free software

Want to be an animator? Click play on the Flowgram below to listen to MsBehaviour & Wammo and view new animation tools Blender, GoAnimate and Zencub3d from Christchurch, New Zealand .

I have loved animation from a very early age. I was lucky to spend time at animation nights as a child, where we watched crazy old cartoons from Canada, Poland and Eastern Europea on a noisy old spool projector. I  also adored Road Runner with his Nemesis Wil E Coyote, Jungle Book, and the British kids classic Dangermouse. My list of favourite cartoons could go on for hours given enough nostalgia time. Then I lived in Bristol in the UK, which is the home of Aardman Animations and lots of hot young creative companies. You can't fail to be touched by the hand of claymation and animation if you live in Bristol long enough, and the Aardman Oscars turn up in the strangest of places. The last time I was at their riverside studios, I found one of the golden statues gracing the toilet cistern.

Read The MsBehaviour File on New Animation Tools in full at the Big Idea.

Listen to a podcast of New Animation tools with MsBehaviour & Wammo on Kiwi Fm

The girls interview Big Buck Bunny from Blender.

Big Buck Bunny is awesome on so many levels I hardly know where to begin. It's an animated short film made entirely using free software and free resources all running on a free operating system. It is distributed for free using bittorrent, in all resolutions from 1080p down to ipod and PSP screens.  Heaps more information about the project can be found at the website, including all the assets required to remake, hack and edit the current version.

This is a view of the future. It's only going to get better, and BBB shows it's damned good already. Only 10 years ago it would have cost hollywood millions to make this, millions to distribute, millions to market. BBB is done for almost nothing. Donations. Whuffie. Fun.