Which app should I use for rigging/anim?

[salmonmoose]

Blender can do what you want, head on over to their page and check out all the features.

Otherwise, it might be trying gMax (the cutdown free version of 3dsmax)

[makeshiftwings]

I have been looking at blender's animation capabilities, and they do seem pretty impressive compared to the rest. I just have to somehow get used to the interface. I can't use Gmax because I want something that's actually legal to use commercially or to distribute with free products, and gMax's license forbids using it for anything other than free mods for their list of allowed games.

[tOd]

Messiah Studio. Not as cheap as Blender but far better. You get what you pay for alot of times. Wings is an exception though :thumbsup:

[shapeshifter]

Try Animation Master! It is a great app that really isn't too expensive. Also the development cycles are pretty short.

It still is a bit unstable but all in all it is the best animation package you could possibly get for your money imo.

[mankor]

dont foret other stuf like poser and motion builder..but if you really want to spend the money go with messiah or even maya..however animation master might have trouble importing your meshes and textures...but i would go with blender..just learn it..its not easy but its free and powerfull..and when i say learn it i mean learn to set up good constraint rigs..other wise you might as well use milkshape..or character fx.. good bone constriants are the difference between good animation programs and regular ones..for example. animating a guy sitting down..in milshape that would take along time,,but if you use good constaints in blender all youd have to move is one bone and the model will bend the legs and keep the feet planted on the ground

[makeshiftwings]

Thanks everyone for the replies. Some of those apps are a little out of my price range. Mankor, I think you might be right about learning Blender. I've looked over at all the cheap alternatives I could find and Blender definitely seems to have the most advanced animation setup. The only thing I'm concerned about is whether I'll be able to export the skeletal animations successfully into different game formats.... being able to export from Blender to Milkshape would be ideal since Milkshape handles exports into game formats really well. I've started digging through the different Python scripts that are available for Blender, but I have a feeling I won't really be able to tell if it will do everything I want until I actually do it...

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