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Engage! Expo NYCGDC 2010SXSW Interactive FestivalIEEE Virtual Reality 2010
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Jump to: Graphics and Animation Software All product reviews |
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Introduction
The latest version of Anime Studio was released earlier this year and although the list of new features and improvements doesn’t hold any huge standout features, the list collectively adds up to have quite a punch. Many of the little annoyances are gone with slick new improvements making version 6, a much stronger package.
Anime Studio is available in two flavors, a hobby-level, budget-priced package called Anime Studio Debut; and a full-featured package known as Anime Studio Pro. The Debut package is limited in a number of ways and although it does let you create some simple animation, is only a shadow of the Pro package.
Anime Studio Pro Interface
The most apparent interface improvement in the new version is that all the palettes are docked around the central working area by default. Although you can hide the palettes or make them into floating palettes, the default layout is clean and organized (Figure 1).
Figure 1: The new interface has all key palettes docked around the central working area. (click for a full-size image)
Another new interface addition is the new Library palette (Figure 2) that holds all the example content. The palette can also be used to hold project files providing a quick and easy way to see image and video thumbnails. The Library can also playback audio files, which is a nice feature for locating the correct file before importing it. Selected content files are quickly loaded by simply double clicking on them in the Library palette.
Figure 2: The new Library palette provides thumbnails making it easy to locate the exact project or resource you want.
Another improvement is that many of the tools have been optimized to reduce their total number. So, instead of having separate tools for Shear X and Shear Y, the tools have been combined into a single Shear tool.
The Style palette has also been optimized into a small convenient palette with only the main features visible. This optimized palette can be easily expanded to reveal all style settings by clicking on the Advanced button at the bottom of the palette and then reduced again using the same button.
Drawing Improvements
The various vector drawing tools in Anime Studio are adequate. The existing set of tools include the standard drawing and freehand tools. There are also tools for making various shapes and adding text to the project. Several of the drawing tools have been streamlined making their settings easier to access.
The only new drawing tool is a Scatter Brush tool (Figure 3) that places random instances of a selected shape along the drawn path. This new tool is a nice addition and it is easy to customize by simply dropping other objects into an installation folder. You also have limited control over the randomness of the scattered objects.
Figure 3: The new Scatter brush tool lets you draw with randomly-placed objects.
Another drawing improvement is the ability to hide objects. This help keep the working area organized and quick to refresh.
Layer Improvements
The Layer Settings dialog box now includes an Auto Shading feature that automatically applies the shading style to all objects on a layer. This saves tons of time and provides a way to quickly apply ambient occlusion effects to a drawing. It also insures that the shading settings are consistent across all objects on a layer.
The Layers palette also allows a multiple layers to be selected at once. This lets you move or rotate several layers together. There is also an option to animate the stacking order of objects within the same group.
Style Improvements
The big new feature in the Style palette is a tool that lets you interactively control the placement of gradients and textures (Figure 4). The texture placement tool appears when the Select Shape is active. It lets you drag one end of the tool to set the center of the gradient or texture and then rotate the other end about to spin the gradient or texture. You can also drag either end towards the other to scale the gradient or texture. This simple tool is easy to use and provides a lot of power for accurately positioning and orienting textures and gradients.
Figure 4: The interactive texture and gradient placement tool lets you precisely place textures.
The Gradient effect settings dialog box has been updated to include a color bar where you can add multiple color stops giving you complete control over the look of the gradient. There are also options for select from Linear, Radial, Reflected and Angle gradient types.
The new Eyedropper tool lets you pick up specific colors and styles to be quickly reapplied.
The Brushes feature has been improved to use 512 by 512 pixel color palettes for creating brushes. This allows broad variety to the look of your custom brushes.
Animation Improvements
The Playback controls now includes buttons for jumping to the next and previous keyframes making it easy to navigate complex animated scenes. The Timeline palette has also been simplified showing only those channels that have keys applied for the current layer. There is also a preference option to further reduce the number of displayed channels.
Anime Studio 6 also includes presets for working with HD resolutions and it even includes menus for automatically uploading your animations to YouTube and Facebook.
Multiple Audio Tracks and Sequencer
The previous version of Anime Studio only allowed a single audio track for each project, which was quite limiting, but the new version allows multiple audio files to be loaded and used. This feature lets you place background music on one track and individual sound effects on separate tracks. There is even a Spatial Positioning feature that lets you set keys for the left and right balance of the sound. This is great for creating sounds that move with objects on screen.
All timing of all loaded sounds and videos can be precisely controlled using the Sequencer panel in the Timeline palette. The Sequencer panel lets the drag audio files left or right to set their starting frame.
Video Tracking and Lip Syncing
The new Video Tracking feature lets you place tracking points (Figure 5) on a loaded video and the program tracks their motion through all the frames of the video. The tracked points can then be used to control the motion and rotation of another layer. This is a cool feature that makes it possible to create realistic motion based off a video reference.
Figure 5: The Video Tracking feature lets you track specific points in a video as it plays.
Anime Studio 6 offers two different lip-sync features. The first is automatic lip-sync that switches between layers based on the amplitude of the specified audio file. This is great for certain types of lip-syncing. For example, the mouths of a choir of singers could be opened and closed based on the loudness of a song.
The second lip-sync feature is called phoneme lip-sync and it allows individual sound shapes to be created to synchronize with specific spoken sounds. For example, you could create a graphic for the Aww sound and when a dialogue audio file that includes that sound is loaded, the program automatically creates a key to display that graphic when the sound is played.
The phoneme lip-sync features in Anime Studio are based on the AST Production libraries and it is frightfully easy to create impressive lip-syncing for your animated characters.
Morph Blending
Using the Actions palette, you can define specific morph targets of your drawings. These various morphs can then be easily blended together to create a unique combination using a set of sliders. The blended objects can easily be animated morphing over a set number of frames.
Summary
Anime Studio 6 is a healthy upgrade to an already strong and robust package. The improvements to the lip-sync features along with the ability to load and use multiple audio files reduces the number of external packages needed. The package also supports a Lua scripting ability which gives the package power to be expanded.
If you plan on creating some fun animations for your Facebook pages or working on professional-level animations, then Anime Studio is a low-cost, full-features alternative that you should consider. The interface is easy to learn and provides a quick way to immediately get results.
For more information on Anime Studio 6 Debut or Anime Studio 6 Pro, visit the Smith Micro web site located at smithmicro.com. Anime Studio also has an active community site and forum located at www.lostmarble.com.
Kelly L. Murdock is the president of Tulip Multimedia, a design firm specializing in 3d graphics. He is the author of multiple graphics related titled including the popular 3ds Max Bible. He also recently authored Anime Studio 6 Pro, the Official Guide.
