I'm trying to determine a long-term solution for animating pre-rigged 2D characters like those offered for sale by Cartoon Solutions. All of their Anime Studio Characters begin in a Flash Format, and they have many more of those characters available in Flash than in Anime Studio.
I'm new to Anime Studio, and have never worked with Flash before (although I have used Swish). I absolutely love the Anime Studio interface, bone rigging, ease of use, etc. However, since I'm not an artist, I really need access to plenty of pre-rigged characters with mouth formations for phoneme lip-syncing, etc. I'm only seeing maybe 5-10 characters available for Anime Studio. So, I'm curious how difficult the Flash interface is to learn versus Anime Studio, and how professional the Flash animations might look in comparison to Anime Studio.
My output needs to be broadcast quality for a large projection screen in a children's theater. Thanks in advance for any input.
Anime Studio Vs. Flash
Moderators: Víctor Paredes, Belgarath, slowtiger
Well - a lot of topics there! I've used both Flash and Anime Studio for a while (back when it was Moho), so I'll give you my two pennies...
AS's bone system makes animating a LOT easier. There are plugins (extensions) which Flash can use (google for Ik'Motion, animSlider), but AS is a better system. On the other hand, the way AS uses sound files is poor (I think) for an animation program. Flash gives you much more flexibility.
I've got both programs. They can work well together (although there are some annoying glitches from time to time). If you can afford it, I'd recommend you get both. Then, from inside Flash, you can export .AI files of the Cartoon Solutions packages and import them into AS. They will then need a lot of tweaking, but that is one way to do it.
Then when you've finished animating in AS, you can export the sequence back out to Flash as a SWF file and use Flash for further animation and compositing. That's what I do.
AS's bone system makes animating a LOT easier. There are plugins (extensions) which Flash can use (google for Ik'Motion, animSlider), but AS is a better system. On the other hand, the way AS uses sound files is poor (I think) for an animation program. Flash gives you much more flexibility.
I've got both programs. They can work well together (although there are some annoying glitches from time to time). If you can afford it, I'd recommend you get both. Then, from inside Flash, you can export .AI files of the Cartoon Solutions packages and import them into AS. They will then need a lot of tweaking, but that is one way to do it.
Then when you've finished animating in AS, you can export the sequence back out to Flash as a SWF file and use Flash for further animation and compositing. That's what I do.
You can't have everything. Where would you put it?
Good info, jahnocli. I agree with your comment on the audio issue. I'm a writer/producer type who has been forced into doing my own editing and animating work because I don't have the budget to pay talented animators...yet. My college degree is in audio engineering, so I hate to see audio limitations in any program. Papagayo needs a lot of improvement as well to take some of the monotony away from lip-sync work.
Do you know of any other resources for pre-rigged AS characters like those made by Cartoon Solutions? Since I'm not truly an animator or artist by nature (or by talent), I really want to take advantage of using stock characters for my work. Maybe some day I'll have enough ability to create my own or enough money to pay someone to make them for me.
Do you know of any other resources for pre-rigged AS characters like those made by Cartoon Solutions? Since I'm not truly an animator or artist by nature (or by talent), I really want to take advantage of using stock characters for my work. Maybe some day I'll have enough ability to create my own or enough money to pay someone to make them for me.
Have you been to Content Paradise? Quite a few rigged characters there. You could also take a look at Toon Boom -- it may fit better with your desire to produce Flash files. It's more tightly integrated with Flash, and it would be easier to use stuff like that produced by Cartoon Solutions...but also more expensive than AS and less versatile.
You can't have everything. Where would you put it?
I'm just starting out as well. I'm a 3D animator but have this urge to do 2D stuff again. I've looked at AS and it's impressive but I'm not sure any studios use it where I'm living. The only reason I am using Flash is because it's the standard (and Toon Boom) and I want to get a job in a 2D studio. I plan on giving AS a try later on because of the camera but for now it's Flash.
This is one plugin that helped with the decision to move towards Flash...
http://www.trickorscript.com/
Bones, facial library, squash and stretch, and so much more and it's cheap (I too am a writer/producer type on a tight budget) Plus, some major studios are using it so it will eventually hit all of them soon...I hope.
This is one plugin that helped with the decision to move towards Flash...
http://www.trickorscript.com/
Bones, facial library, squash and stretch, and so much more and it's cheap (I too am a writer/producer type on a tight budget) Plus, some major studios are using it so it will eventually hit all of them soon...I hope.
Money doesn't make you happy...it just makes life really frickin' easy.
www.knurd.ca
www.knurd.ca