Animation program suggestion?

[Reier]

I'm working on a small movie (Something like 10-30 minutes) that uses Lego LDD for a Star Trek movie, like I announced on Alpha X the other day. So far I'm doing the terribly tedious process of stop-motion, and it doesn't look too great in the final stages, and it takes very long because I have to do SFX for each individual frame as well. So I'd like to ditch stop motion and try something else. My question is- do you guys have any suggestions for a good, free, (non-pirated/torrent...) program I could use for most of my movie?


I have a list of a few things it needs to do:

-Free range of stuff like movement, strech/skew, layers, etc. Kinda like Flash. I use PNGs and GIFs quite a bit so if I could move those across the screen for the movie that'd be great.

-Export in .wmv or .avi format. I use Movie maker and I need to import those types of files.

-Sound FX would be nice, though they're not really too vital.

-Some stuff like glows and shadows and blurs and stuff like that would be pretty nice also.


So if someone has any suggestions, I'd deeply appreciate it. If I need to clarify, I will. Thanks in advance.

[Sparkey98]

animay studios

[Reier]

I don't have $200 to blow dude.

[Sage]

Well then be fancy and torrent it.

[Reier]

...do you guys have any suggestions for a good, free, (non-pirated/torrent...) program I could use for most of my movie?

No way in am I gonna torrent it. Are you guys really that dependent on illegal programs?

[somestrangeguy]

Most of the time yes, because Editing programs are way over priced. If memory serves me right Flash costs around 180€ and Photoshop around 300€? So why pay overpriced when you can get it just as good trough torrents? Some torrents arent so reliable and can have drawbacks.
Such as Red Alert 3, you couldnt connect online with it, this is why I do prefer bying games when I feel they are priced correctly. Everything else, go for free versions.

[Sage]

Because a digital copy of a program has no physical money loss towards the company if gained without buying, torrenting is in no way harmful to the company that sells the product because the people that do torrent it don't have the money to buy it and never will. If I start making money using programs I have downloaded or cracked, I will pay back every cent. Until then, just get as much enjoyment out of your computer as you can.

[Reier]

Technically they don't lose money, but when you think about it, it's like you make this really cool game and only want $10 for each copy you sell. 1 guy buys it and makes copies and gives 9 out for free. So instead of making $100 that's rightfully yours, you make $10. Is that really fair for the company? It IS stealing, and it IS illegal. I'm gonna ditch Photoshop as soon as I find a decent replacement (Possibly GIMPshop), and almost certainly Fraps too as soon as I finish N00b Warz 3.

[Jack Daniels]

http://www.pencil-animation.org/

Pencil is free... easy to use... pretty versatile... and there are a ton of tutorials on youtube as to how to use it. Some amazing animations have been made with this program.

[Naryar]

Taken from Wikipedia

"In criminal law, theft is the illegal taking of another person's property without that person's freely-given consent."

So torrenting is certainly not stealing, because it's not "taking" but "sharing" and it IS given with freely-given consent.

Now the law system just labelled it as illegal because they were probably convinced in any way by the software distributing companies because they aren't making even more money (they're not even losing money) with their completely overpriced things (, the whole CD costs maybe 5 or 10 dollars to produce and they're selling more than 5 times the price thing).

_______

Now the other reason - if i can get something illegally for free rather than paying for it and if getting it for free it doesn't gets me into real trouble, i'll go the illegal way.

[JoeBlo]

save your penny's and get Macromedia Flash 8 (no not CS3 for Adobe ruined a perfectly good program)

or for me and friend lent me the disc to it 

[Reier]

Whatever your guy's excuses, I will not steal again. Like I said I'm getting rid of Photoshop and I feel an obligation to you guys for making you wait so long so I won't get rid of FRAPS till after N00b Warz 3- so it'll be my last tourney for a looong while. Please don't make this an argument about if it's legal/illegal to torrent. If you don't want to give a link for a free one, don't post. It's the company's choice how much they charge, not ours.
I just want links to FREE, good programs for animations. Thanks JD for being the only sensible guy here.

[JoeBlo]

hey I didnt suggest torrenting ?

I suggested finding a friend or family member who has what you want and lend you the disc

most (if not all) software comes with a free personal use license so you can lend it out to a few people so long as they are not a business or using it for business purposes or making a financial gain from it and that it isnt a public distribution of it. 

[Serge]

Yeah, for animation your best bet is to shell out a couple hundred dollars or pirate it. Unless you find some good freeware, then let me know, I'm interested.

[Reier]

Well, I won't. I'm not gonna steal. Pencil is a nice program, but I'm not sure if it's what I'm looking for. It has weird export file types.