Zlogspot - animationandvideo

I first reviewed video creation site Renderforest back in November of 2017 . Since then they have been adding more and more content packs/tools to their cloud based video creation studio, branching into animated explainer video territory in the process (as well as logo and website design too). This review is focussed on their 3D Explainer Toolkit , but keep in mind, along with several different animated toolkits (including whiteboard), Renderforest has toolkit/templates to suit almost any video need from logo stings and music visualizations, through to complete video templates that can be highly customized with your own content. Click here to browse their template library. I am planning to review some of their other animated toolkits in the future but their 3D Explainer Toolkit particularly caught my eye because few (if any?) similar cloud animation services offer 3D animated styles. Global animation customizations in Renderforest's Studio. Renderforest's editing studio revol...

This chicken really turned heads at the end of Reallusion's WIP 1 Video. Reallusion recently announced the next iteration of their 2D Animation studio, CrazyTalk Animator 3 , by unveiling a new name and a work in progress page on their website showcasing some of the new features. Now known as Cartoon Animator 4 , the new name signifies that CrazyTalk Animator has grown far beyond giving bodies to the morph based heads in CrazyTalk  and evolved into, as their tagline states, the one-for-all 2D animation software. CrazyTalk Animator 3 was such a leap forward, and has had so many new features added through periodical updates, that you might wonder if there was anything left to implement that would wow users. But Reallusion has managed to do just that. Some of the features revealed, which are explained in more detail, with video, on their WIP 1 page , include: Motion Enhancement Auto IK Rig Smart IK System Motion Retargeting Custom UI Rig Smooth Head Turn 360 Degree Head Turn G4 360 H...

Bat Storm Muvizu (left) In development Bat Storm iClone (right). If you've been following my work for a while you'll be familiar with my Batman parody character Bat Storm. The character first appeared as a GoAnimate Comedy World design . When GoAnimate dropped all its fun themes in favor of Business Animations I moved the character into the 3D realm of Muvizu shortly after I purchased a license for it in 2016. I really love Bat Storm's look in Muvizu. The thing is, as easy as Muvizu's developers claim their software is, I find trying to do any form of character animation with it to be infuriating. Which is why you haven't seen a single Bat Storm animation created in Muvizu so far. My Muvizu Bat Storm Character. Lately I've been experimenting with Reallusion's 3D Character Creator 2 for iClone 7, which is soon to be released as a stand alone application in version 3. Although I haven't done a lot of 3D animation with iClone I actually know my way around...

One of the most exciting things being developed with virtual reality systems like the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift is creating animated films using 3D virtual puppetry. Flipside an application dedicated to the entire production of creating an animation using virtual puppets. It is literally a VR studio where you set up your set, lighting, cameras, and puppet your actors all in the VR environment. As a production environment it can be fully operated by a single person. Each character can be puppeted individually and then their performances overlaid into a full, multi-character animation. Even more exciting is that, because everything is done in real time, you can use Flipside to create live performances of your characters to virtual and augmented reality viewing audiences. See Flipside's video below for a more detailed overview of what it can do. Personally I haven't used Flipside so this is not a review. I'm just excited by the possibilities and wanted to share that with you...

Penguin Jump Pencil Roughs by TET. Hand drawn 2D animation, more commonly described as 'traditional' animation, where each character movement is meticulously drawn frame by frame is still one of the most versatile forms of the art. Essentially, if you can draw it, then it can be animated. There's really no limits other than your own drawing and animation skills. If you already have a digital drawing tablet or pen display monitor and want to get into hand drawn, 2D digital animation then these three applications are a great starting point and they're all completely free. Pencil2D Pencil 2D's User Interface is clean and very easy to learn. Pencil2D has been around for many years. In fact I first wrote about it here in 2009. It's an application that was a great idea but wasn't fully developed and could be buggy. After many years with no updates a new team appears to have taken on the task of developing the software further with a few upgrades. I took some tim...

Cloud Animator is a new, cloud based, animated explainer/presentation, video creation studio by Reallusion , who are better known for their flagship products iClone , CrazyTalk , and CrazyTalk Animator . The best I can describe a Cloud Animator Video Presentation  is that it is kind of a cross between a Power Point Presentation, Animated Explainer Video, and a HTML5 application. As someone who creates animated business explainer videos for a living, I've been a little perplexed as to what Cloud Animator is trying to be, and where I would use the videos created with it most effectively? Now that I've taken a deeper dive into what it can do, by actually producing a sample presentation myself, I'm starting to understand the benefits of adding interactivity to a video presentation. If you are familiar with Youtube's clickable, end card links, and in-video link cards, then Cloud Animator gives you a more advanced and feature packed version of that, without any of the limita...

If you're a one person team or you just need a video presentation done yesterday a tool like Render Forest can be a real time saver. Render Forest is a free, cloud based intros, animations, slideshows and music visualizations creator. They provide professionally designed templates to which you just insert your text, photos and videos, add licensed music (that doesn't sound awful) and your video is done. Free videos are watermarked. If you want to remove this you can purchase your video, in your choice of resolutions, at very reasonable price points, or you can purchase an annual subscription to have them removed on all videos. At this point I've only used Render Forest to create slide show style presentations, so this review is limited to that experience (and this is not a paid review), however there is so much more you can do. Check out Render Forest's video below for a complete overview of the possibilities. I wanted to create a dynamic slide show presentation of my ...

Good Storyboarding software is hard to come by at the low end of the market. So when I heard about Wonder Unit's Free Storyboarder application I was immediately interested. Springboard  has been my work horse storyboarding application for years. It's the cheapest, fully featured storyboarding software I know about, but it's getting old, and hasn't been updated since before I started using it. Storyboarder is an all new application put out into the world for free by Wonder Unit who say the market for their software is too niche to make money from selling it (I beg to differ but only very quietly because I like free stuff for creatives). Plus they make money from making movies so... there! (Sorry, there's an attitude of quirky jabs within this software and its documentation that's infectious). First Impressions Pretty darn nice. After getting through the welcome screen the actual user interface is clean and clear. Right away I can see drawing tools, a timeline, ...

Motion Den claims to be the world's simplest video maker of intros and slideshow style animated videos. I needed an animated slide show to promote my etourist Skateboards online store , which I planned to make myself with one of the many video editing applications I have, but, after being directed to Motion Den by a spammy, completely unrelated comment on this very blog (which I've since deleted), I thought I'll give them a try. The site is free to sign up and make videos with. Any published videos will have the Motion Den watermark. If you wish to remove this you can purchase individual videos or sign up for one of their plans, which give you a certain amount of credits each month to purchase videos with. Note that you can't actually do anything with a published free video other than view it in your account. There are no share options and you can't download it (making the watermark almost pointless). A selection of Motion Den's Templates. Motion Den is a temp...

Learn to animate your own characters in 2D Animation 101's CrazyTalk Animator 3.1 course. Although CrazyTalk Animator is a relatively easy animation software to start creating in right away it becomes apparent, very quickly, that creating great animation with it requires much more in depth knowledge of the application. 2D Animation 101's course,  Create Animated Series for YouTubers in CrazyTalk Animator 3.1 , is by far, the best course available to lead you to those great results. Initially the course was free for anyone who purchased CrazyTalk Animator 3.1, however if you missed that offer the course is available both through 2DAnimation101's website and Udemy . Presented as a series of video tutorials, instructor Mark Diaz, takes you through the entire process of scripting, storyboarding, and creating scenes using your own custom characters (created in Photoshop) with the focus, specifically on scene creation and the animation process in CrazyTalk Animator. The course ...

The  Parblo Coast22 21.5" Graphic Drawing Tablet Monitor is the largest sub AU$1000.00 pen display monitor I could find that met all my other criteria. When it comes to drawing surfaces I believe the bigger the better, hence my choice. I know there are bigger displays but my budget didn't stretch that far. I also know WACOM pen display tablets are generally better quality products but I didn't want to settle for the 13.3" screen of the Cintiq 13HD , the only one of their tablets in my price range. It should be noted that this is my first Pen Display monitor. Prior to this I was using a WACOM Intuos 4 Drawing Tablet (which is no longer available but is similar to the Intuos Pro Tablets ). This was a factor in my choice not to stick with a smaller WACOM display tablet. I figure, what I don't know I won't miss. Even if a WACOM 13HD is better for drawing - I'm not going to know. That said, I can still compare the Parblo Coast22 to my WACOM Intuos. If you want...