Software for animating videos

[kardon]

I am interested in animating a video using sprites/3D models and 3D backgrounds. Think Final Fantasy Tactics or Disgaea. What software could I use to accomplish this goal? I'll also need software to create sprites/3D models and 3D backgrounds from scratch.

[Nethfel]

I can't answer about 2D sprites, but 3D meshes you can look at: blender.org - Get Blender - the price is right at least I've played with it before back on windows a couple of years ago. It works well, but it isn't necessarily the easiest app to use; but it's very capable.

[kardon]

I can't answer about 2D sprites, but 3D meshes you can look at: blender.org - Get Blender - the price is right at least I've played with it before back on windows a couple of years ago. It works well, but it isn't necessarily the easiest app to use; but it's very capable.

Thanks for the info. Free, open-sourced, too. Nice. I never expected animation to be easy anyway, so difficulty is not an issue.

[chas_m]

You should also have a look at Martin Hash's Animation Master ($300) and Maya Personal Learning Edition (outdated, but free)

[kardon]

Just trying out Blender right now, and it seems kind of laggy. I checked my activity monitor and see that it's not consuming much CPU power. Is this normal?