Request for simple 3D animation software
I've been looking for simpler 3D animation software, not animation in larger 3D packages like 3D max, maya, blender etc
Avoiding newer and bloated software.
I'm really mainly after something with a dope sheet and can export the model reliably in a format assimp converter can convert reliably, .x, .dea, .fbx etc. Would be nice if it has easy rigging (creating the skeleton bones) and skinning (assigning verts and weights to bones)
So far the best I've seen are:
https://www.flat2d.com/CharacterFX.html
Very simple program, easy to pick up and use straight away in a few hours of follow tutorials and playing around.
This just clicked with me and it was fun to use.
But it's from 2001 and crashes sometimes for me, somethings feel unfinished (scroll support), the exports are limited to .x and .b3d , it has scripting support for exports, so you can roll your own I guess.
Akeytsu is free and modern animation tool and more complex, but the basics are simple enough after a few hours with tuts and playing.
Rigging and skinning are mostly automated like Mixamo. Import is limited to FBX and DAE, export is only FBX and seems reliable.
So between the two, I think I can work out a 3D animation pipeline.
But there must be many more out there? any other suggestions?
I also don't mind paying for software.
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Tried and are a "maybe" to me so far.
Fragmotion, has a nice dope sheet and good export support but the interface IMO is very tedious, changing tools for select, move, bone.
I get that's the old way, but good (updated) 3D software should know when you click on empty space it's typically a camera movement and a click on a 3D primitive is a object movement or action menu etc.
Milkshape, uses a time line and doesn't have a dope sheet, and tedious like fragmotion.
https://flat2d.com/pacemaker.html
Doesn't have a dope sheet but looks interesting.
Unfortunately the mouse is unusable in VMWare, it's somehow related to the rendering and it gitters really bad.
So I didn't fully try it because of the gitter, I've tried different OS'es VMware winXP, win10 and win11, even wine in linux has the same issue.
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Some that I tried and wont try again.
Poser.
Poser UI and movement are stuck in the 90's but the most difficult part with Poser is having to skin everything twice, first into a set body group (for internal morphing or clothes etc, I guess?) and then to the bones with weights. It's also pretty complex.
Poser 11/gamedev edition has some benefits like
good dope sheet, walk editor, probably the best export support (better than fragmotion/milkshape!) I've seen and okay polygon reduction tool.
But I was fighting it too much to be useful to me.
Daz3D.
I didn't really use it that much, too complex and didn't click with me.
Misfit.
http://www.misfitcode.com/misfitmodel3d/features.html
maintained here:
https://github.com/clover-moe/mm3d/releases
No dope sheet and found animation system clunky, bolted on.
Avoiding newer and bloated software.
I'm really mainly after something with a dope sheet and can export the model reliably in a format assimp converter can convert reliably, .x, .dea, .fbx etc. Would be nice if it has easy rigging (creating the skeleton bones) and skinning (assigning verts and weights to bones)
So far the best I've seen are:
https://www.flat2d.com/CharacterFX.html
Very simple program, easy to pick up and use straight away in a few hours of follow tutorials and playing around.
This just clicked with me and it was fun to use.
But it's from 2001 and crashes sometimes for me, somethings feel unfinished (scroll support), the exports are limited to .x and .b3d , it has scripting support for exports, so you can roll your own I guess.
Akeytsu is free and modern animation tool and more complex, but the basics are simple enough after a few hours with tuts and playing.
Rigging and skinning are mostly automated like Mixamo. Import is limited to FBX and DAE, export is only FBX and seems reliable.
So between the two, I think I can work out a 3D animation pipeline.
But there must be many more out there? any other suggestions?
I also don't mind paying for software.
------------------------------------------------------
Tried and are a "maybe" to me so far.
Fragmotion, has a nice dope sheet and good export support but the interface IMO is very tedious, changing tools for select, move, bone.
I get that's the old way, but good (updated) 3D software should know when you click on empty space it's typically a camera movement and a click on a 3D primitive is a object movement or action menu etc.
Milkshape, uses a time line and doesn't have a dope sheet, and tedious like fragmotion.
https://flat2d.com/pacemaker.html
Doesn't have a dope sheet but looks interesting.
Unfortunately the mouse is unusable in VMWare, it's somehow related to the rendering and it gitters really bad.
So I didn't fully try it because of the gitter, I've tried different OS'es VMware winXP, win10 and win11, even wine in linux has the same issue.
------------------------------------------------------
Some that I tried and wont try again.
Poser.
Poser UI and movement are stuck in the 90's but the most difficult part with Poser is having to skin everything twice, first into a set body group (for internal morphing or clothes etc, I guess?) and then to the bones with weights. It's also pretty complex.
Poser 11/gamedev edition has some benefits like
good dope sheet, walk editor, probably the best export support (better than fragmotion/milkshape!) I've seen and okay polygon reduction tool.
But I was fighting it too much to be useful to me.
Daz3D.
I didn't really use it that much, too complex and didn't click with me.
Misfit.
http://www.misfitcode.com/misfitmodel3d/features.html
maintained here:
https://github.com/clover-moe/mm3d/releases
No dope sheet and found animation system clunky, bolted on.
Comments
Years ago it was hard to learn because it was overcomplicated and changed immensely over iterations making it hard to learn but in recent years it has become very well matured. You could be very proficient in it within a few weeks to a month.
3ds from this time is like a more polished milkshape 3d
There's one's you have not tried like Natural Motion Endorphin, Credo LifeForms Studio which also acts as a plugin way back in the day (Including Poser probably Poser 4), SEGA Animanium...
One of the BEST is HASH Animation Master but there's no gaming export I'm aware of... "What's done in HASH STAYS in HASH!" But people with grim machines were making kick-ass animations in the 90's with it... Mostly because the HASH Patch is like 50-60 ties as efficient as a polygon & there were other cool attributes like no need for UV mapping, the 'textures' (decals in HASH) simply 'stuck' & moved proper where they were placed... But you can't import a mesh into it without it being a mess the only thing I tried that worked was there was this guy who made a export plug for an old version of Wings3D which works actually quite well...
But who knows, maybe things changed about export, HASH is still around but a subscription now...
You can look at older movies-
ftp://ftp.hash.com/pub/movies/
If you look at what was done in the 90's it was quite impressive for the time...
What about Caligari gameSpace?... Cinema4D is a 'mid-level' package & rather easy... Eovia/DAZ Carrara can hook runtimes, don't know on the export...
E-Frontier/Mirye Shade3D does same... Spitting ideas here...SPITTING!
There's Kaydara FilmBox/MotionBuilder...
For me the catch with blender is the ever changing UI, but really my issue is the size, it's great that it can do a lot, I'm no artist, so I'm not criticising when I say "bloat", but to me it's a big learning curve and I just don't have that type of commitment.
I bought the physical box of 3DS Max 6 a long time ago and I tried learning it with character (builder? studio?), it's huge!
Modo became free a few years ago and I spent some time with the manual and tuts and IMO it's a lot nicer than blender in many ways, but it's also big and I couldn't configure it to my liking (Japanese mouse style, marbleclay, metasequia etc) without braking it's workflow.
Ha Caligari truespace, I looked at every version including gameSpace which has good game format export support, the last one (the unfinished standalone Rosetta release) has a great collada/.x export and simpler animation so I'll have to check it out again just for rigging/skinning/animation.
https://united3dartists.com/downloads.html
Animation:Master is a spline modeller which I don't need, I just avoided it, I remember checking for animated exports but also didn't find any.
Shade3D, is too expensive for what it is, IMO, I tried Shade3D for unity back 10 years ago, had great FBX support for the time. Reminded me of older 3DS but modernized. I don't have the email acc I registered the key
Life Forms Studio 4.0 $495 USD LOLz no thanks! just wow!
https://www.credo-interactive.com/purchase/plat_lfstudio4.html
I played around with Natural Motion Endorphin a few years back, I couldn't figure out how to animate figures normally instead of using the physics engine.
SEGA's animanium, I think it's just a plugin for 3D packages.
MotionBuilder 7
https://archive.org/details/motionbuilder7
Looks good, I'll check it out also more and go through the manual.
CharacterFX is limited to low polygon models ie under 2k and doesn't support bump/normal maps
Thanks again for the suggestions, if there's more please drop them here and I'll check it out.
WOW, Credo is still up & running? That's unreal as Lifeforms 4 is like 25 years old now, I got that plus 3.9...
There's Messiah studio which is heavily influenced by Lightwave, shares same shortcuts to a degree uses LWO format... Not easy to learn though...I have down to version 2.2, wish I had version 1.5...
There's An[i]ma 1.5.2 which worked as a plug...
Too bad GMax has no animation it's super stripped down Max4...
There's Catia & also Esperient Creator which is just a later version of Deep Creator...
The spitting is becoming sputtering...
So if it works out well I'll simply install the versions it WILL work for...
https://youtube.com/watch?v=WRd5uaM18Qg