Moho Forum

It looks like Smith Micro have been working on MotionArtist. It now looks more like Anime Studio The original MotionArtist was from e-frontier and I'm sure many of us will remember it.

From a tweet: "beta will be available to the whole world starting 7/11"

“MotionArtist will change the way digital comics and graphic novels are created and shared,” said Steve Yatson, senior director of Product Marketing at Smith Micro Software, Inc

-- NEW - MotionArtist -- Digital comic and interactive graphic novel creation. Bridging the gap between your comics and your readers.
-- Anime Studio(R) -- Cutting-edge tools and techniques to produce popular styles of animated 2D movies, cartoons and cutout animations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAk0lrwAoH0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSEL6YVkcFA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wml7BltvZ7c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me6FjZGhsgY

They link to http://motionartist.smithmicro.com/ - but it's currently locked

Twitter: http://twitter.com/motionpunks
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/motionpunks

someone playing around with it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxqPpTG5w4I

This is where it left off: http://www.creativepro.com/article/e-fr ... onartist-4

Looks like the door is open!

Free public beta:
http://motionartist.smithmicro.com/index.html

More details:
http://motionartist.smithmicro.com/moti ... -beta.html

The original MotionArtist was from e-frontier and I'm sure many of us will remember it.

Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with the ex Motion Artist.
Not really spectacular this new program

So THIS is why we don't have Anime Studio 9 this year!

I don't get it. What does this program provide that you couldn't do in AS with one hand tied behind your back?

jahnocli wrote:I don't get it. What does this program provide that you couldn't do in AS with one hand tied behind your back?

It's a cut down version of AS that's targeted at a different market. It's a commercial tactic - develop one program, sell it as many rebadged programs. The down-side is that we have to wait longer for new features in ASP while they develop this product.

.

There are of a couple of interesting features in this product. There are no content creation tools. Everything has to be built in another program and imported into MA. Photoshop is seamlessly integrated into MA so that images and scenes are imported with layers preserved. Also seamless integration with AS files as well. The one feature that would make this product a decent motion graphic designer is missing and that is the z axis. When I see motion comics they use a lot of depth which isn't available in MA; no fly thru.

There seems to be little information presently on supported file formats. I am getting the impression that this is a raster based program. Does anyone know if vector images are supported?

If I had one suggestion to SmithMicro for this Beta cycle that would be to open up a beta forum so beta testers can discuss and ask questions.

Correct. This MotionArtist doesn't have much in common with the Old version besides name and ability to easily put some cool animations together. Rebuilt and retargeted it appears...

DEPTH = There is the ability to move objects on z axis.
1. if you have multiple image or a layered photoshop file in a panel, you can arrange the whole panel in 3d automatically adding a negative z-depth based on the layer order.
2. You can select an object and double click the little cross hair in the middle and get an object stop point dialog. You can adjust the z-axis here on single items numerically.

The trick seems to be with the camera though, because you don't see the z-depth until you move the camera. Then you will see the parallax. So make sure you are in the camera view and you have some camera movement across or in front of the panel or objects. this is when this depth is revealed.

VECTOR = You can import and rasterize vectors, but Anime Studio files get hosted. You don't have full control over the animation keys etc.. though.
I guess I'll have to dig deeper and post what is and isn't supported yet.

Distinct Sun wrote:The trick seems to be with the camera though, because you don't see the z-depth until you move the camera. Then you will see the parallax. So make sure you are in the camera view and you have some camera movement across or in front of the panel or objects. this is when this depth is revealed.

I understand the parallax effect but what I was referring too was true z-axis in that you can move the camera past objects in a scene (i.e. fly through). I see this being used in a lot of motion graphic comics.

JaMike wrote:

jahnocli wrote:I don't get it. What does this program provide that you couldn't do in AS with one hand tied behind your back?

It's a cut down version of AS that's targeted at a different market. It's a commercial tactic - develop one program, sell it as many rebadged programs. The down-side is that we have to wait longer for new features in ASP while they develop this product.

Having used both programs I disagree. Motionartist works nothing like AS. The work flow is completely different and suited for a different end product. Yes, you could make the same thing in AS. But if you want to make a web comic or graphic novel that has some animation and a roving camera, motionartist will do it faster and easier. And the beta software is free with no restrictions.



This is what it's good for. The U.I. is prefect for doing stuff like this. In truth this did take longer than I had hoped, but only because the software is still in beta and can be a little finicky at times.

Also export to html5 makes motionartist really perfect for web comic production. AS isn't really suited for that.

I received an e-mail with an EMPTY line for the serial number !?!

6R

fishless wrote:This is what it's good for.

Very nice use and demonstration of the parallax effect. It does add a little dimension to the previous flat comic.

p6r wrote:I received an e-mail with an EMPTY line for the serial number !?!

6R

6r,

Same thing happened to me. Go here: https://support.smithmicro.com/app/answ ... /a_id/2354
And click on start a new incident. In a short time they will give you a serial number. But you can still download MotionArtist from the email you received and unlock it later. Hope this helps.

Thanks a lot fishless...

I just have sent an e-mail.
OK ! Yes I know I can install it and test it before having the serial number.

6R