Marketing via Animation

Lastly, animation with this program is straightforward. You draw your objects, create a new keyframe by selecting a frame, click the new keyframe button, and then redraw the objects in their new positions.  This perk can also be seen as a downside to some; it can feel tedious to animate by drawing things repeatedly, especially if you are not artistically inclined.  One more thing to mention, and what I consider this program’s main drawback, is that sometimes things don’t work exactly how they should.  One example is that you sometimes have to click a few times to get the drawing radius to change after adjusting it.  These are just slightly irritating things that will likely be patched soon.  However, programs like Tupi work very well compared to the Pencil competition.  If frame-by-frame isn’t your style, you could always look at the following program on the list: Synfig.

Synfig Studio is my preferred option for 2D animation.  It is a consistently updated program created by Robert Quattlebaum(“overview”).  He wanted to make animation software that could produce high-quality products quickly.  Its animation process works similarly to tweening in other animation software, except Synfig automatically does it.  For example, if you draw a circle in frame 1, switch to frame 12, and move the circle to a new position, Synfig will calculate all the positions between each frame and update the animation accordingly.  Most tools and filters in Synfig are designed with vector graphics, but some can be used with bitmaps (“overview”).  When compared with Paint2D, Synfig appears a lot more complex.

Complexity and Functionality

With this complexity comes functionality.  For example, you can add a “bone structure” and joints to a character in your animation using the link objects function, encapsulation, and rotation tools.  Doing this lets you quickly model more realistic movements for your character instead of drawing them out one frame at a time.  If you are going for a more cartoony or anime-style animation, Synfig should be your go-to program.  As proof of its functionality, the people behind the Morevna project have been using Synfig to create a high-quality anime movie(“Morevna Project”).  As with almost all free software, Synfig has a few downsides.

Audio in Synfig

The biggest is that it does not yet natively support audio.  While sound support is expected to be added sometime in the future, if you want sound, you must combine it with an external program such as Windows Movie Maker.  The other downside is that it can seem confusing to use for the first time. Fortunately, the Synfig website has a well-made text tutorial series and some links to YouTube guides(“overview”).  It works well in 2D animation, but if you wish to make 3D movies, you should look for Blender or Source Filmmaker.

The first one to consider is Source Filmmaker.  Valve used this software to create promos and animations for their games, and it was later released as freeware for public use.  This software is straightforward to use if you have any previous experience playing 3D sandbox games like Gary’s mod or, to a lesser extent, Minecraft.  Adding, manipulating, and deleting objects is easy (“SFM Team”).  Because it uses the Source engine to load objects, you can use all of the resources from games that use the Source engine, such as Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, Portal, and Half-Life 2(“SFM Team”).  Using these pre-made resources is the topmost benefit of using Source Filmmaker for someone new to 3D animation.  Not being required to create your objects, maps, walk/run animations, etc., significantly speeds up the production process.

Recording via FIlmmaker

Another feature that makes things a tad faster is that you can record yourself playing games that use the Source engine and edit those scenes how you like.  It is a convenient tool when you are just getting started with 3D animation.  With all that said, this software is for those more concerned with the story of the animation rather than how good it looks.  Most of the resources from the games mentioned above are cartoon-like and made using graphics from several years old.  Not only that, but it is also rather complicated to make money from an animation you make using characters from Valve’s games without getting some lawyers thrown at you.  If you are considering making some 3D animation movies or shorts, Blender might be closer to what you should use.

Blender is an open-source 3D animation software.  This software is good enough to rival commercial 3D software(“Zeke”).   It has been used to make professional production-quality animations such as Elephants Dream, Big Buck Bunny, and Sintel(“Blender Ref…”).   With Blender, you can import models others created or create your own from within the program. Because of how long it has been around and the variety of supported formats, there are tens of thousands of free resources you can download and use for your animations.

Blender can be complex.

The problem with Blender is that it is very, very complex.  Learning how to use it takes a long time, even with a good guide or video series.  This program is for those who seriously want to get into 3D animation.  As well as being rather complex to learn, it would be best to have a decent computer to use Blender at a decent capacity.  The recommended specifications are a 64-bit quad-core CPU, 8 GB of RAM, and a video card with 2 GB of dedicated video RAM(“Blender ref…”).  If you are using a laptop or have a computer over 4 or 5 years old, you may not have the required specifications for this program.  Blender is a powerful piece of software, especially for free, but be sure you want to dedicate the time and resources to learn it if you plan on doing a lot of animation with it.