Category Archives: Software

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Software: Vectorian Giotto an actual Flash Alternative?

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Vectorian Giotto

Yesterday I was doing a little search trying to find an app that would do decent animation with text that could be imported into Flash and I stumbled across Vectorian Giotto. No it’s not some fancy latte but actually a Flash replacement app that at first glance seems to be fairly useful, if you don’t have the ability to purchase Flash itself. At first glance the interface does seem dated but it’s actually not a bad program to use. It’s one flaw I can find preventing it from being a true replacement is not being able to dictate what frame is displayed on a keyframe inside a symbol. Still, your results may vary.

Here’s a few tidbits from their site:

Created for designers, not coders

Giotto is the free Flash animation package made for you to design, not to code. With Giotto you can relax and focus your imagination on creative concepts, integrating stunning graphics and music into masterpieces of design.

The latest versions of Adobe® Flash® are moving away from designers. They are becoming more and more oriented towards coders. With the introduction of ActionScript 3, creating a simple action such as button click now requires ten times more coding than before.

Giotto has full support for ActionScript 2, but we made built-in effect generators that will help you create outstanding effects without any scripting at all. This software is made for you, designers.

Vector drawing, animations, sounds, filters…

Create complex vector illustrations in Giotto, anything from simple shapes to custom ones like polygon, star, or rounded rectangle. Transform vector objects in any imaginable way. Use bitmap filters like blur, drop shadow, glow, and all blend modes.

Organize all objects in the Library, create symbols like Movie Clips and Buttons for multiple use. Add text fields, with font kerning and paragraph alignment.

Animate objects with motion tweens and shape tweens. Add sound to movies and create advanced interactivity.

Powerful animated effects without any scripting at all

Giotto comes packed with more than 50 great effects that can be applied to both shapes and text. All effects are fully and easily customizable through the effect editor, and the results are immediately visible on the screen for you to play and explore.

There are more than 100 effect presets, to show the new user the different ways the effects can be adjusted.

These effects are based on ActionScript, but you don’t need to know the code behind them. Creating a perfect banner has never been easier!

Color palette editor that you can actually use

One of the main advantages of Giotto is its built-in editor for color palettes. Most color palette editors out there are quite useless, but we made Giotto’s very applicable in real life.

The Color palette editor uses special algorithms based on human perception of colors, rather then traditional mathematical models which produce poor results.

Once you select the base color of your project, you would have countless options to create palettes using many various matching algorithms. This makes the start of your new project quite easy!

User interface very similar to Adobe® Flash®

Switching from one animation software to another can be hard. We hate learning to use completely new software as much as you do. That’s why we created Giotto’s user interface very similar to Adobe® Flash® and simplified it further in order to enable designers to achieve results easier and faster.

Although it’s freeware, there’s no lacking of major features, and everything is where you think it should be – tools, context menus, object properties… so you will have the sense of familiarity and ease of use from the very first moment you open it.

We have added some new elements like natural color palette editor, effects generator, and other tools that create stunning effects without ever touching the ActionScript.

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The Poor Animator’s Guide to making it in a Digital World

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So let’s say you’ve decided to become an artist, or you came up old school and have yet to traverse across the digital bridge to the 21st Century. Of course there are devices that work well such as the Wacom Cintiq, The Surface Pro, The Wacom Companion and the Lenovo Helix, but all of these are expensive as hell, and you might wonder what you can do to keep the hard earned cash in your pocket. Fear not animators and artists, Animation Insider’s got your back for cheap alternatives! One look at the items necessary to be a professional digital artist these days can make you think twice about continuing in your endeavor. In order to buy all the essentials like a Wacom Cintiq, Storyboard Pro, Adobe Suite, Autodesk Maya you’d almost have to sell a kidney to have the cash to shell out for these fine items.

Or do you?

Hardware
For digital drawing hardware there are many cheaper alternatives out there to the industry standard; the Wacom Cintiq and while honestly none of them are as high quality as a Cintiq, if you’ve never used one to begin with you’re unlikely to notice a difference.

Yiyinova MVP22u

The Yiyinova MVP22U is a capable Cintiq replacement and about half the price but for now that’s the only alternative to a desktop Cintiq alternative I can recommend and even that has the caveat of shipping from China. To be fair though if a Cintiq breaks you’ll have to ship it to Germany so it’s a fair enough tradeoff.

Luckily there are other smaller devices you can buy as well that work decently enough.

The Asus EP121 tablet PC is a decent tablet that even has a touchscreen. No it’s NOT an iPad but honestly I’ve found those to be crappy at best while trying to produce professional art, and they won’t run professional programs like Storyboard Pro, or the Adobe Suite. Besides I find it hard to support a company that will not listen to the artists out there by purposely excluding a stylus option for the iPad despite a clear market for it.

For the record a much better alternative for artists is the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2, which while it will not run the above mentioned applications either it DOES come with a stylus and that alone makes me think it’s worth it. We reviewed it last year if you want to take a look.

Asus-Ep121

The Asus EP 121 will run all the standard applications artists use today in a professional environment and do it well. Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, and Premiere all run handily on the Ep121. It will even handle Maya, 3D Studio Max, Mudbox and Motion Builder and sometimes you can even find it for less than $300 bucks. Right now the cheapest I’ve found the 64 gb configuration for is $550 (which you’ll need to install all that software) but still with a Cintiq costing $2000 you’re getting a good deal. It will even support an external monitor too boot.  It comes with a wireless bluetooth keyboard as well.

I happen to be selling one of these right now if you’re in the market so give me a shout if you’re interested.

Used_LE1700_Tablet_Motion_Computing_EE544523252_view1

The old standby though has to be the Motion Computing’s Motion series, in the form of the LE1600 and the LE1700 both of which run Sketchbook Pro like champ and if the studio is asking you to use Photoshop, it natively handles .psd files perfectly. The LE1600 is the cheaper of the two and for that you’ll sacrifice a bit of computing power but it still will run decently for the price. You can get a Motion Computing LE1600 at Gainsaver for $107 bucks! Not bad huh? It will even do light Maya chores, which for $100 is pretty damn spiffy in my book!

The more powerful device is the LE1700 though and for the extra price you can get a much more powerful processor. Granted it will NOT run Storyboard Pro, but it WILL run Flash, Photoshop and Sketchbook Pro. You can get a LE1700 cheaply at Gainsaver for about $125 bucks but if you do, I would suggest you change the processor configuration to the Intel 1.5 ghz Core 2 Duo and have them install Windows 7 on there for you. I would also bump up the hard drive to 80gb. This will only set you back $374 bucks but you can ‘probably’ get away with the default configuration if you just use Sketchbook Pro. Also this handy lil’ device WILL run Maya which is pretty cool but you won’t be able to have dozens of characters and huge backgrounds in one scene. It’s great for modeling. animating and rigging though. It’s not going to run any serious games or anything processor heavy but you can easily draw and animate with it.

Also, with Sketchbook Pro’s latest addition of the Flipbook 2d animation timeline, you can now animate in 2D for a VERY low startup price using both of these devices.

Software
For software, of course you can always buy used software on eBay as well, but quite often that’s just pirated software packaged to look legit and when you get your disks delivered sometime programs won’t register so I’d stay away from that.

There are alternatives as well and so you don’t really have to go to your friendly neighborhood software pirate to get decent software. Most don’t know this, but there are many academic sites that offer the ability to buy cheaper software legally. All you need is a scan of a student’s report card (and if you’re taking classes ANYwhere you qualify) which you’ll upload and they’ll create an account for you which will allow you buy all SORTS of discounted software.

The best I’ve found is called http://www.journeyed.com/ but there are others and they all offer around the same discounts.

Watch for our Artist’s Guide to Tablets 2014 to get advice on everything you could want for an artist coming next month.

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News: Sneak Peek – Flipbook in the all-new SketchBook Pro coming this summer

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO3BBFaVo1A

I’ve been part of the Autodesk Sketchbook Pro beta team since about 2006 and have bugged them forever about putting in a timeline to animate with. They finally listened late last year and we’ve been testing it ever since but of course I couldnt talk about it even though I wanted to. About four months ago they approached me to demo that very thing and show what it can do! Well today they put up a preview of that tutorial. This marks a new chapter for Sketchbook and I am very proud to say I helped bring it to fruition! This is BIG news for those who LOVE Sketchbook Pro’s ability to have great pencil tools right out of the box unlike Photoshop. Having used it I can say that’s it’s pretty damn cool and if you dabble in animation at ALL you will love this new feature!

Check it out on Sketchbook.com!

 

 

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Software: A comprehensive List of Free Software

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freeware
You now have no excuse to say you can’t make that film due to lack of funds for software!
3D Graphics:
3Delight Free – http://www.3delight.com/index.htm
Anim8or – http://www.anim8or.com/
Aqsis – http://www.aqsis.com/
Blender – http://www.blender3d.org/
Houdini (Free Edition) – http://www.sidefx.com/apprentice/index.html
Now3D – http://digilander.libero.it/giulios/Eng/homepage.htm
OpenFX – http://www.openfx.org
POV-Ray – http://www.povray.org/
SOFTIMAGE|XSI EXP – http://www.softimage.com/products/exp/v3/
Terragen – http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/
Toxic – http://www.toxicengine.org/
Wings 3D – http://www.wings3d.com/Anti-Virus:
a-squared – http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/
AntiVir – http://www.free-av.com/
Avast – http://www.avast.com/i_idt_1018.html
AVG – http://free.grisoft.com/
BitDefender – http://www.bitdefender.com
ClamWin – http://www.clamwin.com/
More:
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Software: 2D Animation

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Flash

Since the dawn of the digital 2D revolution, there’s been much heated debate on which software is more user friendly, produces better quality work, and has a better price.  While some brands offer more functions and features, they come a pretty high cost and you might not use all of the application’s resources.  Then there are some brands that offer a very intuitive experience while chiming in at a very low price tag.
Let’s take a look at a few:
 

1. Toon Boom Animate Pro is currently the most popular app with endorsements by Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Disney Toon Studio and FOX.  Hailed by independent animators like Nick Cross, John K and Adam Phillips; Animate Pro offers a total production and post production package for the indie filmmaker.  Though drawing is somewhat pleasant and the rotary function smart, the interface is cumbersome, you’re constantly in preview mode (unless you have Harmony), and the backwards compatibility is not friendly with users who have different versions.  Price sets at $1,199 per seat. (https://www.toonboom.com/products/animate-pro)
2. Adobe Flash (previously Macromedia Flash and formerly Future Splash Animator) is/was the leader of the digital 2D revolution.  Flash is still used in many of today’s television and film productions by studios large and small worldwide.  In its newest form (CS6), the interface and pre-set tools are straightforward and user-friendly, but also suffers from being non-backwards compatible.  You can create custom Command triggers that’ll help increase speed and productivity, and because of the straightforwardness of the app, you can manipulate each frame as needed.  There are also many plugins to help speed up your workflow and expand Flash’s capabilities. You can buy CS6 and earlier versions starting at $700 or $50 through a Creative Cloud subscription.  (http://www.adobe.com/products/flash.html)
3. Toon Boom Studio is another all-in-one animation package geared towards animation fans, students, teachers and hobbyists.  At $190 per seat, you’ll get access to tech support and other “member” features, which makes it a pretty good entry level piece of software. 
4. Toon Boom Animate is the watered down version of Animate Pro.  Again, the drawing aspect and rotary disk functions are pretty smooth but the difference between Animate Pro and Animate are hardly noticeable other than the word “Pro.”  For $499 you can’t really complain much for this all-in-one. (https://www.toonboom.com/products/animate)
5. TV Paint Professional is an exceptionally well tailored suit on the 2D scene.  The interface is a bit bloated, but straightforward and customizable.  TVP’s drawing tools work with both vector AND bitmap and the entire program feels as if it was created by artists for artists in this all-in-one package priced at $650 USD.  Per seat of course. (http://www.tvpaint.com)
6. Adobe After Effects.  Now, while you can’t exactly draw in the program itself, After Effects is a serious animation tool aside from being a standard-bearer for post production.  A superior 3D camera, a militant bone rigging setup, and you can work with just about ANY style of artwork you can imagine, After Effects is top notch when it comes to “puppet” style animation.  It’s priced around the $600 range, but again that may differ with a Creative Cloud subscription.  (http://www.adobe.com/products/aftereffects.html)
7. Anime Studio Pro.  I haven’t had a chance to use this personally, but from some of the work I’ve seen being produced with it; I’d say it’s one app that shouldn’t be overlooked.  The interface is structured off of Manga Studio and a little bit of Flash but handles symbol animation pretty crudely.  At $299 per seat, it’s a fairly priced piece of software.  (http://anime.smithmicro.com/)
8. Pencil is a free bitmap animation tool.  It has a simplified interface similar to Flash but its drawing aspect is a little rough around the edges.  If you’re a hobbyist or fan of animation and just want to get your feet wet, this is a great introductory app that doesn’t affect your wallet.  (http://www.pencil-animation.org/)
9. Vectorian, Flash’s doppelgänger if there ever was one.  The interface and usability is almost as intuitive as Flash minus the action scripting, though most animators hardly use AS unless its site and app building.  For being a free app, it’s mostly geared towards motion graphics rather than traditional 2D animation.  It can handle it, but its a bit on the slow side.  (http://vectorian.com/)
10. Adobe Photoshop.  That’s right.  Before the Creative Suite era, you would scan in your animation frames and prep them for clean up or coloring, then you’d bring it to After Effects or whichever app you were going to animate in.  CS introduced the Animation Timeline which then allowed you to create complete animated works in just Photoshop alone.  You can snag older versions of it online for around $350 while the newest version CS6 goes for $670 online or for $50 per month through Creative Cloud. (http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html)
11. Retas Studio. With the growing trend of all-in-one apps, CelSYS introduced Retas Studio as a self-contained animation package.  For those of you unfamiliar with Retas!; it’s the standard tool of use by some of the most famous Japanese and Korean studios and dominates the Eastern animation scene.  The interface is pretty complicated but its incredibly powerful tool.  The cost comes in at $980 USD. (http://www.retasstudio.net/)
12. Toonz is the long time software of choice by Studio Ghibli and maybe a few smaller studios throughout the globe.  From what’s available online, it’s user interface lives in the same cumbersome space as Toon Boom only a simpler and easier on the eyes.  It offers an abundance a feature called “scripts,” that are similar to Flash’s Commands and Photoshop Actions, where with a push of a key will take care of repetitive tasks like applying a similar effect on several scenes, etc.  Without being able to buy the program out-right, it’s hard to really say how useful this app is.  And then there’s the mystery price; it’s not listed on their website.  You have to contact them and get a quote. (http://www.toonz.com/)

Although some of these apps have some big names behind them, that doesn’t always mean that it’s the right tool for you.  The phrase; “TV show and Feature Films are made with them…” is really just a marketing ploy to get artists and animators to break out the plastic.  
What does a good tool feel like?  Well, it depends.  Personally speaking, I like using software that allows me to focus on what’s in front of me without having to constantly reach for a hotkey or move a bunch of panels around just to get some more screen real estate.  Even though many applications say their an all-in-one, you have to raise the question on whether you really need all those features and how often are you going to use them.  In a studio setting, you’ll only be using the app for one purpose and the rest gets sent to another person or department.  
The pros know that having good tools will help you produce good work, but they won’t do the work for you.  
For your consideration: The software and hardware you buy for your business is an investment which should pay itself off.  Now, that doesn’t give you a license to spend carelessly.  You really need to consider if the amount of work you’re bringing in can justify the hefty spending on name-endorsed products.  If you can, go for it.  But if you can’t, try to see if you can make do without for a while.  Most clients don’t care what you do the work in so long as the work is done and you keep them happy.

Esteban Valdez is the founder of Echo Bridge Pictures, a 2D animation production company, in St Petersburg, Florida.  @echobridge

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News: TrickOrScript’s Custom Brush plugin for Adobe Flash

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Custom Brush is an amazing new plugin that’s recently been added to the incredibly useful series of  tools made by Trick or Script for Adobe Flash that lets you create custom brushes like never before!

In about one minute I managed to create a rain cycle which worked pretty damn well! You can create groups of brushes and then have the brush use them all at once to allow for randomness. You can draw text or anything you like on an editable spline we well as create flappable objects like a tail with little effort  Things like chains, or a row of flowers is easy as heck now with this $30 plugin. TOTALLY worth it if you still use Flash! Check Custom Brush and the 15+ other essential plugins out at TrickOrScript today!

CB