What do you think about the AS10 main characters?

General Moho topics.

Moderators: Víctor Paredes, Belgarath, slowtiger

User avatar
Barry Baker
Posts: 342
Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2004 6:58 am
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: What do you think about the AS10 main characters?

Post by Barry Baker »

I think the characters are appealing, really well designed and well rigged. Each one demonstrates features of the software that reward careful study, and are tutorials in their own right. They also show that AS10 is not limited to a particular style or "look".

One thing I would add to them is some note layers explaining how some of the less obvious features have been put together. For example, the rigging of the female character's legs and her skirt are ingeniously engineered, and I'm sure a lot of users would appreciate a few words of explanation in a note at the side.
User avatar
Víctor Paredes
Site Admin
Posts: 5646
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 12:18 am
Location: Barcelona/Chile
Contact:

Re: What do you think about the AS10 main characters?

Post by Víctor Paredes »

Hi!
First, thank you very much for all the feedback. This project was very important to me and I'm more than happy to receive your comments.
I'm very sorry for the delay, but I couldn't take the time to write here properly. Now I have a little room, so here we go:
slowtiger wrote:I still use 9.5, so I can't comment on the quality of the rigs. The designs are beautiful.
But I fear 99% of AS users never reach an artistic level where they would appreciate these styles.
I'm more optimistic about that, we all are surrounded by cool illustrations, we were raised with beautifully designed movies and series, we have the knowledge even we can't apply it to our own art.
Anyway, about the designs, all the credits go to Óscar and Alfredo, the illustrators who made this characters.
Telemacus wrote:However, in my case, being a beginner at AS, I found that I couldn't use them much for my own projects because of the clothing style, body type and so on. (I mean, I could, but lots of changes would be needed)
I wish AS spent a little (actually, a lot!) more effort on improving the character design engine, which I find very limited at present...
lwaxana wrote:I see why Smith Micro wants to show a variety of character types to market the software, but I think that many users would prefer to see a set of well rigged vector based human characters that are stylistically consistent so that they can be used in animated stories rather than primarily for study/tests/demonstration. I think premade characters are half the fun of a rig based animation software. But if the characters don't look like they belong in the same story together, I'd imagine they're much less likely to be used.
Telemacus and Iwaxana, it was actually my idea to show characters from different worlds. I never thought this as a content pack ready to use on your own animations, but more as a demonstration about what can you get with the software. I focused on creating relatively easy to manipulate rigs, more than concentrating on re-usable content.
I think probably the characters or props packs are more on that line. I had had some ideas for packs, but sadly I don't have much time to work on that now. For example, I really like to rig cars into AS and I would like to make a car pack some day, with more options for personalization.
I know the Character wizard could be improved hugely, but time and resources is limited so I personally prefer Smith Micro develop a better software to draw, rig and animate your own characters in easier and more powerful ways, rather than providing you flat impersonal computer generated artwork.
Rainer wrote:Hi Victor, the characters are great, but I think some of yours are even better. I wonder if it might be more attractive to potential users if you showed some of the past AS characters that have been a success in TV spots etc that people might recognise and relate to.
Thanks, Rainer. The problem is most of that TV spots characters are owned by the companies, so you I can't simply share them inside the software.
Waan wrote:I especially like the Pirate Female character though, she is an interesting character
Thansk, Waan. I like the Pirate too. I like the idea of having a strong girl as main character (since we are not used to that), but -sincerely- I'm not so happy about that rig as I'm with the other characters. It's not as flexible as I would want to.
tut wrote:I must tell you that the plant in particular was very inspirational. Studying the rigging of this character opened my mind to what is possible when you think outside the box. Many of the doodles I draw don't have arms and legs so that was very helpful. Keep having fun and thank you very much for your commitment to this great program.
Thanks. Yes, I really like the projects where I simply don't know how I could achieve some desired result. We are used to see "normal" characters and they are fun to rig, but the real fun comes with unusual characters which forces you to think in a different way. I hope to see some of your characters moving soon.
aongus wrote:A suggestion: could Smith Micro set up a webinar where you would talk us through the rigging in some of the characters (or any new characters in future versions)? This would be helpful for understanding the principles of rigging in Anime Studio, and applying them to our own work.
I really like that idea. I will consider it for the future. Thanks.
Greenlaw wrote:I think many users would find it helpful if tips like that accompanied the rigs, either in a .pdf or video form.
Barry Baker wrote:One thing I would add to them is some note layers explaining how some of the less obvious features have been put together. For example, the rigging of the female character's legs and her skirt are ingeniously engineered, and I'm sure a lot of users would appreciate a few words of explanation in a note at the side.
Thanks, Greenlaw and Barry (and it's good to see you here, Barry!). I tried to make the characters as self-explained as possible, but of course there are tricks that need an external description. I think the Aongus' webinar idea would cover that.
tut wrote:P.S. Just wanted to add that I loved the video you did for Miss Tijoux! That album has been in regular rotation here since last summer, so I was very excited to see you working with such a lovely artist.
Really? That is great news! Thanks for the comment. Where are you from?
Image Image Image Image
Moho Product Manager

www.mohoanimation.com
Rigged animation supervisor in My father's dragon - Lead Moho artist in Wolfwalkers - Cartoon Saloon - My personal Youtube Channel
User avatar
3deeguy
Posts: 755
Joined: Sun Apr 03, 2011 5:54 pm
Location: Poughkeepsie NY
Contact:

Re: What do you think about the AS10 main characters?

Post by 3deeguy »

selgin, the biggest thing I've learned from you, not the only thing, is stacking shapes on a single vector layer. When I first saw it I thought it was too complicated. I prefer it now.
Few people may agree with me but I think artwork should be like handwriting. Everybody should be a little different
Cheers, Larry
Post Reply