In Need of Animation Software

Technical 3D Animation and Competition
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Hey, it’s our first time doing animation. We’re using stop motion this year and we’re wondering… what software should we use? We need something that is fairly simple for beginners but also has features we can use. If anyone has suggestion, they will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Kearnage, Team 2345

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Blender

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We haven’t used it for FRC, but my kids used Stop Motion Studio (iOS link), which does the usual stop motion onion-skinning thing. They made a lot of Lego stop motion videos and seemed to really enjoy it and they could do it totally self-sufficiently in late elementary and through middle school.

If you wanted to do one of the “robot assembles itself via stop motion” videos, that would be the type of tool to use. If you want to do a more full-feature, rendered video (not stop-motion), Blender is a good choice.

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I’ve used Stop Motion Studio before and can confirm it’s really easy to work with but produces pretty good results (grain of salt please as I haven’t used any other stop Motion software.)

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To be clear, are you wanting to do the stop motion by hand (making the sets/taking photos), or have it done fully digitally? If its the former you could do it in IMovie/Premiere elements/DaVinci Resolve and be done pretty quick. Non-linear video editing can be pretty daunting at first but for what you’re doing theres very little you actually need to learn.

Assuming you’re wanting to do everything within whatever software you’re looking at though, I think you’ll be hard pressed to find something for both of these, at least for 3d animation. I like Blender, and while its definitely gotten more user friendly over the years i wouldnt call it simple for beginners (even with everything you learn from the Donut tutorials). This rings true for all the major 3d modeling/animation software (3ds Max, Maya, Cinema 4D).

The stop motion studio looks cool, never used it myself though.

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If you’re referring to actual physical stop motion, then the suggestion of Stop Motion Studio is pretty good. It’s really simple and easy to use. If you want to do 3D rendered scenes, Blender is the best choice by far. You’ll be spending lots of money for pretty much any other option, and it won’t be much better.