A question

[cartoonimator91]

I just ordered AS on saturday, it hasn't came in yet but i have one short question.

can you scan in your own background with your own drawn animation still showing up on that background? pretty much like traditonal 2D animation?

thanks, can't wait to try AS out

[jahnocli]

Well, there's no built-in scanner function (like, say, Photoshop) but you can import bitmaps which have been produced elsewhere -- graphics, photos etc. Does this answer your question?

[cartoonimator91]

alright, that shouldn't be a problem.
i do have another question after researching a bit.. exactly how do the "bones" work? do you create a character, import it and then just add the bones for movement or what?

[AmigaMan]

Welcome to the forum. You will love AS I'm sure
I sketch out my characters on paper and import the image into AS. I then trace over the image in AS creating the separate elements required - you will need to check out the tutorials for this but it's really easy so don't worry. The bones are then added, as you say, to allow you to move your character`s limbs etc for animation - again this is fairly quick to get the hang of thanks to the tutorials.

[cartoonimator91]

so i just got AS today
its really awesome, i like it. but i can't import my character without a white box background around it on top of my other background. anyone know how to fix this?

[slowtiger]

That's because you saved your scan without an alpha channel, which is needed to define the transparent area.

If you use Photoshop, basically you can do it like this: scan your character. Duplicate the level so it's not the background level. Switch the background level to invisible. Use the magic wand tool to select all the white area around your character and erase that. Use the eraser tool if necessary. Now "save for web" and choose PNG as file format, with "transparency" checked.

[cartoonimator91]

so i just looked at photoshop.. and buying it is $600
i'm only 16, so i definitely don't have that kinda cash just laying around
know any other software that might help me? or a place to download photoshop for free? like bit torrent?

the only image editing software i have on my computer at the moment is paint.net.

[Genete]

Gimp

[cartoonimator91]

Wow thanks you guys, this has been the most informative, non-newb hating forum i've ever been on

have you ever used gimp to import your character into AS?

[myles]

If you prefer Paint.NET, you can also use it instead of the GIMP (little tutorial on deleting backgrounds in Paint.NET for cartoonimator91 - Flash format, about 120 kB).
Note: Paint.NET automatically exports an alpha channel to PNGs where the background is transparent.

The GIMP is more complete and has a lot more options and useful stuff, but can occasionally be confusing or intimidating to beginners.

It doesn't matter which program you use, the important part is that (1) it exports to PNG, and (2) the PNG has a transparent background (alpha channel).

Note:

Anime Studio is not, unfortunately, a mind reader - it cannot guess which parts of your drawn character are movable limbs drawn in front of the body, or what the arm hidden behind the body looks like, or what the leg partly hidden behind the other leg looks like.

To effectively use a scanned hand-drawn character or photo, you're going to break it into separate parts, either when you draw it or in an image-editing program like Paint.NET or the GIMP, before you import the parts into Anime Studio.
See the very end of the little tutorial linked above for a very simple example of a broken apart character.

Regards, Myles.