making a movie

silas123 · Post by **silas123** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 3:38 am

I am new in using anime studio, I studied the tutorial and it's kinda easy to follow coz I am used in more complex softwares being an engineering designer like AutoCAD, Microstation and Autoplant. Just wanted to know from the experts in AS in this forum if it will be possible to make a 40 minute cartoon movie in AS, I'm using the standard one not the pro.

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 3:56 am

40 minutes is an eternity... it isn't impossible though.

You should start with something MUCH MUCH SHORTER first though. Try 30 seconds or a minute... or two minutes. Something to get a feel for the work needed.

You may want to at least consider upgrading to the Pro version. This would depend on the final size of your output. If you plan to go to some huge HD size you need the Pro version. If you plan for just web or DVD output then the standard version should be okay.

Look at the feature comparison...

http://www.e-frontier.com/go/animestudio/compare

... to see which things you think you might want or need. Don't forget you can upgrade at any time without worrying about file compatibility. Just open the files you created in the standard version in AS Pro and you can just use or add whatever features the pro version provides.

I would say stick with the standard till you get up to speed using the program. Do some short animations first. When you decide to do your "big" production then you could consider if the pro version is worth it for you.

-vern

Rhoel · Post by **Rhoel** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 9:48 am

Yes is the short answer but it would take a long time or a heap of people to do in a shorter time span. Look at Grey Kid pictures and you will see the kind of quality/class that can be achieved.

Genete · Post by **Genete** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 10:06 am

Also a 40 minutes film in one project would be insane (too complex to manage in a single file). It would be like make a 40 minutes film in one shot... I only know one film were that was made (Alfred Hithcook in Rope) although it was done by a ten minutes rate.
So if you split your project into different files, each one would be shorter and easy to manage. I think a 1 to 5 minutes per file would be enough.
Later, you can composite them in a video editor and add some effects and fine tune the soundtrack.
-G

bartender · Post by **bartender** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 5:49 am

from my experience i would say by the time you start a 40 minute project, and the time you are half way done, you will have learned so much and you your skills will be so superier to that at which you started... your later stuff wont match your newer stuff and you will end up having to re-rig characters, redraw things... etc.. my advice is make a ton of short stuff (30 sec to 3 min) between now and the next year or so, then when you have a system for rigging and drawing characters that your comfortable with, then you can look at a long term project.

Rhoel · Post by **Rhoel** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 5:57 am

Genete wrote:Also a 40 minutes film in one project would be insane (too complex to manage in a single file).
-G

On Machine Masters, Sc 6 is 1 minute 30 long ... the complexity affected the speed of AS. For 40 minutes, the machine would implode.

I think the OP meant 40 minutes comprising of many scenes. However, he might want to do a 40 second film first - because that is as difficult as a 3-5 minute film (Story and cutting have to be much much tighter).

Rhoel

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 11:36 am

Have a look at http://blog.ninapaley.com/. She's doing a feature length movie all by herself - in Flash.

It is possible to do a longer project in AS. But it is impossible to do a 40 min scene in one file - not only in AS, but in lots of other programs too. Best advice, as already mentioned, is to start with smaller projects frst, then do a lot of careful planning, then do the long run.