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Students and Teachers Agree that Digital Tools Make Schoolwork More Fun	by Alan Zisman
Teaching History in a Time of Change	by Chris Kennedy
Comparison of Inexpensive or Free 3D Animation Programs	by Dennis Wong
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Comparison of 3D Animation Programs

By Dennis Wong

The 3D computer animation industry is one of the hottest industries in British Columbia.  Whether it’s animation, game production or visual effects, BC has become a magnet for companies looking for talented 3D computer animators.  For the last four years I have been using and evaluating several 3D computer animation softwares in my Information Technology courses.  With school funds dwindling, free to inexpensive tops the list of priorities when considering 3D software.

For the junior grades (Information Technology 9), Anim8or (www.anim8or.com) is our choice.  The program is free and easy to download.  Students can start with the tutorials online at the website or use the tutorials developed by Jonim8or at http://www.members.lycos.nl/jonim8or/tutorials.html.  I have the students do the apple and pottery tutorials at the Jonim8or site followed by the eggplant and the walking bird at the Anim8or site.  Both sets of tutorials are well written but a few versions behind so some of the steps may have to be modified to fit the newer version.  The program itself is fairly easy to use.  The menu and tool system is not the simplest of the programs reviewed in this article nor is it the hardest.  This program is very stable and good for beginning animators in an introductory course.

Animation Master by Hash Inc. (www.hash.com) is a fairly inexpensive program to purchase.  It has the easiest tool system of all the 3D software reviewed here.  Students can easily learn the basics of the program.  An online course in the form of movie tutorials is available at the Hash Inc site.  Some of the movies are easy to follow while others seem to skip steps.  Installation of Hash on a server does require attaching a dongle (a hardware device for copyright protection) to the server.  We have been using this Animation Master for three years and we have had good success with the product.  However, there has been the occasion where the program freezes or crashes.

Maya is one of the industry standard programs in 3D Computer Animation.  The Maya Personal Learning Edition (PLE) works exactly the same way as the full paid version except the PLE version renders the models with a watermark.  The advantages of Maya PLE are that it is a free download and it is one of the programs used in the industry and taught at various post secondary animation schools.  It is a good program for senior level courses or for students with previous 3D experience.  The disadvantages of the program are the complex tool system, extra features beyond the scope of a typical secondary IT course, and the before mentioned watermark when rendering the file.  For those readers thinking they could buy one full version and render the PLE files on the full version that will not work.  The paid version does not open PLE files.

Blender 3D is an open source software that is available under the GNU General Public License, in other words, it’s free.  I just recently started to investigate and use this software after receiving recommendations from several students.  It is similar to Maya with the menu / tool system and the concept of polygon based modeling.  There are numerous free tutorials available online ranging from beginners to advance.  There is a huge online network of users.

Another program I began using over the summer is Google Sketchup.  It is a free download at www.sketchup.com .   The program is easy to use with online tutorials available on the website.  The menu and tool system is clean and simple to understand.

In conclusion, if you want a short two to three week unit on 3D Computer Animation then Anim8or or Google Sketchup would be good choices.  If you have a longer unit or you are creating an animation course then Blender or Animation Master would be the ideal choices.