Why I buy this one ?
- You can upgrade this software for free to the 2007 version. Simply visit the support/updates section of the manufacturer's website.
- Drag-and-drop animation tools and customizable interface give you total control over every part of your workflow
- Revolutionary new patch-based technology creates natural, fluid-moving characters, scenery, and props
- Advanced features like inverse kinematics, ray-tracing and image mapping make it easy to model great-looking mechanical and organic objects
- Complete spline toolbox, for bringing convincing characters through curves and smooth polygons

J&R Music and Computer World offers this stuff with condition New, new for:

Price : $199.99 Usually ships in 3-4 business days

What our customer's say!

"Does NOT play at all with others!!!", 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.


"Look elsewhere", I've been in the 3D industry for over 10 years, and I've worked with Lightwave, Maya, Softimage, Modo and several others. I'm also a graduate of Full Sail.

There are several reasons to avoid Animation Master. The most prominent is that it is non-standard. For example they use spline modeling, which no major package uses. The list goes on. On top of that most of the features are not even documented. The manual is a small book with a couple tutorials, and if you hope to find a book by a third party, good luck. Just search on Amazon. Most of the books (all of 2) are old and out of date. This further proves that no one uses this program. They don't even have a trial of the program to test out. Probably because they know no one would buy it. They hope that by just hearing the good reviews (see below) then they have a chance to maybe sucker some people into it.

Look for yourself, go to their site and look at their "films" page. Only a very small handful (maybe 3 or 4) are actually good. The rest are god awful. With limited documentation how can you expect to learn it to use it.

The other major problem is that without decent documentation you are left to go to their forum for help. The community is helpful, yes, BUT the moderators will delete any post that mentions another program, any negative comments about Animation Master and even posts about bugs.

When they ask for feedback they only want to see good comments, no negatives or "if only" and "buts". Go read it for yourself. Even the "Off Topic" thread says "Go Nuts (but no competing product discussions) ". They are deathly afraid of people hearing about the competing products and also why they don't offer a trial. This is a company that will delete your post if you complain at all about their product.

SO with the lack of documentation and the lack of being able to even complain about a problem how are you ever going to learn to use this program?

You won't. So please don't waste your money. $200 might sound like a bargain, but this is truly a situation of you get what you pay for.

BUT, I won't leave you hanging. If you need a budget 3D program there are several much better alternatives. Look up Blender for one. Yes, it's free, but it has a great community and has been proven to produce quality productions (look up elephants dream). There are even 2 "current" book available on Amazon and the community won't kill you for mentioning a problem or another product. It's is also much more standard and has a huge list of features. Many that Animation Master dose not have. They also have a large growing Wiki with a ton of information. Something Animation Master also doesn't have.

Next would be Softimage Foundation. For $500(US) you can have a program that is easily worth $1000(US) plus. Great character animation, industry standard modeling etc, a great renderer and more. There are a ton of training materials out there. Especially DVDs and videos (like digital tutors and 3dtutorial). Save your $200 and wait for this, you won't be sorry.

So there you go. If you still buy Animation Master, don't say I didn't warn ya.

"One of the great CG apps", I've been an A:M user for probably 10 years now. I've used it for school, I've used it professionally and I've used it as a hobby. If you're an artist who want to make his/her own characters and animate them, this is a superior package. One of the great things about it is its unified workflow. The modeler, the rigger, the lighter, the animator, the renderer, all live in the same program and all work well together. I'm not saying A:M makes all of those automatic. Such a program just does not exist. But there is no better workflow for 3D animation than exists in A:M.

The all-spline modeling is a somewhat different strategy than polygon apps use and that's where most people who come from them to A:M get confused. They're trying to use lame polygon techniques that are really awkward workarounds rather than using splines to their real advantage.

Animating in A:M is something the other apps can only wish they did as well.

If you're coming to CG with the notion that all that great imagery you've seen in movies is the result of a computer program and not the ingenuity and hard work of talented humans then you will be disappointed with any CG app. Something that just offers you some premade choices with a few variations, like Poser, might be a better for you.

But if you're person with a story idea that you'd like to get off that storyboard you've been dreaming up and get in front of people, A:M is a really strong tool for making that happen.

"Read this or you'll be sorry...", 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.

"BUY IT", AWSOME!
I have had the software and I can't express how much it helped me learn how to animate. I came into the animationg world only knowing what keyframe and motion capturing meant. Now, well... I am not Pixar, but I am almost there.
It has exited unexpectantly a few times, but otherwise is very stable.
If you can get the demo do get it, but I didn't know there was one until I got the software.
Bottom line: GREAT SOFTWARE

Read this reviews before You buy...

"A Little Giant.", 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.

"3d software even I can use", 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!

"Be an animator buy Animation Master!", 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.

"Great Character Animation Software", 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.

"The most fun I've ever had with a piece of software", I hardly know where to begin. This is a wonderful piece of software. Dollar for dollar there just isn't anything else out there that compares with AM. The character animation toolset is the best in the business. The modeling rocks. The workflow is terrific. Stablility issues have been solved in version 11. It runs rock solid now. I've been playing with graphics and 3d apps for almost as long as pc's have existed and this is just more fun than a guy should be allowed to have.