Hello,I am new to animation and no next to nothing.I have had a dabble with director 7 but found my pc lacking the power to work it right.What would be the sort of system to use and what software.I am after doing a 2-d cartoon animation thing,hopefully to put on a dvd or something...or even(I,m a confidant upstart at the moment!)maybe get it on the telly!!!(I hear you all laught!!)So then what do I need?Is it a mega powerfull graphics card?Lots of hard drive for virtual ram?Help please...I beg and prostrate myself to the great wisdom that is in abundance of this place?!
what about these quad processor machines...would that help things?
May god bless you and all those who sail on her...him...thankyou
What pc configuration?
By dizardsdreams | Wednesday, October 6, 2004 at 9:27am
#1
What pc configuration?
Well in all honesty the computing power you need to do 2d capture animation is next to nothing. Unless you're planning on doing Flash animation, and then what you really need is lots or ram. The only thing you need to do 2d capture is plenty of hard drive space for all those uncompressed video files.
just get an hp from walmart and you should be fine. you can buy more ram for under $100 if you need it but that depends on what your using like ender said. nothing real fancy.
Do they have Walmart in the UK? I was sorta hoping someplace was unspoiled, but I guess big box stores are all over...
Cartoon Thunder
There's a little biker in all of us...
I'd say stick with RAM no matter what; video files and editing/compositing is almost as bad as what I imagine AOL is like. And as an aside, don't spend everything you own on a graphics card, because most of the upgrades now are on 3D, but cards as a separate element do offer 2D and basic screen process boosts too. Like a 79 dollar card could help your video more than the 29 dollar one that comes with an old computer. Anything you can do to allow your comp to do whatever other work it needs to do.
Like others have said now is the time to buy a PC because the numbers are absurdly high and even 400 dollar packages are more than you'd need for your type of project.
Welcome to the forums and the wonderful world of animation Dizardsdreams. It's all going to depend on what you want to do with your animation, and how much you're willing to spend. I'm an animator on Cartoon Networks Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends which is all animated in Flash, and I just bought a Dell for under $1700 US and it is way faster than the computers we animate on at work. If you are going to be working in Flash, video capturing hand drawn animation or ToonBoom, etc. you are going to need a Pentium 4 or Athalon 64 chip. A good size hard drive, 80 gigs is pretty standard. An above average video card, over $100 US, something like the new ATI PCI express X300 card. Along with all the ram you can afford, 1 gig is a good place to start.
If you are just starting to dable in animation using Flash or something simular, you can get away with a lower end computer in the sub $1000 range, or even lower. Probably as low as a $500 computer, but remember, you get what you pay for.
Aloha,
The Ape
...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."
Many thanks to all those who have replied to my question,I,m of to count mi pennies to see what I can do....unfortuneatly we do have a walmart...its called asda(walmart bought them out!)
Being the person everyone comes to when their units go down...I recommend whatever you buy make sure you get the oe os disk with it. I've fought Compaqs, Packard Bell's, HPs, Gateways with their proprietary software crap, and usually to straighten out the messes, I've used my oe OS disk and reformated their units to a clean version of Windows. You pay a little more for a custom build, but you get all the software/drivers up front and not wrapped in some commercial crap. My unit is going on 6 years old and still operating pretty well, most of the the newer stuff that my friends have bought through the big chains have bit the dust already, even though they were supposed to be bigger and faster than mine.
I know you can buy these mass produced units pretty cheap, but when you do make sure you get the oe disk as well. Those rescue disks that come with those other guys' models really don't cut it.
RAM...all the ram you can afford, there can never be enough.
Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.