Help Shape the Future of Anime Studio

[lesdodds]

How about when you click on Gradient in the styles menu, the color you have selected is automatically one of the colors/handles in the gradient instead of the default black and white.

I used a lot of gradients in the past and they are VERY tedious to work with. So thumbs up for your suggestion.
I would go further though.
I would like the gradient dialog integrated into AS pro so you can use the picker tool or the swatch tool to select grad colours. rather than having to select colours, open them up, copy the hex value and then open up the grad dialog and paste the hex.

I would also love to be able to see the gradient stations (the two circles and line that appears when the fill is selected) in the onion skin mode so we can effectively animate the fills.

....Actually an upgrade of the colour and style system would make me happy indeed

Also eyedropper for setting gradient colors.

Thanks

[tony2sugars]

Hi Fahim, Thanx for letting us having the opportunity to suggest things for the future of AS,

I am new to AS and i suppose that there are many newbies on this forum, i have noticed that quite a few posts from professional animators and probably like me most of newbies hav'nt a clue what is being discussed! I know there are video tutorials for beginners, but wouldn't it be a good idea to have a dummies guide (layman's terms) for us newbies, breaking things down a bit clearer?

E.g.... what is a layer?
what is a vector?
what is a switch layer?

and so forth..

I have used different software including crazy talk and others and find AS to be the best, however i wish it was more like go-animate in its simplicity for beginners.

One other thing i would like to see is text to speech in different voices.

Looking forward to your reply and any discussions on these topics.

Keep up the good work, for newbies are important to animation in my opinion.

Regards Tony2sugars

[dreeko13]

I would like to throw a few suggestions in the hat if I may.

I would like to see a more intuitive way of animating in realtime with a panel or list of character animations (and poses) available for selection as the timeline plays through enabling an animation to be recorded as it is performed/directed ... effectively realtime puppetry!

What I am basically yearning for is a 2D version of Muvizu.

I find anime studio's isn't as user friendly as it should be and would benefit from taking a long hard look at the methods Muvizu employs to create 3d animations in a fraction of the time you would expect.

I came across Anime studio years before Muvizu and if had to point out anything that is holding it back from being used by a greater audience I would definitely say it is the learning curve required to get your head round the finicky way that certain features are utilised.

Simplification is the key and an open mind to different schools of thought on animation bar the laborious traditional methods.

Cheers
D

[tony2sugars]

Hi dreeko13, really enjoyed your animation of elephant in the room!

I totally agree with your suggestion of simplifying things, to a newbie like me it's all so very daunting even
reading posts on here because I haven't got a clue what most people are talking about,
They should have a section for just newbies, and I think then they will attract more people into
using animate studio.
Used go-animate for quite awhile and found it so simple, but now I want to create animations from
scratch without pre installed backgrounds and characters.

Please please please AS we need better tutorial video's (dummies guide) and a newbie discussion on the forum.

Regards tony2sugars

[Defims]

hope improve gradient animation,because I use gradient a lot ,and I always need to move the gradient control rod manually or use the bone
but it's really confused when I use the bone to control the gradient , the gradient change but the control rod still remain initial.
As smart bone come out , the smart bone solution seems appear,but I failed.So hope gradient control rop can be improved.

[TonyPolizzi]

I wish the future AS versions will also be able to make full interactive animation like Flash, Edge
Animate, Expression Blend, Hippo Animator, Sencha Animator, etc. If it is not in the plans of
SmithMicro, at least, I would like to have the possibility to export animation also in SVG, XAML and
HTML5 formats, besides SWF, to be able to import it to the above mentioned applications.

[ErikAtMapache]

hope improve gradient animation,because I use gradient a lot ,and I always need to move the gradient control rod manually or use the bone
but it's really confused when I use the bone to control the gradient , the gradient change but the control rod still remain initial.
As smart bone come out , the smart bone solution seems appear,but I failed.So hope gradient control rop can be improved.

The Interactive Fill Tool in CorelDraw is actually pretty nice.

[ketchup]

By shaping the future, I want to add value and ease frustration. Thank you for a forum to add suggestions.

1. The first tool I would love to see implemented, is a quick sketching 'blue pencil' tool that allows or more robust creative thinking. Vector lines are more akin to 'inking' a final cel, which is a refinement step of the animation process. The bulk of animation is creatively tying down concepts and elaborating. This requires a tool to draw poses and tweak frame timing. Currently this requires importing animation or individual cels from an exterior program, which is functional, but not practical or workflow efficient. I think that creating greater flexibility for refining 'rough' drawings would be very advantageous.

2. Morphing lines with dissimilar points. For example, currently if I wanted to have a frame with a mouth 'Eeee' shape, then a frame with a 'Owww' shape, I would need to move points around to create the correct shapes. I would be excited to see a solution that allowed for the creation of a line drawn 'Eeee' and 'Owww' with morph blend targets to ease the point transition. Basically a tool that allows morphing of dissimilar shapes with controlled distortion.

3. Erase point tool. Simply drawing over a point to remove it would be great.

Like many replies to this post, I am a huge fan of AS. I have lots of other ideas I feel would help build AS into a more accepted, powerful and functional tool. AS offers so much, but still seems to come up short for so many timeline driven applications, where results are driven by budgets. I truly hope the development team takes the maturation of the AS toolset and the needs of its audience seriously.

[braj]

I'd love to see this Autorig script wrapped into the next release:

http://www.kelleytown.com/forum/animato ... 1921#16649

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO8uQISEBxw

[chucky]

Braj I couldn't agree more.

[ThunderRaven]

I would love to see a 2D hand drawn section be implemented in Anime Studio. It would have a Option on the Animation tab on the main bar that would let you transform the timeline into a key frame based system, allowing the user to draw frame by frame like other 2D programs on the market. But, there's a twist to this. You can use other tools like the bone tool and such while having this option on, you can also adjust the frames per seconds to your preference, and if you don't like it, switch it off. It makes Anime Studio have more stability to adapt to new heights, and it brings in former 2D artists and animators in.

I used to animate frame by frame with Photoshop and WMM, and it's tedious, really tedious. I would like Anime Studio to do this type of animation as well, it'd bring in more customers and support. But I'm having issues with my version, so I can't right now, but when I figure it out, I will use mine to animate.

[neeters_guy]

I'd love to see this Autorig script wrapped into the next release:

This is a pretty neat idea, demonstrating a proof of concept. In that regard, I think it's worth pursuing...a template-based, automatic character bone rigging tool, that features include:

* full skeleton
* split limbs
* create smart bone actions
* resort and color layers

All with click of a button. What a time-saver that would be!

[jahnocli]

I second all that.

[Pinesal]

I am currently using debut. I would like a easy access button for switching from consolidated timeline to unconsolidated.

[aleXean]

Anime Studio needs to be pushed into the category of major contender in regards to industry standards. I fully believe it could become the biggest animation program out there it needs to just keep going forward. I think a new drawing tool, like the blue pencil line as suggested is something to look into but not just for blue pencil lines. People are used to drawings that are done in flash and although the Photoshop integration is great, definitely something to look into.

ALSO, XSHEETS!

Where are the XSHEETS! I can use notes but XSHEETS are a must especially for traditional animation.

One other thing I would really love to see is (and I know it's minor) the ability to click a button and switch the color for fill and outline. (OH PLEASE GIVE ME THIS FEATURE. )