Hi Guru's

I've been using Sketchup and Blender for some of my 3D Models (Static) No Animation.
I want to try some easy animation Models.... Huge learning curve, as I have never done this...
Which software will work for that.
Blender, or must I invest in something Like Autodesk Maya or something else.
It will strictly being used for APPGAMEKIT and GameGuru

Cheers
Danie

Hi DannyD, I guess it depends on the kind of animations you want to do as to which program is easier.

Blender can do your animations, but I have only done simple stuff like doors and things that have rotation, which are pretty easy to do.

There is a Modelling Video Tutorial Series by unfamiliar in which he shows how to do simple animations for doors using Blender, definitely worth checking out.

Obviously characters are way more difficult than that, so don't know what other artists prefer for that kind of thing. Pretty sure some of the artists around here use Fragmotion for characters, so hopefully they can tell you what is what .

Reliquia....

Hi reliquia

Thanks for your info.
Because 99% of my games, is for educational purposes(kids between 3-7) , and not to advanced graphics.
So it will mostly be low poly, with simple (Walk,Idle) animation, and easy characters.
Might upgrade to High definition Characters later, but not now...
Things like, a talking flower (lip movements)
Turtle flip on his back when laughing...
Run a way box.... etc etc etc

Cherio
Danie

In APPGAMEKIT all this has been done with Sprites, but 2D...

Well, for the cost (free) Blender is a pretty capable all round 3D program. It actually does far more than most others out there that you have t pay for. It can be used as a Video editor as well as 3D modelling and animation and even at present has it's own game engine. It's the best bet on a budget. Max could be better in some ways, especially if you have a lot of cash to buy plugins to streamline production. It's still the main software used in the industry, mainly because it's used by most companies and hence taught in college etc.

I'm no expert in either though but know they are more than capable in itself to do great animations. The problem in the past (for me anyway) was getting an animated model from Blender to GG. The formats supported by GG tended to be non animation ones like obj. I had no issues with simple rotations as mentioned above with .x, but any bone based stuff I tried always sat like a statue (in GG).

There may be other options out there better suited possibly, but Blender covers modelling and animation pretty well. Sketch-up as far as I know is only for buildings and such and therefore does not support animations. But again I am only going from using it many years ago, things get updated occasionally

As mentioned above, for youngsters 2D may be okay, they aren't likely to snub it because it isn't shiny and 3D. If we get to that point the world is doomed!

Blender is just fine for animations and you already know the interface.

This was my first attempt to get bone animations into gameguru from blender, worked better than i thought it would, just need to learn how to animate properly now

Hi DannyD I use Sketchup for ALL my assets, the animations I do in fragmotion, I will do a couple of tutorial videos once I have caught up I am a couple of weeks behind lol, I am no expert with Fragmotion but have managed to do character animations and asset animation too

Thank GraPhiX

I know sketchup very very well. I'm n beginner with Blender., and havn't touch fragmotion.

But always willing to learn new software.

Can't wait for a few tutorial videos... I'm very lazy to read, but like to watch tutorial video....

CHerio
Danie

@DannyD, Since you are already familiar with Blender and Sketchup, I would suggest you use one of these, personally, I would use Blender. I say to use one of these because if you changed not only would you have the animations to learn, you would also have to learn the particulars of the new 3D program and this would double or more the amount of work you had to do to get to the point where you could do Animations.

Beleive me I have tried to move to another 3D program and because you are used to doing things a particular way, this makes it harder to learn the new program.

I hope this helps.

Andrew...

Thanks for the updates

I'll wait for videos from GraPhiX,

Might stay with Sketchup, and invest few bucks in Fragmotion.
Can I Export directly from Fragmotion to use in GameGuru or do I need to do some extra work on the FPE file aswell?

Appreciate
Cherio
Danie

fragmotion is on sale for 35 dollars right now. It's usually 50 dollars.
http://www.fragmosoft.com/

@DannyD No you don't need anything more than Fragmotion to export to GG, it exports to all the major file types, including Direct X.

Andrew...

@DannyD No you don't need anything more than Fragmotion to export to GG, it exports to all the major file types, including Direct X.

I have been trying to do my animation through Fragmotion over the last week or so but have not been able to give my full attention to it so it is a bit slow going but I definitely think that it is the way to go because I have tried to do character animation from blender (oops, should have put 'a different 3D program') but when I put it in GG it didn't work, I imported the animated model to Fragmotion and exported it out to a Direct X file and it worked perfectly.

Andrew...

TazMan, did you tell blender to include the animations when exporting?

Reliquia....

Sorry, I put the wrong 3d program, Blender is the one I am learning at the moment. The program I was talking about when I said:



was a different one.

So, you cant export Animations from Blender, I am in the process of changing to Blender, do I have to do all my animations in Fragmotion when I do.

Animations work perfectly fine from Blender. You just need to tick the right boxes when exporting, don't forget to include bones, frames, and weights.

@Belidos Thanks for that.

@reliquia

As Belidos and reliqua said you just need to remember to check the right boxes

I just did a very simple animation test and I managed to export it to DirectX straight from Blender and it worked perfectly in GG.

@DannyD so I suppose the answer to your question is to stay with Blender and possibly invest in Fragmotion because it is a very useful program.

Andrew...

I think its time this one was in 3rd party Models and media

Hi All
Any suggestions. I want to order Fragmotion, but see they only support paypal payment and not credit Card. I can only do Credit Card payments.

I've contacted the developers but they havn't return my email.. been a week now!!! Send them a 3rd email before this message...

Any help?

Thanks Danie

Hi Danie
you don't need a PayPal account to pay by Paypal https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/account-optional