I know the cheapest can’t be
really cheap, but I’m a procrastinator and I was thinking of purchasing an animation program to try out before I
enter college. Does anyone know of the cheapest, if not, the easiest to get your hands on?
I really would
like to know. =P I’ve been going through my things for portfolio to apply for college and on top of wanting to
get a children’s book and a novel published, I’d really like to dive on in with 3-D animation. I just wanna
prepare myself ^^
After looking high and low, I found a few things:
[url=Amazon.com
73329/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-5378877-6612014?ie=UTF8&s=books]The Complete Animation Course[/url] -
Outlines/instructs users “in the principles, practice, and techniques of successful animation”.
Toon Boom - Advertises itself
as “the leading animation software solution” for beginners, individuals, etc. My dad was thinking of
getting one of their programs, actually.
Flash -
The ever popular Flash software. My dad currently owns Flash, and is still learning
the basics of it. He says that it is rather complicated, but effective.
Photoshop - Photoshop is another popular
feature that many people use. My dad ones one of these babies, as well, and he absolutely
loves it.
Flash and Photoshop are preferred for those of you who are
traditional (2-D) animators. I’m not sure about Toon Boom, but I think it is a mixture of both 2-D and 3-D
animation. The Complete Animation Course deals with everything from traditional
animation, to computer graphics.
Keep in mind that most of these programs are on the expensive side, but
they are worth your money…from what I’ve heard.
Badda-boom, badda-bing! I hope I helped. 
If you’re talking software you will want to have a look at [b]3D
Studio Max[/b] and Maya. There are free student 'personal learning
edition’ copies of Maya available from the
AutoDesk website*, but watch
out cause files created in those versions cant be opened with the full version of the software if you ever get
it… And the help file is really good, its got tutorials and teaches you how to use the software if you dont
have a manual or textbook
*you do have to sign up (for free) to download but i havent recieved any bad
emails from them, just the newsletter which you can unsubscribe from
Thanks guys! 
And, I keep forgetting
to ask this, but what type of computer is best to handle art programs? I heard Macintoshs were good but I’m not
sure …
You are most welcome!
I
believe that the “Macs” are more able to withstand complex systems such as Photoshop, Maya, and other
similar programs. My dad currently own a huge MacIntosh (an Apple product, I
believe) and it supports everything that he has on there. And the best thing about “Macs” is that they
don’t (and can’t) acquire viruses of any sort.
I am so grateful, Mitch thank
you thank you thank you! Lol 
I’m flipping 'cause I just found out to apply for computer animation
at this school I intend to apply to, I must have some form of computer animation ready. Seems I may just have to
get my graduation present early in order to have my portfolio ready for college- I was supposed to get a computer
for my sixteenth birthday but I had no room for it at the time, and I didn’t want it to get destroyed so I ended
up getting a digital camera. So now I know what I’m looking for!
Thank you so much! I’ve been running
in endless circles lately. 
I dont really know which system is better. I know that
the industry here say that they use macs (the one place i visited hated their macs) but the animation school i go
to uses windows. I myself have been animating for a year now with windows and i haventhit any proplems yet
(except wheni start to run out of memory). The best thing to do is to find out which software package you are
gonna work on at college and get the system requirements for that program and get a computer thats a bit better
than that (cause they always update software)
Fairly Odd New Yorker -
Heheh – you’re welcome! I wish you well in your animation career plans.
Lanny - Yeah, my family and I owned a large Windows computer for years
before it broke down – my sister and I called it Qwerty. The only problem with those things is that they catch
viruses and the like very easily. Heck, I remember the time when things got so bad
that my uncle (who is a computer whiz) had to clean the whole thing out; it took the whole day to do it, too. So
now we have a new computer: Qwerty 2K3. Too bad “he” doesn’t play many of our old (and fun) games
anymore… 