Have you ever tried animation? Was it fun, or was it hard for you? Today I will be diving into multiple programs to see which one is the best. I am making this story to help out all of those who want to persuade their dreams of animation. 

The three programs I am going to be talking about are ones I have personally used before. These programs are SFM (Source Filmmaker), Blender, and C4D (Cinema 4D). They all have their own perks that they come with, such as Blender and C4D having a plugin feature (where you can add additional features unique to the software to give a better experience) where SFM does not, where as SFM has a shot (where you animate) which you can cut up to make more shots in the same session, and Blender and C4D do not have this feature. All 3 of these softwares are really old, with SFM being the youngest (though isn’t being updated anymore) and Blender and C4D being the oldest.

The first thing to create an animation would be writing the story of it. The story part acts just like a storyboard. Then it’s getting all of your assets for your animation and setting it up. Then would be the character creation part where you have the main character made and brought into 3D. Then next would be scene-building, where you take your assets and make a level-type area which would be the main focus of the story for the animation. Finally you take all of the hard work and create the animation, and after you’re finished, you can upload it to wherever you like, and you will progress!

Speaking about progression, one of the key ways of improvement is to get feedback from many different people. You’ll learn over time what to do and what not to do when you animate and get feedback. Once you’ve learned enough about the program you use, you’ll be able to give critique to people. Improvement isn’t easy, it’s just a task you have to take on so you can get to the goal. 

As of this point, everyone is improving at their own pace. No matter what program you use, you can still reach your dreams of animation. It’s important to remember that doing what you love isn’t a job, instead it’s a hobby, something that is fun to you. Animation isn’t the easiest nor is it the hardest, when you’re at the right level you’ll be really good at it. Family will most likely recognize that you are animating, and they will most likely support you when you do it. Animation will always be time consuming and tedious, but the result could look amazing. Here is a game that was made with SFM and you can see the gameplay of it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFqk8aj4-PA