] [|Importing Models into Alice] [|More About Alice]

[|Even More About Alice] [|Alice Community (Forums)]

You can even see some Alice projects on [|YouTube!]

Art of Illusion SR
//Recommended// Much easier to learn and use than Blender, Maya, Cinema 4D, etc It's mainly for modelling, texturing and rendering - but you can animate your models with a bit of extra work! This is one of the recommended tools.

[|Official Art of Illusion Site] [|Official forum] [|Art of Illusion Wiki]

Blender  PC D
This was my first choice for this unit - until I discovered how difficult it is to learn! If you are planning on doing a lot of 3D modelling and animation over the next couple of years then it would be worth learning Blender .... Blender is a free 3D graphics application. It can be used for modeling, UV unwrapping, texturing, rigging, water simulations, skinning, animating, rendering, particle and other simulations, non-linear editing, compositing, and creating interactive 3D applications. Blender is available for many operating systems, including Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. Blender has a robust feature set which includes advanced simulation tools such as rigid body, fluid, cloth and softbody dynamics, modifier based modeling tools, powerful character animation tools, a node based material and compositing system and Python for embedded scripting. [|Blender Site] Includes downloads, tutorials and an active set of user forums. [|Official Blender Wiki] [|Free Blender Models and Components]

Bryce SR
Bryce is a 3D modeling, rendering and animation program specializing in fractal landscapes. The name is taken from Bryce Canyon — a rugged region with many of the same landscapes that were first simulated with the software. [|Official Site] Bryce 6 is the current commercial version. We have Bryce 5 Free Version available on the network.

Cheetah3D D
Cheetah3d is a computer graphics program for 3D modelling, animation and rendering. It is written for Mac OS X. The program is aimed at beginning and amateur 3D artists, but is also used by professionals. Its simplicity is what makes it stand apart from other 3D programs. A single user license is $149 US. A free demo version is available, without the ability to save or export models. That diminishes its value a bit, doesn't it? [|Official Website]

Cinema4D SR PC
CINEMA 4D is a commercial cross platform high-end 3D graphics application. It is capable of procedural and polygonal modeling, animating, lighting, texturing and rendering, and is noted for being relatively easy to use and artist-friendly among high-end 3D applications and having a very flexible interface. ADditional plugins are need to animate models. [|Cinema 4D Resources] [|Lots of Cinema 4D Resources]

DAZ Studio SR PC
DAZ Studio is for animating models rather than building them. There are quite a few free components on the web, or you could build them in another program (it was originally designed to animate models made in the commercial program Poser). DAZ Studio supports raytracing, which allows creation of reflective surfaces. It also has an intuitive user interface, but does not yet support dynamic hair or clothing, tapering of body parts, or (in the Mac OS X version) texture maps in the PICT format. Several commercial plug-in files have been created for DAZ Studio, which support features natively found in Poser, such as inverse kinematics.

Maya SR PC
See Blender. These are the "//Photoshops//" of 3D modelling and animation. Maya is used in the film and TV industry, as well as for computer and video games, architectural vizualisation and design. If you want a bit of a challenge (!) and stunning animations, try Maya or Blender.

[|Maya Tutorial Site] [|More Maya Tutorials] [|Even more ... you'll need them!] [|Official Site]

Papervision3D D PC
If you really haven't had enough Flash scripting yet, give Papervision a try. High-end, difficult to learn, and complex, but rewarding once you've mastered the basics.

Sketchup A PC
Finally, I thought I'd include Google Sketchup here. It's really for architectural modelling (making houses and buildings, etc) and is the technology behind all those realistic 3D buildings you see in Google Earth. You can really make ANYTHING in Sketchup (I once made a working 3D piano keyboard, and animated it in Flash). THere is a lareg community of users and plenty of free content to download from the 3D Warehouse. You'll need to use another program to animate your Sketchup models - such as [|SU Animate] ! [|Official Site] [|3D Warehouse] [|Video Tutorials]