Reproducible Crash Bug on rendering entire scene ASP 5.6

steam_bucky · Post by **steam_bucky** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 11:13 pm

Hello there - this is a bug from anime studio pro 5.6. I have posted it it on the relevant forum there, and submitted this to tech support but I thought maybe this forum might know the "fix" or be able to tell me more about the bug. Here is an image from my scene:

You can get the File from here:

http://web.mac.com/marc_buckingham/Stea ... ank05.anme

My problem is when I render this animation in full it crashes the program. I can render any single frame of this animation fine. If I turn of the visibility of every layer except the "steam tank" it renders the animation fine. This would suggest there is some problem with the vectors in the scenery objects, but as I said before I can render any frame with all layers visible. Its just when I try and render out the entire animation.

The vectors where created in another program ( Xara ) but as it was the same program that created the steam tank and that renders fine as an animation. I don't think Xara is the problem.

The buildings are more complex than the steam tank with the amount of detail in them, but I don't think thats the problem as I can render still images with everything visible.

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can give.

Kind Regards,

Marc Buckingham

Rasheed · Post by **Rasheed** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 11:46 pm

I rendered it using "Batch export...". That worked fine. It crashes normal file export, though.

Mac OS X 10.5.2 Leopard, Moho 5.6.

steam_bucky · Post by **steam_bucky** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 11:56 pm

Rasheed wrote:I rendered it using "Batch export...". That worked fine. It crashes normal file export, though.

Mac OS X 10.5.2 Leopard, Moho 5.6.

Thanks Rasheed, I have now tried the batch export and that works for me too. This means I can get on with animating ( Cheers! )

I just wonder why it crashes rendering in the non batch method.

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 12:48 am

This is an existing problem that has to do with QT... it probably is a bug with AS but it appeared I think... with a new version of QT.

-vern

steam_bucky · Post by **steam_bucky** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 1:44 am

heyvern wrote:This is an existing problem that has to do with QT... it probably is a bug with AS but it appeared I think... with a new version of QT.

-vern

Hey there Vern,

I tried rendering the animation as a sequence of images and got the same result, so I also think its more specifically AS.

Rasheed · Post by **Rasheed** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 2:30 am

steam_bucky wrote:I tried rendering the animation as a sequence of images and got the same result, so I also think its more specifically AS.

Err, I believe QT is used for image sequence exporting as well, at least, on my Mac it seems to do.

DarthFurby · Post by **DarthFurby** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 6:20 am

I have no problems rendering this on Windows. I've only tested this with the animation codec tho.

Rhoel · Post by **Rhoel** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 7:14 am

Worked fine in Win XP, both avi uncompressed and QT (million colours +, animation).

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 8:17 am

I think this might be limited to Mac only. Maybe it isn't QT but all I know is I have kept my really old version of QT (6x never updated) and I never had problems on the Mac when exporting rather than batch mode.

I've kept this older version of QT due to other applications that had very bad problems with new versions. My feeling is if it aint broke don't fix it.

-vern

steam_bucky · Post by **steam_bucky** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 9:58 am

Hmm...Maybe it is new quicktime on the mac.

Thanks guys for testing it and posting the info - Its really appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Steam Bucky

steam_bucky · Post by **steam_bucky** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 6:43 pm

Bugger. The new version of quicktime didn't fix the problem....weep!

kirkmona · Post by **kirkmona** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 6:56 pm

I had the same problem so I requested and got a full refund from smith micro. They KNOW that this program does not work on Macs yet they keep selling it. I don't want to be too melodramatic but isn't that criminal?

The work-around is of course the batch render function but batch render is only an option on the pro-version. Hey Smith Micro, wake up. Add batch render to the standard version and then you will have a product you can sell that actually works.

If they release a version that actually works on a mac, version 8, 9, 23? Someone please post here. I'd like to buy the program again some day.

~Kirk

Rasheed · Post by **Rasheed** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 7:29 pm

The program works on Macs, however there are obviously still some bugs. The problem is Apple, who keeps updating QT with new protection schemes for the motion picture industry (read: MPAA). This DRM seems to hurt Mac OS X more than Windows XP and Vista.

All development time seems to go to that darned mobile device. What was it called again? Oh yes, the iPhone

kirkmona · Post by **kirkmona** » Sun Apr 06, 2008 4:02 pm

Well at this point I have seen lots of speculation that the problem may involve DRM in quicktime but that's still just speculation. Apple may share some blame in this however,

1) Smith Micro should keep their products up to date so they work with current software. Users should not have to search out old versions of quicktime.

and

2) Since this is a KNOWN bug they should admit as much on their website so users can make an informed buying decision. There is NOTHING in the Smith Micro Knowledge base on their website that describes or helps with this problem. See: http://graphics.smithmicro.com/article/archive/933/

They claim "With a couple of exceptions, e frontier's products generally run normally under Apple's new 10.5 ('Leopard') release of OS X." A couple of exceptions indeed. I have a new computer so I didn't have a choice about accepting upgrades of quicktime or not. If they are going to sell a product that they say works with 10.5 then it needs to work with the version of quicktime that ships with 10.5. If they cannot do this then they need to say on their website that there is a problem.

If it really is an apple problem then say so. People won't blame them. In fact, on the same page referenced above they do mention a problem that is caused by apple that makes your hard drive icon disappear. Since they are willing to point out when it is apple's fault and they have not done so in this case it seems logical to assume that the fault does not lie with apple but rather with Smith Micro.

If you click on the Anime Studio link on the page I posted above it says only one thing. "Anime Studio Pro and Standard should run normally on all supported Macs under Leopard." Well duh. It SHOULD but it doesn't.

~Kirk

Post by **Lost Marble** » Sun Apr 06, 2008 5:08 pm

Here's the thing: we've had enough reports of this bug that we've been convinced it's real. However, we haven't been able to reproduce it ourselves (until recently). So without being able to experience the bug, it's been impossible to figure out what the actual problem is.

I said "until recently"...just yesterday actually I reformatted a Mac, and re-installed Leopard. I accepted all the updates from Apple, and the machine should have been basically the same as it was before. But now I do in fact experience this crash. Some files render fine, but those that crash seem to crash in a very repeatable way.

Right now I'm trying to pin the problem down in the debugger, and hopefully I'll have a solution soon.

-Mike