Preview/Render not working

[Siggy]

Hello,

When I go to File->Preview, or when I hit Ctrl-R, I get a render window with a fixed image. It does not animate. It shows only a single static frame. How do I get Anime Studio to do the actual animation preview? Thank you for your help.

Sincerely,
Siggy

[synthsin75]

That is what ctrl+R is supposed to do. Preview Animation is a separate menu item. It's shortcut is ctrl+shift+R.

[Siggy]

When I go to File -> Preview, the software itself says the shortcut for Preview is Ctrl+R, not Shift+Ctrl+R. When I try the Shift+Ctrl+R shortcut you suggested, nothing at all happens. When I use Ctrl+R or go to File -> Preview, I get only the render for a single frame, even though the File menu says I'm supposed to be getting a preview. I don't really care whether it's called "render" or "preview." I want to see how the animation will look on the screen. How do I do that? File -> Preview does not do that. Ctrl+R does not do that. And Shift+Ctrl+R (and Ctrl+Shift+R) does nothing.

*Here is a video of the problem. I tried to upload it to TinyPic below but it gave me a 503 error. I posted the video on Youtube instead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABSJsFH ... e=youtu.be

[synthsin75]

File>Preview is only supposed to render the current frame. This is how it has always been. If you do not see File>Preview Animation then you do not have a version of AS that has that feature. Do you see the difference? "Preview" versus "Preview Animation"? I'll give you one guess which one is suppose to be a preview of the animation.

Render is the final output of your animation, but if you don't care about what things are called, I'm probably not going to be able to help you. Try reading the user manual.

[Siggy]

Why would they sell a version that doesn't allow you to preview animation?

[synthsin75]

Are you using Debut?

[Greenlaw]

Ctrl+R is Preview, which is indeed a still render. This shows you what the final fully rendered frame will look like.

Ctrl+Shift+R is Preview Animation. Preview Animation uses the current display settings to render the animation. Note that this renders whatever is visible in the viewport so normally you'll want to press the Home key to frame it up properly. Otherwise the position and size of the animation may not be what you expected. (Although sometimes the offset Preview can be useful when you're checking out a specific detail.)

I guess some confusion may come from the fact that both commands are called 'Preview' even though Preview Animation (Ctri+Shift+R) is not a full-quality render like Preview (CTRL+R).

To get a full quality animation render, you need to use Export Animation or Batch Export. These commands are for rendering frames or a .mov file at the quality you see with Preview. Batch Export gives a number of advanced options like the ability to render all your Layer Comps with a click of a button.

Regarding Tinypics: You can't post a video with that, it's only for still images. For video, try YouTube or Vimeo and place a link in the Post. If you use the buttons, the movie should appear in the post.

Hope this helps.

[Greenlaw]

Are you using Debut?

Oh, I hadn't considered that...does Debut not allow Preview Animation?

@Siggy, If your version doesn't have this command, you can probably use Export Animation and choose a lower quality video setting. Preview Animation in the Pro version basically just captures the screen buffer as a movie file so you can watch a low quality animation at normal playback speed.

Most of the time you will probably prefer the higher quality render with Export Animation anyway. I've been using ASP for a couple of years but only recently started using Preview Animation at work to check my lip sync animations. For overall motions, I still usually submit a full render.

[synthsin75]

To be fair, the TinyPic upload options for posts here does have a video option.

[synthsin75]

Oh, I hadn't considered that...does Debut not allow Preview Animation?

Nope. http://my.smithmicro.com/anime-studio-p ... sions.html

The buyer should have done his homework.

[Siggy]

Thank you, Greenlaw. That was helpful. I use Flash (Adobe Animate now) but thought I would give Anime Studio a try because the vector control seemed better in my opinion. (I'm sort of used to Flash but I still don't like some of the weirdness with how it deals with objects.) I decided to do the 30 day trial of Anime Studio Debut just to get a taste of the program. I figured if I liked it, I would upgrade to the Pro version. I had to give my credit card info for the trial but I just cancelled it because despite some positives, it is ridiculous to me that there would not be a function to preview animation quickly. Maybe the Pro 11 version does have that function but this experience has been a little disappointing. Maybe after the summer I'll test the Pro 11 version. I've already decided to go with Flash for an upcoming project. I haven't tried any other animation programs but it seems silly that even the most basic animation programs wouldn't have a function to preview animation quickly. I don't know if I could get through a project without a quick animation preview function. I don't even know what the purpose of a single frame preview is. I can't imagine that would ever be useful to me. But again thank you for your help. I may be back in here one day, or maybe not.

[chucky]

Hi Siggy, I wouldn't get too hung up on that preview animation feature.
I you want to see your animation just export it, ASP is pretty fast and unless you are doing a very complex animation just using the display preview with the gpu on should be fine.
Just be sensible with what you do and don't show in the display port.
One more thing... if you really want to do a project and aren't just playing around , test the PRO version, OK?
It's as cheap as chips unless you are used to only using pirated software.
I guess that's the reason SM have to get credit card details, their licencing system is pretty generous and CCard would be the only good way to track serial numbers from the nefarious software pirates , ahaaargh.

Good luck with your project no matter what you use though eh?