[cecil]

I'm going to purchase an animation program, but I don't know what would be the best one. What I'm looking for is something that lets you draw vector-like pictures to do the animations. Get the drift?

And the pricing should be anywhere under $1000. Possibly something kind of professional? What do the professional animators use?

[[Optima]]

You should ask this question, in a board filled with tons of animators. I suggest http://pub12.ezboard.com/bvisualfxdiscussion , it is a brand new board and its brining in some great talent.

It will be a very hard decision for you to choose , you should get as much opinions as possible.

There is not to much of them under $1000 though.

[Rinaldo]

Two that Spring to mind are 'Hash animation Master' and 'Pixels 3D'

Hash Works on both PC and MAC while Pixels is MAC only

Both offer an advanced toolset that is extreemly good value. I have heard it said that Hash's animation capabilities rival any other program out there (including such heavywights as softimage)

the Pixels site is http://www.pixels3d.com/home.html

and the hash site is www.hash.com

It is hard to trust anyones opinion on this matter as many feel loyal to the program they own simply because they have a lot of money invested in it. one way to help make the decision easier is to simply have a look at the quality of work that has been produced by the program in question.

Hope this helps.

[Mozeman]

Flash 4. Vector-based 2D animation program.

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Mozeman
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"If a pig loses its voice, is it disgruntled?"

[NUR]

Flash 4. Vector-based 2D animation program.

[synj]

hehe i'd say lightwave just cuz i use it, but I can't. cecil, its all a matter of opinion man. flash? i dunno - everybody is doing that and if you dont know how to animate already you could have quite the lineup of competition. I find 3D animation to be much more free hehehe at least once you get the hang of it.

if you're looking to save money on a 3D program, just get the educational version, which is usually at least 1/2 the price or less.

-synj www.synj.net

[AliasMoze]

Cecil,
It really depends on where the final destination is for your work -- the web? video? film?

If web, then just use Flash.

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AliasMoze
:) :) :) :)
"That activates my hilarity unit."

[Rinaldo]

doh!

In my above post I was foolishly reffering to 3D animation

for 2D vector you can't go past flash it's pretty much the industry standard for web stuff and people seem to find all sorts of other things to use it for.

one of the good things about flash is that although it is primarily vector based it sort of lets you paint in vectors and is reguarded as having an original way of treating the whole vector/bitmap thing.

Adobe livemotion has also just been released which is adobe's answer to flash but it does not have flash's cool method of handleing vectors.

[kurisu]

I think DeluxePaint Animator is going for cheap these days!

-kurisu