by Ellie Copper

Created on: December 01, 2008   Last Updated: December 06, 2008

The animation industry is a rapidly growing field and the software isn't the easiest to learn. What makes it more difficult is that each program has its own language, layout and way of accomplishing similar tasks.

One thing you should probably know before you dive in is a bit about each of the different 3D animation software packages out there. Getting started can be a little difficult if you don't know where to look. There are many websites out there that talk about them. Simply typing in 3D software into a search gets you a few of the major hitters, but not all of them. And none of them specifically say what they are best for. This is where the great 3d community comes in. It is one of the largest communities on the Internet, because frankly, every single person who gives their all to this industry is stuck to a computer trying to figure something out or trying to give a helping hand. (HighEnd 3D, Renderocity, Creative Heads, DigitalTutors; These are all sites with great resources)

If you want to work for a studio in the US, your best bet would be either 3ds Max, Maya, XSI, or Houdini. Each of these is pretty pricey. They range from $3,000 to close to $10,000. The software also keeps evolving and a new version usually comes out every year or so, sometimes its only a couple of months between versions. For this reason, it doesn't make sense to purchase your own software right away. That is why they each have student or learners versions, the most expensive being only a couple hundred. These student versions do have limits to them, but for a beginner its a safe bet.

Autodesk owns 3ds Max, Maya and XSI. Side Effects owns Houdini. 3ds Max is a layered based program. It has a fairly useful particle system called Particle Flow (P Flow) and its own scripting language, MaxScript. It does have a tendency to bog down if you overload on particles. Animation is straight forward and gives more options for animators than Maya and motion capture files (.bip) are easily loaded onto its character studio biped. Autodesk has also made a different version of 3ds Max, with it leaning more towards design. Maya is a node based program and uses its language, Mel Script. In more recent versions, it has an impressive cloth simulation (nCloth) and particles (nParticle). Animation has similar tools to 3ds Max, but it does have fewer keying options. A good animator won't let this hinder them. Rendering is pretty powerful. Maya uses render layers to help you break out your different render passes in a very organized manner. As for XSI and Houdini, I know little about them other than the fact that I know people use them. Softimage, the creator of XSI, was recently acquired by Autodesk. It is known for being node based, as is Maya. Houdini is known to be more scripting based and is on the higher end of the price scale.

These aren't the only software packages in the 3D animation field. There is Blender (also the name of the studio that created it), which is open-source and free. There is Cinema 4D (Maxon), but I don't know enough about the software to comment. And as for the rest of them, well, if you know one program, you know them all. Same concepts, different executions. Most of these other programs are used in one studio (the one that created the software). You probably will want to learn on one of the software packages listed. They are well accepted all around the animation industry and there are plenty of resources to learning on them (tutorials, forums, books, etc).

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