Thought I would make a list of useful websites that have helped and inspired me, hope you find them useful. Links below are inspiring animators, free tutorials, free tools/plugins and rigs.
Inspiring Animators
Useful Websites/Free Rigs and Programs
Free Rigs
Norman Free Rig created by Romain Digonnet |
Koko Free Rig created by Jana Johnson |
Morpheus Free rig created by Josh Burton |
11secondclub Has a great range of free rigs and a lot of brilliant lip sync animation. | Max Rig Great 3DS Max Rig by Peter Starostin |
Bonnie Rig Great Maya Rig by Josh Sobel |
Lightworks Brilliant free video editing software for syncing your multiple camera angles together and more. Free version has limited codec support but great for .tga files and exports .avi. |
Virtual Dub Free, fast and doesn't degrade video quality editing software. |
Audacity Great Free program for editing sound. |
Blender Free open source 3D modelling and animation program. |
Gimp Free 2D program. |
Any Video Converter Free Converter But watch out as it installs, it tries to install unwanted browser tool-bars. |
LibreOffice Free office package compatible with Microsoft Office. |
Ted-Ed
Full of free inspiring videos from lecturers and professional around the world.
Animated Buzz
Full of great pieces of work.
Deviantart
Full of inspiring work.
Thinking Animation
Great Animation blogger.
Speaking of Animation
Great podcast with many established animators
CGSociety
Fantastic place to see great CG work.
Animex
Largest festival for animation and computer games in the UK.
Expotees
Yearly competition for final year students to show their work at Teesside.
3Dtees
Showcase of the Teesside University 3d artist.
IAnimate
One of the best online animation schools.
Gary Dave
Brilliant set of tutorials.
Jeff Lew
Creator of Killer Bean and lead animator for Matrix Reloaded shares his knowledge.
Animation Mentor
One of the best online animation schools.
Cartoon Brew
Good source for Animation news
CGTuts+
Lots of useful tutorials.
Frame by Frame
Great resource of animation broken down to its frames.
Glen Keane
Awesome Character artist for Disney
GnomonWorkshop
Great set of tutorials from all aspects of CGI.
Scriptspot
Great source for script in3DS Max.
Autodesk
I don't think they need an introduction.
Concept Art World
Full of inspiring concept art.
Eat3D
Awesome game pipeline tutorials.
Digital-Tutors
Great set of tutorials from all aspects of CGI.
Living Lines Library
Great collection of key pose animation.
The Animation Workshop
Great animation University.
Endless Reference
Awesome free human references very clear and even in slowmo.
BBC Motion Gallery
Reference Footage.
Corbis Motion
Reference Footage.
Artbeats
Reference Footage.
Getty Image
Reference Photos.
Flashkit
Good website for flash tutorials.
Polygon Blog
Great setting of lighting and rendering tutorials.
Likes on Vimeo
Inspirational videos to combat boredom.
The Daily Wav
Great Source for sound bites.
Incompetech
Great collection of royalty-free music to accompany your work.
3D/Animation Books
Stop Staring by Jason Osipa
The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams
Acting For Animators by Ed Hooks
Animating Real-Time Game Characters by Paul Steed
Mastering Ureal Technology by Jason Busby, Zah Parrish, Joel Van Eenwyk
3D Game Textures by Luke Ahearn