Moho Forum

For those on a budget seems you could pay to have one of the forum scripting brains write custom scripts to add those final few features you need with Moho and still have money left over. On the 3D Game Studio forum people have gotten together and chipped in a few bucks to have professional programmers create some scripts, DLL's and tools a few times. In one case a few members chipped in for an export tool from a 3D modeler to 3DGS and they agreed to let the programmer sell the plugin to other forum members so he did it for them cheaply, and because they had helped defray his development costs he also offers the useful plugin very cheap.

I know I went OT but may be a solution for some.

I´m waiting for the next update to Moho to see what new goodies are included and changes made!

Wonder when it will be????

mr. blaaa wrote:How can i purchase ANIMO and how much does it cost?
I am unable to get this info from kellener.com ...

Also is here someone in this forum experienced with this software and can recommend it?

I took a look at the official demo and i must admit this seems to be a very heavy and powerful piece of software.

Another thing i'd like to know: Is a scanner absolutely required or can i draw with a tablet in program?

I am thinking of buying it... SO, i'd be glad to get some answers.

Cheers

I've been using Animo for well over a decade now. Yes, CAS did abandon the skeleton tools when they created the new version of Animo for WB and Dreamworks. As you can see by the stuff on my site, it was an incredible tool.

The old version was ported to Mac OS X and is somewhat usable. We have had a hard time getting renders out of it. To be honest we mostly use it as a graphical design tool these days for stills. The vectors in it are second to none for use with cartoon characters. The control over the line weight alone is worth the price. As far as what that is and how to purchase it, that's a whole other ball of wax. My only suggestion is to contact Cormac Slevin at Camrbridge Animation and discuss it with him. I don't beleive they are selling the product although we have been after them to do exactly that for years.

This software was designed in the early 90's on NeXTSTEP (the original Mac OS X) and was years ahead of Flash and others. To be honest, there's stuff in it that is still way ahead of what is available now.

-Steve

skellener wrote: Yes, CAS did abandon the skeleton tools when they created the new version of Animo for WB and Dreamworks.

DREAMWORKS??? ...AAAARRRGGH! A one more reason to hate'em!!!

PS:

They bring on enough hate themselves already with the crummy films they put out.

Animo Vectors can't be beat. I have yet to find anything that comes close!

-Steve

I hope that one day soon some creative programmers and animators stick their heads together and do just that. There's nothing better than a bit of competition to improve character animation software standards.

skellener wrote:As you can see by the stuff on my site, it was an incredible tool.

The old version was ported to Mac OS X and is somewhat usable. We have had a hard time getting renders out of it.

Are you talking about Animo 1.7 on OSX? Oooh. Like you said, the vector tools were the best I've ever seen. Illustrator looks like a half-finished student-project next to Animo-vectors. Although I remember Animo' s work-flow to be painful at moments.

Where exactly is the work you did on your website? I can't seem to find it.

Yes. Animo 1.7 on Mac OS X. The whole concept of layering, strokes and fills was designed absolutely perfectly for cartoon characters. Some of the stuff that shows off Animo Vectors is on my personal site, not Animation Meat.

http://www.kellener.com/steve/animovect ... ctors.html

Norman is actually an old CAS demo. Remember all this stuff is from the early 90's and no one has surpassed the control this package offers. It also has a complete lip library set up. That is still available in the current version of Animo 6.0 as well.

If you guys want to inundate CAS with letters to release the vectors with skeletons please by all means do. Just email Cormac Slevin here on the contact form.

http://www.animo.com/contact/default_form.htm

-Steve

Hmmm... I just have visited the Celaction homepage and I'm very intrigated now about that new 3 version and about all that 700 new features... Well, it seems they like the intrigue too much...

...sounds expensive...

Yep! It is! The best way is to rent the program for your projects.

I´ve use Celaction for 2 Pilot-Projects. The first time i hate it! On the second project i got familiar with it but not so close like Moho For big Projects with a handfull people it´s is the perfect program. It´s like Maya in 2D. What i don´t like is the workflow. It´s solid and productive but it give you not the freedom of creativity in your workflow like Moho. You can´t draw when you are animating. You can´t change things on the fly... everything has to be well thought-out. And the response of your animation in the viewport is damn slow you´ve to make a preview everytime when you want to see your animation fluid. The interaction is even slow. I hope V3 do it better!

Haki wrote:You can´t change things on the fly... everything has to be well thought-out.

VAYA! But that is one of the worst things that I could heard about an animation program... Anyway I'm still expectant about that great update they are cooking, if only I could try a demo or something... well...

Someone told me you guys were talking about our software again, so maybe I can clear up some of your questions.

Version 3 has 700 new features and improvements - they're not all new features. Plus we're counting from version 2.0, which was released in May 2003. Does that make it sound less suspicious? The statement is really targeted at people who bought version 2 and haven't upgraded or aren't part of the subscription program. It shouldn't really mean anything for first-time users.

Yes, it's still expensive, certainly compared to Moho, but it is enterprise-level software targeted at studios who want to produce a minute of broadcast-quality animation per animator per week. If you DO need to produce that much, then the price is worth it.

Haki, having used the software only on pilots, hasn't experienced the full benefits of our software on series production yet, which is where our workflow really shines. On series work things do have to be thought out. His "Maya in 2D" comment is a good analogy.

It's true we don't have any drawing tools in CelAction2D, but that's because you can use whatever program you want to draw in, for either vectors or bitmaps. You can use Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, even open source tools like Gimp and Inkscape, and bring them in to CelAction2D to animate. This is because the toolset for drawing 16000x8000 pixel bitmaps is very different to drawing Illustrator-quality vectors.

But anyway, we split up the drawing and the animating processes. This makes for a very fast production pipeline, because the slowest part of 2D animation is the drawing. As soon as you have to draw something you slow right down.

On a big series, you would have a design department that is constantly producing new drawings for the animators to use. And only the designers need to be able to draw - the animators can come from a 3D CG or stop-motion background, or might just be unable to draw in the style required for the show, they can still work on a CelAction2D project.

We do have some film-maker clients who work alone, and they have both CelAction2D and Photoshop/Illustrator open on their computer at the same time, and they are, in fact, changing things on the fly. So it can be done, just not all in the same program.

By the way, Haki, I thought your pilot was absolutely brilliant, congratulations to your team.

Anyway, I hope that clears things up. Oh, one more thing, some of the new features are really cool... I think Haki will be happy!

Andy, go get your own forum man!

But they were talking about my program!

Someone must have been standing in front of a mirror and said my name five times...