Just Upgraded! (Kill This Topic)

[furtherelement]

As a working motion graphic designer, I considered my software options carefully in making a transition to character animation. I'm not interested in "hobbyist" quality and I don't have time to waste learning an incomplete or unnecessarily complex tool set. After trying to hammer out the limitations of Toonboom packages, and seeing it would be a choice between the $7H Animate Pro or $18H Harmony, revisiting ASP after a brief introduction to it in the Moho days was like a ray of lucky sunshine. And the next day I wound up winning a $250 Amazon gift card, which when applied to my ASP10 purchase left me paying 4 bucks out of pocket. Thrilled.

[Nicohk92]

What about some very commonplace statement from a rookie (in animation) to clear the air a bit.

I believe it's the law of offer and demand. I respect the dedication of programmers and I'm sure a huge passion is at play to get up in the morning and put all this time and effort in their product. Then it's the law of offer and demand that regulates a price, a high price has obvious benefits, a lower price, more indirect but nonetheless tangible ones and there is also the huge marketing mistake which is fair game and happens. Not sure where to put anime between all this but in any case, I feel lucky that the stars are aligned to make such a powerful tool match my wishes and wallet at this point in time. I feel lucky, but not grateful. It is up to the marketers to define their offer and I don't owe anything more than my hard earned cash in what should always be a win-win situation. Just as I see no reason to applaud the airline pilot for a successful landing, I am not compelled to go further than respect, liking, perhaps even feeling happy for the creator's personal achievement. If I had to use reverence, thanks and feel guilty when using a product because the programmers worked too hard on it for too little, I could have spared a few bucks more on it or they should find a job that makes them happier. I guess this approach really applies to the kind of craftsmanship and creative professions we are talking about. Otherwise, thanking or even congratulating a product just for doing what it says it does on the box is allowing low expectations to become the norm.

Without the need for gratitude, respect and enjoyment brings loyalty. Anime studio is one soft I'll never allow myself to crack (especially at that price)

[Markster]

Still, let's not fight people, I just stated my opinion, I created this topic so we could discuss upgrades for Anime Studio, not to fight about how hard developers work or how much money developers should get from their developments.

Let's get back on topic here, I just got my new copy of Anime Studio Pro 9.5 today!

[GCharb]

As a working motion graphic designer, I considered my software options carefully in making a transition to character animation. I'm not interested in "hobbyist" quality and I don't have time to waste learning an incomplete or unnecessarily complex tool set. After trying to hammer out the limitations of Toonboom packages, and seeing it would be a choice between the $7H Animate Pro or $18H Harmony, revisiting ASP after a brief introduction to it in the Moho days was like a ray of lucky sunshine. And the next day I wound up winning a $250 Amazon gift card, which when applied to my ASP10 purchase left me paying 4 bucks out of pocket. Thrilled.

That's pretty cool!

Still, let's not fight people, I just stated my opinion, I created this topic so we could discuss upgrades for Anime Studio, not to fight about how hard developers work or how much money developers should get from their developments.

Let's get back on topic here, I just got my new copy of Anime Studio Pro 9.5 today!

Didn't think You still could order 9.5, where did You buy it from?

[Yosemite Sam]

Didn't think You still could order 9.5, where did You buy it from?

I believe he said Amazon.

[GCharb]

Didn't think You still could order 9.5, where did You buy it from?

I believe he said Amazon.

Yeah, just checked, You can get all sort of versions there, thanks for the info!

[Markster]

Yep, it's usually cheaper to order an older copy from Amazon.

--

I've been comparing Anime Studio Pro 8 to Pro 9.5, and I've got to say that Pro 9.5 is WAY BETTER, Anime Studio Pro 8 feels very sluggish, Pro 9.5 is much snappier, rendering speed has gone through the roof in 9.5, having the 64-bit architecture plus GPU acceleration made my rendering speeds go anywhere from 2-3x faster than Pro 8, plus the graphics look slightly more detailed in ASP9.5, the new smart bones are REALLY AWESOME, I've been playing around with them and I've done all sorts of wacky stuff, of course I fixed some distortion errors using smart bones, but I also set them up as control levers, I controlled colors, line width, position, and size all using a smart bone dial, you can't do that easily in Pro 8, I haven't played around with the Bezier feature yet but from what I've seen it looks pretty awesome, the interface is redesigned and everything seems to be faster, from opening menus to rendering everything is just that much better with Pro 9.5, and guess what, the physics actually work on Windows 8.1 now!

This upgrade was really worth it people, I spent about 59$ on a copy from Amazon, I never want to go back to the old Pro 8 ever again!

I also have a trial of Pro 10, it's great, but I wouldn't recommend spending the extra money for an upgrade if you already have Pro 9.5, I've actually had a better experience with Pro 9.5 than Pro 10, I won't be upgrading again until Pro 12 comes out in a few years. (this is just my opinion, don't take it to heart people, I just prefer 9.5. )

[wizaerd]

[deleted due to redundancy]

[wizaerd]

This whole thread just really bugs me. Someone going on and on about how great the features of an older version of the program is, features most of us have been using for quite some time already. Then that person goes on and on about how this software is too expensive, it should be cheaper, and that all software should be cheap because after all there are versions of C++ that are cheap, or even free.

As a professional software developer, for 35+ years, I find your whole attitude offensive. Developing software is not easy, nor is it cheap. There are cheap and even free development environments, but the old adage "you get what you pay for" is sound advice. But even with those "free" languages, there's manhour allocations. And I don't know about you, but I certainly don't like to work for free. My time is very valuable. Then there's also other resources such as offices, desks, computers, QA environments, DEV environments, servers, databases, administration, etc... So just because you cannot scrape up $300 (chicken feed) doesn't mean the software should automatically just be cheaper so you can afford it.

And as far as the features of 9.5 are concerned, yes, they are awesome. That's why a lot of us already upgraded a year ago. That's why a lot of us have already upgraded to version 10, because there are even greater and newer features. Do we really need a running commentary of someone telling us how great the features are for a program that was released a year ago?

[Greenlaw]

To me, the value in software comes in not just capability but in how much time it saves. The improvements in 10 reflect the requests of many users of 9.x to help them work more efficiently. (Just as the improvements during 9.x cycle was the response to requests of 8.x users, and so on.)

When I consider the many dozens of hours we saved during 'Scareplane' with just the improvements to rigging that came between 9.0 and 9.5, I feel the time we will save after migrating to 10 makes the cost of the upgrade seem like a bargain.

This is just my personal opinion of course. The value of a program will not be the same for everybody. Depending on how effectively and how often an artist uses ASP (or any software for that matter, regardless of cost,) as they say, "your mileage may vary."

G.

[Markster]

Let's not fight people, I never said that ASP should be free, I just said that it could be cheaper, and as an indie game creator, I like to work for free (months and months), it's just the way I am, please people, leave me and this topic alone.

Just because I don't think 299$ is fair doesn't mean I don't respect you professional developers, I just think if the software was a little cheaper more people would buy it, 199$ is about fair, I was trying to help you all, not offend you, I'm sorry if you don't agree with me.

LET IT DIE PEOPLE, PLEASE LOCK THIS TOPIC!

[Greenlaw]

No, this is too much fun.

(Kidding.)

[AmigaMan]

I haven't had much time lately to look through posts here but I've just caught up a bit and I have to say this Markster guy is one of the most annoying people I've seen post on this forum in a long time. Talk about continuously contradicting yourself!

[Nicohk92]

I won't argue against a guy who demands lower prices for a product I use when I am neither the marketer or the competition.

But you 'll fight that battle alone friend.

Tho I must say at first i thought it was just a version update of 9.5 cause it was so soon after. When I found out I had to pay again to get new features. It took me a few days to look at them and assess the offer. No regret at all. Tho dear devellopers, if you have at least some bug fixes ready, please don't wait for the next paid version . Not that I have anything specific in mind, but stability can always be improved.



I always love to meet people who work for free for months and months. We should talk.

[Lukas]

Unless you live at your parents place and they feed you, working for free is a bad deal...