Equipment
Recommended Software or Hardware
Some students take Animation as their 3rd elective class and use the following in the classroom:
- Custom built PCs because of 3D Modeling and rendering requirements during their Senior year. These PCs are NOT available for check-out to use at home.
- Wacom Cintiqs
- DSLR cameras (we use Canon T6i or R50)
- Speedlites
- Tascam DR-05 portable recorder for audio projects.
- Autodesk Maya and other 3D modeling and animating software. Please check your Freestyle email on installation and activation with a free Serial Number for use at home.
- Adobe Creative Cloud Applications mainly Photoshop, Illustrator, Animate, and After Effects. Check your Freestyle email on instructions on how to get the Adobe Creative Cloud Applications for home computers. Install the software on your home computer and MVLA can provide the license for it so that it won't cost you any money. You do NOT need to purchase a subscription for Adobe applications.
- DragonFrame Stop Motion Software for use in the classroom only. You'll have to get your own license if you want to use DragonFrame at home
Some students take Design as their 3rd elective class and use the following:
- iMacs (M3)
- Wacom Cintiqs
- DSLR cameras (we use Canon T6i or R50)
- Speedlites
- Tascam DR-05 portable recorder for audio projects.
- Adobe Creative Cloud Applications mainly Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Check your Freestyle email on instructions on how to get the Adobe Creative Cloud Applications for home computers. Install the software on your home computer and MVLA can provide the license for it so that it won't cost you any money. You do NOT need to purchase a subscription for Adobe applications.
Some students take Film as their 3rd elective class and use the following:
- Custom built PCs more capable of handling 4k video. These PCs are NOT available for check-out to use at home.
- Adobe Creative Cloud Applications mainly Premiere Pro and After Effects for video editing. Check your Freestyle email on instructions on how to get the Adobe Creative Cloud Applications for home computers. Install the software on your home computer and MVLA can provide the license for it so that it won't cost you any money. You do NOT need to purchase a subscription for Adobe applications.
- DSLR cameras (either Canon R7 or R10 which has 4K video capability)
- Tascam DR-40 portable recorder for film audio.
- Various lights, tripods, mics, booms, etc. can be checked out for on location film projects.
If you wish to OPTIONALLY purchase your own hardware, here's some information for you that will ensure your computer will be sufficient for Freestyle projects.
- For either PC or Mac computers to purchase for yourself, the above applications work best with 16 GB or more of RAM. The more RAM, the better.
- Any Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, MacBook or iMac running Mac OS 13 or higher. Silicon M MacBook Air laptops with a lot of memory might be powerful enough to run applications for Freestyle projects. The Apple Education Store has some deals for students.
- Note that laptops, in general, can cause neck fatigue when constantly looking down at the screen instead of looking straight ahead. Neck pain ranks 4th in the leading causes of disability worldwide. Read this article.
- Windows PCs - Contact Mr. Taylor or Mr. Cho about a PC recommendation.
- Students can also sign-up and use LinkedIn Learning for video based tutorials
Here's what is provided for you at Freestyle. You don't have to get any of it for yourself.
