Help Shape the Future of Anime Studio
Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 11:03 am
Hi Everyone,
I’ve officially been at Smith Micro for 2 months now and have been tasked with the role of Product Manager for Anime Studio. I have been working diligently on coming up to speed with both the business side as well as the technical side of Anime Studio.
So in the last 2 months I’ve attended several tradeshows, including San Diego Comic Con, Siggraph and Anime Expo. I've reviewed documents and existing strategies. I've chatted with new as well as old school Anime Studio users, even some from the Moho days. I've chatted with the press and internal stakeholders at Smith Micro. Thus far the feedback on Anime Studio has been extremely positive. Everyone speaks highly of it and I am positive that it is not just our marketing prowess that led to the positive reviews but it’s folks like you who are the ones responsible for its success. I am sure you’ve spoken highly of our little product and others have responded by purchasing it and using it.
Anime Studio has come a long way since the Moho days and though, I’ve been gone for a few years, I am still pleasantly surprised to see that the LM community has not only grown but flourished without having lost its sense of camaraderie. Unfortunately, like any community, we’ve lost some friends who have moved on to other things, while some others have reappeared. As such, I am honored to be back and though I may not be able to join every conversation on the forums, I will try my best to read and listen to your issues. Ultimately, I would like to interact with you all, get an appreciation of your workflow, requests and check out your animations. My goal is to then take those interactions and represent you at Smith Micro.
Thus far from the forums, I have gathered 6 major recurring comments:
1. The need for more updates
2. Less frequent version upgrades
3. More Pro based features
4. Improvement and enhancement of existing features
5. Better support for scripting
6. Better quality assurance process
I am taking into account all of these items and I am confident a few more will appear along the way. Ultimately, my mandate is to address these issues as best as possible so that I can serve your needs.
One key thing to note, I am sure all of you know this, is that Anime Studio has 2 types of users, Pro users and Hobbyist/Aspiring users. Each type has their own needs but I really believe that we can serve the needs of both groups and ideally, my goal is provide Pro users the features/enhancements they desire and to help Hobbyist/Aspiring users as well, so that they can learn the basics of animation and then one day become Pro users.
With that, I would like to open up this discussion and ask you what features/enhancements/bug fixes you wish to add or see in Anime Studio Debut or Pro. When responding, please let us know what version of the product, Debut or Pro, you are referring to.
A few important comments:
1. We do have a tracking system that is being used to log bugs and enhancements.
2. I have also viewed some of the previous threads on feature requests and you can repeat any items from those threads to this discussion as well.
3. Part of the disconnect that occurs between developers and animators (artists) is an understanding of your workflow. So feel free to explain your animation workflow.
4. Your feedback will be essential in defining the future of Anime Studio. In fact, I will be contacting some of you and hope to have one-on-one discussions about your requests.
5. Eventually, I will be following up with surveys to determine the best and most requested features to implement for future updates & full version releases.
6. If you have a more abstract (high level) comment on the direction of Anime Studio please feel free to mention it here as well. Or you can send it to my email address: fniaz@smithmicro.com
7. If you agree with anyone’s comments, please make sure to say so! If you disagree, you can comment as well, but please be mindful of everyone’s feelings. I’d like this conversation to be positive and constructive.
8. I hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to tell us what features/enhancements/bug fixes you’d like to see in Anime Studio.
9. There are quite a few folks from Smith Micro that visit and read the comments on the LM forums, and they include folks like Tori, Michi, our quality assurance team members, our tech support team members, our in house artists/animators, our engineers (including Mike Clifton) and myself. Quite often, we take your comments and bring them up in internal meetings. So I can say that we are listening to you.
Thank you and looking forward to working with you as well as hearing from you.
Fahim
I’ve officially been at Smith Micro for 2 months now and have been tasked with the role of Product Manager for Anime Studio. I have been working diligently on coming up to speed with both the business side as well as the technical side of Anime Studio.
So in the last 2 months I’ve attended several tradeshows, including San Diego Comic Con, Siggraph and Anime Expo. I've reviewed documents and existing strategies. I've chatted with new as well as old school Anime Studio users, even some from the Moho days. I've chatted with the press and internal stakeholders at Smith Micro. Thus far the feedback on Anime Studio has been extremely positive. Everyone speaks highly of it and I am positive that it is not just our marketing prowess that led to the positive reviews but it’s folks like you who are the ones responsible for its success. I am sure you’ve spoken highly of our little product and others have responded by purchasing it and using it.
Anime Studio has come a long way since the Moho days and though, I’ve been gone for a few years, I am still pleasantly surprised to see that the LM community has not only grown but flourished without having lost its sense of camaraderie. Unfortunately, like any community, we’ve lost some friends who have moved on to other things, while some others have reappeared. As such, I am honored to be back and though I may not be able to join every conversation on the forums, I will try my best to read and listen to your issues. Ultimately, I would like to interact with you all, get an appreciation of your workflow, requests and check out your animations. My goal is to then take those interactions and represent you at Smith Micro.
Thus far from the forums, I have gathered 6 major recurring comments:
1. The need for more updates
2. Less frequent version upgrades
3. More Pro based features
4. Improvement and enhancement of existing features
5. Better support for scripting
6. Better quality assurance process
I am taking into account all of these items and I am confident a few more will appear along the way. Ultimately, my mandate is to address these issues as best as possible so that I can serve your needs.
One key thing to note, I am sure all of you know this, is that Anime Studio has 2 types of users, Pro users and Hobbyist/Aspiring users. Each type has their own needs but I really believe that we can serve the needs of both groups and ideally, my goal is provide Pro users the features/enhancements they desire and to help Hobbyist/Aspiring users as well, so that they can learn the basics of animation and then one day become Pro users.
With that, I would like to open up this discussion and ask you what features/enhancements/bug fixes you wish to add or see in Anime Studio Debut or Pro. When responding, please let us know what version of the product, Debut or Pro, you are referring to.
A few important comments:
1. We do have a tracking system that is being used to log bugs and enhancements.
2. I have also viewed some of the previous threads on feature requests and you can repeat any items from those threads to this discussion as well.
3. Part of the disconnect that occurs between developers and animators (artists) is an understanding of your workflow. So feel free to explain your animation workflow.
4. Your feedback will be essential in defining the future of Anime Studio. In fact, I will be contacting some of you and hope to have one-on-one discussions about your requests.
5. Eventually, I will be following up with surveys to determine the best and most requested features to implement for future updates & full version releases.
6. If you have a more abstract (high level) comment on the direction of Anime Studio please feel free to mention it here as well. Or you can send it to my email address: fniaz@smithmicro.com
7. If you agree with anyone’s comments, please make sure to say so! If you disagree, you can comment as well, but please be mindful of everyone’s feelings. I’d like this conversation to be positive and constructive.
8. I hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to tell us what features/enhancements/bug fixes you’d like to see in Anime Studio.
9. There are quite a few folks from Smith Micro that visit and read the comments on the LM forums, and they include folks like Tori, Michi, our quality assurance team members, our tech support team members, our in house artists/animators, our engineers (including Mike Clifton) and myself. Quite often, we take your comments and bring them up in internal meetings. So I can say that we are listening to you.
Thank you and looking forward to working with you as well as hearing from you.
Fahim