My love-hate relationship with Anime Studio Pro experienced a breakthrough, possibly connected with the improvements of V6, or more likely, it was just time to break the ice with this cantankerous application.
Truth is, for a long time, I've conceived of my film as 2D art informed by 3D modeling. As far as I know, this is how Japanese anime is done.
I've been toying with bitmap-based morphing for years, but it's a dead end, and vector-based is really the only solution.
CrazyTalk can generate my some of footage with a look like ASP, but it doesn't handle profile views, and I still have to clean up my video from iClone, anyway.
Mastering both 2D and 3D applications gives me the kind of skillset I need to produce quality footage.
For what it's worth, I am still not comfortable with ASP's Styles management (so called). I am bypassing it altogether by creating seed objects which are duplicated and sculpted to create each new shape I need. Maybe later I'll warm up to Styles, too.
The animation is powered by a smile Action. Therefore, next step: blend morphs!
PS I have no complaints about drawing in Anime Studio. People often say that they prefer it to Illustrator, etc. Well, so do I! Drawing in Anime Studio is GREAT.
It seems likely to me that Styles management (so called) is the thing which drives animators away.
Want to know the ultimate irony? I'm going to a local presentation by Toon Boom this very night, with an offer of a huge discount on Animate. I'll be attending, but I don't expect to switch.
