new user

brettw · Post by **brettw** » Mon Dec 13, 2010 6:51 pm

hi all---

I picked up AS7 Pro during Amazon's crazy black friday sale for $75 and have been hooked since.

for the past few years, i've been going back and forth about which package would suit my needs (AS, Toon Boom etc.) and am finding that AS does the trick for the most part. it's very easy to get grips with.

PARKER · Post by **PARKER** » Mon Dec 13, 2010 7:09 pm

You have choosen the correct software, welcome to the forum.
Here some videotutorials i think you can find useful since you are begining:

Tracing cartoon:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWIWIHyA7qk

Drawing form scratch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8TQmEVcSes

Regards

brettw · Post by **brettw** » Mon Dec 13, 2010 8:59 pm

Hi Parker---

yes, i've watched your videos. i think i've watched just about every video on youtube and vimeo. Smith Micro's videos are near useless, but thankfully there are quite a few good user videos.

Mozbo · Post by **Mozbo** » Tue Dec 14, 2010 1:28 am

Check out the series by AnimationFun101.
They are extremely helpful!
(I got ASP7 with the BlackFriday deal too!)

PARKER · Post by **PARKER** » Tue Dec 14, 2010 8:40 am

Mozbo wrote:Check out the series by AnimationFun101.
They are extremely helpful!
(I got ASP7 with the BlackFriday deal too!)

I didnt know that youtube channel on AS, i just checked it, it looks great.

brettw · Post by **brettw** » Tue Dec 14, 2010 9:14 am

AnimationFun's vids are great, for sure.

lots of crazy deals on Smith Micro stuff that weekend.

PARKER · Post by **PARKER** » Tue Dec 14, 2010 10:33 am

That guy explains particles really well.

brettw · Post by **brettw** » Tue Dec 14, 2010 12:08 pm

I basically picked up AS7 because character animation in After Effects is a bit awkward. everything i do will ultimately end up in After Effects, but i can do a bunch of things faster and more effortlessly in AS7. it even has similar puppet warping (yay). switch layers and IK make it worth the price alone.

Does anyone know a way to maintain transparency on export? I'm just going to do character animations in AS and it would be great if I could pre key it so there's no background.

Mozbo · Post by **Mozbo** » Tue Dec 14, 2010 12:16 pm

The only way to maintain transparency is to export as .png.
But it seems a bit odd to insist that everything you do will end up back in After Effects.

Once you learn the software, you may well find that you don't need After Effects...

PARKER · Post by **PARKER** » Tue Dec 14, 2010 1:03 pm

brettw wrote:Does anyone know a way to maintain transparency on export? I'm just going to do character animations in AS and it would be great if I could pre key it so there's no background.

You can export as .png and also if you export as jpeg or other format with the background you can get rid of it usign the masking image tool.

brettw · Post by **brettw** » Tue Dec 14, 2010 1:53 pm

no, after effects is king of many many things. lighting, camera, effects.

its easy enough to mask out the background in after effects, it would be great if i didn't have to. no biggie.