Disadvantages of Anime Studio Pro?

[deejayXkeisha]

I'm desperate, totally desperate. My "co-host" (aka, my sister) and I have dreamed long to make our own cartoons, and we think Anime Studio Pro can do the job. However, we're hobo-poor and we're not going to spend 200 bucks on a program that sucks for us. So, I was wondering, are there any disavantages of Anime Studio Pro? What would you recommend to someone who has never ever in their entire life even TOUCHED an animation program if Anime Studio Pro isn't the answer? And please, does anybody know any websites BESIDES the one given and the user manual, or at lease books (which I probably can't get since I lost my darn library card, and now I'll have months to find it) to help us learn the animation progress? Please help, because we're totally confused with this new program, and we're using the free trial, so we have a limited of time left.

Things we look for:
Drawing tools, we want our cartoons to look EXACTLY what we want them to. As in, drawing tools effiecent. We can't afford a tablet right now.

Price. Not everyone in this world has enough for friggin Flash.

Sound, moving, walking, living breathing cartoons. Not "just stick figures', I mean cartons who walk, talk, joke, speak...you get the idea.

Could be used in Windows

Coloring tools efficent

Able to scan/upload our "story boards"

Can be imported as a .mov or .avi These are the only files that are compadiable with both my Mp3 and my sister's.

UNLIMITED time, although my sister's and I longest "cartoon" was 10 minutes (well, we record our voice, we've been doing that for a long time, and the longest one was 10 minutes).


Sorry for the horrible spelling, being sick really screws up my brain. Please and thank you!

[mkelley]

The entry level Anime Studio is a quite capable program -- while it misses some of the bells and whistles of AS Pro, it has just about all of it at a fraction of the cost. You ought to be able to afford it (I think it's around $50 but you can see for yourself). It can't do scenes longer than 3000 frames, but you can edit them together with free programs.

It has the drawing tools you'll need -- I actually think creating vector art in AS is about as good as it gets.

You need to work through the online tutorials -- there is no substitution for this process. That will tell you what AS can do as software. However, to learn the art of animation is a lifelong learning process, and getting books from your library (and they will give you a replacement library card -- trust me, my wife is a librarian and people lose their cards all the time) is your best bet.

Disney's Art of Animation, the Animator's Survival Kit, Cartooning for the Beginner, these are just a scant few of the many dozens of fine books you'll need to read. I wouldn't let that stop me from doing animation -- you don't have to (or actually can't) become an accomplished animator without going through the process, so no amount of "book learning" can substitute for the actual doing. Just keep doing and reading and some day one of your efforts will be worth watching, you'll be creating characters who are moving, walking, living breathing cartoons (since you sound young I think you have a tremendous advantage over those of us much, much older -- time is the great equalizer).

I've been doing animations in some form or another for decades and I think AS (particularly the Pro version) is as good as it gets when it comes to creating 2D art. I wouldn't look anywhere else.

[Víctor Paredes]

i definitively recommend you to buy AS. and if you can get the pro, get the pro.

drawing tools are a little hard to understand, but when you get them, you can achieve great results.
anyway, you can import your own scanned draws and boned them.

for me, there is no simpler, better or cheaper animation software than AS.

you can export as AVI, SWF and MOV