KICKSTARTER

Moviesandbox is an Open-Source, Real-Time 3D Animation tool. It allows you to quickly sketch and animate 3D Characters and Props. Its focus is on ease of use and modularity. The idea is that you can simply draw objects in 3D space and animate them later on with the built in timeline.

--- a sketched character in Moviesandbox ---

You can also script puppeteering and camera behaviour using a graphical scripting system. And in addition, Moviesandbox can receive data from outside applications allowing MIDI-Controllers, Kinect sensors, Milkscanners and Arduino hacks to control all aspects of your animation in real-time!

---MSB running on a Mac during a workshop, with live Arduino input from Processing ---

It also comes with a lot of cross-platform tools that help you create content, like the Milkscanner or an audio input tool that let's you lipsync your characters to microphone input.

IMPORTANT!

Please, as much as I would like to have you help me, have a look at the Minimum System requirements below before you make a donation. While I feel confident in creating a stable animation software, I am no magician and I cannot make it run on computers that aren't funky enough for OpenGL.

MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

OS: Windows XP or later // Mac OS 10.5 or later // Ubuntu 10.04 or later. Graphics: OpenGL 2.0 compatible Graphics card (GeForce 7, ATI/AMD X1600 or higher). Memory: 2GB.

With that out of the way, let's talk about why I want your help:

I have been working on this software for quite a while, starting at my 2008 Fellowship at Eyebeam Art and Technology Center and there's a pre-release version out that you can download at www.moviesandbox.net.

I would like to spend two months of work to turn it into a tool that a lot of people can use and play around with. This is where you come in! Your money will allow me to work full-time on the software to iron out the useability issues, squash bugs and create lots of documentation and video tutorials, so you know how everything works.

--- an example scene from an early version of the tool---

During the duration of this Kickstarter project, I'll start producing a short animated movie to both illustrate what the software is capable of and to thoroughly test its current state, so I can get to work on adding necessary features and polishing the software once funding is finished (and the two months of work begin). So if you are unsure if Moviesandbox is for you, check back in the updates section to see where I am going with it.