[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

[Memetic]

I'd suggest downloading the demo and having a quick look. I've never used Messiah before (worked with Maya and Max) but for $40 its a no brainer. And, besides supporting the under dog, if the viral campaign is successfull perhaps we will see similar efforts else where (nudge, nudge AutoDesk).

[artsypabster]

I havent messed with 3D animation yet (2D in training guy) but I've seen some pretty good stuff made with Blender, though last I heard Blender is not very user friendly, so I would say try out Messiah Studio, see how you feel about it.

[arttorney]

You can do both perhaps. I thought Blender's compositor might be advantageous and I searched the Messiah forums about compositing and I found an interesting discussion about how to play the two programs off against each other. maybe search "blender compositing" on the messiah forum and it will lead you straight to the thread I saw. The people there seemed to think Messiah had advantages about rendering while Blender had advantages about compositing. Are you going to do a lot of smoke effects and the like?

[simpo]

I have both.

Personally, I find blender easier to understand...

[Aims]

I havn't used Messiah studio... but I have used Blender... It is very easy to learn and it has many quick shortcuts which will make you work faster... it has sculpting tools too... but still I wont compare it with Messiah cuz as I said I havn't used it.
Note: In Blender, you might have to use external renderers for better quality.