I've had other artists seriously laugh and ask me if Anime Studio was freeware because of how bad the UI looks. Despite all of Anime Studio's improvements, the program still looks bad. They're confusing to look at and need to be changed. Also, the new 'pill' looking keyframes are awful! I know that I'm being harsh about this, but no one seems to like them. If you guys can revamp the timeline to make it mesh better with Toon Boom and Flash, animators will feel more comfortable with switching over. For example, when I try to estimate where a keyframe is positioned, I usually have to drag the keyframe marker to that keyframe position because there aren't any guide lines for my eyes to follow. The empty space timeline that you guys are rocking is hard to use. Every time I show AS to other Toon Boom and Flash users the typical response is that they HATE the look of the timeline. This might not seem like a big deal, but the grid timeline is EXTREMELY important. TOON BOOM HAS A MORE FAMILIAR AND COHERENT TIMELINE If you want more clarification on this, let me know.Ĥ. All of these improvements promote a more natural way of working with the canvas and pushes the user away from the layers panel This would be extremely useful for controlling scenes while keeping only the most important layers visible in the layer palette. Yet another feature would be the ability to set the layers panel so that it doesn't auto-expand groups when the user is selecting layers from the canvas. This would be extremely useful for reference layers or layers that the user doesn't want altered. You could also add the ability to set certain layers to be unselectable from the canvas. This is like diving into nested symbols which is familiar to Flash and Toon Boom users. For example, if they alt+double click a layer in the canvas they could select into a locked layer. You guys could also go the extra mile and create hotkeys that allow the user to dig deeper into their group selection without using the layer panel. This would allow me to move the mouths around as if they were a Flash or Toon Boom symbol. When I click on the mouth within the canvas, the GROUP that the mouth is a part of it selected instead of the currently active layer. For example, if I created a bunch of mouth layers and placed them within a group and locked the group. When a group layer is locked, the group is interacted with in the canvas FROM the group layer, not the individual layers within that group. Basically, give the ability to close and LOCK a group layer. It is similar to Anime Studio's grouping system, but slightly different.Īnime Studio could EASILY replicate the feel of this kind of system by using GROUP LOCKING. Once a symbol is made, all layers within the symbol are moved around and manipulated together. Like Flash, Toon Boom allows users to build symbols. TOOM BOOM STRESSES WORKING IN THE CANVAS MORE THAN THE LAYERS PANEL Giving users the ability to at least import vectors as image layers is a happy compromise.ģ. but you have to find a way to live in harmony with them. If you guys want to keep bezier curves out of Anime Studio, that's fine. My suggested fix for this problem is that you allow SVG, SWF and AI files to be imported and then displayed like image layers without conversion to Anime Studio's point manipulation system. The end result either crashes the program or gives terrible converted images, either way it gives an absolutely terrible impression of the program. With Toon Boom, I can import vector files and use them without any trouble, but Anime Studio tries for force the vectors through a badly designed vector converter. These art props and assets often come in the form of adobe illustrator, SWF or SVG format. This is a big deal because a lot of artists and studios work with resources that they carryover from previous projects or that they paid some studio in Korea to make. Toon Boom allows users to import adobe illustrator and other vector files and display them with no conversion necessary. TOOM BOOM ALLOWS NATIVE IMPORT OF VECTOR FILES This is a very common workflow in Toon Boom and even well known artists like Jazza use it: Ģ. You should also note that Toon Boom allows users to work with vector and raster layers in the same project, so sometimes we use a vector for line art and then a bitmap for coloring and shading. This is a big deal because a lot of Toon Boom users start off by sketching out keyframes using bitmap layers and then use vector layers to ink them. Toon Boom supports bitmap drawing, while Anime Studio does not. Here are a few advantages that Toon Boom has over AS. You guys did a fantastic job improving Frame-by-Frame with AS11, but there is still a lot that needs to be addressed if you're going to win over Toon Boom users. I can say with certainty that Toon Boom's audience are mostly interested in Frame-by-Frame animation.