Thread: Tell me about computer animation

I've been in the very very slow process of writing a book. I've been working on it sporadically, but my dedication to the story is very strong. I love the characters and the plot, and the main character is almost like an alter ego that's been around for a long time.

So, I decided to try and animate some of it. I've had a little bit of luck on the scenery with Vue 8 Pioneer, but not a lot.

Is there anybody here who is talented at computer animation, and can tell me about what need, and how to get started?

2D or 3D?

3d - Sorry for forgetting that, I guess that's kind of a necessary detail.

I have done a bit of 3D modelling. It is great fun. And it isn't too hard to get the idea of how to work it.

I used Cinema 4D. I also used Vue as a plugin for it, to make the stuff better quality, but for learning, it isn't really a bit deal.

To learn Cinema 4D, I only needed one tutorial. It was a 4 hour long tutorial on how to make a car. It pretty much covered everything I would need for the basics of modelling something.

I will try to dig out that tutorial, as it was very useful, and fun.

The car you get taught to model in it is a lamborghini murcielago. I think.

You might want to try using Vue after you learn Cinema 4D. Or, some people just use Vue on it's own, in which case you would not need to learn Cinema 4D first. But to be honest, I find it easier to model in Cinema 4D, and use Vue as a plug-in.

Here is the difference between Cinema 4D on it's own, and using it with Vue, just using my own model as an example (This is the car from the tutorial I was talking about):

Spoiler for Cinema 4D on it's own:

Spoiler for Cinema 4d + Vue:

Wow! That's nice, Slash!

I can't wait to see the tutorial!

I use Blender professionally. It's workflow is much faster than anything else, however, because of this, it's got a much higher learning curve.

I did these in Blender

Spoiler for images:

Each are stills, but I animate too, I could animate any of those very easily.

First model I made was in MilkShape 3D and it was a player model for Half-Life.

It turned out crap, but it was a great start imo. I don't have any screenshots though...

Ok, I found the tutorial.
http://ragingpixels.deviantart.com/journal/18371262/


This is for Cinema 4D.

I like Cinema 4D, the lighting and reflections are much more realistic. Although I have seen a few really good realistic looking things done from blender, it's just a lot harder. Although Blender is probably easier to use than Cinema 4D. I don't really know, I only used it a few times.

Thankyou Slash! You've been a very useful engine.

I'll never go back from Blender, it's just way to fast. The problem with software engineering is that you've got to decide on speed of workflow, or ease of use. Blender is for those who can learn keyboard shortcuts I wish I could find my rendition of The Raven. I made a cool animation, but I lost it when my computer died.

So, you DON'T use blender?

No, I'm good at keyboard input, I'm very efficent at blender. At work I have access to Autodesk, but I'll stick with my good old free Blender. My only beef with Blender is it's render speed, but you can swap out the rendering engine with Indigo or Yafray if you want.