What Animation Software Is This?

November 5, 2017 10:32 AM

Anybody have any idea what animation software is used to make this video?

I know these kinds of kid-exploiting videos are bad news, but it seems like I'd have a good time playing with whatever they're using to make them. Is there some kind of modern version of the Microsoft 3d Movie Maker that came with my parents' first Gateway PC in 1997?

posted by LiteOpera to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Probably Maya. 3D at this level is still a pretty big project, but very doable as a hobby. The professional tools can still be pretty expensive and just learning the basic modeling has a steep learning curve. Consider Blender, lot's of tutorials, a friendly community and it's free.
posted by sammyo at 10:53 AM on November 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I'm guessing a game engine was used to make these videos. For the driving-around kids videos featuring Spiderman, Elsa, etc., Grand Theft Auto mods are generally used.
posted by clawsoon at 11:28 AM on November 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

Looks like pretty low-tech rendering. I wonder if it's Moviestorm.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 12:17 PM on November 5, 2017

Response by poster: I'm guessing this particular movie isn't Moviestorm since I don't see any content packs on the site with Spiderman/Hulk/etc in them, but that does look cool. Very similar to the "Microsoft 3d Movie Maker" I remember from my childhood.
posted by LiteOpera at 12:50 PM on November 5, 2017

Best answer: It looks like it's rendered using a 3D video game engine. My guess would be Source Filmmaker, but it's hard to say for sure.
posted by Aleyn at 2:05 PM on November 5, 2017

Best answer: I was going to say Source Filmmaker, but I'm not seeing any of the telltale "Source engine" objects, and the physics seem very primitive (Source has realistic physics for things like the bowling segment, unless they're intentionally making the animation crappy).

The bit with the guns and the large number of stock objects definitely suggest that it's a game engine of some sort, but I can't really put my finger on which one.

If you want to do these things yourself, SFM (maybe along with a copy of Garry's Mod) would be a good start. You'd end up with higher quality results than this, too.
posted by neckro23 at 7:25 PM on November 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: MMD might be a possibility. I can't point to any particular tell-tale signs though.
posted by lucidium at 5:10 AM on November 6, 2017 [1 favorite]