What do you think about the AS10 main characters?

[Víctor Paredes]

Probably you don't know, but in AS10 I was in charge of the creation of the main characters. I worked with two very talented illustrators who drew the characters and after several sessions of brainstorming and feedback, we got the final characters.
We tried to make each character on a different style and we didn't give us any limit to the creation. Many times I didn't how I could rig some characters features, but fortunately always got some tricky solution. The important idea was to give the sensation Anime Studio can make almost any style of animation (of course, that "sensation" is based in a fact I'm very confident on).
I specially enjoyed tracing and rigging the monster and the carnivorous plant. Both of them were very hard to visualize in therms of rigging. For example, the monster's rotating face or the plant weird skeleton parenting were born after a series of trial and error.

Anyway, I never receive any feedback about the characters and the way they were rigged. And it's normal, of course, but today I'm curious about what do you think about that five random characters, what you did like, what you didn't, what would you improve or simplify, etc.

I will really appreciate any feedback. Thanks.

[slowtiger]

I still use 9.5, so I can't comment on the quality of the rigs. The designs are beautiful.

But I fear 99% of AS users never reach an artistic level where they would appreciate these styles.

[Dodgy]

I think they are awesome. They really do show off the abilities and variations in style achievable in AS, certainly feature quality. Definitely a huge step up and I am very impressed with all of them. Good work Selgin!

[Nicohk92]

They're really really cool. A big step up from previous versions in my opinion. I particularly like the carnivorous plant. I hope it's ok if I use it modified for something. Let me know otherwise please.

[tut]

I must tell you that the plant in particular was very inspirational. Studying the rigging of this character opened my mind to what is possible when you think outside the box. Many of the doodles I draw don't have arms and legs so that was very helpful. Keep having fun and thank you very much for your commitment to this great program.

P.S. Just wanted to add that I loved the video you did for Miss Tijoux! That album has been in regular rotation here since last summer, so I was very excited to see you working with such a lovely artist.

[Telemacus]

I thought the characters were outstanding, best rigging (including 3d face turns!) ever for any AS characters that we've seen so far.

However, in my case, being a beginner at AS, I found that I couldn't use them much for my own projects because of the clothing style, body type and so on. (I mean, I could, but lots of changes would be needed)
I wish AS spent a little (actually, a lot!) more effort on improving the character design engine, which I find very limited at present...

[Rainer]

Hi Victor, the characters are great, but I think some of yours are even better. I wonder if it might be more attractive to potential users if you showed some of the past AS characters that have been a success in TV spots etc that people might recognise and relate to.

[Waan]

I love them, and have spent a fair few hours pulling them apart to see how they were rigged, and have used the monster and plant characters as background characters for a small animation I did for my churches kids week in. I especially like the Pirate Female character though, she is an interesting character

[Greenlaw]

Those characters and rigs are beautiful! More importantly, the rigs and techniques were very informative (as were you) when we developed the rigs for our recent animation production. (Sorry, don't have clearance to show it publicly yet. Maybe soon.)

Thanks to you and your crew, these files got us quickly up-to-speed with new key ASP 10 features and inspired us to come up with some new tricks of our own.

G.

[pihms]

The characters are well designed and rigged. These provide a great example of what can be done with this professional animation software. I believe it inspires and provides insight on how to use the program. More examples like this, in addition, I believe would help to promote the software especially to the novices looking at getting into animation, or even those that don't have the artistic skills but would really like to create something that has a quality feel to it.

[aongus]

I love those characters, and the fact that there is a range of styles from naturalistic to abstract, and from characters created with an outline to those that have only a fill. The rigs are amazing, and hugely helpful. They really make the case for Anime Studio being a fully professional solution. I hope Smith Micro commissions many more!

[aongus]

A suggestion: could Smith Micro set up a webinar where you would talk us through the rigging in some of the characters (or any new characters in future versions)? This would be helpful for understanding the principles of rigging in Anime Studio, and applying them to our own work.

[Greenlaw]

I agree!

In a thread I posted last year, I had asked about how the fake interactive collision effect in the skirt was rigged in the Pirate Girl example and Victor was gracious enough to explain the technique. This was a huge help for our project at the time because we had a similar need for 'fake collision' effect in several characters.

I think many users would find it helpful if tips like that accompanied the rigs, either in a .pdf or video form.

G.

[jahnocli]

Don't have version 10, so can't comment on the rigs, but characters are very nicely designed, all very different from each other, and, of course, move in compelling and convincing ways. Great work, Victor, as usual!

[lwaxana]

Love the designs, love the rigging. You did an amazing job! I see why Smith Micro wants to show a variety of character types to market the software, but I think that many users would prefer to see a set of well rigged vector based human characters that are stylistically consistent so that they can be used in animated stories rather than primarily for study/tests/demonstration. I think premade characters are half the fun of a rig based animation software. But if the characters don't look like they belong in the same story together, I'd imagine they're much less likely to be used.