Sort of 3D graphicy stuff?

[Feek]

I have a requirement.

I need to make an animated gif of an item with some text next to it. I'm guessing that I need some sort of 3d design software to do this, but I have absolutely no idea where to start or what to do.

Anyone got any suggestions?

[mejinks]

Jasc paintshop pro used to come bundled with animation shop. If you only need it for a short while, thats where I would start.

[Mark]

Did up to version 9 anyway, which is the version I have (legally I might add). Version 10 was assimilated by Corel, so can't vouch for what's in there.

Doesn't count as 3D though (unless you want to do it a frame at a time), which is why I didn't mention it. It's a definite candidate for 2D work.

[Feek]

I'd already discounted that because (as Mark says), it's frame by frame - I can't just give it an image and say "animate that" because it'll just sit there and stare at me.

[Mark]

To be truthful though, unless you have Hollywood connections and can step into a movie, no piece of software is likely to respond well to 'animate that'. In fact, it'll probably unleash a curse on your computer or something like that.

2D is at least comparitively easy - you can use the likes of SWISH (http://www.swishzone.com/index.php) to do simple Flash animations without too much bother.

However, if you want to get into proper 3D modelling, there's various raytracing packages like Blender around, but you'd better have a week or two to spare.

[Richard Slater]

As Mark mentioned Blender (http://www.blender.org/) is a good product, I spent a good two slack weeks learning this at work on the premise that it could be used for Media projects at the school at some point in the future, it will take you a full day to get to grips with the interface, it is complex, powerful and confusing when you start.

The other product you may want to have a look at is POV-Ray (http://www.povray.org/) which is a free ray tracing product, again I have used this in the past to animate 3D scenes created with Terragen (http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/), it is still a lot of work but depending on the complexity of the project and the type of mind you have (POV-Ray is more scriptable, Blender is visual) you may find POV-Ray easier.

Blender Samples (http://www.blender.org/features-gallery/gallery/images/)
POV-Ray Samples (http://hof.povray.org/)
Terragen Samples (http://www.planetside.co.uk/gallery/f/tg09)

What did you have in mind?

[Feek]

http://www.ukrm.org/feek/eyeball.jpg

Something like that, spinning around in all directions with some text next to it, but a lot smaller - Forum signature size.

[Feek]

http://www.ukrm.org/feek/eye.gif

Still needs tidying up, it's not quite what I want and I don't know how I'm going to get text by it. Should have thought of that before I started animating it.

But hey ho, I'm learning.