Help Shape the Future of Anime Studio

[Greenlaw]

Couldn't agree more, what would be even better is a direct link with Kinect

The problem with Kinect v1 is that Microsoft no longer manufactures this model. The original Kinect for Windows v1 is impossible to find and the XBox version is getting scarce too. I know because we currently use three synchronized Kinect for Windows v1 devices for animated shorts and feature film vfx, and finding affordable replacements has been a concern for the last couple of years.

The new Kinect v2 for XBox One is more readily available and reasonably priced. We have four of these devices that we intend to use for distributed synchronized motion capture. The problem we're having with these devices is that they are a lot fussier about hardware specs. The Kinect Configuration Verification Tool says our computers meet the specs but so far we've had to try two different types of USB 3 cards, new graphics cards, different brands of USB 3 repeater cables, and it's still not happening. This has been especially frustrating because compatibility wasn't nearly as difficult with the v1 devices.

So, while Kinect support would be nice but I'm not sure how committed Microsoft is to supporting and developing this device for use with common desktop computers these days.

G.

[chucky]

Great info Greenlaw.
Very disappointing to hear about the configuration issues, I thought the Kinect 2 would have been better.
Has anyone tried with win 10?.
I'm sure MS will be working behind the scenes on this with the new hub device coming out.
The tech won't be going away and probably will start be absorbed into standard hardware.
Let's hope so, be nice to have it all working now though.

[Greenlaw]

Has anyone tried with win 10?

Yes, all of our computers, with the exception of one desktop and an old laptop (both still running Windows 7 Pro), are running with Windows 10. Kinect v2 requires Windows 8.1 or higher, so we took advantage of the free upgrade to upgrade for seven of our computers. I can get one Kinect v2 to run with my main workstation but we need to get four of them to run with the four boxes we normally use as our render farm. I feel like I'm not far from figuring out how to make this work but I've been reminded that we have a film to finish and I really need to move on for now. Hopefully, I can get back to this problem and solve it afterwards.

Sigh, too many art projects, not enough time.

G.

[chucky]

You said it , I have about 60 shots to do by Thursday.... omg. Who set this crazy schedule?.... oh yes , that would have been me.

[Little Yamori]

Just a simple request to put back in newer versions what was useful and existed in older versions,

specifically,

1.) The right click, "copy" and paste ability in the color palette for the color code, I use this over and over again in Debut 6, and it was removed, so I'm hoping it can be easily put back.

2.) The Copy, Paste, Delete tabs above the timeline also used to exist and made things quite productive, and were removed in later versions, Having to use a drop down menu from the edit options is both time consuming and distracting, in that it takes yours eyes off of the timeline and specific keyframes. The same goes for the alternative "ctrl c", and "ctrl v" "short cuts" on the keyboard, just because it's called a "short cut" doesn't mean it is one. If you have to take your eyes away from the timeline to a drop down menu or a keystroke (especially if your working in the dark) then you aren't animating at that point, repeat this over and over again for hundreds of files, and it takes a toll.

I humbly ask for consideration on these 2 points, since they existed (exist) in earlier versions and were tremendously useful in the making of my animation, I am about to pick up pro11 for my newest project, but seriously am dreading not having these tools available.

Thanks for listening,

LY

[Pesto]

In the motion/graph editor I would love the ability to constrain a handle horizontally or vertically. This can be done in other software graph editors such as Maya or AE. I think this feature would help a lot.

Also, any enhancements to flip geometry when creating smartbones for turns, or the like, would be nice so we don't have to move each point tediously. This would also give us more predictability in preserving the volume of our character.

Lastly, any streamlining of the motion/graph editor would be welcome. It just seems too confusing compared to others software (i.e. maya). It would help tremendously to have the ability to only deal with certain channels while overlaying others for reference, etc...

[seren animation]

A movable, roll up (or minimise to a button) "post it note" area into which you can place smart bones, character controllers etc would be pretty handy for organising clutter
I also like the idea of being able to assign midi controller or osc data to smart bones, or any animatable parameter for than matter.

[Noisefever]

Don't know if allready mentioned: allow action references in actions. Like an object in an object in flash. Would be the ultimate weapon! I don't see a technical reason to not do this. To prevent endless circle references make a maximum render depth definable.

Regards, Daniel

[eric1223]

How about a colorized motion blur?

[eric1223]

make cycle a default interpolation. Right now, it can be time consuming to go though each layer you want to cycle, esp when u have over 100 layers.

[jezjones29]

My wish list currently looks like this:

• Allow depth of field to be animated
• Import animated gifs that play in timeline
• Save as animated gif
• Ability to position sound/audio on the stage in 3D space
• Better align tools for objects
• Switch layer shortcuts with previews
• More colours for layers and bones
• True straight lines between points (currently slightly curved)
• Lockable layers
• A new shape menu/widget to show order of shapes in a vector layer
• Better note layer (should be longer)
• A better gather media option which zips all media inside one file – like MS Word does.

More details here: http://www.animestudiotutor.com/updates_wanted

[synthsin75]

Ability to position sound/audio on the stage in 3D space

Doesn't spatial positioning in the audio layer settings already do this?

[jezjones29]

Ability to position sound/audio on the stage in 3D space

Doesn't spatial positioning in the audio layer settings already do this?

I thought at the moment it only changed the left and right balance - not near and far. Is this not the case?
I suppose, the ability to change the volume would be the key here - which can be done anyway in the motion graph - so it would be good if the two were linked.

[Noisefever]

I'd like to have such simple timeline tools like Cut, Copy & Paste for frames (with the space of the frames and not only the keyframes). Inserting frames to the whole animation with the rescale function is a pain in the ass. And what about the sequencer view? It is reduced to editing the start of a layer. What's about cutting sequences and insert space between two portions of a sequence? Or copy & paste portions of a sequence to repeat a piece of it. Or to rearange it.

The timeline could be much improved IMHO!

[KuzKuz]

1 - "Hide", "Lock" or "Lock and Hide" selected reference layers (Hide only in layer panel). With reference layers we can do difficult mask structures with many references, and to clear layer panel, and protect references from unneeded keys, will be helpful this feature. Show layer option can be like this: "Show All Layers", "Show Group Layers".
2 - Update layer referance - Update bind points value.
3 - "Edit - Select inverse" work with shapes if one or more shapes selected.
4 - New Option in bones: show bone when "Show curve" is Disabled.