3D Artist Magazine

A fun, free and no-frills introduction to animation that’s ideally suited to beginners of all ages

As a free program, Muvizu (www.muvizu.com) offers more than enough for the average beginner 3D animator to make a very simple video. What’s more, even an absolute novice can get to grips and start creating something in a few hours. As would be expected for something that is free, Muvizu isn’t massively in-depth. Instead, it is more of a fun introduction to animation. The amount of prior knowledge requires to get started is minimal, as the program can drop in a ready-made scene, object and character after a single mouse click. There’s rarely any need to stray away from the left and right buttons, as a hold-and-drag moves the camera around from left to right and up and down. Because of this a teenager – or even a child of around ten years old – could create some kind of end product, stacking up and executing basic animations and making a movie in minutes.

The interface, much like the aim of the program, is refreshingly basic. With only seven menus to tackle, the flow is extremely easy to gather for anyone having dabbled in most forms of computer-based editing. The Create function opens up the preset templates, with characters and background immediately selectable. The feel of the program is quite obvious from this library, as the surroundings are suitably cartoonish not to be taken seriously but well made enough to be worth using. Placement of static objects can be performed in seconds, even from scratch, and the characters within the scene can then be added in a fashion that’s equally as rapid. The animation portion seems to be based slightly more around trial and error, as the amount of actions that can be prepared is limited, but those available are fun enough to ensure a few hours of enjoyment at the very least.

Both background and dialogue audio can then be added in, with some relatively impressive syncing for such a basic piece if software and sound effects can also be created to add to the end product. It’s worth mentioning that expecting too much from this very basic but incredibly fun piece of software would be to do it a disservice. The editing is very rudimentary and the amount of action that can be performed before recording is limited to the extent that often only one area will be moving at a time, but for an absolute beginner wanting to do something basic within animation then Muvizu is an absolute blast. The fact that both kids and adults have already started uploading content goes to show the potential of such program in the hands of creativity personality.

“Placement of Static objects can be performed in seconds” “A Simple piece of software that may be limited, but is great fun for beginners and kids”

Feature of site 6/10
Ease of site 9/10
Quality of models 7/10
Value of money 10/10