This is for my thread, so on the Helping With Flash thread of mine I named a crap load of programs that can help, instead of posting a bunch in the thread I am going to post them in here.

After Effects
Adobe After Effects is a digital motion graphics and compositing software published by Adobe Systems. It can be used in film and video post-production.

After Effects uses a system of layers organized on a timeline to create composites from still images and motion footage, such as video files. Properties such as position and opacity can be controlled independently for each layer, and each layer can have effects applied. After Effects is often described as the "Photoshop of video", because its flexibility allows compositors to alter video in any way they see fit, as Photoshop does for images.

Although After Effects can create images of its own, it is generally used to composite material from other sources to make moving graphics (also known as motion graphics). For example, with a picture of a space ship and a picture of a star background, After Effects could be used to place the ship in front of the background and animate it to move across the stars.

Each picture or movie is layered on a timeline, in a similar way to a Non-Linear Editing System (NLE). However, one difference between After Effects and NLEs is that After Effects is layer-oriented, and NLEs are generally track-oriented. This means that in After Effects, each individual media object (video clip, audio clip, still image, etc.) occupies its own track. However, NLEs use a system where individual media objects can occupy the same track as long as they do not overlap in time. This track-oriented system is more suited for editing and can keep project files much more concise. The layer-oriented system that After Effects adopts is suited for extensive effects work and keyframing. Although other compositing packages--especially ones that employ tree or node workflows, such as Apple Shake--are better suited to manage large volumes of objects within a composite, After Effects is able to somewhat counter the clutter by selectively hiding layers (using the Shy switch) or by grouping them into precompositions. (After Effects does feature a Flowchart panel, which is similar to tree or node graph, but this view of a composition is mostly for display purposes and is not fully functional.)

Adobe After Effects CS3The main interface consists of several panels (windows in versions prior to After Effects 7.0). Three of the most commonly used panels are the Project panel, the Composition panel, and the Timeline panel. The Project panel acts as a bin to import stills, video, and audio footage items. Footage items in the Project panel are used in the Timeline panel, where layer order and timing can be adjusted. The items visible at the current time marker are displayed in the Composition panel.

After Effects integrates with other Adobe software titles such as Illustrator, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and Encore.

Encore DVD
Adobe Encore (previously Adobe Encore DVD) is a DVD authoring software tool produced by Adobe Systems and targeted at semi-professional video producers. Files are automatically transcoded to MPEG-2 video and Dolby Digital audio. DVD menus can be created and edited in Adobe Photoshop using special layering techniques. With the new release, it will be sold along with Adobe Premiere Pro CS3.

3D Studio Max

3ds Max(also called 3d supermax) is a full-featured 3D graphics application developed by Autodesk Media and Entertainment. It runs on the Win32 and Win64 platforms. As of July 2007, 3ds Max is in its Tenth version generation.

The original 3D Studio product was created for the DOS platform by the Yost Group and published by Autodesk. Autodesk purchased the product at its second release mark and internalized development entirely over the next two releases. After 3D Studio Release 4, the product was ported to the Windows NT platform, and originally named "3D Studio MAX." This version was also originally created by the Yost Group. It was released by Kinetix, which was at that time Autodesk's division of media and entertainment. Later, the product name was changed to "3ds max" (all lower case) to better comply with the naming conventions of Discreet, a Montreal-based software company which Autodesk had purchased. At release 8, the product was again branded with the Autodesk logo, and the name was again changed to "3ds Max" (upper and lower case).
3ds Max is one of the most widely-used off the shelf 3D animation programs by content creation professionals. It has strong modeling capabilities, a flexible plugin architecture and a long heritage on the Microsoft Windows platform. It is mostly used by video game developers, TV commercial studios and architectural visualisation studios. It is also used for movie effects and movie previsualisation.

In addition to its modeling and animation tools, the latest version of 3ds Max also features advanced shaders (such as ambient occlusion and subsurface scattering), dynamic simulation, particle systems, radiosity, normal map creation and rendering, global illumination, an intuitive and fully-customizable user interface, its own scripting language and much more. There is also a plethora of specialized renderer plugins that can be bought separately, such as V-Ray, Brazil r/s , Maxwell, FryRender and finalRender.

Polygon modeling
Polygon modeling is more common with game design than any other modeling technique as the very specific control over individual polygons allows for extreme optimization. Also, it is relatively faster to calculate in realtime. Usually, the modeller begins with one of the 3ds max primitives, and using such tools as bevel, extrude, and polygon cut, adds detail to and refines the model. Versions 4 and up feature the Editable Polygon object, which simplifies most mesh editing operations, and provides subdivision smoothing at customizable levels.
Version 7 introduced the edit poly modifier, which allows the use of the tools available in the editable polygon object to be used higher in the modifier stack (i.e. on top of other modifications).
3ds Max is also supported by advanced 3rd party modeling tools, such as Orionflame, which allows for more freedom and ease by introducing new tools to the base package.
NURBS or Nonuniform rational B-Spline
A more advanced alternative to polygons, it gives a smoothed out surface that eliminates the straight edges of a polygon model. NURBS is a mathematically exact representation of freeform surfaces like those used for car bodies and ship hulls, which can be exactly reproduced at any resolution whenever technically needed.
Surface tool/Editable patch object
Surface tool was originally a 3rd party plugin, but Kinetix acquired and included this feature since version 3.0. The surface tool is for creating common 3ds max's splines, and then applying a modifier called "surface." This modifier makes a surface from every 3 or 4 vertices in a grid. This is often seen as an alternative to 'Mesh' or 'Nurbs' modeling, as it enables a user to interpolate curved sections with straight geometry (for example a hole through a box shape). Although the surface tool is a useful way to generate parametrically accurate geometry, it lacks the 'surface properties' found in the similar Edit Patch modifier, which enables a user to maintain the original parametric geometry whilst being able to adjust "smoothing groups" between faces.

[edit] Modeling with predefined primitives
This is a basic method, in which one models something using only boxes, spheres, cones, cylinders and other predefined objects from the list of Predefined Standard Primitives or a list of Predefined Extended Primitives. One may also apply boolean operations, including subtract, cut and connect. For example, one can make two spheres which will work as blobs that will connect with each other. This is called blob-mesh modeling, or meta-balls.

Lightwave

LightWave (or, more properly, LightWave 3D) is a computer graphics program for 3D modeling, animating and rendering. The original program was shipped with the Video Toaster, an expansion card for the Commodore Amiga 2000 computer. It was later sold as a standalone program for AmigaOS until the mid 1990s, when it was ported to the Windows, Mac OS 9, Mac OS X and SGI's IRIX operating systems. The rendering engine, ScreamerNet has also been ported to Linux platforms.

LightWave has long been known for its excellent rendering abilities and unusual user interface (for example, icons are not used; instead functions are all given descriptive titles).

LightWave was one of the first high profile industry standard 3D packages featuring a built-in radiosity render engine, complete with a complex light calculation model for support of caustics.

Some functions within LightWave are multi-threaded, which means that those components can simultaneously use multiple processors in the same machine when performing complex calculations.

Programmers can expand LightWave's capabilities using an included SDK and also a special scripting language called LScript. This SDK is based on the powerful C language and almost anything can be created, from a custom shader to a different scene format exporter. LightWave itself includes dozens of free plugins and many more can be obtained from different developers around the globe.

In 1988, Allen Hastings created a rendering and animation program called Videoscape, and his friend Stuart Ferguson created a complementary 3D modeling program called Modeler, both sold by Aegis Software. It is these two programs that would evolve into what would eventually be known as LightWave 3D.

NewTek planned to incorporate Videoscape and Modeler into its video editing suite, Video Toaster. According to Hastings, NewTek originally intended to call the new 3D program 'NewTek 3D Animation System for the Amiga.' Later, in December 1989, Hastings came up with the name 'LightWave 3D,' inspired by two of the high-end 3D packages of that time: Intelligent Light and Wavefront. In 1990, the Video Toaster suite was released, incorporating LightWave 3D, and running on the Commodore Amiga computer. At the time of its release, the Video Toaster was priced at $1499. Some critics in the industry noted that the feature set of Lightwave made it worth the price of the Video Toaster alone.

LightWave 3D has been available as a standalone application since 1994, and version 9.0 runs on Mac OS X and Windows-based PC computers.

LightWave gained fame as the program used to create special effects for the Babylon 5, Star Trek Voyager and seaQuest DSV science fiction television series; the program was also utilized in the production of Titanic as well as the recent Battlestar Galactica TV-series, Sin City and Star Wars movies.

In 2001, a rift developed between NewTek management and a group headed by Vice President of 3D Development Brad Peebler, which included original developers Allen Hastings and Stuart Ferguson. For the second time in its history NewTek faced a major walkout, this time with most of its key LightWave engineers and programmers leaving the company. After months of public confusion, the breakaway group formed a new company, Luxology. They have since shipped their own 3D package, modo.

NewTek and LightWave have been honored with Emmy Awards since 1993 and won their 10th and 11th awards in 2004. In 2003 NewTek was awarded an Emmy for technology for its major impact on the television industry.

Now in its ninth version, its market ranges from hobbyists (because of its low price point) to high-end deployment in video games, television and cinema. The company recently shipped its 64-bit version of LightWave 3D (part of the fifth free update of LightWave 3D 8), and was featured heavily in a keynote speech by Bill Gates at WinHEC 2005.

LightWave 3D 9 was officially launched on 13 July 2006. It was in a period of public beta testing from February to July 2006. New features include a node-based surface editor and Adaptive Pixel Subdivision (APS) that will allow the mesh to vary in complexity dependent on multiple user-defined criteria including distance from the camera, maximising rendering efficiency. Many improvements made on the render engine to speed up the rendering process. Also there are many improvements made on the Modeler, including true edge-weighting and implementation of the Catmull-Clark subdivision surface algorithm.

Maya is a high-end 3D computer graphics and 3D modeling software package originally developed by Alias Systems Corporation, but now owned by Autodesk as part of the Media and Entertainment division. Autodesk acquired the software in October 2005 upon purchasing Alias. Maya is used in the film and TV industry, as well as for computer and video games.

In 2003, Maya (then owned by Alias) won an Academy Award "for scientific and technical achievement", citing use "on nearly every feature using 3-D computer-generated images

Maya is a popular, proprietary integrated node-based 3D software suite, evolved from Alias PowerAnimator. The software is released in two versions: Maya Complete (the less powerful package) and Maya Unlimited. Maya Personal Learning Edition (PLE) is available at no cost for non-commercial use, although rendered images are watermarked.

Maya was developed by Alias. It was originally released for the IRIX operating system, and subsequently ported to the Microsoft Windows, Linux and Mac OS X operating systems. IRIX support was discontinued after the release of version 6.5. When Autodesk acquired Alias in October 2005, they continued Maya development. The latest version, 8.5, was released in January 2007.

An important feature of Maya is its openness to third-party software, which can strip the software completely of its standard appearance and, using only the kernel, can transform it into a highly customized version of the software. Apart from its intrinsic power and flexibility, this feature in itself made Maya appealing to large studios which tend to write custom code for their productions using the provided software development kit.

A Tcl-like powerful, cross-platform scripting language called Maya Embedded Language (MEL) is provided not only as a scripting language, but as means to customize Maya's core functionality (much of the environment and tools are written in the language). Additionally, user interactions are implemented and recorded as MEL scripting code which users can store on a toolbar, allowing animators to add functionality without experience in C or C++ programming and compilers, though that option is provided with the software development kit. Support for Python scripting was added in version 8.5.

The core of Maya itself is written in C++[1].

Project files, including all geometry and animation data, are stored as sequences of MEL operations which can be optionally saved as a 'human readable' file (.ma, for Maya ASCII), editable in any text editor outside of the Maya environment which allows for a tremendous level of flexibility when working with external tools.

A pie menu called Hotbox provides instant access to a majority of features in Maya at the press of a key.

Poser

Poser is a 3D rendering software package for the posing, animating and rendering of 3D polymesh human and animal figures. Akin to a virtual photography studio, Poser allows the user to load actors, props, lighting and cameras for still and animated renderings. Natively using a subset of the Alias object (OBJ) file format and a text-based markup for content files, Poser comes with a basic library of human, animal, robotic, and cartoon figures. Poser also includes poses, hair pieces, props, textures, hand gestures and facial expressions. As Poser does not allow for original modeling of objects, a large community market of merchants and artists creating, selling and marketing third-party Poser content emerged.

Poser is available in English, Japanese, German and French for both Windows and Macintosh platforms.

The current version, 7.0, was released on December 11, 2006.[1]

Bryce
Bryce is a 3D modeling, rendering and animation program specializing in fractal landscapes. The name is taken from Bryce Canyon - a rugged region with many of the same landscapes that were first simulated with the software.[1]

The original Bryce software arose from work with fractal geometry to create realistic computer images of mountain ranges and coastlines. An initial set of fractal based programs were developed by Ken Musgrave (who later created MojoWorld) a student of Benoît Mandelbrot, and extended by Eric Wenger. Wenger later met and worked with software artist Kai Krause to design a basic user interface. The first commercial version, Bryce 1.0, appeared in 1994 for the Macintosh.

Bryce 2.0, shipped in 1996, included much beyond the original notion of creating a realistic mountain range. These included independent light sources, complex atmospheric effects, the addition of primitive forms with Boolean methods to combine them, and a revamped Texture Editor. Bryce 2.0 was also ported to the Windows platform, although the first stable version, 2.1, was not released until 1997.

The ability to animate a scene was added (in a stable form) with the cross-platform Bryce 3D (version 3.1) in 1997. A "camera object" unseen in the final image acted as the observer. The camera can be held in one place for a single image, or sent on a trajectory with images being rendered at many locations. The collection of images created along the camera's trajectory are combined to create a realistic animation simulating a journey through a dynamic world.

In 1999 Bryce 4.0 was released with major improvements in the handling of atmospheres and skies, textures and also in the import/export of objects. But in 2000 Bryce was purchased by Corel Corporation.

In 2001 Corel released version 5 of Bryce, which included several new features, like Tree Lab and metaballs. Soon followed a patch to version 5.01, which fixed some bugs and added a few undocumented features. Unfortunately, that was all Corel did with Bryce, leaving it on shelves and ignoring the requests for new features. To the growing consternation of its users, Bryce was apparently dead.

However, in 2004 the software was sold again, to DAZ Productions.

In 2005, DAZ finally released Bryce 5.5 which included the DAZ|Studio Character plugin. This integration between DAZ's application for the manipulation of 3D models, DAZ|Studio, and Bryce allowed users to import content from Studio and Poser, complete with all materials including transparencies, directly into Bryce thus making it easier to have human figures in Bryce scenes.

In October 2006, DAZ released Bryce 6.0 and has released an update (6.1), this includes a Mac Intel compatible update. New features include animation import, support for dual-processor systems as well as hyper-threading, random replicate tool, advanced terrain editing, HDRI support and other tweaks. The interface remained largely the same, but with a green tint to it, and different buttons in the create pallete.

Combustion
No info available.

Audio:

Acid
No info.

Fruity Loops

FL Studio (formerly Fruity Loops) is a digital audio workstation, developed by Didier Dambrin (also known as 'Gol'), lead programmer of Image-Line Software. Music is created by recording and mixing audio and/or MIDI data together to create a song, which can then be saved to the program's native .FLP (Fruity Loops Project) format. Songs can be exported to a Microsoft WAV or MP3 file compatible with most media players. As the developers like to say, you will be creating wav, mp3 or midi songs or loops only minutes after launching it.

FL Studio is a pattern-based music sequencer, which allows the artist to create songs in pieces (patterns) using the Step Sequencer and the Piano Roll view, then merge those pieces together using the Playlist window. The Effects Panel provides access to a wide range of software effects that can be automated for dynamic sweeps, rolling bass lines and texture changes.

The program is especially well known within the hobbyist music community as a relatively low-cost, user-friendly platform for the creation of hip hop, electronica and dance music, although the complete version contains a sufficient amount of features for handling the production of songs in many different genres.

Soundforge

Sony Sound Forge, formerly known as Sonic Foundry Sound Forge, is a digital audio editing and creation suite aimed at the professional as well as the semi-professional market.

A limited version sold as Sound Forge Audio Studio provides an inexpensive entry-level audio editor; it was formerly known as Sonic Foundry's Sound Forge LE.

I hope this all helped.

If you have any further questions feel free to email me: luke.oliver191@hotmail.com