Is there a more artist-oriented ASP forum around?

[ruibjr]

Hi folks.
I love this forum.
I always get find help here, when I need it.
BUT...
This is a very technical forum, and most people around here are talking about the technical things involved in animation.
I wonder if you guys know of a forum, preferrably targetted at ASP users, but more focused on content creation.
Just wondering...
Thanks,

Rui

[hothead]

yes like who to create and rig complex character in asp

[MadReindeer]

Over on the "Share your work" sub-category of this forum, I see a lot of people put up small, 5 or 10-second samples of new characters they're working on, and then other people weigh in with thoughts -- some technical, some artistic. That might help.

Otherwise, there are all kinds of forums out there like DeviantArt where people brainstorm new characters and creations. Really, any forum dedicated to creating art would work -- comic book, cartoon, videogame, what have you. Maybe you could use a mix of these -- figure out how you want a character to look there, and then come here with specific questions about how to animate that character in AS.

A third option would be for a new category to be created by the moderators of this forum, called "Project Ideas" or something like that. "Show your work" shares what's already been done, but an "ideas" forum would allow people to discuss before anything's even been drawn.

[ruibjr]

A project ideas category would be so cool.
Cheers!

Rui

[Víctor Paredes]

I know four Anime Studio dedicated forums. This one, one formed by mkelley and synth, one russian with very cool stuff (in russian...) and a chinese one where Sang (a very talented guy) posts (in chinese...)
but, yes, they all seems to be very technical.
Anyway, here there are some threads which escaped from that, right now I remember the Happy Land thread, which shows a lot of evolution on that Mikdog's project. Actually, now I think, Mikdog is an expert on create threads where every body helps.

The project ideas section is nice, probably that will make this forum a lot more artistic. Maybe we could ask for it to the forum administrator, if there is quorum, of course

[patricia3d]

and Selgin in Chile.

[ulrik]

I know four Anime Studio dedicated forums. This one, one formed by mkelley and synth, one russian with very cool stuff (in russian...) and a chinese one where Sang (a very talented guy) posts (in chinese...)
but, yes, they all seems to be very technical.
Anyway, here there are some threads which escaped from that, right now I remember the Happy Land thread, which shows a lot of evolution on that Mikdog's project. Actually, now I think, Mikdog is an expert on create threads where every body helps.

The project ideas section is nice, probably that will make this forum a lot more artistic. Maybe we could ask for it to the forum administrator, if there is quorum, of course

Hi Selgin, where do I find the chinese forum? Could you get me a link?

cheers!

[slowtiger]

If you're out for general discussion about animation, art, style, stories, then I'd advise not to search in any software specific forum. Of course we discuss all these topics here as well, but mostly on a "how to achieve this result in AS" level.

I think creation should be independent from any technical restrictions, at least in the very beginning. Later in the process you will find yourself in the situation to ask how your idea could be realized within the software you use, and of course many projects start with "what kind of content can I create easily with this software". But ideas don't depend on software, stories don't depend on it, and definitely not timing or drawing.

A main problem in this discussion will be the mixed personnel in any forum. You will have absolute beginners who struggle with even the basic aspects of filmmaking, you will have students and filmmakers who aim at a professional carreer, and you will have the occasional pro who still has time to hang around in a forum, and still has patience to give the same answers again and again ...

In the end it might be best to ask a very focused question and hope for the best. Don't ask something in the line of "how do I start a film" or "which software is best for backgrounds" as these reveal the beginner and never could be answered satisfyingly.

[Paul Mesken]

I think creation should be independent from any technical restrictions, at least in the very beginning. Later in the process you will find yourself in the situation to ask how your idea could be realized within the software you use, and of course many projects start with "what kind of content can I create easily with this software". But ideas don't depend on software, stories don't depend on it, and definitely not timing or drawing.

I agree up to a certain point. A good story is a good story. But storytelling is limited by the means which are used. ASP is good (and quick) for certain things, but really bad at other things. I doubt it can even act as a half-decent inbetweener, probably quicker to draw everything by hand.

Of course, in this forum, we are never confronted with a story. People post a clip but they don't tell what they want to achieve, what the story is, what the characters are like and they don't post storyboards. It's hard to comment on "Hi guys, I've made some fire. Tell me what you think." if we don't even know whether this fire should be threatening or cozy, whether it will be used in the background or will be an animated gif icon on some web page indicating generic fire.

I can hardly blame people for that. After all : it's "Share your work". It's not "Show us the preproduction". The "Share your work" topic itself implies that it should only show finished work while the real work (and the real problems) are in preproduction.

And I definitely think there's a place for a preproduction topic in this forum. If we are shown characters and storyboards then we can say that something is easy or hard to do with ASP or how to achieve a certain story event with ASP or how to do something more economically, etc.

It's about storytelling with ASP.

Of course, there will be a lot of questions raised which are not ASP specific but generic film making questions (like staging, camera moves, cutting) or basic drawing. But that shouldn't matter.

I'm all for a "Storytelling with ASP" topic (or "Preproduction", whatever name describes it best). I would love to answer questions with a bunch of thumbnail sketches

Edit : changed "Show your work" into the correct topic name "Share your work".

[Rhoel]

Maybe we could ask for it to the forum administrator, if there is quorum, of course

There is only one admin - which is Mike. So a PM or email in his direction might be beneficial.

Personally, I would vote for such a topic area (and for a S3D topic area too) - there is a need for a dedicated area for production/content-orientated discussions, as opposed to the issues of scripting, demoing work already completed or asking how the heck a particular feature works.

Rhoel.

[Víctor Paredes]

Hi Selgin, where do I find the chinese forum? Could you get me a link?

cheers!

sure, actually, it will be better I put all the forums

here is the chinese
http://moho.5d6d.com/

Mkelley and Synth
http://www.kelleytown.com/forum/animators/

the incredible Russian forum
http://2danimator.ru/

Enjoy them, polyglots!

[ulrik]

Thanks Selgin!

[lwaxana]

I agree with Slowtiger that if you want to learn about something, for example composition, it's probably best to find a good resource that isn't specific to any one software. But I still like this idea, because we can at least get some introduction to those more artistic aspects of animation. I'm surprised Smith Micro isn't all over this idea. It can only benefit them to have resources that address animation principles, film-making principles, etc. associated with Anime Studio. From a marketing perspective, I would think their goal would be to get people to associate "how do I animate?" automatically with "Anime Studio." And presumably, better artistic resources would help us all get better results giving them lots of good samples of AS work.

[ruibjr]

I have been using ASP for some time now.
I never did nothing special with it, but I know it can be used for creating professional stuff, like the stuff Freakish Kid did, for example.
But I would love to create a short.
It would be great to be able to post scans of my characters and have people suggest how to rig them, colors to be used, etc...
It would also be great to see what other people are developing, and how they are planning to do it.
Of course, we can find posts like this in the forum, as it is right now.
But it would be much more practical, much more organized, if a specific forum was available.
I understand that there are other forums, on the internet, but it is here that the real ASP experts are - the people who know more about ASP than anybody else.
Won't it be great to see projects being built, from the ground up, and be able to see them being built right before your eyes?
Cheers,

Rui

[slowtiger]

That's what the "Share your work" section is for. Lots of people post their projects in different stages.