Free Software: Competent and Cool

My experience working with proffessional 2D and 3D animation software, like After Effects and Maya, has been enjoyable and cool. The things you can do as far as effects and animation with these programs are incredible, and it’s thanks to them that we see so many awesome things in movies these days. But even so, being able to use them can come at a cost. Proffessional “industry standard” software typically costs hundreds or even thousands of dollars to purchase, which can be a big disapointment and prevent some people from using them more extensively, or even at all (I know it did for me).

Enter free software. Programs like Gimp (which is basically the free version of Photoshop) and Blender 3D (a free 3D animation and vfx software) are both surprisingly compentent and very cool. They are Open Source: anyone can examine and improve them, and the results you can get from them are a little shocking. Take this video for instance, which was created and rendered entirely with Blender 3D: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXxT3vIuud8

I think that with the advancements being made with programs like these, and a skilled knowledge of how to use them effectively, small, low-budget productions and pretty much anything involving animation or vfx or image-manipulation will look better and better in the coming years, and it will make it less difficult for media production companies to get the results they need for their vidoes and images.