[SGVLUG] Simple 3-D Animation Application

[Terry Hancock]

Dustin Laurence wrote:

>Does anyone know a simple 3-D animation application?  "Simple" means
>that all it has to do is animate simple geometric shapes for a quick
>project.
>
>Blender came to mind, but it's just *way* overpowered for this, and it
>might cost too much time to learn for something that is supposed to go
>into a *power*oint presentation.  Or, maybe not, I don't know anything
>about it except that it exists.  Anyway, suggestions welcome.
>  
>
This really depends on what you need. For simple presentation
stuff, I often find it easier to draw what I want in a 2D vector
editor (Inkscape, Skencil, OO.o Draw, Karbon14).

OpenOffice.org Draw in particular has a tool called the "3D controller"
that can do some simple projected-shapes. If that's all you need,
it will be much simpler than doing true 3D.

True 3D is intrinsically both hard and very powerful.  It's true
that Blender presents a harsh learning curve for newcomers,
but at least some of the problem is just that it's a conceptually
hard task to begin with.

Other possibilities that come to mind are to hand-code POVRay
models or use something like VPython (which I haven't used, but
is supposed to do basic 3D geometry presentations from a Python
interface). These options give you a more linguistic interface that
may be easier for you to grasp than the full-blown, complex GUI
that Blender presents you with.  On the other hand, it too has
a learning curve.

Cheers,
Terry


-- 
Terry Hancock (hancock at AnansiSpaceworks.com)
Anansi Spaceworks http://www.AnansiSpaceworks.com