More Animation Tools

There are so many tools out there to help us animators that it sometimes it's hard to shift through the good and reliable ones. As I have done before I would like to highlight some now that will help us animators along our journey to becoming masters of this craft. SO this time around I'd like to highlight some sketch tools that can help when it comes to tracking your arcs and also giving some feedback. I've come across a few that are free and some that are a price but very inexpensive.

The first one is called ZoomIt. Now this one is free and made by Microsoft, so it has some credibility..respectively. They display it as a good for presentations program but you can totally use it for a sketch tool. This is the pitch from the publisher.

"From Microsoft :ZoomIt is screen zoom and annotation tool for technical presentations that include application demonstrations. ZoomIt runs unobtrusively in the tray and activates with customizable hotkeys to zoom in on an area of the screen, move around while zoomed, and draw on the zoomed image. I wrote ZoomIt to fit my specific needs and use it in all my presentations.ZoomIt works on all versions of Windows and you can use pen input for ZoomIt drawing on tablet PCs."


The next would be Sketch It. Looks like it's made by Wilz Modz. This one is also FREE! This is the pitch from the publisher.

"Have you ever had trouble explaining your idea on a computer to someone? Have you ever simply wanted to mark on your screen for illustrative purposes? Have you ever wanted to sketch an equation or figure to the side of your notes? Well now you can. With Sketch It! you can draw on top of any program on your computer including your desktop. Sketch It! will allow you to turn your ordinary computer into a virtual drawing surface. With a variety of features from changing the appearance of the line your drawing including size and color to placing the screen's image into the clipboard or saving it to a file it's all there. One of the best features about Sketch It! is that you'll hardly notice it until you want to use it since it stays on the task bar waiting for you. Sketch It! is a perfect tool for a variety of individuals and professions."





And then there is Annotate Pro. Which there is a free 30day Trial version and then you can pay $19.99 and get the latest version in all its glory. You might have heard about it or seen it on Keith Lango's tutorials. He speaks of it well and uses it all the time.






As you can see Keith sketches away in Maya. So hopefully you can find one that suits you and will only help you become a more efficient animator.

Enjoy.