My problem with animestudio

[mystd]

I've tested many different animation softwares but pretty much only Toon Boom, Flash/Animate and Anime Studio are worth mentioning. In my opinion: Animate has a good price is comfortable to use but has very outdated tools. Toon Boom is comfortable to use has good tools but is way too expensive. Anime Studio has some great animation tools but the workflow is bad, it's not intuitive, there are too many excptions/hurdles that make working with anime studio clunky. It is cheap(ish) with 300$ but I could get Animate for 15 to 20$ a month which I personally dislike though. I work slow and it would get very pricy. Toon Boom would become an enormous ammount that is pretty much too hefty to pay for startups.

My problem is I really don't like using anime studio but I pretty much have no other option and can only hope that it will get better with updates.
Using Anime Studio feels like I'm using a free animation tool in its beta phase with the exception that it costs 300$ and I'm really not fond of that. How do you guys cope with anime studios workflow? Or is it just me having problems with it?

[jahnocli]

Well, you raise a lot of questions there. Firstly, although the full price of AS Pro is around $300, there are several times in a year when it is offered at a discount price for a few days. I got my copy of Anime Studio Pro 11 for $99, which I consider to be an absolute bargain.
So you could buy an old copy of AS Pro on eBay, and use it for practice, while you keep your eyes open for a discount 'window', if you are worried about costs.
Secondly, as an individual hobbyist user (I'm guessing you are the same?), I worry a lot less about workflow and a lot more about what the software can do. And it turns out that it can offer almost everything I'm interested in apart from interactivity. So, despite its quirks, I salute the developers and backers of this software, because there's nothing else out there with this range of features for the price.
I remember the reservations I had about using Anime Studio many years ago (when it was called Moho). I still feel uncomfortable using AS to sketch out any preparatory drawing, or use it for freehand drawing of any kind. But that's not what it was designed for.
For me, it boils down to two approaches; seeing these quirks as problems, so you have to suck it up if you want to use the software -- or embracing the software's capabilities, and using them as part of a problem-solving skillset.
Good luck, anyway, whichever way you jump!

[slowtiger]

You should decide which kind of animation you want to do before buying any software, and it's also important how much experience you have in animation.

Animation software basically comes in two flavours: frame by frame, and keyframe/tween. Today most software is a mix of these two approaches, although each can only do one of them really good, IMO. Then there's vector vs. bitmap, which is more of a stylistic decision.

You have to ask yourself:
- can I draw?
- am I happy with drawing a lot?
- can I animate?
If the answer is Yes to all three, you might get happy with any frame by frame software: ToonBoom, Flash (urgh ...), TVPaint.

If the answer is No to all three, you might look for some inexpensive/free FBF software to lean and train.

If you answer yes no yes, you might want to try the keyframe/tween approach. Flash, Anime Studio, any 3D animation software.

[mystd]

I can draw but not like a professional.
I am not happy with drawing everything frame by frame
I can animate a bit (from all the tutorials and software testing I've done till now)

I currently am a hobbyist but I want to make a living with my own animations. I kind of am poor and a slow worker I might get faster in a year or two but I'll never be as fast as others.

I want to make vector bone/cutout animations (with bitmap texture if possible).

@jahnocli So you're saying I pretty much should not use AS drawing tools and just use the animation tools?
When I think back my problems kind of all originated from using the drawing tools in AS.

[slowtiger]

This might be a solution - or not.

Uhm, are you sure you can compete with all the animators out there? There are literally thousands who have a degree from some animation school, and only a fraction of them work in animation or make a living from that. Add to that even more hobbyists out there, some talented, some more not so, trying to get a foot in the business.

There are lots of people animating on a professional level who can't make a living from that. Unless you have a very rare talent or a very unique approach to your stories it's unlikely that you join the ranks of the happy few. I'm not discouraging you, I just want to prevent you from unrealistic expectations.

[mystd]

That is no problem what I lack in drawing/animation skill (which I gradually improve/aquire) I make up with creativity and ideas. I'm already at the bottom so even if it fails I've got nothing to loose and only experience to gain.

I've tried importing an svg but I got this (left is the original and right one is in AS):

http://imgur.com/rKcd0hh

So not using the drawing tools is not an option.

I then tried removing/welding the points: https://i.gyazo.com/70cf4c028b48f474cf6 ... f9ae1d.gif

It worked at first but then AS stopped allowing me to remove points with the delete key. And then that showed up.

Is this bad luck on my part or is this normal for AS? I really have no Idea how ppl work with AS.

[slowtiger]

Think of cutting out shapes of coloured paper and stack them to create a character. It's not important whether points are welded or everything is one shape, it's only important whether it looks right in the render.

If you already did some characters with image layers, this gives you a good idea. You will work faster when you have at least as much shapes as you may have images. You can have each shape on its own layer, or combine them to create body parts (recommended).

The effect you had happens whenever you try to overlap a shape with itself.

[jahnocli]

@mystd - I'm still happiest doing my drawing away from AS, and using it to animate. I do use AS to *build* images, but I don't regard that as a drawing process, more like welding stuff together! It's often the only way to do something; in effect, tracing around a reference image. I don't know how 'normal' this is as work practice -- I'm sure there are dozens of ways of using the software. You just have to find one you are comfortable with.

[mystd]

I'm more the fan off paperless digital drawing. It seems most of my problems I had with AS have been because I'm not accustomed to AS options, now that know that I can't draw when I'm not on frame 0 and I've "merge strokes" enabled a lot of my problems with the drawing tool are gone. It's very compfy to draw now and as long as the bug I had with the missing content doesent happen again, I'm good with continuing to use AS.

I really recommend enabling drawing on all frames not just frame 0 this was driving me crazy and almost made me "rage-quit" AS. I was really close to deinstalling it.

[Greenlaw]

I use Anime Studio, Harmony and After Effects at my workplace for TV animation. Each program has it's strengths and weaknesses, and I often use a combination of these three programs. But personally, I prefer the workflow in ASP and tend to do a large portion of my work with it these days.

Drawing in ASP with the 'click and drag' method isn't really that difficult, although admittedly it can be tedious for complex shapes. The pay-off is that the resulting shapes are highly optimized for proper bones deformations and animation.

Alternatively, ASP 11 has some nice freehand tools too, but there is less control over the point placement and optimization. These tools are generally the preferred tool for Frame By Frame animation where you're typically not going to be deforming the drawing, but sometimes I'll use the freehand tools for drawing complex shapes for bones animation too. In the latter case, I typically process the shapes using one of the two point reduction commands, or manually 'erasing' points using the Delete Edge brush in Points mode.

I also often use images imported from other programs, generally Photoshop. The imports are sometimes rigged and deformed directly and sometimes used as fill textures for vectors. So you're not limited to using ASP for drawing, you can use other programs to get very different looks.

Usually, the workflow we have for any animation production is completely 'paperless', that is, all our assets are drawn digitally in a paint program or photographed. ASP is well suited to this. As a matter of fact, with a few exceptions, ASP can import media from a wider range of sources than many other animation packages.

It sounds like you're more interested in Frame By Frame animation? This aspect is ASP was only recently introduced so it's a little limited for now. At work, I mainly use it for fx animation, like water, fire, lava, wind, etc. It works well enough for short animations (I've used it for some minor portions of characters too) but I wouldn't rely on it yet for major sequences. That said, the ASP developers are serious about improving the FBF tools, so you should revisit the feature in a future release.

In the meantime, if FBF is your sole interest, you may want to look into another program like CACANi or Retas. Even Clip Studio Paint (a.k.a., Manga Studio) now offers basic FBF tools, and the drawing tools in that program are excellent! (It's what I use for all of my comics work.)

[mystd]

FBF looks awesome but it's too much work for one person, not what I'm looking for. I'm going for cutout/bone animation but I'll try to make it look as good as I can. I just like to draw by hand and then adjust by reshaping, removing and adding points. It's faster and makes the art look better, it gives it a bit character. I did tracing with the point tool/pen tool but I dislike how it looks, the art gets this "mechanical" look. I really like Harmonys drawing tools but AS are sufficient. Mixing software is no option for me it's too expensive. It's nice to read how the pros work though.

Since you mentioned that you work in TV animation what have you been working on?

[Greenlaw]

For NDA reasons, I can't go into details about Dreamworks productions but it's probably okay to say the team I'm on creates sequences for Puss in Boots, All Hail King Julien, Dawn of the Croods, and other original shows for Netflix. Just so there is no confusion, we actually work with many different software packages there. ASP happens to be a personal favorite but I also like working in After Effects, Harmony, and other 2D/3D animation/compositing packages.

For personal short films (non-DWA) that I make in our home studio, my wife and I like to work with ASP, LightWave, Fusion, Photoshop and After Effects. I'm happy to go into detail about these productions. The big project we're working on now is finishing the Brudders music video--this one is in 3D though, not 2D. I've learned a lot of neat tricks with ASP since the time I created Scareplane and HLF, so I'm itching to make a more ambitious 2D 'action movie' using ASP after we're done with the music video. I also use Clip Studio Paint EX to draw the Brudders webcomic every week.

[Greenlaw]

If you're looking for productions done using ASP, you might also want to check out Puffin Rock on Netflix. This show is created by Cartoon Saloon in Ireland. My understanding is that Puffin Rock is completely animated using ASP and it looks terrific!

[synthsin75]

If you're looking for productions done using ASP,...

There's also Technotise.

[mystd]

Technotise & Puffin Rock look really good.

I still need some practice so I'll start off small.


@Greenlaw Wow that's a lot software you're using there o.O

I've looked trough your homepage a bit I like the comic stripes ^-^. Watched the The Brudders Music Video Teaser. The animation looks really good especially the leaves and hair must have been a lot of work. Are you making that animation for/with your daughter I've seen in the 3D printer video?