Q. Are there any animation programs made specifically for children that run on the average Windows PC and do not cost hundreds of dollars?

A. You do not need the kinds of machines that Pixar Animation Studios uses to get started with computer animation. A number of programs can create three-dimensional and stop-motion animation. Some are made just for kids. But first, you may want to ask your child what type of animation he or she wants to create.

The Flip Boom program from Toon Boom (www.toonboom.com/kids) teaches young users the basics of animation, including the principles of timing and motion. It works on both Windows and Mac OS X systems and costs less than $40. A free trial version is also available to download, and the company makes animation software that is more sophisticated for older users as well.

Anim8or, a free 3-D animation program for Windows, can be found at www.anim8or.com/main/index.html. CrazyTalk, a $50 Windows program from Reallusion (www.reallusion.com/crazytalk) can create 3-D talking animation from digital photos.

You can find links to other animation programs, reviews and video tutorials at www.your3dsource.com. Shareware sites like Download.com also have various animation software to try.

If you have a recent version of Adobe Premiere Elements, you have the ability to do stop-motion animation. The video-editing program sells for $99 at stores and at www.adobe.com, where a free trial is available. The stop-motion feature allows young auteurs to make animated movies by, say, methodically repositioning Wall-E action figures and snapping each frame of the movie individually with a Webcam.

Flip Boom is available at an academic discount price of $38.

CrazyTalk 5 is available at an academic discount price of $36.

Premiere Elements 4 is available at an academic discount price of $63.

Autodesk’s latest release of 3ds Max (version 11 if anyone is counting) is now dubbed Autodesk 3ds Max 2009. You can buy this release as either 3ds Max Design 2009 or 3ds Max 2009, the former being for design visualization, the later for Media & Entertainment. They are exactly the same software, one program, two boxes. What’s going on here? Autodesk has discontinued the stripped-down VIZ product, which was 3ds Max with lots of features turned off. Now design visualization specialists will have ALL the features found in Max. This is a really good thing for the artist using the software. I loved VIZ for what it was, but Max is great!

3ds Max Design 2009 Student Version (13-month term) is available at an academic discount price of $97.

well, it’s the topic of the month for many people, and (As Barry Norman used to say) why not. Portfolios can really change the way in which you present multiple pieces of related information. So yes, you can throw a lotta stuff together and make it look right pretty!

It’s really easy to make a PDF Portfolio and add files to it. You can create folders within your PDF Portfolio, delete component files and folders, edit component filenames, and add and edit descriptions of component files.

Acrobat 9 Professional is available at an academic discount price of $149.

What’s your favourite piece of technology?
Well, the first thought I had was maybe, like, the wheel? If you think about it, we use the wheel all the time, so I use that more than any other piece of technology. But probably functionally, I use the Wacom Cintiq tablet, which is an input device for Macintosh or PC, for Photoshop. [As an animator] I do a lot of drawings in the computer, and I can input them directly.

How has it improved your life?
Well, it gets the drawings into the computer faster, and that is huge. As far as how the wheel has improved my life, it gets me to a lot of places a lot faster than the alternative.

The Wacom Cintiq 12WX, Cintiq 20WSX, and Cintiq 21UX are available from Creation Engine.

QuarkXPress 8.0 is available at a non-profit discount price of $299.

Mindjet Connect is a software as a service (SaaS) platform that ties together all the ideas, mind maps, and documents associated with a given business process in a common online, hosted workspace. The secure workspace comes with complete access and versioning control so that teams can work collaboratively wherever they are. Members of a workspace can literally create, edit, and share mind maps simultaneously in real-time. A quick visual representation of the workspace looks like this:

Some of the key attributes of Mindjet Connect are:

• Unstructured yet organized (non-linear breeds creativity)
• Graphical and Visual
• Shared and secure workspace
• Live co-editing
• Real-time web conferencing
• Social Networking like team environment
• Web or desktop based
• Easy to navigate and interact with information

We hear the words real-time bantered about quite a bit. With Mindjet Connect, however, real-time editing really is instantaneous. As I participated in a live demo with Mindjet CEO Scott Raskin and several members of his team, I was able to watch various members update different parts of the same map at the same time and visually see the changes automatically.

Raskin said, “You can view who changed what and when at any level of a given map and literally find who is working on what part of the map in real-time.” Indeed that is the case as with a right-click of the mouse we could see who was currently online and editing the very map we were and what map element they were currently working on.

Mindjet Connect Standard, Pro and Plus are available from Creation Engine.

I start putting 3.0 through it’s paces and at the risk of sounding hyperbolic, it is ROCKING. No latency, no glitchiness, (my word, Colbert) picture quality is noticeably and substantially better and the playhead is slicing through multi-layer, real-time effects and title comps like “butta”. I’ve got reels with 20 audio tracks, 3-5 video tracks, I’m deleting, re-patching, copying and pasting, I make tons of cuts and changes and Media Composer doesn’t flinch once. I start getting a warm and fuzzy feeling and think, this is a beautiful thing. These guys have really done their homework.

Yes, Media Composer 3.0 is solid. Yes, it’s fast. Yes it works on Leopard which really gooses the (Mac) editor satisfaction meter (Mac heads rejoice!) but one feature I immediately found worth the price of the upgrade is the new real-time “Timecode Generator” effect. This feature gives you the ability to generate window burn with a variety of options. No more Horita boxes, no more rendering, this seemingly minor addition works perfectly, and will save editors and assistants countless hours and headaches when having to make outputs for collaborators on the post production team. 3.0 includes many other new enhancements and features but that’s beyond the scope of this “First Look”, and I will cover them in depth in future video segments.

It has taken the company some time but with it’s executive makeover, lower price structure and now the release of Media Composer 3.0, Avid seems to be regaining its footing. Filmmakers of every level will enjoy working with the application’s time and battle tested editing interface. The fact that it runs flawlessly on Apple’s latest operating system and hardware is the ice cream on top of the pie. From my first week of working with it, Media Composer 3.0 is a winner.

Avid Media Composer 3.0 is available at an academic discount price of $295.

Over-the-air synchronization features include:
Push email - Receive new emails instantly.
Push Calendar - Sync your calendar events with Apple iCal, Entourage, Outlook and Kerio WebMail.
Push Contacts - Sync your contacts with Apple Address Book, Entourage, Outlook and Kerio WebMail.
Remote Wipe – Protect your data, if your iPhone is lost or stolen.
GAL lookup - Search through the Global Address List.

Kerio MailServer is available at an academic discount price of from Creation Engine.

Patricia Muñoz’s “Morfologia” students at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Arquitectura, Diseño y Urbanismo are showing their projects on YouTube.

Rhino 4.0 is available at an academic discount price of $159.