Request for top 10 Anime Studio Pro Version 6 Features

[mkelley]

It is of incredible value to programmers to see what the USERS WANT and how they expect it to work.-vern

I guess I'd agree with you more if:

1) The feature in question wasn't something already mentioned hundreds of times by dozens (or more of users) and...

2) We had more of an idea whether the programmer was actually interested in implementing it or not.

In the case of (1) if I had a request that was esoteric (or I was the only one making the request) then I'd want to go to greater lengths to justify the programmer taking a look at it. I think the example you show in the URL is a good one -- never heard of anyone wanting this and he makes his case for it (not a good one, IMHO, but still a case for it).

If everyone in the world says my database program should offer more sorting options it really isn't all that important (and it's almost counterproductive) for my users to offer suggestions on how to implement it. I'm likely to get four dozen different ways on how to do this when as a programmer I'm more than likely to know best.

If Mike hasn't heard yet that we (and by we I mean just about every single person who uses AS) want some sort of joint/volume solution by now he ain't gonna pay any more attention to it just because I make up some screens showing how *I* want it to work. I promise you that is true (and I AM speaking from a programmer's viewpoint here).

In the case of (2) if Mike is getting hundreds of suggestions and is only seriously thinking about a half dozen AND he doesn't quite know the best way to do them then by all means he should ask us and we can give more specific feedback about the process. But I'm not going to waste my time trying to come up with how something should work that doesn't have a prayer of being programmed (as you point out, we are very unlikely to see any more new features for a very long time -- in my case, that may well translate into my lifetime. So I'm not about to waste even a few hours trying to show him how to do something he probably already knows how to do in the event he's never going to do it while I'm alive anyway).

[heyvern]

Here's my stab at it:

viewtopic.php?t=12709

This is only one possible solution. there are still many issues not covered. How to select points that are part of the joint, what are the values based on for radius and offset and scale etc.

-vern

[synthsin75]

Whew! Battle of the Titans.

I think that's the problem with this never ending, feature request thread. I'll bet all of the really worthwhile requests have long since been made. Probably buried in this one thread.

I think the practice of listing (with explanation) the requests should be fine for now. I'd imagine any developer is more likely to start with the sheer number of requests for each feature. And I'd image (hope) that once that list has been thinned down to some probable candidates, that they'd then request some details on possible implementation.

But even that has pitfalls, as seen in MC's recent question about changing the timeline. He got more different opinions than any consensus.

But overall, I believe that it is once these requests have been narrowed down a bit that full mock-ups would be appropriate. It's kind of a two-way street. The developer narrows the field so that the users can focus on fewer questions of implementation.

Just my two (or three) cents.

[chucky]

Time for a new one. This is really important Mike, it would greatly increase production speed and improve animators work. I think I may have mentioned this before, but I thought I'd bump it, as it's SO important.

Applying colours.

The AS colour chooser is not bad- my second favourite style, besides the wheel (a la painter)- but it involves too many steps, colour selection and application should be fast and instinctive and making fine adjustments should be easy.
Could you make the colour palette have an APPLY button and well as the OK?
That way we could keep tweaking colours of shapes without closing and re-opening the thing all the time. Same goes for shape effects.

This shortcoming shows up in AS users work all the time, often I see less than visionary colour choices, probably due to impatience with the process as much as understanding of colour palettes.

I think this is actually MORE important than anything else on any list anywhere, please, please, please add Apply to colour pallette.
Forum people could you vote for this too if is even slightly attractive?

[heyvern]

I put my vote in for an expanded color picker... with an apply button.

p.s. I would also like to put in another vote for expanding script access to the palettes so we can build our own color pickers. This would include a script interface function for an "eye dropper" to pick up "color" values from the screen.

-vern

[heyvern]

As a "bonus" feature for the color picker...

User Data Storage In the File Format

Imagine a cool updated color palette. Now imagine you can store a custom palette with each file inside the file format.

This would of course not be limited to the color palette but for any type of scripting data or preferences or any type of data someone needs to store in the file format so it can be read back in when the file is opened.

Instead of using special names for bones or layers for a layer script a pop-up script could be used to identify IDs of specific bones/layers and that info stored in the file format.

I see this as a simple "[userinfo]" section in the file format that can hold text only, be accessed through the script interface and is intended only for scripters.

-vern

[synthsin75]

Definitely need info storage for scripting. Give the scripters the tools and they have proved that they can do the heavy lifting.

I think scripting access/support is a very important from a development stand point. There is nothing better than to see a wanted feature working, with implementation and user feedback, that could then be made into a better integrated feature.

-------------------------------------------------

A color picker is the only third-party app that I need to use regularly while using AS. The palette and style pull/push are fine for vector color, but AS can use images. There should really be an integrated way to pick and match image colors.


And as Chucky said, there need to be less hoops to jump through, generally. Any dialog window that can manage to be left open while viewing the changes, would help a lot.

[Genete]

I've never used an external color picker in AS. But can they grab the alpha of the color? I think it would be interesting too. HAve the option to pick the blended color or the current stored color of the shape. What about to pick the real rendered color of the shape? You don't see the gradients applied or the textures in edition mode, only when rendered.
-G

[DK]

Right click menu commands would be great for the next version of AS. Quick access to commands like copy, paste, send layer to front/back and import would be so helpful.

Cheers
D.K

[synthsin75]

I'd really miss the right-click pan though. So I'd suggest a hold RMB-click LMB context implementation. After all, it shouldn't hurt anything to accidentally pan the workspace a bit.

[chucky]

Yeah don't touch the PAN it's too good

[TudoR]

Hi! Haven't been on this forum for a while. Since december 2004 I have made a living using just Moho and now AS and a video editor (now Final Cut Pro). Here are my wishes that would make me a very happy animator:

1. Interpolation custom control. We should be able to control the way bones, layers or points interpolate. At least control the amount of ease in and ease out on the same keyframe.

2. Bezier controls for points. This would mean better drawing of shapes with less points, thus less computing neded.

3. Audio playback fixed. In the past animators needed a really complex exporure or dope sheets to be able to match animation to sound. We can have the sound in the timline now but it plays very very very poorly making it rather difficult to use with more complex scenes.

4. Actions. Changes on an action on a grup layer should affect the action with the same name in the layers inside the grup layer. This kind of syncronisation could be optional, activated by ticking a check box or pressing a button.

5. More smooth animated blur. For exemple there is no transition between a blur value of 5 and a blur value of 6. As long as we're talking about bluring, could a motion blur feature be included?

6. Bigger soft edge level. Or at least be able to gradient to alpha so we can obtain a transition between black (or any other color) and a 0 alpha as big as we want.

7. Right-Click in canvas to select layer like in Photoshop.

8. Gravity. This should be really useful on bones. The way I see it this could be just another kind of constraint.

9. More parameters for particles. By the way gravity should be on this list. We can simulate gravity now but if we rotate the layer the illusion is broken.

10. 64-bit support for Mac at least. Apple has been moving it's entire OS on 64 bits. It would be a shame not to be able to use this at it fullest potential.

... and fix the bugs please. For exemple the refresh (or lack of it) in the layers window always makes me select the wrong layer.

Thanks

TudoR

[synthsin75]

TudoR,

Just my opinion here:

1. Multiple keyframes can already accomplish this, so I'm not too eager for this one.

2. Not the old bezier curve request again. There is a technique to drawing in AS that can accomplish anything bezier controls can. Search the forum, this has been posted about several times.

3&4 I'd agree with.

5. AS already has a motion blur feature.

6. Definitely need alpha in gradients, shaded, etc.

7. Well as I said above, I like the right-click pan. But I am getting close to finishing a new tool that will allow you to select layer by clicking on its visible element in the workspace. So you can consider that one done.

... and fix the bugs please. For exemple the refresh (or lack of it) in the layers window always makes me select the wrong layer.

I just plain don't understand this one. Refresh? The layers window?

[heyvern]

1. Yes, better interpolation. I agree with you Synthsin that in some cases this can be "fixed" with more keys but better interpolation control is needed and expected in an animation program. It would save tons of effort and eliminate unneeded extra keys. (please add key interpolations to switch layers as well. You can't match switch layer interpolated changes to other animation with smooth or ease keys. They never match up thus switches can't be used well with other types of animation. I don't use them for this reason.)

2. In a perfect world Bezier curves would be nice but I wouldn't hold your breath. It would change the simplicity of AS. It would change the way the whole program works. At a minimum it would absolutely require a new layer type to be backward compatible with "old" files, otherwise every single file would have to be modified.

3 and 4. Yes and yes.

5. Yes an IMPROVED motion blur would be nice. Not a jump up and down feature request in my opinion because this can be done in other programs that have better motion blur. The motion blur in AS is not "real" motion blur. It is "faked" by repeating and fading previous frames. there is no actual motion blurring. Real motion blur is pretty tricky to program. It isn't easy... I just want to mention that.

6. Yes yes yes.

7. Right click!!! YES DAGNABBIT! Put it in the script interface as well.

8. I created a layer script that can simulate "gravity" and other forms of physics (pool ball, bouncing balls etc). Works with bones. Still need to make it more usable.

9. Yes. I agree with this. Particles could definately be improved. I have a project on my list that will require the particles to be done in another application. I can't use the particles in AS.

10b - I know EXACTLY what the "screen redraw" layer palette issue is. I have that problem all the time.

What happens is you go to click on a layer after opening a group layer and for some reason when you click the palette "scrolls" up or down or whatever causing you to select the wrong layer. In my case I have turned layers on and off by clicking the wrong eyeball icon. With bunches and bunches of layers I have to look through them to see which one I turned off by mistake.

NOTE: If a feature is really really hard to pull off like bezier curve vectors or a full fledge motion blur, this could limit the total number of features possible to achieve during the development time frame.

-vern

[Rudiger]

I've had almost 2 more years of experience with Anime Studio since I first posted my top 10 list of most wanted features, so here's my updated list:

1. Better timeline controls:
1.1. Be able to edit keyframes on multiple layers at once. Also make channels collapsible so you can manipulate all channels, including camera channels, at once.
1.2. Ability to drag a frame range and click a button to either insert additional frames or delete existing frames. At the moment this is very cumbersome for long animations, so I end up using the "rescale keyframes" menu script, which is tricky to get right and is non-undoable.
1.3. Make the naviagation of the timeline window the same as the workspace, ie the scroll wheel zooms in and out and and the right mouse button pans left right and up and down. You could then use a modifier key to perform the current right-click function of adding keyframes and changing interpolation.
1.4. Genete's request to add a button to toggle back and forth between frame 0. Even better if you could toggle back to mainline frame 0 from within an action.

2. Better shape editing:
2.1. Make it possible to select multiple shapes at once for style editing, collating, reordering, and boolean operations. It would also be good if you could then create shape groups like you can with points. Shortcuts to select all shapes related to selected points and vice-versa would also be useful.
2.2. Integrate 7feet's mod that let's you see and set the order of each shape.
2.3. Animatable shape ordering. This is the most important parameter to make animatable for me, but making all parameters animatable would obviously be even better. Hopefully, thinking about implementing this is what caused Mike to start his "Animation channel management" thread.
2.4. Shape-level masking and the ability to use shapes and layers as an alpha mask.

3. More flexible gradients: ie More than 2 colors, be able to vary the alpha of each color and be able to use it as an alpha mask.

4. Style library. It's really annoying that you can't share styles between anime files. I would also like to see a copy option under the Style menu so you can create a modified version of an existing style. More than two effects per style would be nice too.

5. Scenes. You can emulate scenes with Actions at the moment, but it's a bit clunky.

6. Better 3d support. Make it possible to use standard 2D line rendering for outline and user-specified edges, plus optional rendered shadows and highlights. Also, native support of surface patch objects, without converting them to polygons, would be nice as well.

7. Provide an alternative to breaking apart a character when assigning bones by allowing multiple points or groups of points to be assigned to a bone for the flexible binding mode.

8. More flexible action and anme instances. i.e. Make it possible to use frame subset, stretch over time, or contract over time. Also, editing an action after if it has been referenced in the main timeline currently has unpredictable results. It would be nice if the changes were updated automatically.

9. Layer instances. It would be useful to be able to clone a layer as an instance and then change various rendering and transform parameters. This would make it easy to make shadow layers and the like that you don't have to continuously update.

10. Additional script support and the ability to write compiled plugins for more flexibility and better performance.

By the way, Vern. I agree with your initial inclination to break off these latest posts into a separate thread. Is it too late?