Semi-automatic web application for comparing animation tools Miroslava Valíková Comenius University [email protected] Abstract program and he can start to work on his own piece of Comparing animation programs is a very difficult task. artwork (Fig. 1) [12]. User can choose from many modeling and animation programs. Some of them are open source, some are But which program is to most convenient one? There expensive commercial products. How should computer exist number of programs to create digital 2D or 3D animation newbie choose the one really suitable for him? animation. Some of them are simple with only a few This article describes a tool [10] for comparison of features and some are advanced with enormous sets of various software products based on their features. The functions to use. You can use freeware or commercial input for my program consists of ordered list of desired software. functions that the eventual software should have and the output is a list of programs organized by amount of I was unable to find any complex comparison of matching features. animation programs. Every article confronted two or three programs and they usually focus only on limited set of functions. For user it is very time consuming to read 1. Introduction about every program. Humans tried for ages to find the best techniques to Therefore I tried to collect informations about the most capture images and motion. In the beginning inventors popular 3D animation programs and compare them. The developed different optical toys, which captured short sources of informations that I have used are product sites, sequences of images and provided an illusion of tutorials and user guides. I have checked up most of them movement. The turning point came in the end of 19. by testing the program or at least by searching for another century [11]. Thomas A. Edison invented the kinetoscope. source. The kinetoscope could project short films with duration about 13 minutes. Many short films and animations were created. People tried to develop new animation 2. Comparison of 3D programs techniques. The most popular technique became celluloid animation, which became famous thanks to Walt Disney. For testing of my application I have decided to compare The digital animation, which is most popular in present seven modeling and animation programs. From freeware days, started to develop in 1964. software I have chosen Anim8or and Blender. From commercial software I have compared 3ds Max, Cinema 4D, Maya, Softimage|XSI and trueSpace. 2.1. Anim8or The last version is from the 21. September 2008, so this program is not in active develop right now. Anim8or is a simple freeware software, which does not offer many functions. It contains essential modeling, texturing and animation tools [20], [21]. Despite of the simplicity, Anim8or contains scripting tool. This program will be appreciated by users, who have not powerful high end computers and huge render farms at their hands, because of its low software requirements [1]. 2.2. Autodesk 3ds Max Fig. 1. Example of 3D model Very advanced tool for creating models and animations. Nowadays almost anybody can create digital animation. Nowadays 3ds Max is still used about 50 % of Most common computers have sufficient computer power professionals. It is used widely in game industry for for creating animations. User can choose the suitable creating low-poly models, architectural visualizations etc. [2]. 3ds Max contains powerful tool for creating particle 3. Web-application Animatch systems and hair, but it is missing implementation of fluid simulation [19]. Of course user can control most of the To compare these 3D setting by programming scripts in MAXScript language. animation programs I have created a web- 2.3. Autodesk Maya based application named Animatch. The core of This program is used by well known animation studios all the application is over the world. One of the latest movie made in Maya is programmed in scripting Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Thanks to intuitive interface language PHP (PHP: this program was awarded the Best Animation Program. Hypertext Preprocessor) Maya also contains systems for simulating cloth, soft and JavaScript. Design bodies, hair, particles and fluids [3]. User can create is created in markup scripts in intern scripting language called MEL or in Fig. 2. Logo of Animatch language HTML Python, which is one of the most popular scripting (HyperText Markup language [3]. Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Data are stored in MySQL (My Structured Query Language) 2.4. Autodesk Softimage|XSI database [10]. I have tried to create simple and clear web page. At the top of the page a picture with the logo of the Latest program in the Autodesk family. Softimage is project is placed (Fig. 2). Under the picture, there is a dedicated mostly to game, film and television industry. horizontal menu which contains four items: About, User can create incredibly realistic special effects. Product Search, 3D Software and Contact. Each item Program offers the most powerful tool for creating uv could have also sub-menu. User can choose to find the textures. User can't create scripts in Softimage, but every most suitable program through the application or go property is accessible in user interface [4]. straight to the list of the animation programs. 2.5. Blender One of the most complex freeware tool for creating 3D models and animations. It is possible to use Blender not only to create models for computer games, games can be created in Blender Game Engine entirely. Blender has also tools for composition different render images, enhancing color, contrast etc. User can combine videos and use different cross-fade effects. Blender contains tools for creating physical simulations of cloth, soft- bodies, fluid and also contains particle systems and hair [13]. User can access free material [14] and model library [15], look for help in discussions [16] and create advanced scripts in Python scripting language [17]. 2.6. Cinema 4D Cinema4D consists of several modules and it is up to user to decide, which to buy and install. This program can create smoke effects, realistic explosions and light effect. It's advantage is cooperation with variety of 2D, 3D and CAD programs [6]. 2.7. trueSpace The user can download the core system with tutorials for free after registration. This program can't render images. Fig. 3. The list of categories You can buy external renderer from trueSpace home page [7]. One of the advantages of this program is the In case of need, user can find short manual on the page. I possibility to adjust the appearance to best fit the user's have written short guide how to use the program. needs and habits. From special effects trueSpace contains Animatch consists of the list of 20 categories (Fig. 3). The tools for creating hair, fur and particles [8]. are in alphabetical order. The order of categories can be changed with arrows, that are placed on the right of each category. The order of categories designates the priority. User can select the required categories by the check boxes, which are situated on the left side of each entry. Categories Installation size and Price have also text field, in which user can type the maximum value. After selecting the required category and list of functions may appear if the category contains one (Fig. 4). Fig. 6. Search result evaluates ranking for each program. The order of categories is taken into account. The ranking is calculated by following formula = ∑ sa i ∈ i Pa where Pa is the set of all functions, that the program contains. After that, Animatch counts the maximal possible ranking =∑ s0 i i∈P Fig. 4. Example of functions 0 where P 0 is the set of required functions. Finally the ranking is calculated Before I created the list of categories, I had learned how = sa⋅ to create a 3D animation. I chose Blender, because it was ha 100 . the most powerful free 3D software. I have created short s0 video with duration about 1 minute [22]. After this In the final table user can see which functions the experience I could create the list of categories. I filled the program contains. This can help in the final decision- list with Blenders functionality. After filling in the making. User can also click on the program and read features of Blender I checked out other programs and I some informations about it. I have written down the prize, added new functions. Sometimes problem occurred when installation size, home page address and system the same function had different name. In these cases I requirements. tried to unite the name to the most exact one. If user does not understand, what the function means, he can call out a tool-tip help by holding mouse over the name of the function. (Fig. 5) User can not change the order of functions. Fig. 5. Short help Fig. 7. Database diagram There are two buttons under the list. The Reset button The database consists of three tables: software, features serves to reset the whole checked list to previous state. and relations (Fig. 7). The first one contains list of seven The Send button sends the requirements to the database. programs, the second one list of 20 categories and 114 After delivering the request Animatch evaluates which of functions and the last one relations between software and the programs in database is the most suitable for user. features. The whole database is fully modifiable. I have Then the result will appear as a list of programs ordered created simple interface in which I can add new by suitability (Fig. 6). The percentage score describing programs, categories and change relations between them.