I'm looking for some kid friendly, easy to use animation software to get my kid and his friends into simple animation. any suggestions. Pivot Animator is cool, but anyone got other ideas. It can't have to steep of a learning curve, gotta keep the kids from getting frustrated with it before they actually make something. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
PowerPoint is not too hard, but one of these is probably better.
http://www.alphr.com/features/375205/buyers-guide-to-animation-software
There's a MIT program called "Scratch". You could look into that.
'ill definitely check 'em out.
Similar thread on the christian filmakers site.
Basically most recomend Blender but on post outlined several options:
For 3D animation
I am learning Maya.
If you want to work professionally I would advise you to learn either Maya, 3ds max, Softimage or Houdini. If low on cash maybe go for Ligthwave.
Software Pro´s and Cons
Maya
Pro: Industry standard, Hollywood KNOWS this software. Flexibel interface.
Tons of schools, tutorials and videos on a professional level.
Con: price, learning curve.
(If you are a student you can get the student edition for a fair price tho´)).
Schools:
Gnomonschool.com, Animationmentor.com, DigitalTutors.com, FullSail.com and many others.
If you know for sure that: I want to animate. period. then animationmentor should be a great school.
Blender:
Pro: Free, (maybe not so steep learning curve)
Con: as far as I know, no known studio is using this for production, then you still will end up having to learn Maya.
For 2D animation the only thing I´ve heard of is ToonBoom (else you could learn Flash but I don´t consider Flash as animation program, even tho´it is.)
Happy learning.
Frank Jakob
Have no clue about the subject I just hope this helps
edit: Renderman from Pixar is free for non-commercial use