What's the best 3D Animation Software?

[N!elz]

Do you mean like making a movie animation software? Or making logo's, banners/screensavers?
If you do mean the logo/banners etc. it's Xara3D. It's very user friendly, it's easy and you can do alot!
I know it isn't a choice of the poll. But it's really easy, and I thought that I should post it,though.

Greetz,
N!elz

P.s: I'm dutch and only 14 yrs., so my English is not that good, please excuse me for that!

 

[Sohail]

To me, Maya 7 is the best for 3D animation... Another one that is almost as good as that for Mac would be Cinema 4D.

 

[withambition]

Though I haven't used 3d programs in awhile, I really enjoyed using Cinema 4d and Corel's Bryce. Through Bryce was mainly used for landscapes, it was great at rendering objects for abstract art.

 

[santiago_pl]

Im a 3d modeler and i also do some animation. I´ve always used 3dsmax and i believe is one of the best programs.
But!
I dont believe there´s one that is THE 3d program. All of them have similar results.

 

[ThePBgod]

It really depends on what my needs are. But in most cases what's "best for one" isn't usually the best for them, it just happens to be what they're using.

For Engineering stuff, I use SolidWorks. But you could also you Inventor, Catia, Pro Engineer, AutoCAD, and others.

SkethUp is awesome for really quick visualization for architecture. And other stuff.

Movies and things. You have 3DSMax, Maya, lightwave, XSI, C4D, and so many others.

Modeling, I prefer Zbrush. But you could use Mudbox, and some of the above programs as well.

Rendering. Man there are so many. But if you want realistic rendering. Hands down the only choice is Maxwell.

But what do I personally use?
Engineering: SolidWorks
Animation & Modeling: C4D, Maya, and Zbrush,
Rendering: Maxwell
Post Work: PhotoShop

I've used many others. But the ones I use now I've found to work best for me.

 

[eagleeyed]

I operate a animation and design business and 3D stuff takes up the main amount of work.

I personally use LightWave, amazingly good program for the price, yet would not be the best program to start off with if you are just starting out.

The first program I used, and I would recommend to get the basics of animation is Swift 3D, this program is rather basic yet introduces you to a lot of concepts, Swift 3D is designed mainly for vector and webpage work, not for film, tv.

Another program to try which apparently can give the end users good results for little work is a program called Carrara, and has been said to be a good learning program, and for the price is extremely good aswell.

Maya is the industry standard for high-end graphics, would not recommend giving this a go if this is your first time.

3ds-max is the industry standard for game modelling, and is another program I used before I switched to my current program LightWave, 3ds Max is an amazing program, and is also used an awful lot for film and TV. 3ds Max is by far the most used and most pirated program in animation.

LightWave is still used a hella lot for TV, did the graphics for Firefly, Battlestar Galactia (?sp) and also for a lot of movies, was used an awful lot for 300.

Just remember most movie studios do not use one package alone, they can use quite a few, using each of them to their advantage. LightWaves modeller and XSI both are apparently extremely good modellers for example.

Some studios (Pixar for example) write their own software aswell which isnt available to the public, and have teams of coders working on new technologies and developments all the time.

If you want to stay legal but dont want to spend money, Blender is the way to go, free open source program that has just released its first Open Movie, Big Buck Bunny, visit Blender.org for more info on that.

PM me if you have any questions specifically about animation or LightWave and dont want to ask the forum.