Yes, the people who use the software had more talent and vision than Martin did, and believe it or not, this is NOT a criticism of Martin's talent. He is a brilliant programmer. I saw an old video of him when he was very young, talking about Animation Master, and he sort of kind of reminded me of Steve Jobs just a tad
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
. Animation Master WAS the FIRST consumer level 3D application. It was way ahead of it's time. So it is also the oldest commercial 3D application. That is kind of revolutionary. He was also a bit of a control freak. He fired the director of Tin Woodman because of "artistic differences" and made himself director. That was a shame because the original director had loads of experience directing full length animated features and had mad skills as a traditional animator.
I bought a live action Sci-fi film that has creature effects done with Animation Master. Very bad acting, B movie. Special effects were "ok" for that type of movie, but not great. They were a step up from guys in rubber suits and toy ships on wires. Typical type of "dark, low lighting" outer space monster attacking ship kind of thing. Very dark to hide "quality" issues. This is an OLD film straight to VHS. Don't know if they ever put it on DVD.
Myself and a group of other local Animation Master users become friends and started hanging out in "meat space" because of Animation Master. We called ourselves the MAAM Squad, Mid Atlantic Animation Masters users group. We would meet up and share stuff we did in Animation Master, talk about it, theorize on the next version, dream of the killer machine to run it. Loads of fun.
I have to admit that those years using Animation Master were so much freaking fun. I constantly kept trying to get a first place in the darn monthly image contest on the Hash forum. I would spend hours upon hours working on an entry... and only get 2nd or 3rd place (forum member voting). I have bunches of award plaques but I wanted the first place "trophy". I think I got first place once, and martin sent me an extra bonus! A fantastic Buzz Lightyear telephone! Thing is huge and posable. I still have it.
Some of the original MAAM group still sort of get together but we don't talk about Animation Master. The official MAAM Squad is no more
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_sad.gif)
. Now we just hang out, watch Sci-Fi and geek out over the new Doctor Who and the latest Apple gizmos. Those guys play with iPads while I draw on my Newton.
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)