Download Anim8or v0.95

Installation Instructions

Anim8or is very simple to install and run. It is composed of a single executable file that can be put anywhere on your disk. I have plans to add a plug-in capability sometime in the future, but for now, at least, life is simple:

  • Download the latest version of the Anim8or program in the file animv095.zip below.
  • Optionally download the PDF Anim8or user manual in the file animv095dPDF.zip below.
  • Unzip them into your target directory. (If you've never heard of a "zip" file is, see the comments below.)
  • Run the file anim8or.exe.

That's all there is to it.

Download Anim8or Executable

The latest version Anim8or, v0.95c dated April 2, 2007 is available here: animv095c.zip
I expect this to be the last update to v0.95. The following bugs have been fixed:

  • #095-064 - Bumpmap Texture/Material in Scripts Has Problems.
  • #095-065 - GetAttribute Crashes on Nonexistent Elements.
  • #095-066 - Initial GUI Settings Not Correct.
  • #095-067 - ASL Function randseed() Doesn't Do Anything.
  • Add texture coordinates to GeoSpheres.
  • Add View→DefaultVisuals command to reset GUI and workspace settings to default.
  • Set default value for scale controller expressions to 1.0 instead of 0.0.
  • Fix several other minor ASL problems.

The previous version Anim8or, v0.95b dated February 6, 2007 is available here: animv095b.zip
The following bugs have been fixed:

  • #095-051 - "f" Frame All Hot Key Continues to Zoom Out.
  • #095-052 - ZNear Set to 50 in Object Mode.
  • #095-053 - Canceling AVI Render Locks Output File.
  • #095-054 - Materials on Shapes Within Groups are not Set When Project Is Loaded.
  • #095-055 - View→Other→Light-n Always Selects First Light.
  • #095-057 - GetAttributeOrientation() and GetAttributeInt() Don't Work.
  • #095-059 - Modifying Cylinder Parameter in a Script Doesn't Immediately Take Effect.
  • #095-060 - Transparent Shapes Hide Reference Images.
  • #095-061 - Setting Material's Diffuse Color Forces Alpha to 1.

There are some minor new features in this release:

  • Left-hand toolbars are scrollable with the right-mouse button when they don't fit.

There are some minor new ASL script features:

  • New frame variable (like time).
  • New orientation member variable added to shape type.
  • quaternion references to x, y, z, and w components.
  • normalize() and length() added for point2, point3 and quaternion.
  • pseudo random number functions.
  • GUI object with X, Y and Z axis enable members.

The previous version Anim8or, v0.95a dated December 2, 2006 is available here: animv095a.zip
There are no new features in this but the following bugs have been fixed:

  • #095-017 - Incorrect Environment Map Reflection Calculation by Shaders.
  • #095-040 - Importing a Sequence Crashes.
  • #095-041 - Adding Bumpmap Textures to a Material in a Script Crashes.
  • #095-042 - Middle-Clicking in Arc Rotate with View Pop-Up Menu Present Hangs.
  • #095-043 - Implement shape.SetMaterial().
  • #095-044 - Various mesh.AddMaterial() Errors.
  • #095-046 - Referencing Members of NULL Materials Can Crash Scripts.
  • #095-047 - Arrays of Materials and other types Don't Work in Scripts.
  • #095-049 - String Member Functions Don't Work on Array Elements.
  • #095-050 - Crash Exporting Sequence with Missing Objects to .3ds format.

Version 0.95 has some fundamentally new capabilities over v0.9.

  • Graphic material shaders. These show more realistic views of materials in the working views and can be used for very rapid image and movie generation. They are available on computers with DX9 level and above graphics cards.
  • A scripting language, called ASL. Useful for modeling tasks and advanced controller functionality.
  • Plug-ins. Anyone can add new object export formats and parametric shapes by writing a plugin in ASL.
  • Simultaneous shaded and wireframe views. You can set the viewing parameters for each window independently.

And of course many smaller new features and bug fixes.

The original v0.95 release dated November 1, 2006 is available here: animv095.zip

Using Anim8or under Vista, Win7 and Win8

Theoretically Anim8or should work under the Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 operating systems without any problem. However the OS and graphics drivers have a lot of new things to do to make this happen with the added complexity of Vista's new compositing desktop. There are several things you can do if you experience problems with this.

  1. Unfortunately there are a lot of problems in many drivers. This is especially true for Inter grpahics chips but can happen with other manufacturers. If it's not working for you, the first thing to do is see if there is a newer driver for your graphics card. Quite a few people have reported that a newer driver has fixed their Vista problems.
  2. Another thing you can try is running Anim8or WinXP compatible mode. Right-click on anim8or.exe in the file manager and select XP Compatible mode in the menu that pops up. This causes Vista to run Anim8or in a mode that is more like Windows XP which more drivers can handle.
  3. You can also try running Anim8or as Administrator. The O.S. permission settings may not allow Anim8or to run with the default user settings.

Download Anim8or User Manual

Manual version 0.95 dated November 1, 2006: animv095dPDF.zip.

Chinese Language v0.9 User Manual

Here's a Chinese version of the User Manual version 0.9 HTML format: anim8v09_chinese.rar. It was translated by Yanxin Zhou.

Czech Language v0.9 User Manual

Here's a Czech version of the User Manual version 0.9 HTML format: animv09dHTML_cz.zip. It was translated by Jakub Zika with a little help from his grandfather.

Portuguese Language v0.85 User Manual

A Portuguese language version of the User Manual version 0.85 in HTML format animv085dHTML_pg.zip is available for download. It was translated by Mario Pacheco.

Spanish Language v0.7 User Manual

A Spanish language version of the User Manual version 0.7 in html format animv07d_es.zip, and in PDF format animv07dPDF_es.zip are also available for download. These were made by Professor Enrique Clara of the Cuyo National University in Mendoza, Argentina.

French Language v0.7 User Manual

A French translation of the User Manual version 0.7 is available here: http://taboweb.free.fr/anim8orfrenchdoconline.html. You can also download a copy to you computer from here: animv07d_fr.exe. The translation way made by Mr. Daniel Tabonet. Here is a link to his web site: http://taboweb.free.fr/.

Help File

Here's .chm help file for v0.95 of the Anim8or manual: anim8orhelp.chm. To use it, simply download it to your computer and double click on it in your file explorer. And here'r a .chm file for v.085: anim8orhelp_v085.chm.

These files were made by Emil Johansson and Harmen Kampinga so give them a big thanks!

Here's a link to a help file for v0.81 of the Anim8or manual: anim8orhelp.hlp. It was made by Mark Mcvitie and is posted on his site (to help keep my bandwidth under the limit). To use it, download the file and store it in the same directory as your Anim8or.exe file. Don't forget to give a big thanks to Mark, too!

Zip Files

The Anim8or executable file and manual are stored in a compressed form called a .zip file. In this form they are much smaller than their normal storage format so it takes less time for you download them (and I pay less for bandwidth). You can't use the files until you restore them to their full size. You can do this with a nifty program called WinZip. If you need a copy of WinZip you can download a free demo version from www.winzip.com.