I have loved animation from a very early age. I was lucky to spend time at animation nights as a child, where we watched crazy old cartoons from Canada, Poland and Eastern Europe on a noisy old spool projector. I also adored Road Runner with his Nemesis Wil E Coyote, Jungle Book, and the British kids classic Dangermouse. My list of favourite cartoons could go on for hours given enough time for nostalgia. I have loved animation from a very early age. I was lucky to spend time at animation nights as a child, where we watched crazy old cartoons from Canada, Poland and Eastern Europe on a noisy old spool projector. I also adored Road Runner with his Nemesis Wil E Coyote, Jungle Book, and the British kids classic Dangermouse. My list of favourite cartoons could go on for hours given enough time for nostalgia.Then I lived in Bristol in the UK, which is the home of Aardman Animations and lots of hot young creative companies. You can't fail to be touched by the hand of claymation and animation if you live in Bristol long enough, and the Aardman Oscars turn up in the strangest of places. The last time I was at their riverside studios, I found one of the golden statues gracing the toilet cistern.

Luckily I married Chelfyn who is an animator, and now make animation weekly on our g33k show. Being an Animatrix is probably one of the most creatively fulfilling things I have ever done, and the tools are getting easier to use all the time. Professional level animators should look to a great application coming out of the free software movement called Blender. It was used to make Elephant's Dream & more recently Big Buck Bunny, who we were lucky to interview on the g33k show recently. You can hear what Big Buck Bunny has to say about being a professional RADA trained thespian.

Blender is fine for animators who have been using other professional tools like 3d Studio Max or Maya for years, but if you are bubbling over with ideas, the new wave of web tools are a great place to start. I met the project team behind Christchurch animation company Zencub3d at the XMedia Lab in Wellington this year. Their simple 3D animation tool which is a great place to start for young animators wanting to learn some of the techniques used by professional animators, such as like lighting, camera angles, and character planning.

GoAnimate is a super simple on line animation tool that lets you create animations online. They have pre-made toons of famous faces like Barack Obama & Hilary Clinton. All the major USA politicians are already there, creating a golden opportunity for some political satire around the elections this years. They say, 'from inspiration to animation, create and share animations in mere minutes'.

Scratch is from the MIT Lab and designed to help young people (ages 8 and up) develop 21st century learning skills. As they create Scratch projects, young people learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also gaining a deeper understanding of the process of design. Animasher also looks like fun. They simply state - 'this is the place where you create animations'. It's more a mashup app, than a tool for creating slick 3D animations, but that's the fun of having a range of tools and styles to play with. You can try out your ideas in a few different places.

To keep up to date with the newest animation tools and to make a living from your work, Aniboom teams up with the creators to produce and monetize original animations and cartoons on Web, Mobile, TV and Gaming platforms. I'm keeping a Flowgram of New Animation Tools up to date at the g33k show, and will add more tools as I find them. You can also listen to my podcast on New Animation Tools from Radio Wammo on Kiwi FM.

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As well as being TBI's strategist & columnist, MsBehaviour is Producer & Presenter of the g33k show, Fridays, 8 pm on Alt TV. She is also Managing Directrix of Mohawk Media, which produces internet TV, 3D Animation & Machinima.

21/08/08