Does anyone feel like me?

blacksunproject · Post by **blacksunproject** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 3:55 am

Is anyone as thankful as myself that we have Anime Studio?
This app never stops amazing me.

Gustavo Pabon

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 4:27 am

Oh yeah. Anime Studio is an endless source of entertainment. With learning some scripting, it is equally satisfying creatively as well as intellectually.

I totally agree! Especially for the price, I don't know that I'll ever learn every little nook and cranny of AS. It's just far too versatile.

DK · Post by DK » Mon Oct 06, 2008 6:23 am

I admit it! I'm an AS addict

I use it everyday, I earn a living from it and it constantly amazes me!!!

Cheers
D.K

The400th · Post by **The400th** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 12:56 pm

I completely agree. I love AS and try to use it wherever I can.

I just wish the ToonBoom and Flash users would take AS a bit more seriously, I'm tired of them looking down on us.

But who cares what they think, GO MO HO! GO MO HO!

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 1:23 pm

I love this program.

If it were money I would save it. If it was a car I would wash it everyday and buy it shiny new spinning hubcaps. If it were a woman I would marry it.

Of course... if it were a woman I would obviously not be her "one and only" with all the other AS users demanding her time and since I'm not into "that sort of thing" we would have to just be friends.

... I really shouldn't take these analogies so far... they can get quite creepy if you aren't very careful.

-vern

blacksunproject · Post by **blacksunproject** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 3:06 pm

DOH!!!

Hey vern, what's going on with Animation Master these day?
I haven't heard to much coming out of the Martin Hash camp.
Is everything O.K. over there?

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 9:52 pm

The400th wrote:I just wish the ToonBoom and Flash users would take AS a bit more seriously

Hey, I'm quite happy to let them toil away in ignorance. Why should everyone get to enjoy such easy animating?

mkelley · Post by **mkelley** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 10:39 pm

Yep -- Wes and I are on the same page. I don't necessarily want *everyone* to be using AS.

But as with everyone here, it's the one program that always brings a smile to my face. I really can't believe after decades doing 3D animation that it would be a simple 2D program that would enable me to finally create animated works worthy of being shown to others.

Of all the thousands of dollars (many, many thousands) I've spent on software, AS is the only program I would not do without. The only shame is that it's not in as heavy a development cycle (if it's in one anymore at all :>) than most other software. This program could KILL Flash and Toonboom if just a little more resource was applied to it.

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 11:32 pm

blacksunproject wrote:DOH!!!

Hey vern, what's going on with Animation Master these day?
I haven't heard to much coming out of the Martin Hash camp.
Is everything O.K. over there?

Everything seems okay to me. I check in every day. They finished their first "user created" movie (Tin Woodman of Oz). We are all waiting to hear about when the movie will be available for purchase. they are still looking for a distributor. They have already started the sequel (Scarecrow of Oz). Those movie projects keep them pretty busy. They've had a few articles about the movies in 3D world. It's a pretty cool concept having ANY user of the software train for and work on a REAL movie project. It won't win awards or make a ton of money but it gets a lot of people involved.

-vern

slice11217 · Post by **slice11217** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 6:11 pm

mkelley wrote:Of all the thousands of dollars (many, many thousands) I've spent on software, AS is the only program I would not do without. The only shame is that it's not in as heavy a development cycle (if it's in one anymore at all :>) than most other software. This program could KILL Flash and Toonboom if just a little more resource was applied to it.

Yeah, does anyone know what's going on with development for Anime Studio? Seems like it's been a long while since we last saw progress or heard any news about AS. I'm starting to get a little worried.

Let me clarify, I'll always stick with AS for as long as it will run on whatever computer I'm using. I'd just like to see the software upgraded from time to time, incorporating new features that respond to the demands of the collective user base.

For the moment, it's nice to have that "wow" factor when I show my work to my "Flash-only" colleagues. I'd like to continue that into the future.

mkelley · Post by **mkelley** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 8:18 pm

No one but Mike knows for sure, but based on many decades in the industry I'm pretty sure doesn't have an active development cycle for AS anymore. Which is not to say he won't fix or add things from time to time, but it's just not making any R&D money for him and thus can't be very high on the list of things he wants to work on.

What really needs to happen is for AS to receive the kind of recognition that Poser got and then to pass to a real development team. This isn't to knock Mike or the brilliant work he's done, but as someone who was in his exact position I know that there is only so far a one-man shop can go. And it's a two-edged sword. I don't know of any major software development that doesn't end up with a proprietary file format, and one of the huge strengths of AS is it's ASCII file format.

But because 2D animation is still a niche area or, perhaps more accurately, because Flash is seen as the king that can't be dethroned, I have little hope for AS to attract that kind of attention. Be happy that it exists at all -- as long as we can continue to run it (and that should be the case for at least the next 8 years, as it appears to run under Vista all right, and that will be supported for at least that long) we should be okay.

It's a bit like those of us who loved the Amiga -- we knew it was the best, but it was impossible to convince large enough numbers to keep it from being anything more than a minority product (and now a legend :>)

dm · Post by dm » Wed Oct 22, 2008 5:22 am

According to someone I spoke with at Smith Micro, Mike is working at Adobe (?). Perhaps that's how Flash got bones? SM doesn't seem particularly interested in further development on their own (waiting for that to happen in a low priority sort of way from the original development "team").

From what I've seen, development has been pretty stagnant (non-existent) since the name change from MoHo. Not very promising sounding from a business point of view.

-dm

Mikdog · Post by **Mikdog** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 12:18 am

Ah...I dunno. I can't think of anything I might add to AS. Perhaps a drawing system comparable to Photoshop? So I didn't have to draw in Photoshop and export all the layers to an AS file...but I'm actually quite happy doing that, PS works well.

So, I'm super happy with AS as is. Works like a legend. Happy Days! Thanks Mike!

mkelley · Post by **mkelley** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 12:51 am

Yes, we are lucky that for the most part AS is about as full-featured as it needs to be.

The few things I have on my wish list are mostly tiny, and have workarounds. I suspect Vern would wish for more exposure for script writing (and that would benefit us all) but sometimes an app really is as complete as it gets and anything added is just fluff to try and sell updates (Word has been like that since around '97).

Then again, you never know -- animated layers has proven to be *extremely* useful even though there were workarounds for it. I suspect Mike could spend six months and do things we can't even imagine. But it ain't gonna happen, IMHO.

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 1:46 am

Mike is working at Adobe (?). Perhaps that's how Flash got bones?

Damn, I hope not. I'd always imagined AS to be Mike's baby. It would be pretty underhanded to go developing for what I think of as a competing software. Sure Adobe money would be hard to turn down, but I'd hope AS developement would be passed on to some other active devloper, or go open source first.

I'd have to reevaluate my whole glowing Anime Studio world.