First thing is first, finding software. To be honest, other than Xtranormal, I can not think of many quality, free applications for animation. However, most animation products come with a free trial so you can try before you buy. Autodesk's Maya is no different. The following is a link to a free trial of Maya 2011.
Once downloaded and installed, you will have 30 days to tinker around with an industry leading program. Now I know the interface will seem daunting at first, but after a few hours of tinkering and some tutorials, you should start feeling quite comfortable with the program. Speaking of tutorials, the great thing about the Internet is the access to free information, and that includes Maya tutorials!
You can use this site to view some tutorials and familiarize yourself with Maya.
The site offers links to a number of tutorials covering all sorts of subjects. For instance, some tutorials cover something general, such as the fundamentals of Maya, while others are very specific, like modeling a sword or car.
Alternatively, you can also find a multitude of tutorials on sites such as YouTube. In fact, thanks to the content of YouTube being user generated and the some people's willingness to share their knowledge, you can find tutorials for just about anything. The other great thing is that most of the content keeps up with recent releases. So while most freely available tutorials will be for older versions of Maya (though they still work), YouTube is able to offer tutorials specifically made for Maya 2011.
Here's a link to some of those tutorials!
Hopefully you can start to get a real feel for creating and animating something from scratch.
Note: While this post may be newer, it makes for a much better starting off point than my previous post.
Note: While this post may be newer, it makes for a much better starting off point than my previous post.
Thanks JMier. I was thinking about putting together a little animation for an article I plan to write, but I don't have much drawing/illustrating skill. Is it terribly difficult for a beginner?
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, going from modeling to animating will take a bit. It's not terribly difficult, but it does take a bit of time to learn how to go through the whole process. At the university I was attending in Florida we had one month to learn the basics and put together a 5 second animation, which sounds easy enough, but takes quite a bit of work).
ReplyDeleteFor a quick animation you can use while you learn to animate, I suggest going with Xtranormal from one of my previous posts.
Alternatively, be on the lookout for my next post about Flash animation, which is much quicker to learn and do than 3D animation.