A tutorial on character drawing in AS (level: beginner)

Dr. Nick · Post by **Dr. Nick** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 11:10 pm

Greetings Folks ~~

So I put together a tutorial on drawing characters in Anime Studio. It is a beginner level tutorial, intended just to help guide folks new to AS up the learning curve. So, first, I just wanted to share it with anyone who's new and wants an exercise in character drawing in AS. Anyone can access the tutorial at:

http://www2.bc.edu/~nagelh/characterDrawingInAS

Please feel free to comment/provide-feedback on the tutorial. I will be maintaining it over time so editorial feedback can help to improve the tutorial.

Cheers,

~~ NN ~~

human · Post by **human** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 12:10 am

The first thing to say is just "Hey, Thanks!" I've been trying to get over my resistance to AS for several months now, my excuse being that I've been more than plenty busy using other tools and techniques.

That's definitely true, but now that I've learned the pros and cons of other ways to animate, I see it's time to get serious with AS, too.

So, getting this kind of help couldn't have been more timely. When I say "this kind of help," what I mean is something this well conceived and executed.

It would be hard to suggest how this tutorial could be improved.

In the first place, you're showing us how to make a usable character, not a silly blob or a stick figure, and I think that's an important advantage over the typical tutorials.

Next, you've got a powerful instructional infrastructure: a solid, page-based tutorial layout with embedded videos. The overall organization of the lesson is impeccable--instantly clear. The text and videos work perfectly in harmony to orient the learner.

The videos are done--to put it simply--correctly. They're obviously planned and rehearsed, so there are few fumbles or surprises, no dead time or extra chatter. The screen captures are crystal clear and the audio source is crisp enough to withstand the distortions of audio compression.

Your coverage of the user-interface details is just what we need.

The whole presentation was helpful, but the portrayal of rapid development of the shapes -- vector sculpting -- particularly came as a shock to me. But now I "get it!"

Did I forget to say, "Hey, Thanks!"--?

Dr. Nick · Post by **Dr. Nick** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 2:37 am

Excellent ~~ thanks so much for your feedback. It's really good to know this helps. Sometimes, especially with software like AS, it really helps to see something done a certain way to get over the hump and open up new doors of creativity.

Cheers

scunge · Post by **scunge** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 9:03 am

Hello,
I recently bought AS Pro in the past week and have been looking for more tutorials and was excited to find your posting.

Unfortunately, I am unable to view the videos. I hear the audio portion fine but the video is just not there, only an empty white background.

I am on a Mac and have the latest of everything, Quicktime, VLC, Flip4Mac but nothing is able to show the video. Flip4Mac is made by a small company and is a plugin that enables Macs to view WMV files. One would think Microsoft would handle that but they have dumped the responsibility on to Flip4Mac.

Regardless, I would love to watch the videos but it would help to know what codecs were used so that maybe I could find and download something to view them.

Thanks,
scunge

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 12:10 pm

The windows media player can be downloaded for free in a Mac version.

Dr. Nick · Post by **Dr. Nick** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 3:31 pm

Yeah ~~ sorry to hear of your difficulty watching the video. Thanks, slowtiger, for pointing out that Windows Media Player is available for download on the mac. The videos are all .wmv files which require Windows Media Player. As slowtiger pointed out you can get WMP for the Mac and this website might do the trick for you:

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/otherprodu ... ndowsmedia

Once you install Windows Media Player you should be good to go. If this solution works for you please let me know and I will write a brief appendix to the tutorial with this information for Mac users.

'Hope this helps!

toonertime · Post by **toonertime** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 6:39 pm

very nicely done tutorial

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 9:37 pm

Uhm, I can't see any video, nor do I get a link to download it eventually. A message like "Your browser is using a non-standard mechanism to embed this content" isn't any help if it shows up on every browser on my computer.

There are ways to write code that at least allows to start the WMV player manually or to download the file. See http://cit.ucsf.edu/embedmedia/step1.php for an example.

Additionally, the WMV file uses a codec which is not supported on the standard WMV player for Mac OS X.

ulrik · Post by **ulrik** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 10:26 pm

I'm sorry I can't see the video part either, and yes, I'm on osx too. I have the windows media files for mac installed but it only manage to read the sound...
The things I can see looks very good, it's very easy to follow tutorial. Well done!

deserata · Post by **deserata** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 10:32 pm

I've owned AS Pro for over a month, and I'm so eager to learn that I'll take anything I can get, but thankfully I have access to quality tutorials like this one. The way it's set up is also really great. Thanks a lot.

DarthFurby · Post by **DarthFurby** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 11:50 pm

Thanks for these tutorials Dr. Nick. If I make more video tutorials, this is how they should be done. The tip about keyboard shortcuts really made me wonder why the hell I never used them before.

Excellent, excellent, excellent.

Dr. Nick · Post by **Dr. Nick** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 1:45 am

Thanks for all your feedback folks ~~ I'm really glad this tutorial has some cool tips, techniques and stuff for those who've seen it.

Unfortunately, regarding the Mac issue, I don't have a Mac that I can use for development and testing

But I'll see what I can do about a fix and if I can find one I'll add an appendix to the tutorial or something to help folks solve the issue. I suppose it's possible that there may be an incompatibility between the latest version of WMP available for Mac and the WMV files I generated. I'll have to go back and see what's going on.

In the meantime, if any of you Mac users do come up with a fix, please let me know and I'll write it up.

Cheers

Dr. Nick · Post by **Dr. Nick** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 5:24 pm

Some Mac-users have reported they cannot view the
videos in this tutorial. If any Mac-Users can please
take a moment to try the following solution it would
be much appreciated.

Please download and install the following codec to
see if you are then able to view the videos for this
Tutorial

http://www.techsmith.com/download/codecs.asp

If this solves the problem I'll write this up in an
appendix for the tutorial.

Thanks in advance.

ulrik · Post by **ulrik** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 5:42 pm

I downloaded the codec but when I tried installing it I got a message I allready had newer version installed....so I got the codec I didn't know I had

but unfortunately I'm not able to view your videos.

Dr. Nick · Post by **Dr. Nick** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 9:34 pm

DOH!

Back to the drawing board!

Thanks for trying Ulrik...

A tutorial on character drawing in AS (level: beginner)

A tutorial on character drawing in AS (level: beginner)

Windows Media Player

thanks

MAC-users please Help