Animie Studio

The_Gamesalad_Guru

Anyone use this software? Thinking about buying it to do stuff for my current project.

SlickZero

I haven't used it personally, but i hear it's okay for the $20 price tag. I believe there is a Pro version for $200 but again, I haven't used it.

I have, however, used Toon Boom Studio 5 which is awesome. A little bit more pricey, but it a fantastic tool. Little bit of a learning curve, but there are youtube videos that cover a lot of the functions and such. And they have a lot of other titles that may be of interest to you. They have a good storyboard program, and several different animation titles if Toon Boom 6 is a little more than you want to spend.

Check them out and see what you think. http://beta.toonboom.com/home-users

zombieaddict

i also use toonboom for animation. if you're into vector-based animation and ease of use then go with that. i use TVpaint pro for more traditional looking animation projects tho

steeler0038

I currently have animie studio. I haven't used it too much yet, but plan to for my next project. From what I have messed around with, it is well worth the price in my opinion. There are a lot of options, and it seems to have a lot of potential. I have never even heard of toonboom before, so do some research before you take my advice.

beefy_clyro

Definitely seemed worth the $20 but i haven't played with it much, just haven't had time to learn it properly ... doesn't help I'm not very good at art either!

The_Gamesalad_Guru

Bought the software more than worth the money I already did some basic lip sync for my characters. Very quick learning curve and lots of videos on it. Next I'll be learning to make bone structures. I would recommend this software.

LeonardDeveloper

@fryingbaconstudios
Do you mean AnimeStudio?

The_Gamesalad_Guru

Yes Leonard.

beefy_clyro

Wow and i thought that was a given!

The_Gamesalad_Guru

Me too @Beefyclyro Here is my first sample lip sync test.

LeonardDeveloper

@fryingbaconstudios
It looks brilliant.. Did you use anime studio debut?? Im thinking of getting the debut one.. Just to try it out

LeonardDeveloper

http://anime.smithmicro.com/anime-debut.html

beefy_clyro

Good stuff.
The bones is quite intuitive, i dived right in and couldn't get it right and then i actually spent 15 mins watching the vids and it was then much better and got good results. I'd be interested to see further tests on how you're getting on with it.

LeonardDeveloper

Can you convert to GIF? and are the animations allowed to be used in games?

LeonardDeveloper

@beefy_clyro
Do you have anime studio debut? Or the pro version?

beefy_clyro

Debut

LeonardDeveloper

@beefy_clyro
Cool Beans! Do you know if you can use the stuff made in it on the app store? (Stuff you make not pre-mades)

The_Gamesalad_Guru

@Beefyclyro yeah there are a lot of videos and once you watch a few you can quickly experiment. I'll be playing with bones will post something later. Yes @Leonard that is what I have...lol I don't have the pro version but might upgrade a one point. Right now with this version you can output to flash or quicktime. What I did was make a green screen background and then used keying in Motion to remove it. I imagine the pro version lets you create alpha channels. The pro version also gives you a script to import photoshop files as layers like motion. FYI I created my own mouths based on a phoneme chart I found.

LeonardDeveloper

@fryingbaconstudios
Aah.. Well I could do that in motion.. But theres no way to export to .gifs on its own with a transparent background? Even without a transparent background can you export as an image sequence or .gif? To get it in to GS

LeonardDeveloper

Can you export to png sequence by doing this david? >> http://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13927

beefy_clyro

Yes Leonard, anything you create you'll be able to use in your own projects as long as its your own stuff ... like you would with Photoshop etc.

The work around you linked to should work ok to get png's but i haven't experimented as i haven't played with the software for a while, i just don't seem to find the time ... maybe i should stay off the forums for a bit. lol.

@FBS, looking forward to seeing your tests

HoneyTribeStudios

It would be cool if GS had something like this inbuilt. So we could animate using 'code' rather than separate frames.

LeonardDeveloper

@honeytribestudios
Yeah.. That would be a real selling point for GS as well as developing!... Id love that!
By the way I replied to your email
@beefy_clyro
Thanks for the info... So you can't export as an image sequence? Can You?

beefy_clyro

Nope only as a movie file. Quicktime i believe can export to png sequences though so as long as you can make an alpha layer you can export to a QT file and then export that as a sequence

LeonardDeveloper

@beefy_clyro
Well if you get a white background an export to .png sequence and use the instant alpha tool in preview I'm sure you could take away the background....

LeonardDeveloper

So it really doesn't have a use for gs... Unless going through the long process of "Alpha'ing"

beefy_clyro

Dunno .. your link you provided didn't exactly seem like a massive work around to make the layer alpha did it? If you can do that then its just 2 exports to have GS ready files.

The_Gamesalad_Guru

Thanx @Leonard I game myself a head slap. For some reason I didn't check the apple codec list....duh

LeonardDeveloper

@fryingbaconstudios
Thanks for what? The info about instant alpha and stuff!
@beefy_clyro
Hmm...

The_Gamesalad_Guru

Okay here is my first stuff with bones. This was exported as PNG MOV and then exported through Motion as an image sequence and here it is running in GS.

LeonardDeveloper

@fryingbaconstudios
Jesus! It looks brilliant.. To get rid of the white background just go into preview and instant alpha it out..