By a strange coincidence, it all started in Cambridge… again. Founded as Kelseus Ltd., the company which became Antics Technologies in 2004 has been interested and involved in a market they helped create: previz. And for the first couple years, their Antics product was priced as such - something extremely affordable for pro studios looking for a previz solution, but something considered a bit steep for the average hobbyist.

But some interesting things have happened in the past year. iClone’s John Martin fired a shot across the bow of the machinima world at the 2006 Machinima Film Festival when it stepped forward into a growing awareness of intellectual property rights issues surrounding machinima, and provided a solution: a rights-free creation platform. Moviestorm, the brainchild of Kelland and Lloyd, broke through the topsoil very soon thereafter, pursuing a different business model.

Antics had been around all this time, having led for at least some of that time in terms of innovation, but viewed as largely inaccessible for the unfunded hobbyist. That view, if it was ever accurate, just doesn’t hold true anymore. Let me explain.

Something very intriguing began to happen about a year ago. Antics began approaching established independent machinima creators - a market that I must confess, I’d always assumed they considered an afterthought vs. the pro market - asking them to provide input on the next incarnation of their product in exchange for some exclusive access to the technology. CJ Ambrosia and others stepped up to the challenge, provided feedback, made some films… helped sculpt the next generation of Antics 3D.

And then something really mind-blowing happened just a few weeks ago. Antics 3D - compared favorably to Photoshop by one of their clients, and previously priced in that same tier - changed everything about the way they make their product available. One can now get the Base Pack for Antics 3D for a slightly different price than before… it is now FREE. You can optionally purchase the ProPack and other Premium Content to really fill out your collection of assets with quality pieces of work - but you can get familiar with Antics absolutely FREE.

The announcement of this change was heralded on the Machinima For Dummies blog, but has received very little attention elsewhere in the machinima world. It could be that their Cambridge neighbors stole a little of their thunder, and while I’m a huge fan of Moviestorm and that’s not going to change, I think it’s a serious mistake to ignore what Antics is now offering. Antics has a well-rounded content base which, in terms of variety, handily surpasses that currently available for either iClone or Moviestorm. And the product has been under development - and used by pros - for longer than the other two.

Antics has stepped up their game, and they are now a serious player in the independent machinimator market. Even their mission statement reflects the shift: “Our mission is to deliver the world’s best 3D animation software and make it accessible and easy to use for anyone with a story to tell.” (added emphasis is mine) You’ll find an outstanding set of video tutorials on Antics on YouTube, a further sign of their commitment to widen their appeal and accessibility to everyone.

It’s quite possible that not one of what I’ll call the “Big Three” have 100% of what you need right now to make everything you could think of to make. But with a little creativity, there’s no reason why all three packages can’t be used together, capitalizing on the strengths of each. I remain of Tom Jantol’s Anymation mindset, after all, where old methods of taxonomy are irrelevant and ultimately, one should pursue and combine any tools one needs to make your vision come alive. Antics is now truly within the reach of ANYONE willing to try it and learn it.

There are special incentives to get started right now: if you purchase the Antics ProPack, you entitle yourself to free downloads of ANY premium content from their website until December of 2008! Just look at the amount of content available, free and otherwise… it’s an amazing collection.

Antics 3D is now a part of my machinima toolkit. I encourage you to check out its features and see if it’s right for yours as well.