Help Shape the Future of Anime Studio

[jayfaker]

When you solo a layer in the layers panel, and then unsolo it, ASP just unhides ALL layers. Please make it so ASP remembers what layers were visible before the layer was soloed, and only make those layers visible again. Thanks!

[Telemacus]

One thing I'd like to be able to change is the layer's "eye" icon. If users could choose the icon, it would make layer identification a lot easier when you have a lot of them: you could have heads, mouths, torsos, legs, etc. and as for visibility, when you want to swith it off, simply toggle the icon off. For those who don't like changes, perhaps keep the eye as the default.

[dkwroot]

Anime Studio could do frame-by-frame animation similar to programs like CACANi if the switch layer interpolation mode were improved so that animators can draw on the switch layer (just like my Frame-by-Frame script) and have the program be able to tween line strokes of different point numbers together. This way the user would just draw keyframes and pull the keyframes away from one another and watch in amazement as in-betweens are auto-calculated.

Obviously, the user would need to have the ability to select strokes from one frame to the next and be able to manually tell the program that 'this' stroke is 'that' stroke so that everything interpolates correctly. Also, there would need to be a button that would allow the user to 'flip' stroke direction just in case the program interpolates the correct stroke backwards.

A cleaner idea would be to just add the ability to switch a normal vector layer into a drawing vector layer. Doing this would cause each frame of the vector to default to blank and the spaces between keyframes to interpolate.

The program would definitely need a 'sketch layer' before all of this though, as it's easier to sketch out concepts for motion using rasters instead of vectors.

[dkwroot]

Got a REALLY good one!

If you have a switch layer that has bone layers as children, we should be able to set the switch layer so that it will show and allow interaction with the bones of the currently active bone layer. This means that we can build body parts for rigs and place those bone layers inside of a switch. We can then just collapse the switch layer and easily work with the nested bones without having to dig around the switch searching for them.

This idea could actually be expanded on further to allow a bone layer to 'show' all active bones that are in nested bone/switch layers within it. This way we can easily see our nested bones and interact with them from a higher layer without having to setup a bunch of complex rigging controls.


Again, we would need nested layer z-depth sorting to make all of this really shine. I can't stress this enough, seriously. Nested z-depth is going to blow people's minds and enable this program to work on a level no one thought possible.

I made a video explaining this in further detail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3XJK5d ... e=youtu.be

[Nicohk92]

Do something so that curve profiles are maintained and do not disconnect at random everytime a project is re-opened.

[x-vishon]

There are a lot of great suggestions here as far as features go. I had an idea for one feature that I'm not sure I seen. This a way to have multiple states of how bones are connected when animated. This would enable you to animate the parenting of a bone. A reason for this would be to have say a prop that is part of a rig and moves with a hand and is influenced by the hand but during the animation be able to detach or attach the bones on that item or switch layer. making it easy to do a throw with out needing to switch between a visible version that is attached and one that is not. also to be able to have anchor points on objects that bones could snap to that will not move. so lets say your doing a animation of someone climbing a wall you could attach or snap to anchors that have been layer on that layer. This would act similarly to bone locking but could be on a physics object lets say. like the end of a rope. attach the hands to the anchor point and the character could hang from the rope and detach again that way the moving rope the hands could be locked to the object instead of a point on the work-space.

Hope that makes sense. so to sum up the ability to attach and detach bones influence or set up points or hot spots that attach or detach from bones. I'm sure there are tons of other creative ways people would use such a feature. This is just the first that comes to mind. I don't think am I missing a really obvious ability or script to do this with as I have never seen one AS10 or below?

[dkwroot]

This is a proof of concept for animating with nested z-depth. I recently figured out that Anime Studio does support this, but only for 3d objects. I do NOT recommend building rigs with this since the rigs look terrible due to jagged 3d edges. Hopefully AS 11 will allow us to organize all nested layers (vectors and images) in true 3d space. I have included an example file showing how nested z-depth works and enables people to build very clean and well organized rigs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgXG8IeK_ro

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwzk-f ... sp=sharing

[dkwroot]

AS 11 is probably only a few months away and I wanted to give one small UI suggestion. I think this can definitely be implemented by AS 11. Basically it gives us a little more canvas space and a lot more layer space. It also has a nice/cleaner appearance.

http://s29.postimg.org/mm3qgo3tz/UI_FIX.png

[strider2000]

I've had Anime Studio for about 2 years. I really enjoy it and love the community support. I haven't had a chance to read all 31 pages of this post so I'm not sure if this idea has been suggested. I don't know where you are in your development schedule, but I think it would be incredibly helpful to have the ability to

Turn control of points on and off on a particular frame

The workflow shows what I mean. Imagine that for frame X you manipulate bones and perhaps other controls, but there are a few points that are not quite where you want them. You turn off control of points for that frame and _points stay where they are_. You then tweak the stray points to finalize the frame. If you turn the control of points back on for that frame you may lose the tweak. Ideally they might be saved as a morph, but if I lost them it would be ok, because of the power I gained to tweak and it would be easy to retweak.

I think this would be very helpful especially when you have multiple smart bones controlling at the same time. Suppose I have a head turn left and right, a bone controlling up and down and a facial bone (eye brows for instance) I may want the character to look up and left with a frustrated expression. I set all smart bones adjustments relative to frame 0, but when they interact the final results are not quite right and I can't manually move the points, because they're under the control of the smart bones. If I had the ability to tweak, I could create a nearly infinite set of combinations, using the smart bones, and they just need minor adjustments. Also, it would give smooth animation from frame X to frame X+1.

I've seen demos by a number of users in this forum that can manipulate points manually really quickly. They're able to create very flexible animations. Conceptually this idea would allow them to go to the next level. They can use the bones to create the rough and then tweak the result manually to get very advanced control of the points.

Since I'm relatively new and Anime Studio is so powerful there may be a way to do this already and I just don't know it. However, it seems like a very powerful technique that can conceptually have a low development cost. Even if you can't or decide not to add this idea, thanks for allowing everyone to share their ideas. I think it's a great way to continue to make this product better and better.

[neeters_guy]

...
I set all smart bones adjustments relative to frame 0, but when they interact the final results are not quite right and I can't manually move the points, because they're under the control of the smart bones.
...

Smart bones do lock out certain keyframes such as switches and layer sorting, but I think point motions on the main timeline are additive to any in the smart bone actions.

[strider2000]

...
I set all smart bones adjustments relative to frame 0, but when they interact the final results are not quite right and I can't manually move the points, because they're under the control of the smart bones.
...

Smart bones do lock out certain keyframes such as switches and layer sorting, but I think point motions on the main timeline are additive to any in the smart bone actions.

Hmmm. I've just experimented with a simple 4 point curve and 3 mutually controlling smart bones and got the behavior you suggest. Apparently on my more complex rigs I'm doing something that gives a different behavior. I'm not sure what it is. Perhaps it has something to do with nesting of layers. I'll try to check it out and see what the issue is. Thanks.

[strider2000]

I now see my problem. I had bound my head group layer to a head bone (not a smart bone) which, because that blocks nested control, was interfering with my point control after manipulating smart bones. Thanks neeters_guy for the information. I just thought that was the way things worked

[Undiscovered]

I love Anime Studio pro ... Here's a list of my wish list features.......

1 )I would love to see an option to quickly export to GIF. so I can quickly share a snippet of my animation on google plus/facebook
How cool would it be to see your animation animating in your social network timeline automatically.

Anyone else want this feature?

2) I would also like to have RULERS built into anime studio so we can visually see how big each side of our shapes, characters, backgrounds are etc.
The secret to pro animation drawing is balance and precision. Adding rulers would help.

3) I also would like a faster way and professional way to lip-sync. I know there is Papagayo, but it is a separate program, but something built in and that works better would be awesome. (Also Papagayo only works with switch layers, a lot of Anime studio artists use Smart bone animation to animate mouth lip sync. So can we get something that helps the smart bone animation animate lip-sync easier.

4) I prefer to do my whole animation process start and end in Anime Studio without a second video editor. But the problem is when I export out of Anime Studio the audio is distorted. This is a known issue that I hope get's fixed in the update.

5) Camera angle feature..(Would work like switch layers but added advantage of remembering last scene animations)
So for example you would have your scene looking straight on.. then another switch layer with the same scene but from a different angle... then another switch layer with the same scene but an ariel shot... and etc.. etc... when you switch layer to a different camera angles the characters will be in the same pose they last were in on the previous switch layer, so you can quickly switch camera angles and animate fast and it looks like there are 2-3 cameras in the room. This would make it look professional and real.

6) I think we should all have an automatic bone creator for a human character. (A standard Human bone template.) That everyone has access too and we can make reusable actions for that we can share here on the forum. (So basically use this Automatic Skelton bone creator template on your character. "Bind it to your layers on your character". .then download actions from users and then see your own character move smoothly.) I feel this can also be a good learning tool, to reverse engineer how it was done. (Some Actions categories like.. Walking... kicking... waving... punching... Jumping... shaking... thinking.... pondering.... (we can also have different angled actions for side, front, back etc.) (It can be grouped into sections of realistic, cartoon, happy, sad Etc.) (we can also have a template mouth lip sync with all user template.) Endless possibilities.

7) More drawing tools like Photoshop. Gaussian blur update would be awesome. Glow effects. Paint spray effect. Dodge and burn effects.
How cool would it be if you can combine vector and real paint on our character. (Like draw our characters and color them in with vectors. Then add a layer on top of that with real photoshop paint effects all within Anime Studio.)

Green screen mode. (Spoiler alert: I use Anime Studio for everything, Because I am comfortable with it.) When I bring a picture PNG in the Work area I can select that little magic brush and click on the green background and it will disappear. But sometimes not all of it disappears and I am stuck with green spots. I wish you can erase portions of the picture. (I know I can crop it or mask out what I don't want.. but a simple eraser would be great thank you.

Anime Studio is a great program that I love...
Any of these feature request would be appreciated.
Thank you.

[dkwroot]

The ability to export SVG file format would be awesome.

[Noisefever]

I strongly recommend a touch interface. I have a tablet with a pen and AS would be predestinated for that. Sadly it is not.