I have to say for just outright 'animation' AS has not paid off for quality in 2D work, in speed or quality. I recently got myself an app. named 'ToonBoom Studio Pro'... a bit more expensive for sure, but for straight out 2D work it beats AS hands down.
I haven't tried it with 3D effects, however I had a piece up and working in minutes!!! And was able to (just as in Flash9 which I also have) view my progress and work from onionskins with a 'light table' effect and get my motions down to 52 frames in about half an hour (using fairly detailed drawings with a pen tablet) as opposed to a couple of hours of having to fight with the controls and editing in AS...
So AS has its qualities which I think would be better suited for multiple artist studios... using Macs... rather than one artist using a PC version (or a Mac version,.. yes I have both).
So ToonBoom Studio Pro 5 has taken the place for my main use.
I really got tired of having to find this or that or go to this forum or buy that book... sheeesh! GIVE ME SOMETHING OUT OF THE BOX WORKABLE... and to heck with the figiting with controls and fighting the app all the time... its a joke. Well you got me twice! but no more.
BYE!
"'member boys and girls,...mr. Grenade is our friend and will protect us! BUT when we pull the pin on mr. Grenade, we want him over there with our enemies far awaaaay from us,.. because he isn't our friend any more!!!" -sum flung dung the wise.
If you like toonboom, good, there is not much to do about. however, i still working in AS and still recommend it to everybody.
Anyway, it's weird that i never had read something good about the speed when working with toonboom.
Well, I have an (old!) version of ToonBoom, Flash 8, AND AS Pro, and I think I could always find uses for all of them. There are people on the forum who have negative feelings about ToonBoom, too. If you have already left the forum and don't intend to come back, then that's a shame, but personally, just like James Bond, I would say "Never Say Never Again..."!! As unlikely as it seems now, in the future you might find that AS pro can do a particular animation task much more efficiently.
You can't have everything. Where would you put it?
Strange, I was going to use Toonboom for just a few frames but now have switch back to AS because it just takes too much time to do in TB. The biggest problem with AS is you have to learn how to draw with it's tools. Knowing Photoshop is actuality more of a hindrance than help, where in TB the tools seem like old friends. The difference is that AS uses only one line between points where TB is using points in parallel. So when you draw in TB you have a line with a fill. The harder you push the wider the fill becomes.
This is a very odd post -- if it weren't for the 32 other posts this guy made I'd have sworn it was a troll.
Which is to say that coming onto a forum and basically saying "I've had it with this software goodbye!" is usually done by trolls who want attention. There is little point in professionals doing this, as they don't have the time or energy. Sometimes other software users will try and bait other forums (so that's trolling as well) but in any case it doesn't normally occur when someone has posted more than once or twice.
So... if this guy ISN'T trolling (and I'm still suspicious of that) there is nothing to be added to this thread (indeed, it could safely be deleted, Vern). He won't be back, he's happy, and good riddance.
But for the troll that might be in him, I'd just say I've found EXACTLY the opposite -- which is to say that I've tried Toon Boom (in ALL it's incarnations including the very high end DP) and never been able to do anything useful with it. Not even five minutes.
Whereas with AS we do a half hour comedy show every two weeks -- two weeks for a one-man shop from recording to finished product on DVD. That's pretty impressive, particularly for someone with no drawing skills whatsoever.
Then again, I'm not a troll (so I don't go over on TB's forums and tell them "BYE" -- no point, although they lost me a long time ago).
however I had a piece up and working in minutes!!!
Let's see what you did, and in what amount of time. Unless people back up their words, I really don't bother to take them seriously.
Overall, when people gripe about AS being 'unworkable' I have to assume they never really learned how to use its tools. There are just too many AS drawing tool converts here, and from many diverse software backgrounds.
This guy was touting in a previous post how wonderful AS was and how well he was able to integrate into his production environment. It would be nice to know what exaclty caused this change in ambition.
I too have owned a license to Toonboom Studio 3.0 and didn't think it was very functional. Pretty but not functional. I gave it to a friend of mine
who seemed excited about it - only to learn he disliked it as well. We both preferred Photoshop, Illustrator & After effects...Until we found a decent
review of moho in Animation Magazine a few years ago.
Anyway, dude.. sorry that you found AS unsuitable. I don't agree with your opinion however and would put AS PRO up against any 2D animation
software for ease of use, quality and integration with other 2D/3D graphics packages.
Mr. Fugdabug's last post was in June. So... obviously he spent some time (I hope) to develop this opinion. I personally don't agree with it.
ToonBoom Digital Pro (there is no Studio Pro) is $3000.00!!! Holy freaking crap. For that price it needs to wake me in the morning and make coffee.
Toon Boom studio is over $300. Price is a consideration and NO! ANIME STUDIO IS NOT A JOKE.
I wonder if this was a "plant" from the shaky boots over at toon boom. Who knows what Anime Studio could bring to the table. It's obviously an attempt to "troll" for responses since he posted originally in the "General" forum before I moved it here. You don't drop a bomb like this in the middle of a software forum and NOT expect a response.
To be honest since I got the FA tools replacing the AS own tools, drawing has become a doddle. I hate bsplines, and parallel bsplines to give line width even more. Just being able to draw out a line, then adjust the line width is so easy in AS, I prefer doing illustrator style things in it to other packages. What i would like to see is a line gradient where you draw a line/curve and it fades from one side of the line to another, to get easy curvy soft shading... Unless someone can suggest a way?
It's obviously an attempt to "troll" for responses since he posted originally in the "General" forum before I moved it here. You don't drop a bomb like this in the middle of a software forum and NOT expect a response.