Considering Buying

[funkyreuben]

I'm thinking about buying Animation Master but I have no animation experience. I'm a fast learner and i'm pretty good at photoshop and things like that. I was just wondering how hard it is to learn if you have no experience. Any information you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

 

Chris

[Bruce Del Porte]

Animation is an art form, there is the technical side that can be learned in anywhere from a few dozen to a couple of hundred hours and there is an artistic side that takes years to develop. If you are artistically proficient in PhotoShop, you are ahead of the game. Things like palette and composition are directly applicable. Depending on your goals, if you are looking to have fun with animation, you can have fun starting the first day. If you are a serious artist looking to make a masterpiece, you have some work ahead of you.

 

The initial learning curve is steep but if you do the exercises and use this forum for help, you can become technically competent fairly quickly. Think of is as the same as learning to play music, learning the scales comes fairly quickly, playing Carnegie Hall takes practice.

 

Good luck

[JB1]

I would recommend buying A:M, I have been using A:M for a year now and have completed a 2 minute animation with it. Good Luck.

Cadet

[Chad_Hunt]

I was in the same boat you are and I am very glad I went the route of buying AM before anything else. It is very easy to use and you can learn at a fast pace.

[funkyreuben]

Thanks for your opinions. Hopefully once I get back from vacation, I'll have some time to buy AM and give it a try. Thanks again!

 

Chris

[the_black_mage]

lol I'm 14 a fast learner never used photoshop and i think I'm very good at it a:M I've had it for around 2 years.

 

cheak out my site

 

Wolf Works

 

i would recommend A:M to anyone any age.

[dborruso]

Rockin web page mage. Quite nice work for any age.

[DarkLimit]

When I first started using A:M I had very little 3D expreience; am originally a logo animator..From the get go A:M makes ur learning fun and easy.. It's HARD work nevertheless but ur a fast learner so u will progress at a powerful rate....A:M simplifys the way you work promoting speed and a direct way of creating what you want..

 

I recommend A:M for you cuz the more u invest time into it the more it rewards you, it's a powerful tool and it feels like it was designed just for you....Get alot of community input and experiment alot and u will quickly get the hang of things...

 

Good Luck to you....

[Banes]

well, since i just ordered the program, i guess i'll introduce myself in this topic...since i spent several months in the "CONSIDERING BUYING" camp myself.

 

I write, and play music...but i've always loved cartooning, though i've done less of that until this year. I saw some great little animated shorts online and i thought "I'd love to do that!" What i really want is to write and produce my own stories. Movies, really, I guess. This seemed like the best way to go about that.

 

To see if i was serious, i decided that if i could make five short, hand-drawn animations, then i was interested enough to invest in a program. well, i'm still in the middle of the fifth project...but i bought AM anyway!

 

I waffled a long time between 2D (maybe toonboom?) and 3D before settling on 3D and AM. I'm very excited, and have a million questions, of course. like 'how do i lip sync? how do i record dialogue? music and sound effects? do i need photoshop? are these movies viewable once they're done, without crashing someone's computer with their size? do i compress? HOW do i compress? Do i need photoshop? after effects? what ARE those things, anyway?

 

LOL...anyway, i'm very pumped, not very computer-savvy, but very into writing, cartooning, and animation/movies in general. I'm very glad to be here....the forum looks fascinating and supportive.

 

have a good one! And yes, i DO blather on, don't I?

 

Banes (sean)

[Van]

I've seen Animation:Master at the last three MacWorld Expos, and have been just dying for an excuse to buy it. My son has taken an interest in stop-motion animation, but the expense of a $300 software package for an 8th grade school project has still been pretty steep, considering what else we also need to upgrade/purchase (camcorder, more disk storage, RAM, etc.). Basically I've waited for show special pricing, my kid's committment, and my meager post-Christmas budget to come to an agreement. Right now A:M's competing with Final Cut Express as the major family software purchase. If there were student pricing along the magnitude of MS Office Student/Teacher edition, I'd be there already.

 

But I'm close. Very, very close. I just hope we aren't surprised by any sudden water heater or car repairs!

[itsjustme]

I've seen Animation:Master at the last three MacWorld Expos, and have been just dying for an excuse to buy it. My son has taken an interest in stop-motion animation, but the expense of a $300 software package for an 8th grade school project has still been pretty steep, considering what else we also need to upgrade/purchase (camcorder, more disk storage, RAM, etc.). Basically I've waited for show special pricing, my kid's committment, and my meager post-Christmas budget to come to an agreement. Right now A:M's competing with Final Cut Express as the major family software purchase. If there were student pricing along the magnitude of MS Office Student/Teacher edition, I'd be there already.

 

But I'm close. Very, very close. I just hope we aren't surprised by any sudden water heater or car repairs!

 

I believe there's a student discount for AM as well...I think it's the same price as the discount you get from buying it at an event. It's not listed in the online store, so e-mail Hash to be sure.

[Van]

(I originally posed this question yesterday in this post.)

 

What year / version number of Animation:Master will still work on a G3 iBook running "Panther" Mac OS X 10.3? I hear the latest version is Tiger only, and I might have to look for an older version or factor other upgrades into the purchase decision.

 

(edited to tighten wording)

[the_black_mage]

wouldn't it be cheap to get an older version then get the $99 upgrade?

[Paul Forwood]

Not sure, because I don't have a Mac, but I think that you would be okay on a G3 up to A:M12.

Better wait for a Mac owner to chime in.

[Van]

wouldn't it be cheap to get an older version then get the $99 upgrade?

Well, it would have been. There was a 2005 copy of A:M up for auction on eBay; I was planning to get it relatively cheap to try it out, then if it works out and we decide to continue, get the 2007 upgrade.

 

Unfortunately, I was outbid and the final price wasn't cost-effective anymore, making it more sense to buy a fresh copy of the new version outright at the trade show price. If there hadn't been a special show price, I would have placed a higher maximum bid.

[the_black_mage]

well search the internet for a very old version like 8.5 you'll find those lying around somewere

[dre4mer]

uh.. technically can you even sell your old version? I mean think about it, that means they are upgrading from your serial number which you already upgraded from. Don't know what Hash would do if they get an upgrade request about someone elses serial number.

 

-Ethan

[Muff]

As an owner of LW8.5/Poser6, I can say that AM is definately the easiest way to jump into animation. Like mentioned, animation is an "artform", that generically isnt program specific. So, if its an interest in wanting to learn animation, then for a person to see whether they can grasp the concepts of animation (through patience), AM is without a doubt the cheapest and (my opinion) easiest path to walk on to test any interest in pursuing the involvment into learning. It has a simple, uncluttered interface for anyone wanting to learn the ropes. And as always, the price is what grabs peoples attention. But in no way does the low price reflect on the power of AM overall. AM is a competitor to other more expensive programs when it comes to animation. But to me, AM was always the FUN program to tinker with in any aspect of learning. It loads quickly, everything is in one environment and its interface provides a quick and fast paced method for testing/fixing/changing anything that comes to mind. The controls to manipulate cameras/lights/body parts/viewports and custom hotkeys make navigating AM sooo simple. But AM is like others, a program. You have to give the time to get anything from it.