Moho Forum

I'm pretty sure this concept or idea is highly impossible due to Anime Studio being a strictly vector based program.

But I'll ask anyways, and I will make a comparison to Flash.

Ok so I can't use Flash to save my life and Anime Studio is amazing but I can't never do everything I need to.

Like in Flash you can do raster and build vector puppets. Anime Studio doesn't let you do this, unless you want to work around switch layers and copy-pasting in raster programs. It's just time consuming and I just wish that there's a way to blend the two that way it won't be so tedious.

Is there any fast way or any effective way to get around this? Like say in Flash you can do character animation with a puppet but want to do an animation smear or more organic shading.

I don't know I guess it's just me with these problems.

You're not the only one with this problem.

The decision for any specific software, or any specific animation style, is an artistic one, and each goes with its own set of restrictions. I don't want to be restricted by software, so I use a whole bunch of them (OK, only 2 animation programs), and shift my stuff back and forth as I need it to get a desired effect. This is normal procedure, and any studio I know doesn't rely on just one software, but uses a handful in the workflow, each of the better in some tasks than the other.

If I work mainly in AS I adapt my animation style to it - and also my editing. I don't do any complicated head or body turns, instead I cut to a different camera angle, or I decide to not turn any heads but instead do a simple switch. This is done in lots of series productions, either in Flash or in AS, and the audience gets used to it.

If you can do 90% of what you imagine in AS, do it. The remaing parts may be only some frames, and these can be done in other software. Like, you do some crisp animation and want to incorporate a smear over two frames. Just export those 2 frames as PNG, open them in Gimp or Photoshop or your favourite paint program, and paint your smear, then re-import the frames into AS into a switch layer. Get the concept? It's like having a "patch" of 2 frames inside your timeline. Only do this with frames you absolutely need to paint, or frames with a body distortion you can't achieve easily with your rigged character. I do this all the time, and if you work carefully, nobody can tell which frames are done in which program.

Yes! I've been doing it that way (I think I've read you right) and I just think there's a faster way of doing this.

Like here's how my smear or hand looks:
http://instagram.com/p/j4INYoEQNw/

This is the method I want to mimic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8E8Zta1TdI

(1:11-2:54)

I recommend some original artwork like here: http://animationsmears.tumblr.com/ which is much better than anything you could do in Flash. Learn why they used smears in classical animation, and how they did it.

I already wrote about it here: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=24645

So I can do this method too? The motion blur is the one i want to mimic in anime studio. However the one you can make
With the layer settings isn't classical, that's the issue I have. I open up Sai paint tool to try and make blurrs. Is there a faster way to do this?

I did have an idea to make my animation in Anime studio then render it into Flash and draw over it that way. That sound pretty stupid though Huh?

No, there is no faster way than painting what you want ...

Do you use Flash?

Not for creating artwork. Mostly only for programming stuff. If you don't have an alternative, it is a so-so animation tool, but I won't recommend it.

Ah I see, I'd honestly just do my shading in there.

I can't even make key frames or use the onion skin effectively, do you? Like in Anime Stufio you just easily double click.

I worked with Flash for more than a decade, so I can say I know how to use it. But I don't use it any more. For animation there are much better tools, like AS and TVPaint.

How to make key frames in Flash?

And what's this TV Paint?

See manual - it's under "help".

TVPaint is a software I recommend. http://www.tvpaint.com/v2/content/article/home/