[lisa]

Lots of big questions!

Originally Posted by mc_mic

do you know what programs i can use theese models in for a game?

There are lots of different games you can use AC3D for. Some people here build models for X-Plane and Second Life for starters. AC3D exports 3DS and OBJ files, which many programs use. It also exports .X files, which many people use when making their own games with DirectX or XNA Studio. Some games, like the original Sims, only need pre-renders (bitmaps) of the 3D objects, so AC3D is very good for making objects for these kinds of games, too.

Some helpful links if you're interested in any of these:
X-Plane Tutorial: http://scenery.x-plane.com/tutorials...+AC3D+6.0+(old)
Second Life tool docs: http://www.inivis.com/secondlife.html
XNA Game Studio: http://creators.xna.com/
Sims Transmorgifier: http://www.lushcreations.com/

Originally Posted by mc_mic

also wat format i need to use to import into game programs?

What file format you need to use depends on what game you are trying to import the data into. You need to read the docs for your game, and see what file format it needs. Many games have specialized file formats that only work with that game, but usually the modding tools will convert from other more common file formats.

Originally Posted by mc_mic

also how do i render it for use in a film, and how do i do the animtaions?
and wat program would i use to make the actually film???

This is grossly over-simplified, but most films use more or less this process:

1) Write the script and draw the storyboards. Storyboards are like a comic book of the film, which helps the animators plan their shots before they actually start making anything.

2) Create the models, sets and backdrops.

3) Build the scenes and animate the models. Movies are normally made out of a series of short "shots", and are not rendered in a single pass. This makes editing easier, and keeps the file sizes more reasonable. It's hard to say for sure exactly what constitutes a shot, but it's a safe bet that any time you have a major camera change, that's probably a new shot.

4) Render out the shots. Movies are often rendered to "ordered frames" (i.e. a series of bitmaps) instead of directly to video, because even in a 3D movie most frames have some type of 2D effects applied to them, or they are composited with other 3D images. For example, it's not uncommon to render the background and the foreground separately using different software, and then composite them together later. However, if you’re just starting out and not doing any fancy compositing, it’s okay to render it out straight to video, too.

5) The individual shots are then editing together with video editing software. This lets the author do things like adjust timing, add soundtracks, and add scene transitions like wipes and cross-fades.

AC3D comes out of the box setup to use POV-Ray as a rendering engine. POV is free and a very high quality renderer, but it does have a steep learning curve as it relies on script to control its functions. It is possible to do animations in POV-Ray, but POV-Ray is only well-suited for physically based or procedural animations, like cloth or falling objects. It is a lot of trouble to do key-framed animation in POV-Ray, so I would not recommend it for character work. POV-Ray can produce amazing images, but it does best with stills.

For alternatives, many of the folks here like Bryce and Carrara. These are both excellent render engines.

As far as low-cost character animation tools that are easy for beginners, I'm partial to Poser myself. It's got a good quality renderer, support for inverse kinematics, pose blending, direct timeline manipulation and hair and cloth simulation. It's about $250 normally, but they run frequent promotions if you watch for them. I got my copy for about $100.

DAZ has a piece of software called DAZ Studio that is supposedly competition for Poser. I have not used it myself, so I do not know if it's any good, but I know there are many people who use it. DAZ Studio is free for the core program, and various add-ons are available for a range of prices.

Some amateur movie makers--and even some professionals--are exploring machinima as a way of making films using game engines and other real-time tools. It's really the holy grail within the movie business to find a way to do high-quality 3D without the long render times. One of my favorite of the more serious attempts at machinima is the Silver Bells and Golden Spurs, which you can watch here: http://www.bellsandspurs.com/_video/ [Trivia! Bruce Miles, the voice of narrator in this production, is also the narrator and radio dispatcher in our game Speeding Ticket.]

For editing software, if you're using a Windows PC, you can download Microsoft Movie Maker for free from Microsoft. It's pretty basic, but it's easy to use and more than enough to get started making your own movies. Many of the concepts, like using a timeline, will carry over when you’re ready to move to something more advanced so it’s a great piece of software to get started with.

For cheap alternatives, many home DVRs and DVD-burners come with editing software these days, so some of those are worth checking out, too.

For professional software, Adobe Premier and\or After Effects are very popular. Premier especially in combination with After Effects has a lot of nice features that will let you do some really cool stuff, but it’s quite expensive. Beyond that, you get into things like Avid editing decks and other hardware-based solutions.