Customer Reviews

Hash Inc Animation:Master 2006 ( Windows / Mac )

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

First, go to www.hash.com and view the online demo. This will tell you more about what the software is capable of than any review will. Additionally, you may find that you can get the software cheaper when bought directly from Hash.

The software is, simply, figgin' amazing -- it does everything they say it does and more! The graphics are INCREDIBLE.

HOWEVER.

The catch is that while the software can do it, UNLESS YOU HAVE SIGNIFICANT KNOWLEDGE IN ANIMATION you'll become frustrated. If you do have even the slightest bit of expereince, you'll LOVE this package.

THERE'S GOOD NEWS, though. The software comes with an amazing manual that provides beautiful walk-throughs of the software's main features, which teaches the basics of animation and gets something up pretty quick!

THERE'S SIGNIFICANT BAD NEWS, though. The manual is nothing more than a light collection of tutorials. Don't expect to find everything laid out and clearly explained. The online help is barely adaquate as a user's guide but is just fine for a reference guide. In short, if you know what want to do, know what you are supposed to do, know what it's called in terms that Hash uses, and you understand the implication of what will happen when you do it, then the online help will tell you the 'how to do it.'

THERE'S EVEN MORE BAD NEWS. I've been looking, and looking, and looking for printed books on this software. I can't find any that pertain to recent versions. At this moment, I see there's a Animation:Master 2000 book that's out of print, but the software is at 2005. Some graphic artist could clean house by documenting this tool.

TECH SUPPORT. Tech support is *GREAT* for installation and basic questions. Tech support is about the industry average for any real questions or advice -- meaning, they don't get back to you for a very, very long time, if at all.

RAZOR AND BLADES. As for the software, value over cost reaches near infinity -- the bang for the buck is impressive. However, without training materials, you're going to go back to their site and buy the many, many volumes of training materials on VHS and DVD. DON'T BE FOOLED BY THE SALES DEMO -- which until itself is awesome. The capabilities demo you see on the website is smooth, well rehearsed, and impressively edited for sound and presence. The web demos have poor audio and the VHS demos look like someone just had a camera at a expo booth. Quite often the demoer will work himself into the very problem you have, say "oops", stumble a bit, say "I know why", and press some shortcut key that solves the problem and move out without explaining what went wrong, how he knew, or how to fix it. The 'tutorials' are just topical demos. Beware.

ON THE UPSIDE, this product accelerated my 3D knowledge and helped me figure out how to use features in POSER that I didn't understand. Between Poser and Animation Master, I'd pick Animation Master for ease of use and power. However, I haven't seen a lot of downloadable models.

ONE MORE THING TO BE CAUTIOUS ABOUT. Be careful when they sell you an upgrade, which comes at a very fair and impressive price. There's a weird scheme where they treat the software more like a subscription. The CD you buy today will also let you download an upgrade patch in the future. But at that point the free ride ends. If you buy the upgrade, they send you a CD with the software YOU ALREADY HAVE, and that is used as the "key" to allow you to download the next upgrade when it comes out. For your troubles, you get 'extras' on the disc that don't come with the downloaded patch.

BOTTOM LINE: GREAT SOFTWARE. WEAK ON DOCUMENTATION. ABOVE AVERAGE TECHINCAL SUPPORT. PAINFUL TUTORIALS. LACK OF 3RD PARTY BOOKS.

I really love Animation Master. You can do some pretty incredible things with it, if you have the time and patience. The software is very stable (few crashes), and its relatively easy to learn. If your into animation and or/filmaking, I would highly recommend it. However, there are some things to consider.

There is a very steep learning curve, especially if you're new to 3D animation. Don't expect to make "The Empire Strikes Back" overnight. Learning how to animate figures and objects is difficult enough. Learning how to effectively create your own models takes several months, maybe even years. The software itself is much more advanced than what ILM was using just a few years ago. The problem is PEOPLE POWER. It takes literally a staff of experienced people to add the level of detail that you see in big budget hollywood movies. One person working on a computer can make some really impressive stuff (AFTER A LOT OF WORK), but be prepared to keep things in perspective. Start small (like modelling inorganic objects such as airplanes or spaceships), and keep your animations under 5 minutes, before attempting your magnum opus. You'll spare yourself a lot of frustration.

My biggest complaint with AM is that its incompatible with all the other consumer 3D amimation platforms out there. Programs like Poser, Vue D'Espirit, Bryce, and Carrara are compatible with each other, for the most part. Animation Master promotes its product as "all you'll ever need", so they consiously avoid making there sofware compatible with other platforms. So, if you're serious about eventually taking your 3d to a proffesssional level, you MIGHT want to consider investing in another application such as Poser, etc. That way, you'll not have to reinvent the wheel every time you tackle another program.

Hash is a small business located in an empty church in Vancouver, Washington. They travel around the country doing the same demonstration over and over, trying to convince everyone that their software is better than anything else on the planet. Its like watching a late night infomercial. If you try to ask specific questions, the guy won't answer them and ask you to talk to him later.

The software, while having some redeeming qualites, is pretty primitive. The big selling point is that it uses splines and "Hash Patches". They don't tell you how quirky the sofware is, or how unstable and prone to crashing and lock ups it is.

The software comes on a CD that must be kept in your CD tray for the application to function. The documentation that comes with the software is a joke. A bunch of little tutorials that really do nothing to explain how to really work with the program. But "Mr. Demonsrator" addresses this in his presentation. "When I want to learn about software I don't read a book, I go to the website and ask questions in the forum". He says the same thing every time.

But the forum is all volunteers, other users. The worst of it is that if you say anything bad about the software, Martin Hash himself (as if he doesn't have anything better to do) will censor or edit your post. So of course, all you'll see on Hash's site is people raving about how great the software is. Try it, you don't have to own the software to join the site. Join up and post how you like Maya's interface better or something like that, and bingo!, you're censored.

Animation Master works in a single window, you can't have mutltiple views of what you're working on. This alone really puts it in lower league than a lot of other applications. Compared to Maya, 3Ds or Cararra, the render times in Animation Master are huge. It can take hours, even DAYS to render just a single frame. What I notice most of all is that there are a lot of "users" in the forum posting pretty pics, but not a lot of animations, and not a lot of high quality animations. There are some, but the fact that they are so far and few between leads me to believe that there is something inherent in the software that makes rendering tedious. This seems confirmed by Hash's sensitivity to any comments about render times for Animation Master.

A few years ago, the idea of a complete 3D software package for a few hundred dollars seemed unbelievable. But things have changed, and there are a lot more options out there, Cararra 3D basics for example. Take a look around, but if you buy Animation Master, just remember, you're not going to get any customer service (I've never had an e-mail answered from their "technical support"), and when you go on-line, its not a forum where opinions are expressed and debated, its a fan club.

The Disc that comes in the box will include the installers for the Mac version of the software in addition to the Windows version. Just so you mac users know we haven't been left out in the cold :)

I'm a bit biased so don't know that I can offer an honest review of A:M... I did write the book on how to use it so I would obviously have some ulterior motives. But if you want to pursue character animation either as a hobby or a future career, there is no other package out there at even close to the price of A:M that delivers more character bang for the buck. Is it perfect? well no... but then neither is any other piece of software A:M has it's little idiosyncrasies, and 3D is still a complex and deep subject for any one to tackle (a good book perhaps? ;) ) But the workflow and the animation tools alone make A:M worth the price. A:M also has a dedicated and friendly community of users that has been helping newbies come up to speed for over a decade, one of those not in the box features that really adds value to the product.

Cons? A:M does not an industry standard approach to modeling. (which some of us who don't like modeling in the first place actually would consider a pro.) So if you want to learn to model for a career you might consider another program.

-David Rogers

As a stop-motion animator by trade I thought it was about time I investigated 3D computer animation. After several unsuccessful attempts at creating with other (probably more well known) 3D apps someone at work suggested I try A:M. I have to say this has got to be the most intuitive and easy to use 3D software available. There is a full online manual on the CD and a more newbie friendly printed `quickstart` book that will guide you through the basics in no time. The modelling is different to most other apps in that you create your characters by drawing with splines. I guess it depends what you`re used to but I, and all of my animation friends that now have this software, actually much prefer this way of working. Also, there are no extra plugins to buy for Hair and Fur - it`s all included and works beautifully. I love it!

Hash's Animation:Master 2004 is an amazing software. The workflow is very well designed. It's a great tool for the artist and not the technical computer person. It's fast, easy to use and cheap. All that you hope in an animation program.

If you ever had dreams of becoming an animator, and doing stuff like Shrek or Finding Nemo. Then buy Animation Master! It has MORE features than some of the other 3d packages, at a cheap cheap price. I've been using since ver3. The software had some ups and downs. I can really say this is the BEST version of Animation Master yet. I am so happy I stuck with Animation Master, because I guarantee that many larger productions will start using it because of it's price point and amazing features.
You can't go wrong with the price. Regardless of price Animation Master has the BEST character animation tools, hands down.

For character animation, Hash's Animation Master is a top-quality program at an affordable price. The workflow is intuitive and the software has features usually only found in high-end 3D packages...hair, particles, etc.

Whether your animation project is a cartoon or a 3D animation, Animation Master shouldbe your software of choice.

Super,amazing thoes are just two of my thoughts when I think of A:M.I have had it for a month, and I'm amazed at what it can do.I've made a few things with it and it just blows me away at how high tech it is.So if any body is interested in telling there stories using moving pictures this is the best software for it.Oh, I almost forgot A:M best runes on windows xp,with a Pentiuem 4, and you should have at least have 5GB. min.(or a fast running mac)

You may skim over my review, discard it as just a bitter person ranting about software that annoys him...

But if you read some other reviews, you will see a common issue, for me THE issue.

Don't get me wrong, I used to love Animation Master! I used to love the patch modeling, for me, the most effective way to model! It is second only (IMHO) to Maya, that's right, Maya!

However, and here is where I get angry... Hash wants to be you're "One-and-only", which these days is like asking someone to have only one pair of socks or underwear! PUH-LEAZE!!!

I don't know any serious 3D artist that only uses one package, except for a handful of Maya snobs, and even they are rare! Everyone I know that is creating 3D models, graphics and animation, are using 3-5 programs on a regular basis!!

Animation Master WILL NOT EXPORT!!!!! That's right!!! They used to support DXF, and as pathetic as that was, I pine for the days I could export to DXF!! Last I spoke with their indifferent support staff, they all but told be to go poke myself.

I have since moved on, which is sad really, I am a loyal consumer, to good products with good support. But when they turn their back on loyal users? Well they can kiss my money good bye!

I predict they will be defunct by 2010.