Animation

A type of computer graphic software that enables the user to create a graphic or series of graphics that appear to move or simulate what the object would do in real life. Simple animation may be a basic animated gif file that is a graphic of a mail envelope going into a mailbox on a website. A more complex animation could be of a human or alien face in a computer software game. Finally, a very complex computer animation could be a space battle in a movie.

Below is a listing of some of the more popular and widely used animation / 3D animation programs.

• 3D Studio Max - http://www.autodesk.com/ 

• 3DPlus (Free) - http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/ 

• Aviation:Master - http://www.hash.com/ 

• LightWave 3D - http://www.newtek.com/ 

• Elastic Reality  / Avid 3D - http://www.avid.com 

• Maya - http://www.alias.com/ 

• Macromedia Flash - http://www.macromedia.com/flash 

• Motion Capture - http://www.metamotion.com/ 

• SOFTIMAGE - http://www.softimage.com/ 

Also see: Graphic, Machinima, Real-time animation