Irrlicht Engine

we are currently planing on doing some no-budget movie-making
when i was told about irrlicht i looked through it and was quite impressed
i wonder if it could be used for movie effect
-animated titles/credit-sequences
-animated laser beams coming of "real"-weapons (=toys/props)
-sparks
-completely animated sequences (starships for example)

anyone ever did something similar? any combining of irrlich and camera-footage?

i'll write a simple blue-screen-like plug-in for avisynth and combine it with existings plug-ins to get a nice freeware compositing software-set

i hope some peopel here are interested in this topic

CU
Easee

All of the below seems possible, but using Irrlicht wouldn't be the same as say using a 3D modeler, scripting, and animating it to perform the same effects.

You would have to code everything and code all the scripting for your scenes. Also, you would have to create a way to save off your animations so that you can post-edit it.

I would think you'd have an easier time just using a 3D modeller/renderer like MilkShape, trueSpace, Blender, etc... as you wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel to achieve what your trying to do.

i haven't done much research yet i have to admit
which of the programs you mentioned (or similar ones) are free and about as easy to learn as irrlicht?

thx
Easy

Blender is free but very hard to learn. I don't know about the other programs.

appears you have no experience...so i recommend blender, free, and i think that you wont have problems learning from it. Blender also has a realtime game engine wich i think will be most usefull to you (if i understood you correctly...).

milkshape is about $25 (free trial though). Does a lot but none of it wondefully, from what I hear. TrueSpace has lots of versions, soem of the oldest ones free. Newer version a couple hundred i think.

thx
blender might just be what i was looking for