Animation and Video Games Subject Guide: Tools and Resources

A collection of open source compilers and interpreters for C, C++, C#, Python, and more.

Information and tutorials for getting started with Direct X.

XNA Game Studio is an integrated development environment designed to make it easier to develop games for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, and Windows Phone. XNA Game Studio extends Microsoft Visual Studio with support for the XNA Framework and tools. The XNA Framework is a managed-code class library that contains features targeted specifically at game development. In addition, XNA Game Studio includes tools for adding graphic and audio content to your game.

The Unreal Development Kit is the free edition of Unreal Engine 3 that provides access to the award-winning 3D game engine and professional toolset used in blockbuster video game development, architectural visualization, mobile game development, 3D rendering, digital films and more.

OpenGL is the industry's most widely used, supported and best documented 2D/3D graphics API making it inexpensive & easy to obtain information on implementing OpenGL in hardware and software. There are numerous books, tutorials, online coding examples, coding seminars, and classes that document the API, Extensions, Utility Libraries, and Platform Specific Implementations.

These tutorials introduce various different functional areas of Autodesk® Maya®, Autodesk® MatchMover™ and Composite in a set of lessons. The lessons are accompanied by scene files that you can use to learn at your own pace.

With 3ds Max, you can create 3D places and characters, objects and subjects of any type. You can arrange them in settings and environments to build the scenes for your movie or game or visualization. You can animate the characters, set them in motion, make them speak, sing and dance, or kick and fight. And then you can shoot movies of the whole virtual thing.

Blender is a free and open source 3D animation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, even video editing and game creation. Advanced users employ Blender’s API for Python scripting to customize the application and write specialized tools; often these are included in Blender’s future releases.

Edge Animate lets web designers create interactive HTML animations for web, digital publishing, rich media advertising and more, reaching both desktop and mobile browsers.

Learn how to create a 2D vector character animation, fine-tune its movements, import assets from Adobe Stock, and publish to a variety of formats.