Learn to Animate with the free Animation Insiders ebook!

Animation is not an easy art to master, and getting resources to study it can be very expensive, and it can be hard to know what's good advice and what isn't.

If you're passionate about animation and have a piggybank to smash open, I recommend The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams, a genius and master of the art. It's industry standard for aspiring animators and is packed full of useful tips and diagrams (we all know how hard it is to read massive blocks of text).

BUT, if you want to learn a bit more economically, the crew at Squeeze Studio have released their own book, Animation Insiders - Workflow edition.



This book is packed with brilliant advice, tricks and tips, with a focus on workflow, the step by step of how the contributing animators work. Best of all, You can download it for free from Squeeze Studio!

Check it out :)

sIBL: Fast, Free and Fabulous-looking Image Based Lighting

Today it's my birthday, and what better way to celebrate it than to give you all a present!

I found this neat little program/script/plugin for 3D applications called sIBL.

Image based lighting is a great way to integrate your 3D models into a real-world photo and create a realistic lighting environment for your CG work. Unfortunately, while it’s not hard to set up (in Maya at least), neither is it easy to get it looking great while still rendering very quickly.

sIBL is an external tool, independent of any 3D software which creates fast and splendid looking scripts for various 3D packages to encorporate image based lighting. Best of all, it’s absolutely free.

The team at HDR Labs also have a big library of free HDRIs tailored for use with sIBL that are easy to use and look fantastic.

I had a brief play with it for our paper puppet film, Keeping Station, and it worked perfectly. So at the risk of sounding like their marketing department is paying me, check it out!

Messiah Studio $10 challenge

http://projectmessiah.com/x6/shop.html

I stumbled on this the other day. pmG's messiahStudio is an Animation and rendering package that's really made for tough animation. It's been used in films, ads, games etc for awhile now, and costs around $500-$1200 USD. They're currently trying to get a lot of people to buy it, and so are offering it for $10 (standard) or $40 (pro).

Here's the challenge to the 3D industry:

We're doing an unprecedented viral test marketing campaign where your success in sharing this offer will allow you and others to get our amazing award winning animation and rendering software ( messiahStudio5 ) for the unheard of price of just $10 (regularly $499) or choose the Pro version for just $40 (regularly $1195). When this experiment ends, the prices will return to normal.



This is the same software that studios and individuals, in more than 60 countries of the world, have been using to create visual effects for some of your favorite movies, commercials, games and music videos; and now you can get it at a no excuses price, if you "Dare To Share™". People using our software have been nominated for Academy Awards, and changed their lives creating things they'd never thought possible on their own. CG Animated Features, Visual Effects, Consumer Product and Architectural Visualization, Simulation, Plugin Development, Smart Phone App Animation and Game Development Export; What will you do?



Everyone needs a chance to show what they can do. That chance is more often limited by money; maybe that's you, maybe that's someone you know; a parent, a friend, some students of yours. We got a chance to prove what we could do starting out, and now we're giving one to you. It's the best deal we've ever offered, and a chance you'll probably never have again. Order now to reserve your copy; we will accept no crying if you miss out : )



Rules: Everyone can only receive their license when the goal is met. That's your incentive to spread the word and share the offer.

This offer is open to: Individuals, small businesses, hobbyists, starving artists, the unemployed, schools, students, CG studios, game developers, plugin developers, architects, tinkerers, compositors and aspiring movie makers, in any country. Limit 4 copies per customer, mix and match.



We will update the progress bar so you can see where you're at in reaching that goal. When the bar reaches the end, we will close out the offer and no further orders will be allowed; no exceptions. In the event the goal is not met, we will simply refund everyone. Whether you get the software for this amazing price is up to you, and how well you get the word out.



If you need to purchase licenses of the software to use right now for a project, you can purchase them normally HERE -> Buy Normal, and if the goal is met from this offer, you will be refunded the difference in price between the equivalent version you purchased, and the Dare To Share™ special.

http://projectmessiah.com/x6/shop.html