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31/01/2012 16:08:56

mystoMuvizu mogulExperimental user
mysto
Posts: 471
Being in sort of a "reflective" mood today I was looking back on my experience with using Muvizu for the past few years and I wanted to share my thoughts with fellow Muvizu users...

I have been creating animation in one form or another ever since I was a wee child. It's something that I've always had a deep passion for. As a child I remember getting up early on Saturday mornings and watching Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, Popeye, and all of the other old favorite cartoons and as I sat there watching something kept "stirring" inside of me. As I watched with my childlike awe I thought to myself "This is really neat, I want to do that!"

My first "real" animation was a simple flip-book. I drew a little ball moving around on pieces of paper and when I flipped through the drawings I watched as the little ball seemed to move about all on its own. I was mesmerized watching that little ball move around and I made it myself!

I was 5 years old when I did that...

For the past 30 years or so I've been creating animation in all forms. Flip-books, stop motion animation, hand drawn cels, you name it. When personal computers came along naturally I spent a fair amount of my time learning to animate with a whole new set of tools. I spent most of my time and money buying and using all of the "high end" animation packages that were available. (3d Studio, Softimage, Topas, Maya etc.)

About 10 or so years ago my passion for creating animation took a "nose dive". I guess being a "grown-up" and dealing with all of the things that grown-ups have to deal with took its toll on me. The "spark" for creating animation just kind of "died out" on me. It just wasn't fun anymore. I spent the next several years just being a "grown-up".

In June of 2010 I got laid off from the job I had been working at for over 6 years. That REALLY hit me hard. I went into a state of depression. Then one day I was browsing the web and for no particular reason I did a Google search for "free animation software". All kinds of things popped up on the screen but one that caught my eye was a web site called MUVIZU. Muvizu? What in the hell is that? I thought to myself.

So I clicked the link and went to the web site...

As I looked around the Muvizu web site I thought "this looks kind of interesting" so I downloaded the software, installed it and "fired it up". After playing around with it for a few hours I created my first Muvizu animation. I thought to myself, "Wait a minute, that was too easy. Creating animation is a LOT harder than this!" So I kept "playing around" with it and the more I played around with it the more I wanted to keep doing it. Something happened to me that day. I felt that "old spark" again. I was creating animation and I was enjoying doing it! WOW!

I have some of the "latest greatest" animation software available but I choose to focus my creative efforts on using Muvizu. In all my years of animating I've never come across another piece of software like it. It's free, it's easy to use, some really professional stuff can be created with it and above all it's just plain fun to use.

To top it all off, Vince and the whole Muvizu staff are really nice people. They will help anyone with anything at any time. That's a rare thing now days. Also, the whole Muvizu community is a really great bunch of folks. Everyone helps everyone. The Muvizu forum is unlike any other forum I've been a part of. There are a few members of this forum and the Muvizu staff that have really helped me out these past few years with many things. I won't embarrass them by mentioning any names (they know who they are) but I do want to thank them all.

Even though I may be several thousand miles away you guys have always made me feel like a close part of the Muvizu family and I am extremely grateful for that.

So here we are in 2012. I'm happy again, I'm doing what I love to do again and I have my old "spark" back. My personal thanks to EVERYONE at Muvizu.

I look forward to being a part of the Muvizu community for a long long time...
edited by mysto on 31/01/2012
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31/01/2012 20:01:08

ziggy72Muvizu mogulExperimental user
ziggy72
Posts: 1988
...and I'm sure no one is going to disagree with that. I also tried to use 3D packages before, but could only ever create static scenes - animation was just too time consuming and awkward to do. Then along comes Muvizu... Not just a great bit of software, but a really nice bunch of developers behind it, and a supportive community who don't go mental at each other all the time (like on some forums I've seen! Totally agree with that one, Mysto). I've just spent two weeks making an animation for no other reason than it was fun to do. Hours every day after work, just for a 3 minute bit of sillyness to (hopefully) make people laugh. Those Saturday morning cartoons are to blame for it all...
edited by ziggy72 on 31/01/2012
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01/02/2012 12:06:39

freakmoomin
freakmoomin
Posts: 272
Here Here!
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18/02/2012 01:12:25

Steven547
Steven547
Posts: 66
Have to agree with all that was said. Yes, there are the "latest and greatest" animation software out there. But if you look at what this program has to offer, you'd be surprised how much you really can do with this. Every animation takes time and patience. But this program completely rekindles my creativity and reason why I moved out to Los Angeles.

Also, the tech support you receive on this site (from users and developers) is simply amazing! That's probably all that needs to be said! The program and the community speak for themselves.
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