Expert: Andre Hickman - 4/17/2007

Question
Hi Andre,

I'm novice animator ... i just wanna know if there's any free 3D animation tool available for download to design and animate humans ..

Regards,
Vidi

Answer
There might be a few free applications out there, but creating and animating a human in any software is not very easy to do.  It is not like taking a G.I. Joe or Barbie Doll out of a box and starting to move them.  Creating an animateable character is more like taking a bunch of pieces of wire, and by hand, creating a stick figure, a skeleton of sorts, with working joints...then taking a big lump of clay and covering the skeleton, an then molding and cutting and detailing the clay, until you have modelled the character. Obviously in the hands of a great artist, that clay can take an unparalelled realistic form.  In the hands of a novice artist, it may just look like some clay squashed together...

If you are anxious to start understanding character animation, then I would suggest that you start researching a software package called "Poser" It is a great start for anyone trying to understand this new form of art.  It's not free, but then again, most things in life that are valuable require some form of sacrifice, or a price.  

Sorry, but is probably not the answer that you were looking for.  But if you really want to learn it you can make that investment in learning through more ways than just financial. By doing research on the internet, digging deep to locate resources that will help you learn, including tutorials, free 3D models, and even trial versions of software packages, you will never lose the knowledge that you gain on your journey!

Cheers,
Andre