Animation is the illusion of movement created by showing several still pictures in rapid succession. In the world of computers, graphics software used to create this effect. A simple animation may be as basic as an animated GIF file like the image shown on this page. A more complex animation could be of a human or alien face in a computer software game or animation of a space battle in a movie.
Animation software
Below is a listing of some popular and widely used animation and 3D animation programs.
A user who does animation for a living may be called an animator or 3D animator.
- Blender (Free) - https://www.blender.org/
- 3ds Max - https://www.autodesk.com/products/3ds-max/
- 3DPlus (Free) - https://ccm.net/downloads/image/5895-3dplus-2/
- Animation:Master - http://www.hash.com/
- LightWave 3D - https://www.newtek.com/
- Maestro Designer - https://www.avid.com/
- Maya - https://www.autodesk.com/products/maya/
- Adobe Animate - https://www.adobe.com/products/animate.html
- Motion Capture - https://metamotion.com/
- Poser - https://www.posersoftware.com/
- SOFTIMAGE - https://www.autodesk.com/products/softimage/
3ds Max, Animated GIF, Cel, Graphic, Inverse kinematics, Machinima, Maya, Mixamo, OBJ, Real-time animation, Rigging, Rotoscoping, Transition, Video terms
Related information
- How to make an animated GIF image.
- Image help and support.