Animation:Master
Hash, Inc. - $299
Words: Mikel Cvetanovic
Okay, so, here I am, an indie filmmaker, with my first digital feature in the bag (well, actually, I'm still in post... that's a whole other article). I've been curious about incorporating animation into my live action footage, and happened to see one of the most amazing animation software demos I've ever seen -- Animation: Master (A:M for short) by Hash.
Rather than get all techy, I'll speak in terms that your typical Joe can appreciate and simply describe what I saw. The demo guy started by creating a vase. I know, not too exciting, but it's a simple thing to model. To demonstrate the 3-D aspect of the model, he turned it around in every direction. In 3-D you work with the XYZ axis (think back to high school math!). Next, he moved on to character animation and showed how you can create characters, animate them and make them speak. In A:M, you use bones, actions, and sliders to animate your character model. Actions are for things like running, jumping and walking. Sliders are used for poses, i.e., eye movement, blinking, toe-wiggling. So, next thing you know, the demo guy is making the character walk. Then he made it talk. Well, actually, the animated character sang "I Will Survive" and danced at the same time. The demo guy had imported the song into A:M and placed it on a timeline. Above this timeline were the lyrics. So you can adjust exactly when the character says a word in the song and sync the mouth movements exactly to the lyrics.
After I picked my eyeballs up from the floor, I raised my hand and said, "But I just want to animate stuff and mix it in with my DV footage." With a flick of his wrist, Mr. Demo Man was displaying a shot of an animated dinosaur chasing a real car. Then he showed how you can create an animation and mix it into your live-action footage by taking a locked shot and choreographing the scene to include the animated character.
I went home and researched animation software and you know what? There is not a single piece of software at this price ($299) that comes close to the capabilities of A:M. Now, c'mon -- last night I spent $100 on a first date eating sushi! For less than the price of three dates, you could be modeling, animating and rendering in your living room!
Yes, there is other software out there, i.e., 3D Studio Max, Lightwave, SoftImage XSI and currently the indisputable leader, Maya. But, these are much more expensive and complicated. Also, A:M is primarily for character animation. These other packages are used for everything, and are best suited to a production environment where a bunch of people work together on different pieces of the animation. I'm just an indie film dude who wants to introduce some really dope character animation into my live-action footage... A:M lets me do that easily and inexpensively.
