[starbug]

Can any of you help me? i am wanting to get into animation i have done a couple of wallace and gromit style short films for college but i want to have ago at CGI, i want to do a small Dalek animation but i am unsure what programs i wll need i know i will need a modelling program, i do have truespace 3(granted it crashes all the time) but a friend of mine say's that cinema 4d, i think it was called,  was better and simplier to use is this true, should i not use truespace? So any tips on how to get going?

[Roanoke]

You might want to check out the dedicated rendering sites such as 3dpalace, 3dcafe etc. There are loads of free tutorials avaliable online.

There are some proggys avaliable free, such as blender, wings etc. Truespace isn't too clever but later versions are on of the cheaper proggys on the market.Or you could try a local college course, as I did, and obtain a student licence for one of the leading proggys such as Max, Maya, XSi etc. You're looking at a couple of hundred pounds (at least) though will allow you to obtain the professional programes legitimatly. There are other ways too (ie not legitimate), ofcourse.

Best to download as much free stuff as you can, get a taste of each, then concentrate on a specific application. Learning the interface is not a lot of fun but it's half the battle.

[Thor]

my friends swear by blender, and you can do some truely awesome things with it.

[starbug]

cheers guys, would love do it at college, but the college near me dosent do cgi, so i am going to have to do it self taught, but i will guve some of those sites a try, thanks muchly.