How many of you use scripts with Anime Studio Pro?

[heyvern]

I often think that many "non techy" users of ASP are missing out on some cool user added features because the scripting forum is in a totally different section and comes across as a mysterious "advanced" technique.

I am just curious how many people look in the scripting forum and use the scripts there.

I understand that Anime Studio standard doesn't have the option for using scripts. This question would apply mostly to Anime Studio Pro users. In some cases I understand that opening a file with an embedded script still works in AS but you just can't modify or add a new one. Does AS allow the addition of new scripted tools?

-vern

[slowtiger]

I don't have the need to use scripts. My style of work relies on animating with my own hands ...

[funksmaname]

YES! anyone with pro not using scripts needs a headcheck
I hardly use the core AS tools now with Fazeks updates... i am not a scripter, i dont think i could or, if we're honest, want to script myself... it takes a lot of dedication and knowledge. Id rather come up with ideas for scripts and stick to what i'm better at...

I cant stress enough how important scripts are!

Thanks to everyone in the scripting community - we bow at your feets.

------

edit (after reading slowtigers post): i tend to use new/improved tool scripts mostly rather than any 'automation' type scripts... its fair enough using your hands, but the tool updates are the difference between having thumbs or not.

[heyvern]

I don't have the need to use scripts. My style of work relies on animating with my own hands ...

Just to be fair, not all scripts involve "automating" the animation process or taking away the hands on approach.

Many scripts are just useful tools that can HELP you in doing that "hand" animation.

Point in case, the complete set of tools by Fazek. They have no impact on "animation", they only aide in moving and creating points and bones and layers.

I just started playing with his "polygon tool". That is fun and very useful. His add point tool has the ability to auto connect selected points. These are the same as "doing it by hand" but eliminate many steps in the process.

This is the type of "misunderstanding" I am trying to find out about and possibly correct.

-vern

[slowtiger]

Well, I just don't need polygons. *fg*

Of course the original tools could be improved a lot. But I tend to work with just what comes with the program - I don't like "hacks" I don't understand or could do myself.

[funksmaname]

Slowtiger - fair enougha bout the polygon tool - but:

Of course the original tools could be improved a lot

they HAVE been - thats the point Fazek has updated pretty much every original tool to make it do the same job but much easier with much more control! Thats what scripting is about imo!

With all due respect - its this sort of stuborness that makes people still use Macs over PCs, and Quark over InDesign...

[heyvern]

I don't like "hacks" I don't understand or could do myself.

Once again... not quite accurate.

The original tools in AS are "hacks" as well since they are created the same way. All the tools are scripts. The newer tools created by users are for improvements, fixes or added features.

I keep coming back to the same conclusion... some people don't understand the benefits of "scripts" in ASP or even understand that all of the tools are basically text files.

I'm not saying that you MUST USE SCRIPTS!!!! Not trying to "convert" you. I understand your position.

I just want to make sure that people understand that these aren't... "flakey hacks" or "buggy cheats"... in some cases if the tool or script is still in development there can be issues but that will be noted by the creator and those can be avoided. I have found similar issues with the original tools in ASP... and we can fix them.

The tools Fazek and others have created are as "solid" as the original tools... with some minor exceptions here and there.

I am pretty sure that some of the menu scripts installed WITH the application were actually written by users. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the custom tools available now don't end up in future versions as "standard".

So slowtiger, you would support these scripted features but only if they came with the installed version of ASP? Is it the "Stamp of Approval" that worries you? Or is the difficulty in installing them?

Some have suggested installing custom tools could be made easier... I have to agree.

-vern

[heyvern]

With all due respect - its this sort of stuborness that makes people still use Macs over PCs, and Quark over InDesign...

Hold on a minute there sparky!

I love my mac and you will have to pry the Apple Extended Keyboard from my cold dead hands!

Same goes for the PC keyboard though... but only because it's the same one. I use a KVM switch.



-vern

[slowtiger]

Yes, a complicated installation process is something which definitely keeps me from using a certain piece of software. I may be old-fashioned, but I think it is the damn job of any software manufacturer to provide a product which works right out of the box - that's what I pay for.

This is the reason why I can't use Papagayo any more - the last official version was buggy as hell, and the versions after that didn't came for the Mac. I definitely tried, but after wasting some days with trying to install libraries and new versions of script languages which weren't part of Mac OS I gave up, cursing a lot since I definitely need this program! A working version of Papagayo is much more useful for me than any scripts inside AS.

I just don't want to be bothered with tweaking functions on such a basic level. It takes too much time which can be spent more effectively in creative work. If I use a synthesizer, I create my own sound settings, but I don't want to program my own sound modules, or install dozens of them from different sources, only to find that they don't sound that different from each other. There's a certain level of complexity I can overview. Any more detail would be distracting. I prefer to focus that complex view onto the composition, not onto the arrangement of tools.

That said, I'm definitely not against any improvement of tools. But for me, put them just into the next version, thank you. I don't carve my own pencils, I don't weave my own T-shirts, I don't built my computer from separate parts.

[DK]

I will use scripts if they are REALLY handy, but I'm currently having a bad experience with the Draw/Split curve script for AS. It actually crashes AS...but not all the time which is weird but enough to enforce a sense of mistrust. This is very frustrating and it's not my system that's to blame. My setup is rock solid and has been for the last 3 years. Even so the experience is preventing me from using AS scripts on a more regular basis. It has driven home one good lesson though, and that's to well and truly save my file before any attempt at using them and I get paid good money to produce an animated TVC so it's insane on my half to take any risks above and beyond what I am positive that works.

D.K

[Genete]

Well, as a recent script writer I have to say something:

Scripts in a general term are only a sequence or orders that do tasks that can be done in separated steps. But in the case of Anime Studio there is one difference. Some of the features of the program are not used by the current user interface and new script tools or menu entries can make use of them putting them on user's hands.

For example: Control the curvature of one of the curves that passes by one point is not possible with the original curvature tool. Fazek's one allow to do that. It would help you in some cases of your design. Without that script you couldn't take benefit of an option that is already taken account in the main structure of the program.

Other thing is that those improved scripts can be fully implemented into next versions or really considered useful by the program developers. It would depend on the script utility.

Another example: I cannot live without the Split curve script. I'm sure that if LM were not put it there some other would have done it.

Finally the embedded scripts are the most incredible tool there have been included to Moho / AS related to scripting.
If you look the example that LM showed when he presented the embedded script feature you can understand that the feature that his embedded script example added to the animation could have been done totally by hand. It doesn't mean that one is better than other (doing it by hand probably would give more realistic behavior to the animation) but the script makes you the life easier.

To be a good animator you don't need to know nothing about scripting. They only make some odd tasks easier. On the other hand, being a good script writer don't make you a good animator. Even it can make you so lazy and try to do all the animation by the script and not by the artist.

Conclusion: Scripts are helping tools. But they'll never substitute to the artist.

And yes: installation should be easier than today is.

.G

[Genete]

I'm currently having a bad experience with the Draw/Split curve script for AS. It actually crashes AS...but not all the time which is weird but enough to enforce a sense of mistrust.

Ouch! I can't believe it! That script is SO simple and not malicious code can be there!. It would not be problem of the script itself due to have differences when executing part of the code. It seems that something wrong is on your memory handling or similar.
Have you experienced that since the first time you started to use Moho / AS?
-G

[heyvern]

I have had the occasional "glitch" using the split curve tool.

This only happens very very rarely. I get a strange error usually some time after I used it. The lua error indicates some kind of problem with a variable in the split curve tool.

I restart AS and I am okay again.

I have never had a crash or lost any work but I suppose the error could potentially cause a crash.

I always assumed it was due to some weird new script I was experimenting with at the time.

I can't live without the split curve tool either. That thing rocks!

-vern

[DK]

Yeah....I LOVE that script too and will always use it....but every now and then....bang! Other scripts are fine but still i'm like a cat on a hot tin roof when using them. I don't have memory handling problems. All I can say is AS works like a dream on my system till I try the Split curve script....sometimes i'll get away with using it no probs... but then that odd time...CRASH!

EDIT: I have had it crash my laptop too occassionally.

D.K

[heyvern]

Do you use it on frames other than 0?

I often thought maybe using it on a frame higher than 0 might be the culprit. When I see the lua error, it implies that some variable is "nil". This could be the result of using it in a way it wasn't designed for.

So DK are you crashing before you see a lua error?

I should look at it again. The last time I looked at the split curve script was eons ago. I might notice something I didn't see before.

I bet a million bucks it can be fixed... that's monopoly money of course... just in case.

See? What other program allows you to fix the tools without waiting for an update from the developers?

-vern