I'm confused! (Anime studio 6)

[mkelley]

And mkelley, I don't know if I don't undertand your humor, or if there is some idiomatic barrier which make me lose a well-intentioned ironic tone, but maybe that grumpy role is going too far. Personally, I love the new features, specially the video tracking, audio editor and multiple layer select.

Multiple layer select is very nice, but the other features you mention (as well as the NLE aspects) have little or nothing to do with production (since they can be done in other software, and indeed would normally be done that way in any real studio effort).

I have no problem with Mike adding such things as long as he has addressed the MAJOR issues, things which cannot be done elsewhere, such as resource management and improved script access. I remain skeptical as to the latter -- simply being able to parse the current file doesn't necessarily mean what folks think it might mean. And I've seen zero indication that resource management has been addressed (but we haven't seen Pro yet so I will TRY and remain hopeful).

So forgive me if I remain grumpy -- I know from reading wish lists that video tracking was either never mentioned or certainly not high on anyone's list, but resource management was at or near the top of things. Let us hope that Debut is just that -- the very short introduction to AS that only hints at what the Pro version offers. Otherwise I'm just not going to start jumping up and down anytime soon.

[heyvern]

From now on I will answer what I can about the new features but I can't waste the psychic energy trying to... defend something that to some of you can't be defended, explained or justified.

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AS 6 "feels" like a different application. Not only big things but lots of little things... not ALL the little things some of you want but lots of small enhancements you might not think you would notice until you use them for a short while and can't imagine how you could live with out them.

Picking a new color for a shape won't change the transparency.

Copy and pasting of bones.

Being able to insert a new layer into animated layer order and it doesn't mess up the existing layer order key frames. Turning OFF animated layer order.

Collapsing the style palette to save space.

Frame number boxes are right under the main document window with the current frame and end frame indicators you can type into. Sometimes you don't need to use the time line if you know what frame you want to go to. It's much easier to use now right in plain view. You can EASILY change the length of the animation. There won't be any of those "how do I make it longer" questions again.

Mute sound button right below the document window.

A check box to turn construction curves on and off below the document window. This is fantastic. No more having to open display settings for that option. I love this.

Hiding shapes. You can select shapes and hide them while leaving other shapes visible. Great for complex vector layers with lots of shapes.

You can view the gradient and shaded shape effect in real time in the preview. Great for animating "lighting" effects with the shaded effect. And it's great to SEE the gradient effect in preview as well. No more guessing.

The gradient effect and image texture effect are really cool now. They have these handles to move the origin and end points of the gradient or image texture. These can be animated and you can see the handles. This is very cool. And of course unlimited colors in gradients.

Someone asked about the "pose" script. I was a bit reluctant to work on that script because of the new "blend morph" feature (there was discussion on what to call it "poses" or "morphs"). You can now blend actions with sliders. I don't know how much of all these things have been exposed to scripting... while I spend the time to look into that it's still a pretty dang cool feature all by itself. Right now it isn't like that script that is being worked on using bones but if there is additional access to the poses or "morphs" in the scripting then the skies the limit. As it is now it would do almost the same thing but using sliders instead of bones.

A cool "library" window. Pop this open and you see folder icons of all the library content. Very neat. Haven't played around with it yet. I used it to load content and test it out but have not experimented adding my own content to the library.

The help file is MUCH improved. It also has new features explained in it. It's now a printable PDF file. There is a help PDF and a Quick Start Guide PDF. This is going to be a great help for new users.

Oh crud I almost forgot! ! I never tested it out but there is now a direct upload link to your Youtube account. You can upload renders to Youtube directly from AS. Just plug in your account log in info and away you go. Nice. I think what it does is uploads the last render you did.

There are bunches of little things (and big things) like this you would have never thought of that are incredible time savers. I would like to post screen grabs but thought I should wait. I don't want to jump the gun too much. I didn't get everything in this list. You can see from just what I listed there is a LOT of new things.I don't want to just post the feature list from the help since I don't know if what I have is final. As I said I am working on some video tuts. I may just do an overall review of all the new features in one big video. Just click through stuff and explain it briefly. Like I said new features are covered in the PDF help file.

-vern

[tonym]

...When the product went from Moho to Anime Studio, that was a choice I made to keep the product available at all. At that point I had to take a full-time job at another software company to support my family. I wanted to keep Moho going, but there was just no way to do it. Anime Studio made that possible, even if development was slow (there were a few handy new features over the years).

Then when Smith Micro came along and offered the chance to work on Anime Studio full-time, I jumped at the chance. That only happened last summer, but being able to continue development on this product was a great opportunity for both me and the user community. Frankly, if Smith Micro had not come along, Anime Studio probably would have faded into obscurity, something neither you nor I would want.

During the time we've been working on 6.0, the entire focus has been on the feature requests and enhancements to exiting features that have come from users over the years. I wasn't able to get everything in, but I got in a lot. Sorry to sound cheesy, but I really love this product - it's the best product I've worked on, and version 6 is the best version of Anime Studio yet. When it comes out, take a look at what's in it and I think everyone will find something they've been hoping for.

-Mike

Thanks for sharing this information. I'm always curious about that kind of stuff.

Also, I can't wait to UPGRADE to 6! Wooooo! Mike, thanks for all your hard work and your dedication to making this program better and better.

[Víctor Paredes]

Thank you for the list, Vern, it's so much better than I thought it would be. Sorry, but meanwhile I haven't the software I will make you a lot of questions

A check box to turn construction curves on and off: You read my mind, I always wanted something like this, but it never was on my top ten list. Anyway, is there a way to access to the rest of the check boxes of 5.6?, I mean, masks, fills, borders, etc.

Hiding shapes: You read it again!, this feature is fantastic. Sang will be very happy.

You can view the gradient and shaded shape effect in real time: My R key will thank this. No more control+r all the time. Little question, can you add alpha colors on gradients?

blend morph: I put all my hope this days in Mike or you saying this. I will wait to see a screenshot before make any question. It would be great to have access with scripting to this, I'm imaging a head talking and turning at the same time, it will be so easy . Ok, actually I do have a question... does it work with one keyframe actions only or (and in a way I can't imagine) with animated actions too?

Thank you Vern, don't forget to write everything which smell as new feature, it doesn't care how small could it be.

[realsnake]

I would like to donate some particle examples for AS 6

here's a simple demonstration (created using particle layers only)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqteShZuYDQ

[Lost Marble]

My question is will users who bought AS/ASP in the last month or so get a price break beyond the upgrade price (or even a free upgrade )

Yes, if you bought the older version in the past 30 days you can upgrade to 6.0 for free.

[heyvern]

A check box to turn construction curves on and off: You read my mind, I always wanted something like this, but it never was on my top ten list. Anyway, is there a way to access to the rest of the check boxes of 5.6?, I mean, masks, fills, borders, etc.

Yes. The other options are in the same place as 5.6. A pop up menu "Display Quality". Moving the construction curves out of that menu was genius in my opinion. Never gave it a thought until I used if for awhile.

You can view the gradient and shaded shape effect in real time: My R key will thank this. No more control+r all the time. Little question, can you add alpha colors on gradients?

Alpha in the gradient effect shows the underlying "main" shape fill color. You can't have a "shape" that blends from a color to transparency. The fill color of the shape still controls the overall opacity of the gradient effect. So an alpha in one of the gradient colors is like a "hole" that reveals the underlying shape color.

A note about viewing gradient and shaded effects. It isn't an "exact" display of the effect. It's a real time low quality preview. However it is more than enough to see how it looks and is animating. To see high quality output you still want to render but that isn't a big deal.

blend morph: I put all my hope this days in Mike or you saying this. I will wait to see a screenshot before make any question. It would be great to have access with scripting to this, I'm imaging a head talking and turning at the same time, it will be so easy . Ok, actually I do have a question... does it work with one keyframe actions only or (and in a way I can't imagine) with animated actions too?

Blend morphs works with actions that have one key frame on frame 1. It doesn't blend animated actions. If you have keys on any frames of an action other than frame 1 that action does not show in the blend morph window.

-vern

[Lost Marble]

What I want to know is, does it have a "deep move" function, where you can move all the key frames of dependent layers by sliding a key on the parent? This would make it so much easier to adjust timing.

Yes. The way it works is you can slide any layer side-to-side in the sequencer view of the timeline. That will make its animation start sooner or later in the timeline. If the layer you move is a group layer (or bone, switch, or particle), the sub-layers within it will move as well.

[Lost Marble]

A check box to turn construction curves on and off: You read my mind, I always wanted something like this, but it never was on my top ten list. Anyway, is there a way to access to the rest of the check boxes of 5.6?, I mean, masks, fills, borders, etc.

Yes, those are still available in a popup.

You can view the gradient and shaded shape effect in real time: My R key will thank this. No more control+r all the time. Little question, can you add alpha colors on gradients?

Yes, gradient colors can have alpha values.

Ok, actually I do have a question... does it work with one keyframe actions only or (and in a way I can't imagine) with animated actions too?

Single-frame actions only.

[Manu]

I would like to donate some particle examples for AS 6

here's a simple demonstration (created using particle layers only)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqteShZuYDQ

What exactly are we looking at here? Are there some new features in particles? Either way, that looks pretty good to me.

[Víctor Paredes]

Thank you both (someone tell me, in what other place on the world do you get answers from the brains of a software and in ten minutes? )

Yes, gradient colors can have alpha values.

Ok, in AS 5 you can too, but are they rendered as transparent or still happening what Vern said on his last post?

[Lost Marble]

Yes, gradient colors can have alpha values.

Ok, in AS 5 you can too, but are they rendered as transparent or still happening what Vern said on his last post?

They're still doing what Vern described. I can see a case for both cases. The way Vern described is useful if you want to use gradients for shading effects - in that case you would want to see the underlying color or texture of the shape. But I can also see why you might want the entire shape to go transparent with the gradient. Unfortunately, that's not an option - but one I may have to add in the future.

-Mike

[realsnake]

I would like to donate some particle examples for AS 6

here's a simple demonstration (created using particle layers only)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqteShZuYDQ

What exactly are we looking at here? Are there some new features in particles? Either way, that looks pretty good to me.

This just a simple trick manipulated vector layers of a parent particle layer using Z-depth.

[Víctor Paredes]

They're still doing what Vern described. I can see a case for both cases. The way Vern described is useful if you want to use gradients for shading effects - in that case you would want to see the underlying color or texture of the shape. But I can also see why you might want the entire shape to go transparent with the gradient. Unfortunately, that's not an option - but one I may have to add in the future.

No problem, if it's someday added I can bluster with my friends that feature request is mine .

[realsnake]

Got a simple question, if someone buys AS 5 tomorrow will they get the ver 6 upgrade for free