Anime Studio 7
Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2009 9:40 am
The excitement and disappointments felt over the Anime Studio 6 release have now passed and now might be a very good time to consider the future needs and features of the next version. Despite calling the thread Anime Studio Pro 7, there is no reason why some of the requests cannot be included in ASP 6 future releases.
Mike has stated the original concept behind Moho nee Anime Studio was to create a vector animation program for television animation. The current vector tools and resulting HD output certainly meet the demanding standards of the broadcaster. But animation series are not completed by any one individual, they are the work of studios, studio groupings and teams of freelancers. That requires a base set of tools which were missing in ASP 5.# and some not implemented in ASP 6. It is a serious handicap for the program's uptake in the studio environment. It could be a giant killer if it were not for one or two missing elements.
Here are the areas which (based on commercial studio experience) I consider need review. The focus is how to make ASP distributed environment friendly ... ie, how can a film scenes be completed by multiple users on LAN/WAN systems.
Configurable Network Path File:
ASP includes the path to external components (such as background images) in the scene file. Move the file to a new machine, change the network setup or reload a file from a two year old backup archive and all scenes are filled with lost files. For a studio, this is very expensive and a serious deterrent for using ASP – it prevents using freelance animators who have a different file structure/operating system.
The solution is relatively easy in practice, though may require lengthy code modification for Mike and the team. It means having a configurable path to scene data. Basically, it's two paths strings, $production_directory path + $local_directory. The $production_directory path is usually kept in the users ASP configuration settings, and the $local_directory stored in the file.
In this way, a freelancers file which was created on C:My Documents/anim_projects/studio_x/new-series_name/episode_01/scene001.anme is easy to import into Studio X's network as the paths are
freelancer.$production_directory_path = “C:My Documents/anim_projects/studio_x/series_name/”
studio_x.$production_directory_path = “//production_HDD3/series_name/”
The path hard-coded into the scene file for both is the same, “ episode_01/scene001.anme “.
In this way, it is easy for collaborations to exchange files easily and with the minimum of changes.
Similar external paths are needed for renderer output directories and stock materials.
External Colour Models.
At the present time, ASP holds its colour model information in the scene file: There is no external reference to a common external colour file. This is a very serious weakness as it means there is no commonality between scenes of the same film ... the fill colour for character_Joe_shirt can be blue in one scene and red in another. This is a problem: Directors are notoriously fickle and think nothing of changing a characters colour set middle production.
But by using an external linked colour reference, it makes life very easy – the externally linked color value of fill of character_Joe_shirt will update on any reload and automatically update at the time of render. Scenes can be built long before the client signs off on the colour style. Its the paint pot system, a fill has the colour of paint pot #124, and it makes no different what paint is in pot #124 – refill the pot with red and Joe's once blue shirt will automatically change to red.
This external system has one very big benefit: By copy and cloning a colour reference file, it is possible to have day and night colours. A scene with Little Red Riding Hood skipping to Grannies house in the morning, can be flipped and reused with a new night palette. To any viewer, no-one is going to recognize the same reused artwork as the colours are changed. Animo used a system where one character colour model held a default palette with sub palettes for night, monotone, matte-ing, etc. Indeed, i have used the colour sub-palette to drive matte channels, where the fills were replaced with a scanned material texture. The effect was remarkable ... Fuzzy-Felt characters which actually looked like 3D animated Fuzzy Felt characters - it was so realistic, Cambridge Animation (Animo's software house) refused to believe it was their own program.
Mike has already indicated this is a big change buy in reality, it is a very necessary one. It is the direct parallel to HTML and CSS files. The commercial advantages are identical, the write once style information and reuse many times. Commercially, it has enabled the Web to go to the next level.
The same is true of ASP. External colour reference are essential in a commercial environment.
Production Management.
Large television series will have many thousands of scenes. Monitoring the progress of an episode is very difficult and relies heavily on proprietary production management software. One tool in PMS is the ability to parse the production directories to read scene files, to determine the progress of any file. To do this, the PMS has to insert a new user layer in which it keep its own data. ASP does permit access to the scene file with LUA and other scripting tools but at the present time, I do not see any reference to user defined layers. For Mike, having the ASP ignore user layers is no great problem, it just needs to be copied any saved/save as file.
For the studios however, having data inserted into the scene is a big leap forward, and for the freelance coders here, the possibility for commercial 3rd party party applications to support the program.
Summary:
If commercial studios use ASP to create the next big series like Reg and Stimpy, the effect of amateur sales will be great. ASP does not need a huge array of commercial tools to make it idea for large productions. The programming investment will see very good commercial returns for Smith Micro.
Without external colour references or directory paths, ASP will continue to be seen as program intended for the single seat/amateur animators (and I do not mean amateurish animators).
And that is not what Mike originally stated the program was for. The industry is going through very tough times and needs good vector tools. ASP is nearly there. It can and should become the giant killer.
I would trust the appointment of as Sarina Product manager might result in greater support for the commercial sector since commercial success is good for ASP, good for SM and good for the end user.
Rhoel.
Mike has stated the original concept behind Moho nee Anime Studio was to create a vector animation program for television animation. The current vector tools and resulting HD output certainly meet the demanding standards of the broadcaster. But animation series are not completed by any one individual, they are the work of studios, studio groupings and teams of freelancers. That requires a base set of tools which were missing in ASP 5.# and some not implemented in ASP 6. It is a serious handicap for the program's uptake in the studio environment. It could be a giant killer if it were not for one or two missing elements.
Here are the areas which (based on commercial studio experience) I consider need review. The focus is how to make ASP distributed environment friendly ... ie, how can a film scenes be completed by multiple users on LAN/WAN systems.
Configurable Network Path File:
ASP includes the path to external components (such as background images) in the scene file. Move the file to a new machine, change the network setup or reload a file from a two year old backup archive and all scenes are filled with lost files. For a studio, this is very expensive and a serious deterrent for using ASP – it prevents using freelance animators who have a different file structure/operating system.
The solution is relatively easy in practice, though may require lengthy code modification for Mike and the team. It means having a configurable path to scene data. Basically, it's two paths strings, $production_directory path + $local_directory. The $production_directory path is usually kept in the users ASP configuration settings, and the $local_directory stored in the file.
In this way, a freelancers file which was created on C:My Documents/anim_projects/studio_x/new-series_name/episode_01/scene001.anme is easy to import into Studio X's network as the paths are
freelancer.$production_directory_path = “C:My Documents/anim_projects/studio_x/series_name/”
studio_x.$production_directory_path = “//production_HDD3/series_name/”
The path hard-coded into the scene file for both is the same, “ episode_01/scene001.anme “.
In this way, it is easy for collaborations to exchange files easily and with the minimum of changes.
Similar external paths are needed for renderer output directories and stock materials.
External Colour Models.
At the present time, ASP holds its colour model information in the scene file: There is no external reference to a common external colour file. This is a very serious weakness as it means there is no commonality between scenes of the same film ... the fill colour for character_Joe_shirt can be blue in one scene and red in another. This is a problem: Directors are notoriously fickle and think nothing of changing a characters colour set middle production.
But by using an external linked colour reference, it makes life very easy – the externally linked color value of fill of character_Joe_shirt will update on any reload and automatically update at the time of render. Scenes can be built long before the client signs off on the colour style. Its the paint pot system, a fill has the colour of paint pot #124, and it makes no different what paint is in pot #124 – refill the pot with red and Joe's once blue shirt will automatically change to red.
This external system has one very big benefit: By copy and cloning a colour reference file, it is possible to have day and night colours. A scene with Little Red Riding Hood skipping to Grannies house in the morning, can be flipped and reused with a new night palette. To any viewer, no-one is going to recognize the same reused artwork as the colours are changed. Animo used a system where one character colour model held a default palette with sub palettes for night, monotone, matte-ing, etc. Indeed, i have used the colour sub-palette to drive matte channels, where the fills were replaced with a scanned material texture. The effect was remarkable ... Fuzzy-Felt characters which actually looked like 3D animated Fuzzy Felt characters - it was so realistic, Cambridge Animation (Animo's software house) refused to believe it was their own program.
Mike has already indicated this is a big change buy in reality, it is a very necessary one. It is the direct parallel to HTML and CSS files. The commercial advantages are identical, the write once style information and reuse many times. Commercially, it has enabled the Web to go to the next level.
The same is true of ASP. External colour reference are essential in a commercial environment.
Production Management.
Large television series will have many thousands of scenes. Monitoring the progress of an episode is very difficult and relies heavily on proprietary production management software. One tool in PMS is the ability to parse the production directories to read scene files, to determine the progress of any file. To do this, the PMS has to insert a new user layer in which it keep its own data. ASP does permit access to the scene file with LUA and other scripting tools but at the present time, I do not see any reference to user defined layers. For Mike, having the ASP ignore user layers is no great problem, it just needs to be copied any saved/save as file.
For the studios however, having data inserted into the scene is a big leap forward, and for the freelance coders here, the possibility for commercial 3rd party party applications to support the program.
Summary:
If commercial studios use ASP to create the next big series like Reg and Stimpy, the effect of amateur sales will be great. ASP does not need a huge array of commercial tools to make it idea for large productions. The programming investment will see very good commercial returns for Smith Micro.
Without external colour references or directory paths, ASP will continue to be seen as program intended for the single seat/amateur animators (and I do not mean amateurish animators).
And that is not what Mike originally stated the program was for. The industry is going through very tough times and needs good vector tools. ASP is nearly there. It can and should become the giant killer.
I would trust the appointment of as Sarina Product manager might result in greater support for the commercial sector since commercial success is good for ASP, good for SM and good for the end user.
Rhoel.