The iMac: Macintosh's new answer to the affordable home computer. But can it handle animation software? Time will tell...Photo by Terry Heferman. Courtesy of Apple Computer, Inc.

Computer-aided animation has truly come into its own in the 1990s: from computer multimedia and games, to television commercials, all the way up to animated features like Toy Story, A Bug's Life, and Small Soldiers and animated TV series like Reboot and Beast Wars. However, most of these cited examples use very expensive equipment, like Silicon Graphics workstations, and either custom software like that used at Pixar or expensive packages like Softimage 3D, once distributed by Microsoft and now distributed by Avid, which runs over $10,000 U.S.

However, things are beginning to change in both large animation studios and smaller outfits. Programs like 3D StudioMAX by Kinetix are running on high-end WindowsNT workstations with eye-popping results, and Lightwave3D by NewTek has made incredible inroads in both WindowsNT and Power Mac shops. In both cases, the machines that run this powerful software are heavily "tweaked," with massive amounts of RAM and large arrays of super-fast hard drives that cost large sums of money. These more reasonable software packages are only more reasonable by degrees: 3D StudioMAX costs $3,500 U.S. per workstation, and Lightwave3D costs $2,000 U.S. per workstation.

2-D animation packages are similarly in the stratosphere. Disney uses its own proprietary scanning, inking, painting and compositing program, called CAPS. Other major studios use packages like Softimage Toonz and Cambridge Systems' Animo, which require high-end SGI or WindowsNT workstations to use. Softimage Toonz is $13,000 per workstation, and works on SGI and high-end WindowsNT workstations. Cambridge Systems' Animo only runs on SGI and high-end Intel workstations running NeXTStep, and checks in at U.S. $9,000 per license.

The fact is, however, that less expensive, off-the-shelf PCs and Macintoshes can be used for professional results in computer-aided animation. In the past few years, 3-D packages as inexpensive as $200 have emerged to allow students and animators who want to do their own independent projects to create very attractive and fluid animation. Because of the more specialized nature of 2-D paint and compositing software, there are no packages of this kind to match such a low price point. However, for between $500 and $1,300 U.S. per license, very powerful 2-D programs are available, and one can only hope that with more and more people looking to do animation projects on personal computers that lower priced programs will emerge.

To run most of the programs we will be mentioning in this overview, one needs a good, strong computer system, be it on the Mac side or the PC side. Macintosh of course tends to run significantly more expensive, but the Mac's superior ease of use and its OS-level support for sophisticated color graphics and color control make it highly recommended for these sorts of applications. However, with intelligent use of third party programs and attention paid to enhancing the video subsystem, a PC running Windows95 or Windows98 is competitive with the Macintosh for these operations; and in some cases there are no Mac versions of these programs, particularly in the case of AXA Personal Edition, a well-recommended 2-D paint and compositing package.