Help Shape the Future of Anime Studio

[dkwroot]

More blob and eraser improvements are needed. Despite the improvements made in AS11, the Blob and Eraser tools are still flawed and require more improvements. The core issues are these:

1. Drawing and Erasing onto a shape still causes distortions to occur. I can't emphasis this enough, but this problem needs to end if AS is to be taken seriously by traditional animators.

2. The program needs to stop auto-zooming out every time the user draws or erases onto a shape. I understand that the program has to zoom in order to trace, but this needs to be handled with Code and not get drawn to the viewport. The user should be able to zoom in and draw naturally without disruptions.

3. Clean up artifacts created by the blob and eraser tools. These tools have a bad habit of leaving behind artifact lines. These are random broken curves that should be cleaned up by the program. It makes AS look very unprofessional when you guys leave these kinds of flaws in the final product.

I made a video going over these in greater detail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3Pk9fP ... e=youtu.be

[eric1223]

1. The ability to turn off Squash and streach during an animation.
2. This goes along with #1. Having the option to reverse squash and streach. What I mean is, when the bone shrinks, the objects get skinnier, and when the bone gets longer, it gets fatter.

#1 and #2 would help with forshortining.

3. An "collaps all groups", and "Collaps this Group Layer" options in the layers pannel. This is to help with clutter with group layers, bone layers, etc... "Collaps this Group Layer" will be extreamly helpful for me when doing animated layer ordering.



4. A better copy option when you go to "Animation- Copy Current frame". See, I'm having a problem with this now. Right now, the only way I can get copying done the way I want it is to do it manually, (going through each layer and copying a frame, and placing the copied into another spot. Imagine doing this for like 50 times more than once!), which could take minutes upon minutes. Having this would speed up workflow (for me at least) big time.

#1. My first problem is that there is no option that copies only the channels that you use. So, If I were to copy the whole document, I would have to go through a bunch of useless channels (channels that I didnt use!). Clutter!

#2. My second problem is kinda related to my first. There is no option to just copy a parent layer, and everything inside of it. For example, a character made with a bone layer. See, alot of the time I would like to set a pose, with all points, width, etc etc, and keep it just like that. Sure, I could copy the whole document, but I would have keyframes at places I wouldn't want them or need them(like in other parent layers)...not to mention the channels I didn't use!

[dkwroot]

-- Add the ability to lock layers.

-- Add the ability to hide layers in the layer window manager. Just like how we have 'shy bones' we would have 'shy layers'.

[Psynema]

Big one

When switching views ie - TOP BOTTOM LEFT RIGHT ETC, can you retain the angle / zoom ? IE if you pick top view to double check something and have to pan and zoom a bunch it would be nice when you switch back to camera/front view and have to go back to Top view to retain the same view point previously set.

[dkwroot]

-- Add the ability to save to Gif and SVG format.

[dkwroot]

-- Add a 'sketch' layer which will allow us to draw using bitmap. The current pencil and blob brush are great for inking, but you can't replace the natural feel of working with a raster layer using vectors. I understand that we have better photoshop support now, but native bitmap support is needed as we sometimes need to draw sketches directly into our scene.

[braj]

-- Add a 'sketch' layer which will allow us to draw using bitmap. The current pencil and blob brush are great for inking, but you can't replace the natural feel of working with a raster layer using vectors. I understand that we have better photoshop support now, but native bitmap support is needed as we sometimes need to draw sketches directly into our scene.

I'd like a bitmap layer that was a bit more robust, that you could use for production work. Photoshop import is great, but it wouldn't really be suitable for FBF stuff. Maybe a little related: I'd like 'render layer in place' that would take whatever frame from whatever layer (including folders with masked objects) and render and replace the selected layer, and hiding the original. You could get rid of a lot of points to render quickly on objects that have no points moving around without having to solo them, render them to file, and re-import. I have shaky hands so I love vectors, but a way to 'freeze' them to bitmap to save cycles during rendering would be great, while retaining the ability to edit the original objects later. This sort of thing is common in audio applications, it seems it would be similarly useful in ASP.

[braj]

How about Particles Settings Presets? Not something you need to select from the library with shapes etc, but just a drop down menu that has some common particle settings and also allows you to create your own presets.

[braj]

It would be nice to be able to use markers within actions. Right now if you set a marker within an action, it puts it in the main timeline.

[synthsin75]

It would be nice to be able to use markers within actions. Right now if you set a marker within an action, it puts it in the main timeline.

Make sure you uncheck "document-wide" if you only want the marker in the action.

[braj]

It would be nice to be able to use markers within actions. Right now if you set a marker within an action, it puts it in the main timeline.

Make sure you uncheck "document-wide" if you only want the marker in the action.

Thanks, obviously I am pretty dense.

[ErikAtMapache]

Thanks, obviously I am pretty dense.

<begin rant>

Not to preach, but NEVER accept this. Software developers get paid good money to provide you with clear effective useful tools. The user is NEVER wrong when the GUI is not clear, and the smart developers know this.

The reason this discussion thread exists is because SM WANTS to know how to improve. You are doing them a favor by telling them your challenges. It's up to them to accept the responsibility to fix them.

<end rant>

[braj]

Yeah, but in this instance the checkbox was staring me in the face whenever I used it. I don't really know how it could be more clear. There is plenty that SM could change to make ASP more intuitive, but this is my own damn fault.

[synthsin75]

You can always go too far, and then every pro user feels like the program is made for children to use (endless confirmation dialogs to explain every little step, and end up slowing down your workflow). That is not the market SM is trying to reach. Everything has a learning curve.

[braj]

There is nothing 'pro' about un-intuitive Often it can be a matter of wording existing dialogs. Anyhow, I don't think most users are struggling with markers

One thing that does seem 'broken' when adding a marker in the timeline within an action is that it is not 'document wide' in a sense. It isn't in the action, and you are creating it from that timeline, so that is weird behavior. This is the sort of place maybe that document wide markers should be greyed out. You shouldn't be able to add them from the actions timeline.