Anime Studio has no Group Layers?!?

[tonym]

Hi, Tony here.

I love Anime Studio PRO. So I bought my friend a copy of Anime Studio (the cheaper version) as a gift, so he could learn to animate.

So I'm talking with him on the phone, answering his tool-related questions, when I learn something about Anime Studio I didn't know. Anime Studio comes with no Group Layer!

Yes, no Group Layer! This is horrible. I can understand stripping-out some bells and whistles, but stripping-out Group Layers?

To work around it, I advised him to pretend Bone Folders are Group Folders, and pack his Vector Layers in there. But still....ugh.

While I'm venting, I also don't like the missing Onion Skins and the missing User Samples. Those missing elements have made it much harder for him to learn to animate, IMO. Isn't Anime Studio targeted at the newbie?

Oh, and he says he can't RENDER. Huh? I'm assuming I must not be communicating with him well, because there is no frikkin way I bought him a program that stripped out RENDER.

At least F5 works, thank goodness.

Tony

[myles]

Hi Tony,

To work around it, I advised him to pretend Bone Folders are Group Folders, and pack his Vector Layers in there. But still....ugh.

Yes, using bone layers is the easy workaround, and does everything Group layers would normally do, it just doesn't look as pretty. The lack of group layers (and particle, 3D, and note layers) in the standard version is documented on the comparison page.

While I'm venting, I also don't like the missing Onion Skins and the missing User Samples.

Personally I agree Onion Skins should be in the base version, but the extra content was one of the things announced as a differentiating factor for the Pro version, apart from the other features marked as Pro only. All the standard-feature tutorial-related files for the standard version should be present, as well as the standard AS extra content (the characters and scenes that were originally included in Moho). By the time you've worked out how all those were put together and work, you should be well along the learning curve.

Oh, and he says he can't RENDER. Huh? I'm assuming I must not be communicating with him well, because there is no frikkin way I bought him a program that stripped out RENDER.

Export Animation (sometimes referred to as animation rendering) works, but single-frame on-screen Render and Preview features were initially dropped from the standard version (which has been a bit of a thorny issue, since they weren't noted as Pro-version-only in the tutorials). Single-frame render will be re-introduced to the standard version in the free update due in a couple of weeks, the first update since the software was released as Anime Studio.

Regards, Myles.

[tonym]

Yes, using bone layers is the easy workaround, and does everything Group layers would normally do, it just doesn't look as pretty.

Yeh. Seems like if there is a functional but inelegant work-around, then a company may as well include the utility that they're wanting to exclude.

All the standard-feature tutorial-related files for the standard version should be present, as well as the standard AS extra content (the characters and scenes that were originally included in Moho).

I understand why the fancy new bone-rigged characters were not included in the basic version. But my friend said that the samples mentioned in the tutorials were excluded--those are samples I meant (you know, the bouncing beachball, etc.).

If those samples 'should' be there, then would somebody describe exactly which folder they are in, so I can tell him exactly where to look. Maybe he missed them.

Single-frame render will be re-introduced to the standard version in the free update due in a couple of weeks, the first update since the software was released as Anime Studio.

Sweet! I'm happy to hear that render is being included now. I'll tell him about the upcoming update. He'll be thrilled, I'm sure.

Thanks, Myles!

[arthbard]

If those samples 'should' be there, then would somebody describe exactly which folder they are in, so I can tell him exactly where to look. Maybe he missed them.

Tell him to look in C:\Program Files\e frontier\Anime Studio\Tutorials

As far as I recall, all the examples mentioned in the tutorial were in there (even the ones that are only applicable to the pro version).

[tonym]

If those samples 'should' be there, then would somebody describe exactly which folder they are in, so I can tell him exactly where to look. Maybe he missed them.

Tell him to look in C:\Program Files\e frontier\Anime Studio\Tutorials

As far as I recall, all the examples mentioned in the tutorial were in there (even the ones that are only applicable to the pro version).

Thanks, arthbard. I just called him to tell him the folder location and, during the conversation, I realized I'd misunderstood his complaint. It was the 'demo' that was missing a particular sample mentioned in the tutorials (the "Frank" object, specifically).

So.....my friend is happy with all the samples in the basic version.

Oops. My bad.

( blushing emoticon )

Tony