Three of the most powerful modeling tools we have experimented with are
http://www.antics3d.com/
http://sketchup.google.com/
http://earth.google.com/
Antics does POWERFUL animation ( Go ok you will not believe the results
) and the power of sketchup mixed with the goggle tool set, earth, gears
and other attributes is awesome " All interact well "
One of SKPs biggest secrets is the use of Ruby on Rails running in the
background so that almost any attribute can be manipulated " Such as
Physics " and for the more adventurous you can role your own. API access
and registration for the truly creative also available
Go look at some of the demos and turn these loose with your kids this
summer and you will not hear a peep outa them. You can build or download
complex infrastructure models in SKP and download them into the antics
modeling programs and ready made humans scenes and actions and even
produce a full animation production files
The icing on the cake is that all have free versions that produce beyond
professional results
I think Owen is researching some summer camp ideas for the complex and
these should be high on our list
( : ( : pete
--
Peter Baston
*IDEAS*
/www.ideapete.com/ <http://www.ideapete.com/>
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