Anime Studio into Manga Studio Request

[Psynema]

I'd love to import Anime Studio Pro rigs into Manga Studio, so as not to redraw the same characters ad nauseum. Also great for storyboards even if comics aren't your thing.

Anyone else with me?

[JaMike]

Aren't they completely different pieces of software with different developers? Or did something change since I last looked at it?

[jahnocli]

I definitely think there's an opportunity for a developer to make money from a comic creation program like Manga Studio which could use bone armature rigs -- it would save a whole lotta time! There are already programs like iClone and Poser for 3D environments, but I don't know of a 2D alternative. Maybe this kind of technology could be grafted on to Motion Artist, which is also developed by Smith Micro; would certainly give it a USP which it seems to be struggling to find at the moment.

[Greenlaw]

Manga Studio is by a completely different Developer (CelSys in Japan,) so I think it's probably not going to happen. Plus, MS EX already has it's own puppet posing/cel shading system--it is not really the same thing as what the OP is asking for but, because it exists, I think that makes an ASP compatible system less likely to happen too.

That said, you could use ASP's Comp Layers system to output elements for Manga Studio. Just define your BG, Character and FG layers in Comp Layers and use the Batch Render to output your layers. If you use each frame to represent different panels/camera views, you could export multiple panels of data for MS EX with one ASP scene file. This will give you some degree of compositing flexibility in MS EX, especially if you output at a higher res to allow for up-scaling.

Of course the vector tools in MS won't be compatible with the ASP imported art and you'll need to edit the imported images with the new bitmap tools in MS 5 EX. (Unless you want to hop back to ASP for edits and run the edited Comp Layers again.)

Hmm...after writing that I guess I could see why somebody might want better ASP-MS EX friendliness. I guess it could be kinda cool to have ASP-style posing and vector editing within MS EX is you already have a lot of ASP ready assets prepared.

I haven't used Motion Artist but it's a web comics program with limited AS capabilities isn't it? I guess SM wants to be careful that Motion Artist doesn't compete too directly with MS EX but I think the features discussed here could be well suited and more likely to happen for Motion Artist. Just a thought.

G.

[JaMike]

guess SM wants to be careful that Motion Artist doesn't compete too directly with MS EX

If they are selling both products, why would they care about competing with themselves? It doesn't seem to bother Autodesk.

[Greenlaw]

Because Manga Studio is owned and developed by a third party in Japan, and Smith-Micro mainly handles the English translations and western distribution, not development. This is just speculation but my guess is that If Smith-Micro develops Motion Artist to compete too directly against Manga Studio, Cel-Sys may pull Manga Studio from them, which would be bad news for Smith-Micro and professional comics artists in the US.

AutoDesk is a different situation. They buy software companies and own all their products outright, which why they can pretty much do what they want with them, including killing off popular products like SoftImage to eliminate competition with their flagship product Maya.

G.