[joshtbck]

I am a veteran traditional animator and am looking into CG character animation.

Messiah Studio http://www.projectmessiah.com is offering a great deal - http://www.projectmessiah.com/x6/index.html

The entry version for $10, and the whole tamale for $40. If enough people buy it at this price, everyone gets what they paid for. If they don't hit their quota, then everyone gets a refund."

Blender http://www.blender.org/ also seems like a great program. And it's free! It also seems to have a good tutorial and support system.

40 bucks is no skin off my back but time is money and I don't want to spin my wheels. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks a bunch,
---Josh
www.joshuataback.com

[Qitsune]

I haven't used Blender in something like 12 years, but the fact that it has been around for 12 years is in itself a testimony of it's success. It has a strong user base and a lot of support. It has a notoriously weird interface however and things you will learn in Blender might not translate very well in professional softwares (3dmax, XSI, Maya.)

[arttorney]

Messiah doesn't really have much going on in the way of modeling capabilities, apparently. Unless you will be animating ready made characters you will need a program (such as Blender) that can make your models for you. In addition to that, and the compositing I mentioned in your other thread, Blender also features a game engine in case you get really ambitious.

Most 3D people tend to use more than one program because different programs have different strengths. Messiah does look powerful for animation and rendering.

[simpo]

I use Blender and have recently acquired Messiah Studio.

The new version (2.5 +) of Blender are much more user friendly. .. just got to remember that object selection is a right-mouse click.
I know of many 3DS Max users who are also using Blender.

IMO, it is worth learning Blender.

As for Messiah Studio, I am currently learning it... looks good though.