Autodesk Animator
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| Autodesk Animator | |
|---|---|
 Screenshot of Autodesk Animator |
|
| Developed by | Yost Group, Autodesk |
| Latest release | Animator Studio / 1995 |
| OS | PC (MS-DOS, Windows 95) |
| Genre | 2D Animation software |
Autodesk Animator was a 2D animation and painting program created in 1989 by Yost Group for Autodesk (makers of AutoCAD and 3D Studio Max) and ran on a PC under MS-DOS.
The program was considered to be ground breaking in the field of computer animation when it was initially released and was very popular in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. eventually the development on the product ended and it became no longer supported by Autodesk.
Animator gave the ability to do cel animation (creating each frame as an individual picture, much like traditional Disney animation), "Animator Studio" also had tweening features (transforming one shape into another by letting the computer draw each in-between shape onto a separate frame).
While "Animator" and "Animator Pro" supported only the input and output of FLI and FLC animation files, "Animator Studio" supported also the input and output of the AVI animation format.
[edit] Autodesk Animator release history
| Version | Platform | Release date | Significant changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Animator | DOS | October 1989 | 320x200 pixels in 256 colors |
| Animator Pro | DOS | July 1991 | almost any resolution and color depth |
| Animator Studio | Windows | 1995 | re-write for Windows |
Animator Studio attempted to do more than previous versions of the program, yet it had limited success, mostly because Yost Group did not develop the "Studio" version. It also lost the ergonomic fluidity that the DOS versions had. Animator Pro, though, was by far the most useful, and was exceptionally fast compared with today's animation programs. It was one of the very few DOS programs that was not restricted by the 640 kilobyte conventional memory limitation of the day. Its combination of twenty tools multiplied by twenty inks, 3D 'optics,' unparalleled palette handling, custom fonts and many other useful features (such as its own internal scripting language POCO), put it many years ahead of better known animation tools of the time.
[edit] Other Facts
- It was debuted at SIGGRAPH 1989, and won the PC Magazine 6th Annual Technical Excellence Award for Graphics that same year.[citation needed]
- The program worked so well and had enough of an impact, that it convinced James Cameron that CGI could create a character in his next film, Terminator 2: Judgment Day.[citation needed]
- DOSBox (at least from version 0.63) is able to run Animator Pro on current hardware.
[edit] See also
- FLI/FLC file formats
