How to make interesting movies for online teaching?

I am fascinated by this movie about string theory. What kind of software did they use to create the animations? What would you suggest to create similar movies ?

animation

Stefano Borini

Posted 2009-07-21T01:49:42.220

Reputation: 2 034

I suggest piracy, uhhh borrowing! – Ivo Flipse – 2009-07-21T07:33:23.580

Answers

Flash is a very powerful program, but FlashDevelop is a free, open source, application to create 2D animations compatible with Flash.

Dour High Arch

Posted 2009-07-21T01:49:42.220

Reputation: 1 037

Two programs that you might want to take a look at for your use or inspiration are:

Blender - 3D modeling, rendering and animation
Pencil - 2D traditional bitmap and vector drawing and animation

Both are free and open source.

Here is some information on open source Flash development.

Paused until further notice.

Posted 2009-07-21T01:49:42.220

Reputation: 86 075

Pencil looks very interesting. – Stefano Borini – 2009-07-21T02:57:08.683

Interesting, but quite unstable :( – Stefano Borini – 2009-07-21T12:11:06.427

That particular video was created using Adobe Flash. It's fairly easy to make the same kinds of movies with Flash, but the IDE is commercial, so if you were looking for free software you're out of luck (although I'm sure there are free alternatives to it somewhere). I wouldn't really be able to recommend any other alternatives to Flash for making animations, because it doesn't get much better.

Sasha Chedygov

Posted 2009-07-21T01:49:42.220

Reputation: 6 616

Do you think flash is overkill for the casual user ? (not much for the price, rather for the time needed to use it proficiently). I'm not planning to throw $699 into it, I think it's too much. just curious. – Stefano Borini – 2009-07-21T02:14:41.367

In all honesty, yes I do. But I don't know of a free alternative. – Sasha Chedygov – 2009-07-21T03:20:36.680