Download Anim8or

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 animv098.zip below.
• Optionally download the PDF Anim8or user manual in the file animv095dPDF.zip below. This file contains the manual for the previous vesion of Anim8or, v0.95. It will be updated soon with the changes for v0.98.
• 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, v0.98 dated January 23, 2014 is available here: animv098.zip. It is identical to the original release dated November 30, 2014 with a fix for an spline extrusion/filling bug.

This is the first "official" release since v0.95. There are major new features are:

• A ray tracer render called ART for Anim8or Ray Tracer. You can use it to render all Anim8or materials plus reflections, transparency with glass like index of refraction effects, glossy surfaces and more. Here is a link to some initial documentation on how to access these new features: ART Raytracer
• Autosave that perodically saves a copy of your project.
• You can copy and paste materials with Ctrl-Shift-C and Ctrl_Shift-V.
• .MTL file input and output support (for .OBJ import and exported files)
• Holding the Control key down when selecting shapes in an Object or faces, points or edges in the Point Editor allows you to click-drag the mouse to select or deselect multiple things. If this is popular I may make it the default and use the Control key to select just one thing (as it does now).
• Add user attributes to Objects, Figures, Elements and Scenes. These are typed, named variables of int, float, point, orientation or string type. For example you can define a float attribute called mass and set it to 10.5. Currently they are only useful by programs that parse the .an8 format but will be accessable from ASL scripts in the future. You define these with the Object→Attributes command.
• Holding the Control key down when using the Cut Faces tool user only cuts selected faces.
• A new Edit→MovePoints command in the Point Editor that moves sepected points by a precise amount.
• Visible light frustums is the working views when lights are selected.
• Improved UV tool. Each shape in an object can define it's own UV widget that does planar, cylindrical, sperical or normal projecton of texture coordinates onto that shape. You can interactively move, rotate and scale the widgent in UV edit mode. Also UV widgets are saved with the shapes so that the UV tool doesn't force you to restart from scratch wach time you use it.
• Export binormals to the .an8 format when Export Normals is set (and bump maps are used fore that shape).
• Add Cubemap Backgrounds to Scenes. Any cube map texture can be used as a background in a scene.
• Movie rendering size is saved as a project parameter.

If you need earlier versions they can be found here: Anim8or v0.95 Download Page

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.

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/.

Italian Language User Manual

An Italian version of the User Manual version is available here: http://gamequiz.altervista.org/portale/?q=node/52.

The translation way made by civic71.

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.

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.