I have to say that the new pdf manual is a wonderful piece of work. Congratulations to all involved!
Right up the front it lists the major new features. Because there has been so many comments in the different threads I though I would post the list here - something to read as you are downloading the trial
What’s New: New Features in Anime Studio 6
The following is not a comprehensive list of new features, but it covers most of the major changes in version 6 that might be of interest to experienced Anime Studio users.
User Interface
• New presets for document resolution. Debut is limited to 788x768.
• New UI colors
• Dockable windows, and resizable while docked
• Tool consolidation
• Add checkbox to doc window to turn on/off Construction Curves
• Space bar pans canvas
• No more separation between default and current color style
• Mini Style window (with an option to switch to “advanced” mode)
• Layer properties pop up is in layers on each layer
• Dialogs remember where they were placed and open in the same location
• Hot keys and menu items to Hide a shape, and Show All shapes. All hidden shapes are shown upon opening a file.
• New default color palette
• When picking a color from the palette, preserve the existing alpha value
• New library
• Reorder Multiple Layers
• Translate multiple layers
• Copy and paste bones across layers
• Improved quality for on-canvas image layers. Better Alpha blending
• Animated layer effects must now be turned on manually
• Animatable shape effects on styles palette
Scripting
• Upgraded to Lua 5.1
• Script writers need to use ipairs() function
• Exposed some more functions to scripting
Tool Improvements
• New Scatter Brush
• Eye Dropper tool- now picks fill and stroke off of any object on any layer.
• Some fill effects (gradient and image texture) can now be placed precisely on a shape using the Select Shape tool
• Color .png brush support
• Maximum brush width increased to 256
• A more hand-drawn line effect , accessible through the layers tab or scripts
• Improvements to Gradient fill effect: Dragging sliders, setup multiple colors to create complex gradients. Gradients are animated now.
• Some fill and line effects can display on-canvas, such as Gradient, images textures and shaded.
• Image Texture fill effect conforms better to bone warping and layer transforms
• Removed obsolete fill and line effects
Audio and Video
• Anime Studio Debut: Sequencer with 2 Audio Tracks, 1 Video Track
• Anime Studio Pro: Sequencer with Multiple Audio Tracks and Multiple Video Tracks
• Audio Panning
• HD Video Import; HD Video Export in Anime Studio Pro Only
• Video support improved: Footage is reinterpreted during import, and audio is imported.
• Movies may be opened directly in Anime Studio, with proper dimensions, duration, and frame rate. Good for doing tracking right away, or for working on a video composite project
• Video Features Tracking, allowing you to track bones (base, tip, or both)
Animation
• Non-Linear Animation
• Scale keyframes: Select keys, Alt+Click and drag on timeline to rescale
• Timeline channels only show when they are actually used
• Right-drag in the time ruler to edit timing offsets
• Onion skins need to be manually enabled - helps avoid doing it accidentally
• In timeline, minimize how much it automatically scrolls to the current frame
• Timeline buttons to navigate to previous/next keyframe
• Default interpolation is now set in the main Preferences dialog
• Preference to show all animation channels consolidated into one
• Animated layer effects must now be turned on manually
• When rendering the current frame, saving as PNG saves an alpha channel
Lip Sync
• Integrated LipSync
• AST production sync lib in Pro Only
• Debut version uses amplitude only.
• PapaGayo can still be used as always.
Morph Targets
• Pro can be used to create morph targets
• Debut can use and blend morph targets, but has no setup tools.
Import and Export
• Upload to Youtube
• Improved Illustrator import --Now the paths are parsed much better and match what is in illustrator.
• Fixed a problem with darkened (or lightened) transparent edges on PNG files
Motion Tracking
• Debut can track 3 points
• Pro can track unlimited points
Rendering
• 2D Screen Space Ambient Occlusion
