Software Alternatives?

[calhopkins]

Some time ago I took a course in Animation, fell in love with it and wanted nothing more than to while away the rest of my days in 3D bliss. Sadly, real life has a habit of interfering, and for various reasons I've never been able to take it any further.

However, I've kept up the habit, dabbling around in my aging copy of 3ds max - until my laptop died a fairly spectacular death... Now I need to replace the machine and the software - but does anyone have any good suggestions for a cheaper alternative? I don't want to stop animating, but I can't afford £3k+ for a hobby!

[Flipz]

Blender ( Clicky ) is completely free open source software. It is as capable as Max once you've learnt it and has a massive following and online community.

Or Hash: Animation Master ( Clicky 2 ) is a cheap alternative if you just want to animate.

It depends what you can afford. Maya, XSI and Max are all about the same. Modo is very good, about £800, Cinema 4D is slightly more. You can get DAZ programs all bundled together at the moment, in fact if you look through this site's home or news section I think it's being given away free at the moment or you can go directly to their own site and download for free http://www.daz3d.com/

Plenty of options if you type animation programs into google you'll get a whole load of stuff up.

[calhopkins]

Those sound well worth investigating - thanks!

[Bijansoltani]

Modo 601 I say.

[obiwandk]

i am learning houdini v12 aprentice free but watermarked