Heh, our posts are crossing each other. :) To finish up this thought. Every time you add a point to the circle it will deform because each point exerts some tension to the surrounding points. To minimize this effect, only connect on existing points or add more points to the circle to "stabilize...

If you disable auto-weld, remember to use spacebar to weld your endpoints. To answer your second question. The shapes are aren't actually "grouped" in the same sense as in, say, CorelDraw. What you can do is put all the shapes in the same layer and then move the layer as a whole. Or you ca...

Heyvern has a script for this:

HeyVern's scripts and tools - (focus on bones)

It's called the save_bone_animation script. (I haven't use it myself though, so it may not fit your needs.)

You should do the tutorials. Take your time and don't do them all at once. It's really the easiest way to learn the program. Also, using the forum search function and reading a few posts will save you some time. Here are two threads I found that discuss Manga Studio: Manga Studio to Anime Studio Man...

Point motion is translational. When you use the rotate tool on points, you are simply translating the points in a rotational manner; AS will still interpolate, or "tween", between the first and last keyframe in a straight line. To get the effect you want, create more keyframes between the ...

There happens to be a discussion about arm bending right now in Tips and Techniques:
arm bending

The method suggested by madrobot is preferred, but see the technique described in the Users Manual: "You can also use the sequencer to show or hide a layer at any time during the movie." (p. 288).

That's a great effect. Thanks for detailing it on your blog (which I find very informative).

Nice animation technique. You just flip the points to get the opposite view, right? I usually reposition all the points to get the opposite view, but now I'm thinking it's not always necessary. It's certainly looks snappy the way you do it.

I'll take a stab at this. I don't see a setting for this, so apparently AS automatically antialiases images that are scaled up. The more you scale up a low-res image, the more blurry it appears. I can suggest 2 solutions, but both will require significant rework. 1) Resize (upsample) all your low-re...

Are you using the Select Shape tool or the Create Shape tool? You must select the shape with the Select Shape tool first before using Draw->Lower Shape menu command. (See page 26 of User Manual, "Raising and Lowering Shapes.")

See if that works.

Nice work. Very close to commercial quality. Keep us posted on your progress.

I always learn something new when I read slowtiger's posts.

Just for fun, here's my application of the arm rig just mentioned.



Notice that the bone set up works just as well for the wrist, knuckles, and fingers.

Imago, I noticed this behavior when the Alt key is held down when you use the eyedropper tool. Maybe the Alt key is stuck or try a different keyboard? This can also happen if you use a tablet pc and use the input panel to simulate key strokes. When you tap the alt key, it stays in a keydown state un...