Funding

Kickstarter
Kickstarter is an online website to get funding for creative projects. Anyone can start their own kickstarter (if they meet the guidelines). The project creator just gets to set a funding goal and a deadline. Kickstarter is an all or nothing funding website though. this means if you do not reach the goal, you don't get any of the funding.

Pozible
This is another website to get funding fror creative projects. When people pledge money they will also recieve rewards matched to the level of money donated. They also alike to kickstarter only do all or nothing crowdfunding.

Indiegogo
Indiegogo is alike to both Pozible and Kickstarter. It's a simple funding webstite. Indiegogo charges a 9.0% fee on the funds you raise. If you reach your goal, you get 5.0% back, for an overall fee of 4.0%.

SA Film Corp
They are a government corporation that supports the film industry in SA. They offer different ways to apply for funding.

Media Resource Centre
This is a non-profit centre to support filmmakers. They also offer different ways to apply for funding.

More Technology & Programs

Free Software

Gimp:

Gimp is the “GNU Image Manipulation Program." It is a free alternative from Photoshop. It has a customizable interface, enables photo enhancement, options for digital retouching. There is hardware support and it also supports multiple file formats.

3sweep:

This is a program that creates 3D models from 2D pictures. Which then you can edit with, and 3D print later on. "The process works by the user identifying the object along with the relative depths. Then the software will detect the edges and creates a texture map."

 

Lightworks:

This is a completely free editor program. It has a lot of professional tools and options. It's a great free option for editing and has been used to edit professional films.

Humanity 3D life:
"The H3DLife series are collections of low poly animated 3D people that you can use to quickly populate an urban scene with casual and business commuters, students, shoppers, etc. doing everyday actions like, walking (up and down stairs, walking dogs), eating (standing, sitting), using phones, laptops, tablets."

Web-based resource software

p3d:

This is a website where you can upload your 3D model and share it online to friend, workers etc.

kwikser:

This is a photoshop plugin that allows anyone to create interactive storybook apps for ios and android without learning code.

123D catch:

123catch is a autodesk free app that allows you to scan a 3D object and then edit the model scan later on.

puzzlescript.org:

This is an open-source HTML5 game engine.

TF3DM:
They offer thousands of downloadable 3D models for free.

Web Resources

11 second club:

This is an avenue to get your name out there with a simple 11 second animation. The 11 second club is a monthly charact animation competition.

Turbosquid:

TurboSquid is a digital media supply company. They have a digital library of models for free use. They have vehicles, animals, architecture, characters and anatomy, electronics, furniture and landscapes.

Multiple Programs

3DS max:
One main thing I hear about 3DS Max from all our teachers is that it can help with the learning curve for other 3D animation programs. So far in this course, there's still a lot of the program I don't understand but in terms of animating that's where my knowledge is. 

Maya:
The only experince I have with Maya is looking at projects my friend Maddie has done in her course. And even then I really prefer 3DS max but that might be because she's done very different projects from us. She's working on the architecture of locations and rooms, not rigging and animating. 

Blender:
I've actually used this program once before, I followed a tutorial to make a wreaking ball mainly to get the jist of the program. I get told that it has a learning curve, but it doesn't seem to be too different. Their are some settings I could see people getting annoyed with if they work with Autodesk, because some mouse settings are reversed sort of deal but it's very simple to change them to suit your needs. I'm actually really shocked it's completely free, even if used it for commercial purposes, you don't need to credit blender. Which is something I really think I'll be taking advantage of. 

Mixamo:
This program is a easy way to create, rig and animate 3D characters. This is definitly a program I want to learn, but there is a cost. There are free services avaliable to look into though. 

Sculptris:
For digital sculpting, it's said by the company, pixologic who made it, to be a good beginning to sculpting digitally. For people more experienced they offer Zbrush, which is another program I'd probably want to try out eventually. But probably not anytime soon.

Quixel Suite:
This has a lot of different programs, they have Megascans to help with materials, bringing in real world surfaces. NDO for mapping. DDO for texturing. 3DO which is a light weight model and material previewer directly fused with photoshop. They refer to Photoshop in comparisons, saying that they make photoshop look like a normal editing program. I imagine the learning curve would be steep for these programs but worth looking into, even if the cost is quite large. 

Make Human:
This is an open source for 3D humanoid characters for free, this also has a compatiability with Zbrush and mudbox.

Final Cut:
This is an editing program I need to learn at some point, mostly for the uni course I want to go to because this is what they use. I'm hoping that my experience with sony vegas will lessen the learning curve.

Sony Vegas:
I've been using Sony Vegas since I was 12. This is a program that even 5 years of experience there's so many things I don't know about this program. I do know it better but there are still aspects I haven't need to try out yet.

Audition:
Using audition now, changes how I look at editing audio through Vegas. Anytime I'm working on a video now, I'm aware how I could do it in audition and how much easier it could be. Sound editing is a lot of fun for me, and I hope to learn more about audition, in class and in my own time. Including editing dialogue.

After Effects:
This is a program with so much potential, there's so much I still want to learn in so many other aspects. I'm hoping to learn a lot in my own time and in this course. What I've been taught so far, I've enjoyed and taken it completely onboard.