Drawing

[superanimatrix]

Hi fellers,

I have had ASPRO for a day now and was wondering if there is another program to draw characters then import? I know thers got to be because GreyKids stuff cant be drawn just in AS. The character eyes, nose, colors, etc... are so perfect. If they have they must have been doing it in ASfor a long time. As I have said before I am use to Macromedia Flash 8 and it is so easy to draw in. I usually make a square or oval and use the selection tool to creat everything, I learned that from cartoonsmart.com I wish there were a program out there where I could draw like in Macromedia 8. I am sure the only ones who understand what I'm talking about are those who have used Macromedia 8 for animation. Maybe photoshop or something?

[myles]

I have had ASPRO for a day now and was wondering if there is another program to draw characters then import? I know thers got to be because GreyKids stuff cant be drawn just in AS. The character eyes, nose, colors, etc... are so perfect. If they have they must have been doing it in ASfor a long time.

Possibly not as long as you'd think using Anime Studio (formerly Moho), but they've certainly been doing it for a while, and have experience in other animation software and extensive experience in traditional hand-drawn animation, which is probably a very important point.

Yes, most of their characters were drawn (well, created) directly in AS.

Their "secret", based on previous GreyKid posts: lots of experience in traditional animation and character design, experience in other animation software, lots of planning, and careful creation starting from a pencil-&-paper version of the character.

I think this last one is a very useful tip for those of us who don't yet have experience - it means your character follows the original design, and you use the tools to match your hand-drawn curve, rather than letting the default AS tool settings specify the curves and points.
I suspect they also use point-by-point drawing (Add Point tool) rather than freehand, with appropriate use of the curvature, peak, and smooth tools.

So, the "software" you want is: pencil, paper, experience, talent, Anime Studio.
"Experience" is probably the most important element, and the hardest to get.

Some useful posts from GreyKid:

Process:

viewtopic.php?p=21591#21591
viewtopic.php?p=30830#30830
viewtopic.php?p=35329#35329

Yes, they do use Anime Studio, not necessarily for everything, but definitely for the character creation and animation :

viewtopic.php?p=23227#23227
viewtopic.php?p=28398#28398
viewtopic.php?p=29264#29264
viewtopic.php?p=28437#28437
viewtopic.php?p=41311#41311
viewtopic.php?p=38698#38698

They use other software also, for example they may use Photoshop to create backgrounds for an animation:

viewtopic.php?p=38863#38863

In one case they used Anime Studio to animate image-based characters cut up in Photoshop:

viewtopic.php?p=43427#43427
viewtopic.php?p=43369#43369

And, yes, GreyKid Pictures does absolutely amazing stuff - as a hobbyist, I'm happy to admire them and content to do my own work at a much lower level of achievement.

Regards, Myles.

[superanimatrix]

I have had ASPRO for a day now and was wondering if there is another program to draw characters then import? I know thers got to be because GreyKids stuff cant be drawn just in AS. The character eyes, nose, colors, etc... are so perfect. If they have they must have been doing it in ASfor a long time.

Possibly not as long as you'd think using Anime Studio (formerly Moho), but they've certainly been doing it for a while, and have experience in other animation software and extensive experience in traditional hand-drawn animation, which is probably a very important point.

Yes, most of their characters were drawn (well, created) directly in AS.

Their "secret", based on previous GreyKid posts: lots of experience in traditional animation and character design, experience in other animation software, lots of planning, and careful creation starting from a pencil-&-paper version of the character.

I think this last one is a very useful tip for those of us who don't yet have experience - it means your character follows the original design, and you use the tools to match your hand-drawn curve, rather than letting the default AS tool settings specify the curves and points.
I suspect they also use point-by-point drawing (Add Point tool) rather than freehand, with appropriate use of the curvature, peak, and smooth tools.

So, the "software" you want is: pencil, paper, experience, talent, Anime Studio.
"Experience" is probably the most important element, and the hardest to get.

Some useful posts from GreyKid:

Process:

viewtopic.php?p=21591#21591
viewtopic.php?p=30830#30830
viewtopic.php?p=35329#35329

Yes, they do use Anime Studio, not necessarily for everything, but definitely for the character creation and animation :

viewtopic.php?p=23227#23227
viewtopic.php?p=28398#28398
viewtopic.php?p=29264#29264
viewtopic.php?p=28437#28437
viewtopic.php?p=41311#41311
viewtopic.php?p=38698#38698

They use other software also, for example they may use Photoshop to create backgrounds for an animation:

viewtopic.php?p=38863#38863

In one case they used Anime Studio to animate image-based characters cut up in Photoshop:

viewtopic.php?p=43427#43427
viewtopic.php?p=43369#43369

And, yes, GreyKid Pictures does absolutely amazing stuff - as a hobbyist, I'm happy to admire them and content to do my own work at a much lower level of achievement.

Regards, Myles.

Thanks Myles. I'll check out all of those links. I guess my main problem is I thought I could master this or at least get the basics down pretty fast like I did with macromedia flash 8 because I have a project for a client and it's pretty big and I wanted to use ASP for it but looks like I will have to study this for a while before I can start making good stuff for clients huh? I'll check those links out and let you know if I have any more questions. It's seems that photoshop might be what I am looking for to draw my backgrounds and characters. One thing that would help is if there were video tutorials for ASP and not just those boring text ones!

[myles]

Steve Ryan has a few video-based tutorials (originally for Moho, but almost all of it will apply to Anime Studio as well).

I've got a few SWF-based tutorials on various topics that have come up in the forum. Anything for Moho 5 onwards is mostly in SWF format and is still probably applicable to Anime Studio.

Regards, Myles.

[kevin]

There are also several video tutorials that are at the e-frontier website. From the sounds of it you will particularly like the Rigging an Image in Anime Studio tutorial.

Tutorials: Anime Studio

[heyvern]

I would keep trying to learn the drawing tools in AS.

When I first purchased Moho (ASP)... I was bit... discouraged by the drawing tools... well to be honest I was freaking out a bit at how "bad" they "seemed" at the time... like you only a few days of use.

Over time I got use to it, learned the tricks. I got to the point where I like drawing in AS better than anything else. Similar to how you feel about the Macromedia drawing tools. I used Adobe Illustrator exclusively for many many years. Then also Flash. Now I prefer drawing in AS... expecially for animation. The lines in AS animate so smooth and easily compared to Flash... at least in my opinion.

It only really took me about a few weeks maybe a month of use... to really get the hang of it... I feel like I just keep getting better.

If you are comfortable and good with the drawing tools in Flash or other similar types of drawing applications keep trying... those skills aren't completely lost when using AS it just takes time.

-vern

[superanimatrix]

All makes a lot of since guys. You have all helped me so much here. I guess I just need to take the time out to get use to the tools in AS. The only problem is I have a deadline for a project I am doing for a client so I will probably finish it in flash then I will put a lot of time and studying into asp.