Using AS9 Pro on a Surface Pro

[wizaerd]

Does anyone have any experience with running Anime Studio Pro (ver 9) on a Surface Pro tablet? I've heard good things about using it with Manga Studio 5 (another Smith Micro product) and was thinking about getting it for that alone, for drawing on the tablet. But then I got to thinking about ASP on the Surface Pro, and was wondering how well it worked, if at all.

[InfoCentral]

I think this works....Yiynova MSP19U

[wizaerd]

Thats great, thanx for sharing.

Does anybody have any actual first hand experiences in using Anime Studio Pro 9 on a Microsoft Surface Pro tablet they'd care to share?

[Víctor Paredes]

Does anybody have any actual first hand experiences in using Anime Studio Pro 9 on a Microsoft Surface Pro tablet they'd care to share?

I'm not sure if this counts, but I have a lenovo thinkpad tablet pc (which is like a laptop and a cintiq all in one) and it works wonderfully.

[barryem]

I bought an Acer Iconia W510, a Windows 8 tablet and I tried Anime Studio on it, as well as a number of other programs. After about a week I returned the tablet. Most of the software I use would work okay on it but it wasn't much fun. Everything was a lot of extra effort.

Anime Studio did work okay but it was like the other programs I tried. It just wasn't a natural fit to the touch screen. I did have the keyboard dock and using it with that and a mouse made it work out just fine but the idea was to have a tablet.

This is a different tablet than the Surface Pro, of course. For one thing it's a 10" screen and if the screen had been a bit larger it might have been better. But that wouldn't have been enough to make it fun to use. Also there wasn't a Wacom stylus with it. I do have a capacitive stylus but that's not nearly the same thing. I suspect having a digital stylus would have been a big improvement but I still doubt it would be enough to make me want to keep the tablet.

Another difference is that the Acer is an Intel Atom powered machine with only a fraction the horsepower of the Surface Pro. However this didn't really matter for the simple stuff I do in AS9. It handled it just fine. I've also used it on a netbook with an Atom CPU where I had problems because of the screen size but the CPU was up to it. Unless you're doing complex animation AS seems not to be particularly CPU intensive.

The real problem was that the interface is designed to be used with one hand on a mouse and the other on the keyboard. I've never used a drawing tablet but I suspect those who do also have a hand ready for at the keyboard.

Drawing on the tablet in AS was also difficult with my finger or capacitive stylus. It's a bit less accurate than a mouse, which is also pretty inaccurate, but once I draw with the mouse it's pretty easy to smooth and move things where i want them and make it all better. Using touch it really wasn't easy to improve or fix my mistakes. Again, a digital stylus might make a big difference with this.

I will say that AS did feel more natural on the screen than a lot of other software I use. It was hardly the worse. If some of the others had been better I might have kept the tablet and used AS on it for very simple stuff, although I probably would still use it mostly on my laptop.

I'm not sure how much help this is to you. It really might be better on a Surface Pro. It wasn't unusable on the Acer. It just wasn't much fun.

Barry

[wizaerd]

Thank you Barry, that was quite informative and helpful.

I've tried using a Bamboo and Wacom tablet before, but I guess my hand to eye coordination just isn't all that great, and I've never been able to draw with a mouse. It just doesn't feel natural trying to create smooth strokes or arcs with a mouse. I've just never been able to attain any level of real control when attempting to use a mouse.

I'm really hoping the tablet will allow me a more natural approach to digital drawing, but I'm not too sure about the power of it (the Surface Pro only has 4 GIG of Ram, which just doesn't seem like much for graphics. Then the aspect of not using the keyboard (seems the keyboard would hinder drawing access), using the stylus for everything, the gap caused by the screen glass depth, etc...

I ordered one, so now I guess it's wait and see. I'll let everyone know how it turns out.

[barryem]

When you get it I'd be really interested in hearing how it works out.

You say you worry about only 4 gig but the one I had only had 2 gig RAM and there weren't any real graphical problems. I've never done anything very complex in AS so maybe I just haven't run into those problems yet but I have used it on several 2 and 4 gig computers where it worked just fine. I doubt there'll be memory issues except on very large projects, if then.

I do agree that it's hard to have any control with a mouse. I'm not much of an artist. I've been drawing all my life but I have no training and not much skill. I've never had much control even on paper. I just do it because I enjoy it.

With the mouse I rarely try to draw something the way I want it to look. I just draw something that's sort of maybe in the ballpark and then I modify it till it seems right. Trying to draw it anything like "right" from the start is frustrating and futile. Fixing it after is usually pretty easy as long as I have some idea what I'm after. Again, I'm just doing very simple stuff. I rarely even keep it. I just sort of doodle.

Barry

[chucky]

Get a tablet with a wacom stylus, works fine. I just wish someone would make a decent sized artists tablet , there's enough handbag jobs out there. Something big, with guts. I've had 2 so far an HP with heaps of features and a design flaw which caused meltdown and an EP121 which was pretty good but has a tiny hard drive and a fatal design flaw which also causes meltdown. The designers aren't taking the challenge of a proper tablet seriously, they listen to too many IT journos and not enough artists.

[Lychee]

In my opinion AS is not a "real freehand drawing" program (like Toon Boom for exemple) and you will do better things with a mouse and a keyboard.
I have a Bamboo tablet like you and this software is not fun with it and i'm not sure a Surface Pro will change this fact.
AS have a "synthetic" approach of the creation process, it is not easy like pen and paper.
Perhaps you can work more quickly with a tablet PC but i think you can not realy "draw" with AS, in the true definition of the word.

Except for Anime Studio (again in my opinion), the Surface Pro is a good machine for the artists, perhaps a little bit expensive.
I planning to buy a tablet PC too, but i wait for the next génération (better, faster, stronger and i wish, less expensive).

Sorry for my bad English (French Inside).

[heyvern]

BIg plans for win 8 and new products using it. Most complaints is that the new products are too expensive so the hope is for the fall and the students buying stuff there may be new products more inexpensive taking advantage of the touch capabilities of win 8.

Also most consumer complaints are about the interface and the switching from touch to keyboard use. Hopefully the next update (8.1) will adress some of these issues.

[wizaerd]

In my opinion AS is not a "real freehand drawing" program (like Toon Boom for exemple) and you will do better things with a mouse and a keyboard.
I have a Bamboo tablet like you and this software is not fun with it and i'm not sure a Surface Pro will change this fact.
AS have a "synthetic" approach of the creation process, it is not easy like pen and paper.
Perhaps you can work more quickly with a tablet PC but i think you can not realy "draw" with AS, in the true definition of the word.

Except for Anime Studio (again in my opinion), the Surface Pro is a good machine for the artists, perhaps a little bit expensive.
I planning to buy a tablet PC too, but i wait for the next génération (better, faster, stronger and i wish, less expensive).

Sorry for my bad English (French Inside).

First of all, your English is fine. Secondly, you bring up very valid points. I've always kind of struggled with drawing in AS as a whole, and it's doubtful the tablet will change that. AS is not meant to be a digital representation of natural media, and as such isn't really meant to be a drawing tool, although I have seen some examples of some great artwork done in AS. I suppose it's more of an illustration application (ala vectors/splines), in which case the mouse should (and does) work fine. Now that I think upon it, it really doesn't make much sense in attempting to get AS to work with a tablet. Sketch or draw characters on the tablet in apps meant for that, import that into AS and either AutoTrace or trace as vectors on a desktop.

[barryem]

You might be right about AS not being a good drawing tool from an artist's point of view, but for a poor amateur artist like me it's just fine. I have Android and IOS tablets with drawing and painting applications and I've drawn all my life on paper, although not very well. I think I probably draw better in AS than I do in other ways. It let's me be my usual clumsy self and then fix it and adjust it till I get what I want. I do a lot more drawing and sketching in AS than I do animating.

Barry

[heyvern]

I am a relatively older guy from a different tech generation. I was in my early 20's when desktop publishing hit the scene with Illustrator, Photoshop etc (Photoshop 2.0 was awesome). I "re-learned" to draw using a mouse (horrible mouse... with a ball inside).

Over the years I never quite got the hang of using a stylus for drawing on the computer. I learned to draw with a mouse and never got over it . Most of the artwork I do "on the computer" is either traced from sketches on paper scanned in or just drawn "free hand" using the mouse to move and manipulate points. Actually I often draw on paper and don't bother scanning and tracing. I just use the sketch as a reference to draw with the mouse. I find using the "freehand" tool in Anime Studio a complete waste of time. The strokes always have too many points, points in the wrong spot... after fixing it... I could have just drawn it faster using the mouse and clicking one point at a time.

I do have a Wacom now, but because it isn't "connected to the screen" I find it difficult to use as I would drawing on paper. I have to be able to rotate the "paper" draw from different angles. I just can't make that brain connection from the stylus to what I see on the screen. I am probably going to get one of those new Wacom monitor thingies. The only way I can draw properly is on paper or directly on the screen.

Tablet or iPad would be nice but the resolution is intended for "finger navigation" and not precise drawing and doesn't have pressure and angle sensitivity. That is why I am saving up for one of those beautiful Wacom screen thingies.

[wizaerd]

heyvern, the Surface Pro does support pressure sensitivity (although I'm not sure about angle sensitivity). I had given some consideration to one of the Cintiq drawing surfaces, but just couldn't justify the cost, plus you're still tethered to the PC. I decided on the Surface Pro for portability as well as the drawing surface. Plus makes a handy laptop for accessing the interwebs and email while on the road.

[heyvern]

Cool beans! So surface pro has pressure sensitivity. That's awesome. I could live without the angle I suppose. I wish Apple would come up with a touch screen MacBook or at least an ipad with pressure sensitivity.

Ha ha! Yes, they need a "wireless monitor" connection to the Cintiq. I use a laptop primarily so portability won't be too big an issue. Get a small one, hook it to the laptop and just leave it "in the bag". I am really not much of a "on the road" computer user so I was actually looking at that HUGE Wacom with the hydraulic movement and rotation. Played with one at the NYC Comic con... holy crap... good god almighty... horrifically expensive but I want one sooo bad. It was like drawing on paper for real. It felt so natural.