I'm looking into starting a Summer Camp for kids to learn animation and am wondering if A:M would be a good choice. Are people still using/learning/having fun with A:M?

Also, how does the pricing work now? $300 is a lot for a school to pay for animation package. Can we pay $80 per year for the subscription or do you have to pay $300, then pay $80. Schools get a significant discount on those super expensive packages (much less than $300) but I want my students to be able to purchase the software after having been trained.

Your thoughts and comments would be greatly appreciated.

-Tom Wright
www.CGLConline.com

Yes. Keep it simple of course.


We're still doing crazy cool stuff. Many forum members contributed to the recently finished "TinWoodman of Oz" movie. (TWO)

Tom,

Can't really speak about the pricing questions, those you will probably have to direct to Hash, Inc.

Otherwise, Animation Master is my favorite environment to create animation, especially when it comes to character work and story telling. In my opinion, it has the best approach (patches) to creating organic characters and the simplest way to rig up your characters bar none. It is also made in America by a swell and creative bunch of guys, not a Canadian conglomerate that more and more seems to be becoming a monopoly of bloated, arcane and redundant software. No offense to you Canadians out there, Canada is a great country. I just happen to live in the USA.

I've tried the others and made a conscious decision to stick with Animation Master. It just works! and the results are world class. I've used it professionally many times. I have often asked myself why it is not an industry standard considering how vastly superior Martin Hash's Patch-based modeling approach is. The answer is probably a complex one. Some of it probably has to do with how affordable the software is compared to how expensive the other stuff has traditionally been. Alias used to be something like $20,000 per seat and it was inferior No doubt there were those who could not justify charging mega-bucks for their work using such inexpensive software.

Hash made their software so that even an artist could afford it. It's power to the people, man. They can keep their expensive bloated systems. I'll take A:M any day and make cool stuff from the get go and have a lot of fun doing it. It's still the best kept secret in the industry in my opinion.

If you want your kids to have fun designing characters, creating animation and telling stories, get Animation Master. If you want to bury them in arcane details and confusing convoluted software, not to speak of messy polygons, then consider something else. But besides the elegant simplicity and understandability of Hash's Approach, Animation Master also has all the depth of high end packages such as ambient occlusion, particle systems, dynamics, expressions and much, much more.

If I wanted to teach kids about animation and infect them with a passion for this great art form, I would get Animation Master.

Joe Herman
New York City

User since 1997 and plan to stay that way.

Thanks for the responses guys!

I totally forgot you guys were doing that feature. That makes since. It really worried me when I looked and saw that there has not been an Image Contest since Nov of 07. Those things were part of the fun surrounding the Hash community. The other thing that worried me is that when I call Hash, nobody answers the phone. I've also e-mailed 3 times with no response. What's going on out there?

You don't have to sell me on A:M. I used to love using it and was active with it up until a few years ago (when I was hired by Disney Feature Animation). It's one of those interfaces that makes me smile because I remember how excited I was over being able to finally figure out a 3d package. Marshall Hash came to a 3dsm meeting and did a presentation (that was over 10 years ago). I bought it right there on the spot. Since then, I've worked at some of the top animation houses in the world and I couldn't have done it without meeting Marshall and being introduced to Animation Master.

With that said, $80 is very doable for a kid (and for me as a school). I might start as soon as Spring Break with a little workshop. I have ver. 13 lying around here somewhere. Let's see if I still know how to get around in it.

Tom! Its great to see you again here in the A:M Community. You've been missed!
Sounds like you've been keeping busy. Disney feature animation... you realize you're going to have to say a few more words on that right?

With your experience I know you'll want to put your own approach to it but definitely take advantage of the manual; TaoA:M.
Its got some optimized introductions to A:M, video lessons and project files. Adding a few classic exercises such as bouncing ball or basic path animation exercises will have your kids animating immediately and enjoying every minute of it. If you chose to develop your own curriculum instead of structure the workshop around TaoA:M all of those resources can still be passed on as an added benefit. Perhaps... better review this at home... cause there's gonna be a quiz!

I'm excited for you... but more excited for the kids!

Essential Resources:
- TaoA:M Manual and Technical Reference (PDF Format)
- Downloadable video tutorials (SWF with Techsmith codec)


Edit: The image contest went on hiatus last month due to lack of interest.
If interest returns it'll be back bigger and better in a minute.

The image contest listing/images moved over to A:M Stills back in 2007. Seeing the list end at that month does give the impression the contest ended back then. It didn't. Visit A:M Stills!

For some pretty cool images from recent contest check out the October 2008 image contest entries.

Speaking from a students standpoint (Im a sophmore in highschool) A:M is the easiest and most affordable package for all around animation. I have created and animated things that would have taken many more weeks if done in another VERY expensive program. I would recommend A:M for a animation course or a general 3d course.

Photoman

If I purchase a subscription for each student... how does that work? Can they use the key given to me to register their computer at home?

Buy a "Lab Pack" - it's $80/seat for at least 10 (this is for your school), then the students each get a free 1-year Web Subscription too.

Great! That's exactly the info I needed. Thanks Martin.

... Martin, do you have a link to that deal?

thanks so much!

That's not a "deal" - that's our School Offering. It requires a computer "Lab" that runs off of a central server that can have a dongle on it, (the Lab doesn't have individual copies). Have your school district send a PO to support@hash.com, or you can buy with CC. We send a dongle & a box of manuals. You can have the students request their Web versions as soon as you're up and running. Additional seats are $80/each but you don't get anything more, (the dongle just gets reprogrammed for more seats). However, many students may go through the classes and they can all have a free Web subscription.