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Anime Studio Debut 6 Users Manual

1. Animation channels are not displayed in the timeline until you add them to your project If you then rotate the layer you ll see the Rotation channel added to the timeline along with its keyframe A rotation channel added to the timeline There is a Preferences option that allows you to consolidate timeline channels This option is off by default in Anime Studio Pro 6 and on by default in Anime Studio Debut 6 Anime Studio Windows Uncheck the Consolidate Timeline Channels option before you delete keyframes This option combines all changes on a single layer into one line in the timeline The following image shows an example of a layer that has several channel changes top and what the layer looks like if the Consolidate Timeline Channels option is active bottom A timeline that is not consolidated top and a consolidated timeline bottom NOTE The consolidated timeline view displays a keyframe when there is a change in any of the consolidated layers If you delete a keyframe you may not be sure which type of keyframe you are deleting or whether or not there are multiple keyframes being deleted at that point Be sure to uncheck the Consolidate Timeline Channels option in the Preferences dialog before you remove any keyframes from your timeline Controlling Time The top of the Timeline window has controls for setting the current time Whenever you modify an object in Anime Studio the modification
2. Curvature Curvature Tool Groups Curvature Options Curvature Tool Options e Select Group Used to select a group that was previously created with the Select Points tool e Peak Creates a peaked or hard transition between the curves at the point that you click e Smooth Smooths the transition between the curves at the point that you click Using the Curvature Tool This tool works on the currently selected points or on the nearest point if less than two points are selected It adjusts the level of smoothness of the curves passing through the selected points Drag to the left to make the curves less smooth and drag to the right to make the curves rounder Fill Tools Using the Fill tools for vector layers you take the drawings you created with the Draw tools and you tell Anime Studio which areas should be filled with color where outlines should be placed and what fill and line Styles to use The drawings created with Draw tools are only guides As far as Anime Studio is concerned they re invisible and they won t show up in the final rendered output That s where Fill tools come in Draw tools define the shape of objects while Fill tools define the appearance of those objects Of course you re always free to switch back and forth between any of Anime Studio s editing tools at any time To define a region to be filled you must first select all the points along its boundary That s what defines a fill r
3. csccssscscesssssscsssrssrssserssrssesssersrsees 22 Finishing Touches ceeseseceseesseeseeeessseseeesteteeeen 24 Tutorial 2 4 Shape Ordering ccccsseeersseeseeeees 24 Start With a Sample File uo 25 Raising and Lowering Shapes c cssceeeeeeen 25 Selecting Hidden SHapeS ccssscessssseereerseees 27 Tutorial 2 6 Layer Masking s ssssssesesesisiriresrrrresenenenea 29 Start With a Sample File uo cece 29 Another Example Simplified Modeling 000 32 Another Example Transition Etfect cccccceees 32 BONES sosina 34 Tutorial 3 1 Bone Binding ssivsrarisisisiersainisiiasiriviisiava 34 Start With a Sample File cccccseeseeeeeeeeeeeeen 34 Automatic BINGING cssuiateireevincusmeviacasesvrnsusnavensescssans 34 Manual Binding c ccccecsccesscseeeseeeeseeeeen 38 Layer BIMGUAG assaiar 40 Go Back to Automatic Mode 41 Tutorial 3 2 Bone Constraints 42 Start With a Sample FUC cc vcscceccccasvesncccsvertvestvernecnias 42 Angle Constraints ccsccsssscesssssssssrssrssserssrsaees 42 Control BONES sssini aiia 45 Bome LOCKING sasacieascsuiesscuivas sudemoassudvatessudvavaysvinnaaven 47 Tutorial 3 3 Bone Dynamics ceeeeeseetsteteeeeeeteeee 49 Start With a Sample File nosses 49 Adjusting Spring Parameters ccccscseseeeeeeees 51 Tutorial 3 4 Character Setup ccccccscsecsecseeseeeeseeeees as Start With a Sample File nosses 53 Split Apart the Character
4. popup box covers up some of the bones you can pan the editing view by dragging with the right mouse button to expose the hidden bones At this point you should have turned on bone dynamics for every bone in the structure except the vertical center bone Anime Studio 51 Users Manua All eight leg bones set Play back the animation to see the difference Now as the structure tilts side to side the arms will bounce around in response to the movement of the center bone Adjusting Spring Parameters So that shows the basics of how to use bone dynamics Now let s take a look at how you can make adjustments to the bounciness of the springs Select the top left bone again and re open the Bone constraints popup box Below the Bone dynamics checkbox are three parameters that allow you to fine tune the effect Set the Torque force to 4 Spring force to 2 and Damping force to 2 as shown below Select Bones 52 nime Studio Users Manual the bone s immediate parent the second bone in the top left arm and apply the same dynamics parameters A higher Torque force means that a bone moves more in response to its parent s movement Spring force determines how quickly it bounces back and Damping force controls how quickly a dynamic bone stops moving you can think of damping like friction In this case a high torque force means that the bone will move more strongly Angle constraints Aa goon pe Dea x
5. e Show Path Check or uncheck this option to display or hide the motion path e Flip Layer Horizontally Click this button to flip horizontally e Flip Layer Vertically Click this button to flip vertically Using the Tool Use this tool to move the entire layer It doesn t matter what objects are selected everything in the layer will move when you use this tool Holding the Shift key while using the Translate Layer tool will constrain the layer to only move vertically or horizontally Holding the Alt key will move the layer forward and back changing its depth or Z value If the Show Path box in the tool options area is checked then the motion path for the current layer will be displayed in the working area when this tool is active This makes it easier to visualize and plan out the motion of a layer Direct Path Editing To edit the motion path directly hold down the Ctrl key then click and drag anywhere on the motion path to adjust the curve that the layer will follow through space Nudging When this tool is active you can nudge a layer by small increments by holding down the Ctrl key and pressing the arrow keys Hold down Shift in addition to Ctrl to nudge the layer by a greater increment Anime Studio 137 Users Manua 2 Scale Layer Scale Layer 1s Reset F E Scale Layer Options Tool Options e Scale X Allows you to enter a numeric value for scaling along the X axis e Scale Y Allows you to
6. Layer Types Users Manual 96 sin Studio Vector Layers Vector layers are the most common layer in Anime Studio projects Artwork that you create in Anime Studio is always contained in a vector layer Tools are available for drawing and editing curves setting up fills and outlines and connecting your drawings to bones Vector Layers The tools available for working with vector layers essentially make up a 2D drawing program You can draw lines and curves re shape existing curves and manipulate objects in various ways There are a couple ways that Anime Studio differs from other drawing programs First everything you draw in Anime Studio is a set of points and curves In many programs when you draw a circle you get a circle object or you may type some text to create a text object In Anime Studio once you ve created the circle or the text there s no difference between them whatsoever they re both collections of curves One happens to be in the shape of a circle and the other in the shape of some There Layer Types are advantages in treating all objects the same first you never have to worry about what type of object you re working with the answer is always the same a set of points and curves The other advantage is that any operation you can perform on hand drawn curves can be performed on text or a circle or whatever The other feature of Anime Studio s drawing mode that is different from many other drawing
7. Users Manual 88 sin Studio Start With a Sample File For this tutorial we ll start with a project file that s almost finished It s named Tutorial 6 7 and it s located in the Tutorials 6 Effects subfolder within the main Anime Studio folder Open this file in Anime Studio and you should see something like this e Foreground Starting point for this tutorial This file contains a few layers of simple scenery that we will move the camera across To do this select the Track Camera tool and drag the mouse around in the main editing area Track Camera Notice how all the layers move together even though they aren t Effects grouped When you move the camera around it affects all the layers in a project In the tool options area at the top of the main Anime Studio window click the Reset button to reset the camera Creating Depth Now we ll introduce some depth into the scene Activate the Translate Layer tool and select the layer called Right Hill Translate Layer In the tool options area at the top of the main Anime Studio window change the Z value to 1 and press Enter Below you can see where to set the Z value for the layer a A oo reset ily Setting a layer 5 Z value Now select the Left Hill layer and set its Z value to 2 Finally select Sky and set its Z value to 20 When you re finished your scene should look similar to the following figure Right
8. e Warp using bones f this box is checked and the image layer is placed inside a bone layer the bones can be used to warp the image as if it were printed on a rubber sheet Switch This tab is only available for switch layers Anime Studio Windows 188 nime Studio Users Manual _ayer Settings Switch Layer Settings Select Audio Sync Source Lets you select a data file used to control the switch layer A data file is not required you can Anime Studio Windows control a Switch layer manually by right clicking its entry in the Layers window but if you do want to use a data file you have two choices You can create a switch data file for lip syncing using the free program Papagayo f you want a quicker lip sync solution you can use an audio file as a data file In this case your switch file should contain several version of a mouth shape ranging from closed to wide open The volume of the audio file will control which mouth shape is used at which frame If you do use an audio file to control the Switch layer you can either use automatic volume gain recommended or set the gain manually The gain controls how wide the mouth gets When using manual gain start with a value of 1 if the mouth seems too wide try smaller values 0 75 or 0 5 If the mouth isn t wide enough try higher gain values 1 5 or 2 See the Tutorials section for an example of using this function e interpolate sub layers f this box is c
9. New default color palette When picking a color from the palette preserve the existing alpha value New library Reorder Multiple Layers Translate multiple layers Copy and paste bones across layers Improved quality for on canvas image layers Better Alpha blending Animated layer effects must now be turned on manually Animatable shape effects on styles palette Anime Studio Users Manua Scripting e Upgraded to Lua 5 1 e Script writers need to use ipairs function e Exposed some more functions to scripting Tool Improvements e New Scatter Brush e Eye Dropper tool now picks fill and stroke off of any object on any layer e Some fill effects gradient and image texture can now be placed precisely on a shape using the Select Shape tool e Color png brush support e Maximum brush width increased to 256 e Amore hand drawn line effect accessible through the layers tab or scripts e Improvements to Gradient fill effect Dragging sliders setup multiple colors to create complex gradients Gradients are animated now e Some fill and line effects can display on canvas such as Gradient images textures and shaded e Image Texture fill effect conforms better to bone warping and layer Introduction 3 4 sin Studio Users Manual transforms e Removed obsolete fill and line effects Audio and Video e Anime Studio Debut Sequencer with 2 Audio Tracks 1 Video Track e Anime Studio Pro Sequencer with M
10. Onionskins Oooo poo O S a orcos Action Features ai E E Feature Anime Anime Studio Studio Pro Graph Mode Project Settings Feature Anime Anime Studio Studio Pro Save Project Settings Store Reusable Animation poo p Delete Reusable Animation Background Color X X Depth of Field e Edit Dimensions Product Comparison 212 nime Studio Users Manual Camera Draw Stereo Rendering Sort Layers by Depth ee Sort by True Distance pe Image Sequences Layer Effects Lo Noise Grain Particle Effects Up to 120 Frames Second Maximum Maximum export size pixels 768 x 768 9000 x 9000 Maximum number of frames 3000 nC EC Sound Content View Feature Anime Anime Studio Studio Pro Feature Anime Anime Studio Studio Pro eels O e S os oe l Ww O E Side by Side View ko z Over Under View OOo aripi p as ae a Four Way View 7 7 Display Quality Feature Anime Anime EET EE 7 E vance urren ayer lew Studio Studio Pro ao Product Comparison Import Anime Studi o 213 Users Manua Export Formats Feature Anime Anime Feature Anime Anime Studio Studio Pro Studio Studio Pro 2D FORMATS 3D FORMATS a J T IMAGE FORMATS C a wooo o wwa p C a wo f p C a TV FORMATS Product Comparison Sequential BMP e 214 nime Studio Users Manual NTSC Format Product Comparison Technical Support Where to Go When You Need Help O
11. The dialog asks for a starting and ending frame these default to the entire animation and an output format You can output a sequence of frames a movie file or a Flash SWF file Anime Studio will then ask you where to save the result Once the animation begins exporting you are free to keep working while the animation is being drawn A progress bar at the top of the animation window will inform you of the export progress The Export Animation dialog also has several options for adjusting the output quality of your animation These default to the highest quality rendering but you may sometimes want to lower the quality to increase rendering speed or to output animations with smaller file sizes for streaming over the internet The rendering quality options available are e Start Frame Enter the start frame for your exported movie here e End Frame Enter the end frame for your exported movie here e Entire Animation Press this button to reset the start and end frames to include all frames in the movie e Output Format Choose from AVI Movie QuickTime Movie or Flash SWF e Apply layer effects f this box is un checked Anime Studio will skip layer effects like layer shadows and layer transparency e Render at half dimensions Check this box to render a smaller version of your movie This makes rendering faster if you just want a quick preview and is useful for making smaller movies for the web e Render at half frame rate
12. 130 sin Studio Translate Bone using the roo This tool along with the Rotate Bone tool is used to reposition bones after they ve been created If you ve added a new bone in the wrong place or you just want to move it later on click and drag it with this tool Clicking near the base of the bone will move its position while clicking near the tip will move the tip around changing the bone s length and direction Note that if the bone has any child bones they will Translate Bone be moved as well Holding the Shift key will cause the bone to only move horizontally or 0 0529 Reset vertically relative to its parent if you click near the base or to point in a direction that is a multiple of 45 degrees if you click near the tip Translate Bone Options If any objects in other layers have been bound to the bone they will not move if the current frame is 0 At frame 0 you are modifying the bone Tool Options layout at later frames you are animating with this tool and bound objects will move with the bone e Select Bone Click this menu button to select a bone by name Nudging When this tool is active you can nudge the selected bone by small increments by holding down the Ctrl key and pressing the arrow keys Hold down Shift in addition to Ctrl to nudge the bone by a greater increment e Position X Allows you to numerically enter a value for the X coordinate e Position Y Allows you to numerically enter a v
13. Anime Studio Menus at final speed and quality is of course to use the Export Animation command in the File menu Clear Animation From Layer This command removes all animation from the current layer Clear Animation From Document This command removes all animation from the entire document Reset All Layer Channels Resets all channels in the current layer to their initial values adding a new keyframe at the current time Set Layer Start Time Select All Keyframes Selects all the keyframes in the current layer This is useful if you want to move all the animation in a layer forward or backward Anime Studio 167 Users Manua Rescale Keyframes With this command you can rescale a group of keyframes so that a portion of your animation takes more or less time Anime Studio Menus Users Manual 168 sin Studio u o O O O O a a E 2 7 x 5 3 3 a a a z The Rescale Keyframes dialog Options included in this dialog are Anime Studio Menus Rescale entire document Check this option to rescale all frames in the document Start Frame Enter the existing frame number at which to start scaling End Frame Enter the existing frame number at which to end the scaling New Start Frame Enter the new target frame number for the start of the scaling New End Frame Enter the new target frame for the end of the scaling Rescale the following channels Check or uncheck the channels that you want
14. Of course that s up to artistic interpretation if you like computer precision the noise effect may not be the feature for you Animated noise Extra sketchy Vectors Layer Settings Noisy Outlines and Noisy Fills The first two checkboxes turn on noise for outlines and or fills If you turn on both of these Anime Studio 185 Users Manua all the shapes in the layer will become distorted However if you check only one the effect will look like someone was coloring but didn t stay in the lines The circle displayed on the right side shows a preview of what your noise effect settings will do to the final drawing The best way to understand this feature is to just start clicking the checkboxes and watch the circle e Animated noise Controls whether the noise factor will vary over time in your animation This can lead to either a very distracting look or a very sketchy free form one depending on your tastes Again experiment with this and watch the circle e Extra Sketchy e Offset Determines how far in pixels on average your drawing will be distorted from its original shape e Scale Determines the jaggedness of the distortion Larger scale numbers will result in smoother lumpier distortion while smaller numbers will give you a more scribbled look e Line Count Tells Anime Studio to draw a number of lines distorting each in a different way Depth Sort This tab is only available for group and bo
15. Read How Big Can a Flash Movie Be for more information If possible only use variable width lines in SWF optimized layers Avoid compound shapes two adjacent circles filled as one shapes with holes or figure 8 s Anime Studio Menus Quit Quits Anime Studio Prompts you to save any unsaved projects Edit Menu Edit Menu do Choose this command to undo the last operation You may undo up to 8 of your most recent editing operations in Anime Studio Redo This command will redo the last operation that you un did with the Undo command Cut Copy Paste These are the traditional clipboard commands They can be used together with the Draw editing tools for vector layers and operate on the currently selected group of points Clear This command is the same as pressing the backspace or delete key the currently selected object in the working area will be deleted from the project Select All Selects all the points in the active vector layer Select None De selects all the points in the active vector layer Anime Studio Users Manua Select Inverse Selects the opposite points in the active vector layer Selected points will become de selected and de selected points will become selected Select Connected Selects all points that are connected to any other currently selected points For example if you have a complex shape like a character s head just select a few points on it then choose
16. Reset All Points Same as above but moves all points in the layer back to their original positions not just the selected ones Bone Menu Bone Release Points Flexi Bind Points Release Layer Flexi Bind Layer Hide Controlled Bones Track Bone To Video Reset Bone Reset All Bones Bone Menu Release Points This command detaches the selected points from any bones they may be bound to Flexi Bind Points This command binds the selected points to bones in such a way that they will influenced by all the bones in the parent bone layer depending on the strength and region of influence of each bone This results in Anime Studio 165 Users Manua more of a squishy type of motion when the skeleton is animated This is the default behavior for all drawings in Anime Studio so you usually won t have to use this menu command the points are probably already flexi bound Release Layer This command detaches the current layer from any bone it may be bound to Flexi Bind Layer This command binds the current layer to the bones in the parent layer in such a way that the child layer will influenced by all the bones in the parent bone layer depending on the strength and region of influence of each bone This results in more of a squishy type of motion when the skeleton is animated Hide Controlled Bones Hides any bones that are set up to have their angle or position controlled by another bone These ty
17. The right mouse button can be used to navigate the main Anime Studio workspace e To pan the workspace click and drag with the right mouse button e To zoom the workspace hold the shift key while dragging with the right mouse button You can also zoom the workspace by rolling the mouse wheel back and forth over the workspace e To rotate the workspace hold down the control key while dragging with the right mouse button Timeline Scrubbing To scrub the timeline in small increments hold the mouse over the timeline and roll the mouse wheel back and forth Mouse Shortcuts Numeric Fields and Angle Knobs An easy way to make small adjustments in numeric text fields and angle knobs is to hold the mouse over the control and spin the mouse wheel back and forth Of course you can still enter values into a text field by typing them but this method lets you make small adjustments and view the changes immediately e Ona Windows PC when using the mouse wheel to modify the value in a text field holding the Ctrl key halves the increment holding Shift doubles the increment e Ona Macintosh when using the mouse wheel to modify the value in a text field holding the Cmd key halves the increment holding Alt doubles the increment This feature may seem cute but unimportant However it s actually very useful when working with the tool info panels in Anime Studio By using the mouse wheel you can see your changes take effect immediate
18. This difference makes a lot of things easy in Anime Studio that would be difficult or impossible to do with a pixel based image First of all since an Anime Studio drawing is represented as a bunch of curves you can reshape the curves at any time without ever losing precision Also Anime Studio projects are relatively small even for complex animations this means Anime Studio doesn t require much memory even when working on a long movie Vectors also have benefits when it comes to animation By moving just a few points you can totally change the shape of an object over time You re not restricted to vector artwork though Anime Studio also has Image Layers Using this type of layer you can work with regular images within an Anime Studio project So Anime Studio is not strictly vector based but you will probably still use mostly vector layers as image layers are not as flexible when it comes to animation Of course most standard image and movie formats are not vector based so when you re done working on a Anime Studio project it must be rendered to create a traditional pixel based image During the rendering process Anime Studio can apply various effects to the objects such as shading and blurring Anime Studio is designed in such a way that projects are split into layers You can have many many layers in a Anime Studio project each representing a different element in a scene or animation such as Anime Studi
19. back legs one for the torso and one for the front legs For each version of the texture delete the parts of the texture that are not attached to the corresponding body parts Save the images in PNG format since PNG properly stores the transparent background Name the files back_ tex png body_tex png and front_tex png Here s what the three textures should look like Images nime Studio ers Manual 72 i Us nee EE EEHEEHE EE E EEE mn as ann wm 4 m au L P Ag i ri ee eee seoasatetinseseoeseeenae Pa Dunnan nnn n E a E au E E E metstanatteteos z ame Body texture body_tex png Back legs texture back_tex png Images Front legs texture front_tex png You re done working with the image editor it s time to bring the textures back into Anime Studio Note If you re having trouble creating the image textures we have provided some files for you to examine Look at the file Tutorial 4 4 Texture psd located in the Tutorials 4 Images subfolder within the main Anime Studio folder this is the Photoshop file Also look at the files back_tex png body_tex png and front_tex png which are the finished texture files Anime Studio 73 Users Manua Import Textures Back in Anime Studio create a new Image layer and select back_tex png as the source image Place the layer inside the bone group just above the Back Legs layer Cr
20. created with the Select Points tool e Auto Weld When checked automatically welds a new point to an existing point The existing point is highlighted when the mouse hovers over a point that can be welded e Auto Fill When checked automatically fills a closed shape when you create it e Sharp corners When checked creates sharp corners when changing the angle of a line When unchecked creates smooth transitions when changing the angle Tool Groups Users Manual 110 sin Studio Using the Add Point Tool The Add Point tool is what you use to draw most curves in Anime Studio Just click and drag in the working area of the main window to create a new curve segment There are four variations to using the Add Point tool they differ in where the original click takes place The first way to use this tool is to click in empty space and drag this will start a new curve The second technique is to click on the end of an existing curve to add another segment to that curve Third click on a curve segment to add a point there then drag it to the final desired position Finally click on a curve midpoint to add a new branching curve that is welded to the existing point Each of these uses of the Add Point tool is shown below Click here and drag to start a new curve x Click here and drag to start a point in the Click here and drag middle of a curve to start a new curve branching off of the existing curve Click here
21. is recorded at the current time The process of modifying an object changing the time and modifying it again is how an animation is created in Anime Studio Time in Anime Studio is expressed in terms of frames where there are x number of frames in a second By default a new Anime Studio project has 24 frames per second although this value can be adjusted in the Project Settings dialog Anime Studio 197 Users Manua The first set of controls for adjusting time is a set of VCR like playback buttons These are actually at the bottom of the main window not in the Timeline window itself From left to right these buttons are rewind step back stop play step forward and jump to end Previous Step Step Next Keyframe Back Forward Keyframe ft Rewind Play Jump to End Playback controls Rewind sets the current frame to 0 while jump to end sets the current frame to the last one in the animation the length of the animation is defined by the shaded area in the time ruler The step forward and back buttons advance and back up by one frame The play button plays back the animation in the main editing area repeating playback in a loop Finally the stop button stops playback At the top left of the Timeline window is a text control that indicates the current frame number You can change the current frame by typing in a Anime Studio Windows Users Manual 198 sin Studio new value here and pressing enter
22. masking is on and by default all sub layers will be fully visible Mask on hide all means that masking is on and by default all sub layers will be invisible this is the most common option when using layer masking All other layers inside a group will have the following options for layer masking Mask this layer Clip this layer against the current mask Don t mask this layer Skip all masking operations for this layer Add to mask Add this layer to the mask Any higher layers will be visible wherever this layer is visible Add to mask but keep invisible Add this layer to the mask but don t show it in the final output Subtract from mask Use this layer to cut a hole in the current mask Clear the mask then add this layer to it This makes the mask identical to the transparency value of the current layer Exclude Strokes Check this option to exclude outlines from the mask The masking controls are simple but powerful options that can be used for all kinds of creative tricks The best way to explain these is with a hands on example that you can try out in the Tutorials section Anime Studio Windows Vectors Tab This tab is only available for vector layers and controls the appearance of lines and fills in the layer The controls here enable the vector noise effect By adding noise to a layer you can make it look more hand drawn or at least get rid of some of that pesky computer precision
23. one place on the screen even while you move the camera around e Immune to depth of field The depth of field function in the Project Settings dialog lets you simulate the blurring of objects with different distances from the camera This option allows you to turn off this effect for any particular layer e Layer blending mode Normally layers are composited on top of each other simply according to the transparency of each layer The layer blending mode popup lets you select a different blending mode for each layer This can be very useful for simulating shading and lighting effects Shadows Tab The controls in this tab allow you to apply automatic shadows and shading to an entire layer Shadows Layer Settings Anime Studio 181 Users Manua Layer Shadow This section lets you apply a drop shadow effect to a layer Shadow On Checking the Shadow on checkbox will make all objects in the layer cast shadows on the layers underneath Offset Controls how far the shadow appears from the actual objects A larger offset makes objects appear higher up above the layers below them Blur Determines how hard or soft the edges of the shadow appear Expansion Allows you to expand the reach of the shadow This can be useful for halo type effects Try an Offset of 0 Blur of 8 and Expansion of 8 Shadow Color Clicking on the Shadow color color swatch lets you change the color of the shadow that is being cast You can a
24. split into two fills Tool Groups Point and curve arrangement This technique is also useful in animation for when you want an object to bend backwards and overlap itself Normally this would cause the fill that defined the object to get seriously distorted or even to break holes in itself However by building the object out of two or more parts and stacking them properly you can achieve this type of effect with no problem Anime Studio 129 Users Manua Bone Tools Tool Options For detailed instructions and descriptions of the options in this dialog refer to Bones on page 34 Using skeletons to manipulate drawings The following tools are available when working with Bone or Switch Angle constraints Min max degrees I Ang l l 5 l layers If a tool has the following symbol next to it a then it can be used for animation as well In general tools that are used for bone setup can only be used when the time is set to frame 0 others can be used at any time Select Bone Bone Constraints Options Select Bone Using the Tool Using this tool you can click on a bone to select it You might want to Select Bone Options select a bone in order to delete it press the Delete or Backspace keys all of its children will be deleted too You also might want to select a bone in order to add new child bones to it Click anywhere besides a bone to de select all bones Tool Groups Users Manual
25. Anime based on phonemes it requires you to break down the words of dialog Studio uses the highest layer the wide open mouth In between Anime into their basic sound elements There are software programs out there Studio switches on the in between mouths Play back the animation to that can help you do this the one that we recommend for using with see and hear the result In general because automatic lip sync is based Anime Studio is the free program Papagayo on the actual sound in the audio file it is important to use an audio file without background noise or music Start With a Sample File For this tutorial we ll start with a project file that s almost finished It s named Tutorial 5 2 and it s located in the Tutorials 5 Animation subfolder within the main Anime Studio folder Open this file in Anime Studio expand the Head layer in the Layers window and you should see something like this The final result SWF File Tutorial 5 2 Phoneme Lip Sync Starting point for this tutorial This tutorial covers another method of animating lip sync With this method the lip sync is based on phonemes Phonemes are the basic This project is almost complete The only thing apparently missing is building block sounds that make up words When you do lip sync the animation for the character s mouth Play back the animation The Animation Users Manual 80 sin Studio mouth is there it s a switch layer
26. Check this box to skip every other frame in the animation This makes rendering faster and results in smaller movie files Anime Studio 157 Users Manua e Extra smooth images Renders image layers with a higher quality level Exporting takes longer with this option on Exporting Flash Anime Studio can also export Flash files in SWF format Flash is a common vector animation format on the Web When exporting Flash Anime Studio will also include the soundtrack if any if the soundtrack is in MP3 format If you plan on exporting Flash files it is important to read How to Create Efficient Flash Files on page 158 Flash Tips Advice for working with Anime Studio and Flash Among the other export formats that Anime Studio offers you also have the option to output Flash SWF files SWF is a format created by Adobe as a way to deliver animated vector artwork and interactive applications Flash animations are very common on the web and most users already have the Flash player installed on their computers Because Anime Studio is also vector based there are enough similarities to make it possible for Anime Studio to export SWF files However Anime Studio and Flash are not completely compatible Therefore not all the features of Anime Studio can be exported successfully to Flash In addition because Flash is a web format small file size is important there are certain issues to keep in mind when working with Anime Studio if Flash
27. Directly below the frame field is a sort of ruler that measures time This time ruler has small tick marks one per frame and has labeled frame numbers at intervals along its length The time ruler also displays the current frame with a red triangular marker above the current frame s tick mark The time ruler is used both as an indicator of the current time as well as a control to adjust it By clicking or clicking and dragging anywhere on the time ruler you can change the current frame A certain range of frames in the time ruler are shaded with a darker color This shaded region indicates the length of your animation When you play back your animation in Anime Studio or export it as a movie file this shaded region is the part that will play back You can change the start and end frames of your animation in the Project Settings dialog or you can Alt click in the time ruler to set a new start and or end time Alt Click with the left mouse button to set the start of your animation and Alt click with the right mouse button to set the end Next just below the time ruler is the onionskin controller It has tick marks that line up with the frames in the time ruler By clicking one of these tick marks you can turn on an onionskin frame An onionskin frame appears as just an outline superimposed on the current frame and is used to compare your animation at two different times at once This is helpful for lining up certain complex motions C
28. Ecni 86 Tutorial 6 7 Camera and Depth Effects 87 Start With a Sample File cccsesceeeeeeeeeeeeen 88 Creating DEON eexssniviateinueincsiutencinisinnedinsuiusiaretmusdats 88 Animating Camera Movement 89 Tutorial 6 9 Moon and Clouds Effect 91 Examine a Finished Animation cccccscseeeerees 91 HOW It S DONG ceeeseessesscsseseessesscsssessesseseeseaserseaseaees 92 Using Anime Studio c cceeeeeeeeseeeeeeeseeeees 94 Layer VPS ssis 95 Vector LG Cl S xa secuciseec oceaeeescentatsniecaceeseaacersceaadueacdedeeqacet 96 POG AS A A A I I N A 96 EOAR E ee 97 Switch HAY CIS cijex spe scousngsauashaaeatingatueashtetoonsieataeattntaeays 99 Audio Layers c cccesscsssescseesrssessseessesasersansaesasrsansaees 100 TOO GRO GDS ses iteesstsenserdussuiacnonieinctennenesuentinmacs 102 TOO VGN W acae 102 A ONG ien EE 103 Select POINTS cacedecacanateccseteteentaces cade anaia 103 iv sin Studio Users Manual G translate POMS T TE E 105 2 translate EE E ee ee 130 scale PONIES ope neta agitate E E 108 scale BOING ae A cantsiotioscausaleetpatonast 131 G Rotate POMS E E A I A 108 2 Rotate POE a A 131 P PON aaae R E E 109 Aa DON eaaa E 132 EO E E te Reparent BONG cccscsssecsscsssssssssssssrssrssessrsees 132 Draw Sape aeree a dandwush ass 113 Bone Strength siiret een 133 eea E Guten E E ee 114 4 Manipulate BONES ssscssssssssesssseessssseseeeseseeee 134 Scaer BUS anea 115 Bind Layer 134 Delete
29. Edge s ss sssssssssisnsnssnsnssnnnrnnsnnsnnnnnnnan 116 BUG PONS EEEE EA A AASA 135 Curvature E IE E VETE TEE 116 OTIS E E E T A 135 E E E E aurea 116 Layer Tools s snsssssssisisesisesrsrarsrararinanininiriirrrrrrereneeenn 136 Koe E 117 I Tronslate EN 136 Sled SNAPE says ncescesnedenstvancentecnsdeadesesseiteuasdenveceies 117 calel 137 Create Shape socickeccussssenscnnetsusssastensussetensorncuerdeiadta 118 a Paint BUCKET ssnsecvsrnsesnsennnsorsexessunsenesesngnensannsaemeees 119 GP Rotate Layer Lactate hcen heen 138 Pelete SNAP Cs ccctsreasesasesareessseseetnnenverteeeaverereerenees 122 Set Or Q N ssassn 138 EEO A E 122 SEAE E E AA 139 Line WIO cs soarstrpsscnsdensstencesssonsctesounsdesistescensconsstease 123 Video Tracki NG suienvccninmusirnonnivtasdendienesenstniniveastnniion 140 Hide EdG ccscecssssscscsrssrssseesrsecssesarsaseessrsaeses 123 Camera Tools cccscsscssesscsssssssscsscsscessessessssseseaserserees 147 Complex Fil SNADES oceecaeseeseeceneaceececpecenceteacnecene 124 Compound Fie airean 126 TACK CANETA koesse 148 A Trick Using Two Fills Instead of One 127 E T cesecsnssssstssrsnststintnsntnvce 148 Bone Tools csscscscsesssseseseesesesesceesessseseesesssseseeeeesesien 129 2 po PA 148 Using skeletons to manipulate drawings 129 Select BONE 129 Workspace TOON G sigran aonane 149 Anime Studio Users Manua PPG VON SC N A A E 149 S E E tenoceraeew deueseet oceans 161
30. Enable outline box in the Style window Similarly un check the Enable fill box in the Style window to make your shape have only an outline and no fill color Paint Bucket aw fe ce Selecting the curves to make up a shape Paint Bucket The next figure shows the result of pressing the spacebar to actually create the two shapes that were being prepared in the figure above Paint Bucket Options Tool Options e Fill Select this option to affect fill only e Stroke Select this option to affect stroke only e Both Select this option to affect both fill and stroke The two resulting shapes Tool Groups Users Manual 120 sin Studio Using the Tool The Paint Bucket tool is used to fill a closed region with color Just click inside a closed shape to fill it with the current combination of colors and styles This can make it much easier and quicker to fill shapes than with the Create Shape tool but keep in mind you re still working with the same requirements a shape must be completely closed in order to be filled Also the entire shape must be visible onscreen when you use the Paint Bucket to fill it if part of the shape is cut off on the edge of the editing window it can t be filled You can always change the view to fit a shape on screeen before filling it The paint bucket tool works by temporarily filling the region you click in with a test color Any edge that touches this test color is conside
31. First welding the two endpoints of a curve together creates a closed curve Second if two shapes join up at a particular point and you want them to remain joined during an animation then welding those points together will guarantee that those two shapes will remain joined How to Weld Points There are two ways to weld points in Anime Studio manually and automatically To manually weld two points together with the Translate Points tool first uncheck the Auto weld option for the tool Anime Studio 11 Users Manua Translate Points Auto weld option unchecked Drag one point on top of the other and press the spacebar Here s an example of this method Although you can t see the keyboard in the example keep in mind that the spacebar was pressed at the moment when the two points overlap After welding notice how the two points move as one Drawing Users Manual 12 sin Studio options area when the Translate Points tool is active Make sure Auto weld is on Using this method when you drag a curve endpoint on top of another point the point turns green when it can be welded automatically Let go of the mouse to automatically weld the points together Here s an example of automatic welding In this case the spacebar was gt not pressed to initiate the weld as soon as the mouse is released the two overlapping points are automatically welded together Welding Example 1 SWF File he The second method o
32. Hill Left Hill and Sky layers moved on the Z plane Try dragging the Track Camera tool around again and notice the difference It s like driving in a car nearby objects go by quickly while distant objects seem to move slowly In the tool options area at the top of the main Anime Studio window click the Reset button to reset the camera Track Camera Anime Studio 89 Users Manua When you ve seen enough select the View gt Reset menu command to go back to the default camera view Animating Camera Movement Now we ll try animating the camera Make sure the current frame is set to 0 and select the Track Camera tool Track Camera Drag to the left in the main editing area until you set up a view that looks about like this Effects 90 nime Studio Users Manual Camera view at frame 0 f Track to the left D Cai elaine Te ana ara to e oTa on We Press the Play button in the timeline to play back this simple camera camera to the left keep going until you have a view that looks like this animation Notice how the layers of the project seem to pass in front of and behind each other This is a simple way in Anime Studio to create a sense of depth Effects The final result SWF File Tutorial 6 9 Moon and Clouds Effect This tutorial shows you how to create the effect of clouds moving in front of a moon Layer masking and blurring is used to create an effect that is not only good for a moon and cloud
33. Lil s 3A ba SAS e E Angie con Set a high damping force on these bones Finally select the two bones of the bottom left arm one at a time and set the bone dynamics parameters to 2 4 1 Torque Spring Damping The high spring force will cause this arm to bounce back very quickly Adjusting dynamics parameters for both bones in the top left arm Next select the two bones of the top right arm one at a time and set the bone dynamics parameters to 2 2 5 Torque Spring Damping These settings will cause these bones to slow down their dynamic movement quickly a high damping value is like making the bone move through a thick fluid Bones These two bones Set a high spring force on these bones Try playing back the animation again As you watch the final animation note the differences between the four arms The top left arm swings in a wide arc because it has a strong response to the parent bone s movement The top right arm s movement is subdued because the damping force causes it to slow down more quickly The bottom left arm is very springy and the bottom right arm moves in accordance with the default bone dynamics settings Anime Studio 53 Users Manua The final result SWF File Tutorial 3 4 Character Setup In this tutorial you will learn how to set up the bone system for a complex character This will involve splitting a character apart creating bones adjusting bone strength and putting
34. Manual Select the Happy morph in the Actions window and notice a single keyframe in the timeline Li b ra ry Wi n d OVW Import Characters In previous versions of Anime Studio you could access the library by choosing Import gt and selecting content from one of the various subcategories This is the method used in previous versions of Anime Studio Selecting content from the File gt Import command In Anime Studio 6 there two new ways that you can access content in the new library window e Choose Window gt Library e Click the Library button in the top right corner of the Status bar Anime Studio Windows Anime Studio 205 Users Manua Navigation of choices that you can select from Click a name in the left panel to Buttons Stell display a preview in the right When you find the object you want to use click OK to insert it into your scene Folder Icon Doorway Nigrt Rocks Content Moonscape Curly Border Arch Library content with additional options The Library Window The status bar at the top of the Content Library displays buttons that The Content library opens to display items in your library Icons display allow you to back up to previous levels movies folders sound files and other Anime Studio documents in your library e Use the zoom tools in the upper right corner of the Content Library window to increase or decrease the size of the icons e Double click a folder icon to open t
35. Sorenson 3 codec for the best combination of low file size and quality If you choose QuickTime Anime Studio will also export the soundtrack if you have applied one to the animation On Windows if you don t see QuickTime as an option then you need to download and install QuickTime AVI Windows only On Windows you can also export movies in AVI format When exporting a movie Anime Studio will include an alpha channel if the codec you re using supports it This makes it possible to composite Anime Studio movies with other media in a video editing program If you re using QuickTime set the color depth to Millions of Colors The is QuickTime s indication of an alpha channel The codecs that support this include Animation None PNG TGA and TIFF Anime Studio Menus AVI on Windows doesn t include any built in codecs that support alpha channels However at least one such codec does exist and you can download it for free the Huffyuv codec Anime Studio can only export to a maximum size of 768 pixels x 768 pixels and 3000 frames Anime Studio Pro does not have this limitation Export Animation This command brings up a dialog that lets you export an animated sequence and save it to disk The Anime Studio project file is where your work is saved but to view the animation as a movie to put it on the web or to work with it in other programs you have to export the animation The Export Animation dialog
36. Studio project and they can each be used alone or in combination The first type is point motion Point motion very basic it just involves moving individual points around in time Point motion is good for small distortions to an object where you want something to look soft and flexible turning up the corners of a mouth into a smile bulging out a belly etc You can move a shape in any way you want with point animation but it might require manipulating a lot of points in many cases bone animation can simplify the job Anime Studio 77 Users Manua Bone animation involves setting up a skeleton system for an object and then moving the skeleton around By carefully constructing a skeleton you can easily move a character around like a puppet Layer animation is for very simple large scale motion When you move a layer everything in it moves together This doesn t give you a lot of flexibility as far as what you can animate this way but it s a good way to get certain effects If you want an entire group of objects to pan side to side or zoom in or out then layer animation is the tool to use The keyframes you define are visible in the Timeline starting at frame 1 Frame 0 is a special frame in an Anime Studio project the original placement of all your objects is stored at frame 0 If you want to modify an object s original shape or position or add new objects this should be done at frame 0 Whatever you do to an object in later f
37. a character Although they re called Image layers an Image layer can also make use of a movie file as its source Image layers and vector layers can be mixed and matched in the same project Alpha Channels You ll notice that the images used in this tutorial do not appear rectangular This is because they make use of an alpha channel to mark some parts of the image as transparent We recommend using PNG images with Anime Studio because they support full alpha channel transparency You ll need to use an image editing program like Adobe Photoshop to create images with transparency Anime Studio 63 Users Manua Start With a Sample File For this tutorial we ll start with a project file that s almost finished It s named Tutorial 4 1 and it s located in the Tutorials 4 Images subfolder within the main Anime Studio folder Open this file in Anime Studio expand the Hula Girl layer in the Layers window and you should see something like this amp Hula Girl Starting point for this tutorial This project is almost complete as it is The only thing that s missing is the dancer s left hand Add the hand as follows First click on the layer named L Arm we want the new layer to be just above the left arm Next click the new layer button in the Layers window to create a new layer Images Users Manual 64 sin Studio New Layer L Hand L Arm Left hand added In the popup menu
38. appears at the bottom of the Style window The following additional options appear Anime Studio Windows Shapes The Current Shape controls let you select and name shapes and styles The Shapes popup menu lets you select a shape in the current layer Only named shapes appear in this menu to name a shape simply select it in the editing window and enter a name into the Name field The Style popup menu provides you with a list of all styles in the document A style is the same set of information used by a shape color line width line brush effects etc but it doesn t actually appear on its own in your animation Instead after creating a style you can apply that style to one or more shapes For example you might create a Skin style and apply it to all the body parts of a character Later if you want to change the color of the character just modify the Skin style and any shapes that use that style will change instantly Use the Style popup menu to create new styles and to select a style for editing The Tutorials section of this manual will walk you through the process of creating and using styles Just above the Name field is a text label that indicates the currently selected shape or style When no shape or style is selected this label will say Defaults any changes to fill color line width etc that you make in the style window will be applied to any new shapes you create When a shape is selected the l
39. are any updates for Anime Studio Internet connection will be required Anime Studio Menus Anime Studio 175 Users Manua Anime Studio Windows Active Layer Layer Toolbar ap 3 ee a Parent Layer AY Thorn Ri Layers Window Sub Layer a An Anime Studio document is composed of layers each of which can be independently edited and animated Layers can be thought of as transparent sheets of plastic You can draw separately on each of these sheets and the final picture is the composition of all the sheets stacked on top of one another A A DZ gt FJ B z a2 ZL 2 Layers can be added removed copied and re ordered The Layers window is where all these operations take place in Anime Studio and is the topic of this section Overview ALS The Layers window The Layers window has two sections of interest As seen below these consist of the toolbar and the layer list The Layer List Most of the Layers window is taken up with the layer list This is a vertical scrolling list of all the layers in the document The layers are stacked in order from bottom to top That is when the project is displayed the lowest layer in the list is drawn first followed by the second from the bottom and so on up to the top When two layers contain objects that overlap this ordering determines which object is in Anime Studio Windows Users Manual 176 sin Studio front and which is behind Each layer is represented in the
40. but no animation data has yet been assigned to it so it doesn t move Double click the Mouth layer When the Layer Settings dialog opens click the Switch tab Switch Motion Blur Switch Settings Source data can be either an audio file or a switch data file C Interpolate sub layers A Layer settings for the mouth Click the Select audio sync source button to select the switch data file Animation that will control this switch layer In the file dialog that appears select the file vista dat located in the Tutorials 5 Animation subfolder within the main Anime Studio folder The vista dat file was created using a program called Papagayo Papagayo is a tool designed to help you synchronize animation to audio tracks This particular file is based on an example file included with Papagayo and is an animation of a mouth speaking Hasta la vista baby For more information see the Papagayo documentation The Mouth layer contains all the mouth shapes needed to speak any phrase You can examine the Mouth layer to see the sub layers it contains Each sub layer is named after a different phoneme You can use any set of phonemes you choose the ones in this mouth are based on the same default set used by Papagayo which is a good place to get started To make the mouth speak a different phrase just create a different animation data file in Papagayo and select it into the mouth layer a
41. button to flip horizontally e Flip Layer Vertically Click this button to flip vertically Using the Tool Use this tool to rotate the entire layer Holding the Shift key while using the Rotate Layer Z tool will constrain the rotation to 45 degree increments Set Origin Set Origin Anime Studio 139 Users Manua once and then leaving it alone for the rest of the animation otherwise unpredictable movement can occur In most cases you will never need to change the origin of a layer at all Set Origin Options Tool Options Switch Layer e Origin X Allows you to view or enter a numerical value for the X origin e Origin Y Allows you to view or enter a numerical value for the Y origin Switch Layer e Reset f pressed at Frame 0 resets a layer back to its default value If pressed at any other frame resets the layer to the value or values set at frame 0 e Flip Layer Horizontally Click this button to flip horizontally Switch Layer Options e Flip Layer Vertically Click this button to flip vertically Tool Options Using the Tool e Active Child Use this menu to select the active layer for the Click anywhere in the layer to set the origin to that point The origin of a y y J P J switch function layer is indicated by the crosshair displayed when editing that layer The origin is the point that the layer rotates around when using the Rotate Using the Tool Layer tool and the point that the layer resiz
42. ccccsceeeeeeeen 54 Add BON c cccccccsscsscsscsscssssessecsesssssesaseaserseasersens o5 Adjust Bone Influence n s 59 Put the Character Back Together cccccseseeeees 60 IMAGES swissinciisainaatwnnaiwuetniweieananiensnidnuenucuacgunitinmntuie 63 Tutorial 4 1 Image LAYErS csccsseseseeesrsseeseereeree 63 Alpha Channels c scsscssssssssssssssssseessesessesseeees 63 Start With a Sample File nasses 63 Tutorial 4 2 Image WarPing ccccceseeeteeeeeeeeee 66 Start With a Sample File nasais 66 Using Image Warping csssesccsssssessessrsseeseenteaes 67 Tutorial 4 4 Image Textures cccesseeesseeeeeeeeeee 69 Start With a Sample File sssini 69 Pami tne PUTS sarapane nnana 69 MAPON EXE S usieisiendieraioseressaeeieis senose 13 Use Masking for Clean Edges ccssseeteeeees 74 PVA VEL OND seei 77 Tutorial 5 1 Automatic Lip Syn cece 77 Start With a Sample File nasieners 78 Tutorial 5 2 Phoneme Lip SyNC ccseseeseeeesereee 79 Start With a Sample File ussas 79 Anime Studio Users Manua T tonal 55 CCUG ieia 81 Start With a Sample File oo 81 COMCIUSIO Girecesaciedoducueaacateracecaceicatcnsucasaccdeteseaadveseddt 83 NS CS oe ocaseueavideesreenecesst ucaniuenhivsatereiaaiunaennnannces 84 Tutorial 6 6 Shadow Tricks ceeeceesseseeeeseesseseeseeeseeees 84 Start With a Sample File uo 84 Basic Layer ShadOW csececeessesseetsesteeseeeteeneeee 84 Layer C 0 ee 85 Layer OUN
43. do not want to repeat display a small preview of the effect You can also add additional colors image used for the fill The image will be rescaled proportionally as to the gradient Select an existing color marker and press the Alt key needed to fit the width or height of the area that will be filled while you drag a copy of it to a new location on the gradient bar Then click the color chip to choose a new color for the marker Gradient Fill Options Image Texture Fill Options Image Texture Fill Effects When you choose Image Texture Fill effects a dialog displays the Stroke following options These controls allow you to set the appearance of a shape s outline e Select Texture Click this button to choose an image file to be i First be sure that Stroke is turned on or off depending whether you Anime Studio Windows Anime Studio 193 Users Manua want that shape to have an outline or not Click the line color rectangle to pick a new color for the outline If a style has been applied to this shape the style s color will be used instead of the shape s color Turn on the checkbox to the left of the color swatch to override the style s color Stroke Options Below the line color is a text field used to set the line width in pixels If a style has been applied to this shape the style s line width will be used instead of the shape s Turn on the checkbox to the left of the line width to override the style
44. enter a numeric value for scaling along the Y axis e Scale Z Allows you to enter a numeric value for scaling along the Z axis e Reset f pressed at Frame 0 resets a layer back to its default value If pressed at any other frame resets the layer to the value or values set at frame 0 e Flip Layer Horizontally Click this button to flip horizontally e Flip Layer Vertically Click this button to flip vertically Tool Groups Users Manual 138 sin Studio Using the Tool Use this tool to resize the entire layer When this tool is active a red box will appear on top of the current layer The handles around the edges of this box allow you to resize the layer Drag a corner handle in and out to scale the layer while maintaining its proportions Drag one of the side handles to change the horizontal scale or the top or bottom handle to change the vertical scale If you hold the Alt key while dragging a side handle Anime Studio will resize the layer in such a way to maintain the overall volume of the objects in the layer this can be useful for squash and stretch effects Rotate Layer Z Tool Groups Rotate Layer Z Options Tool Options e Z Rotation Allows you to enter a numerical value for rotation along the Z axis e Reset f pressed at Frame 0 resets a layer back to its default value If pressed at any other frame resets the layer to the value or values set at frame 0 e Flip Layer Horizontally Click this
45. for it as well Notice that his feet move around and don t stay in place Choose the Select Bone tool again Go back to frame 0 and select the left foot bone Lock both foot bones Now that the feet are locked go back to frame 24 and use the Translate Bone tool again to drag Frank s spine around Bones Translate Bone Notice that now Anime Studio tries to keep Frank s feet locked to the ground If you lift Frank too high his legs will completely straighten out and his feet will lift from the ground there s really no helping that the same thing would happen to you if you were lifted off the ground You can try rotating the spine bone too and see how the skeleton reacts Locked feet Anime Studio 49 Users Manua Bone locking is an animated parameter You can turn on and off bone locking as many times as you want during an animation This is especially useful when making a character walk lock a bone as soon as a foot hits the ground and unlock it just before the foot is to leave the ground for its next step Tutorial 3 3 Bone Dynamics Anime Studio s bone dynamics system can be used to automatically move bones around in response to higher level movement Anime Studio uses a physical simulation of springs to calculate dynamic bone movement making it suitable for a wide range of movements such as flabby body parts bouncy hair waving arms etc Start With a Sample File For this tutorial we ll start
46. has a section in this manual describing its tools in detail As an overview here is the role of each tool group Tool Groups e Draw Tools are used to draw and modify your artwork in vector layers See Draw Tools on page 103 for more information e Fill Tools are used to apply color to your drawings These tools are also only used in vector layers See Fill Tools on page 116 for more information e Bone Tools are used in bone layers to create and animate skeleton structures In other layers these tools let you assign objects to bones in preparation for animation See Bone Tools on page 129 for more information e Layer Tools are used to animate entire layers These tools work with any layer type in Anime Studio See Layer Tools on page 136 for more information e Camera Tools are used to control the virtual camera These tools can be used with any layer type in Anime Studio When you move the camera it actually affects your view of every layer in the project See Camera Tools on page 147 for more information e Workspace Tools are used to change your view of the project They don t actually modify the project they just help you focus in on a specific area to help you work on specific areas See e Workspace Tools on page 149 for more information Draw Tools Draw tools are used to draw and modify vector artwork The following tools are available when you re working with a vector layer Most o
47. in Anime Studio expand the Mouth layer in the Layers window and you should see something like this FJ Mouth Starting point for this tutorial Examine the sub layers in the Mouth layer Notice that from bottom Animation to top they range from closed to wide open This is the basic setup for automatic lip syncing The number and names of the sub layers don t matter as long as the lowest one is closed and the highest one is wide open Next we want to hear the audio file that will go along with the lip syncing Choose the File gt Import gt Audio command from Anime Studio s menu and select the file bushism wav located in the Tutorials 5 Animation subfolder within the main Anime Studio folder You can play back the animation now to hear the result but the mouth doesn t move yet Stop the playback before proceeding Double click the Mouth layer When the Layer Settings dialog opens click the Switch tab bushism wav Layer settings for the mouth Click the Select audio sync source button to select the file that will control the Switch layer In the file dialog that appears select the file bushism wav Click the dialog s OK button That s it The audio file was analyzed and keyframes were attached to the Switch layer When the audio is quiet Anime Studio activates the Anime Studio 79 Users Manua lowest layer the closed mouth and when the audio is loudest
48. is your intended output format When exporting SWF files you may want to use Macromedia s Flash authoring tool to combine multiple SWF files add extra elements sound Anime Studio Menus 158 sin Studio Users Manual etc Be aware that Anime Studio s SWF files are compatible with Flash MX and later Flash 5 and earlier are not able to load Anime Studio created SWF files What Can be Exported Most common objects in Anime Studio can be exported to Flash These include e Vector layers e Fills Outlines Colors e Transparency e Gradients e Variable width lines try to use these sparingly see below e Bone warping of vector layers e Image layers PNG and JPEG only and only if they are not warped by a bone layer e Particle layers careful a complex particle effect can easily overwhelm Flash e A soundtrack can be exported if it s in MP3 format and at either 44100kHz 22050kHz or 11025kHz sample rate If you want your SWF file to contain audio make sure that your project contains only one audio track and that the audio track is in MP3 format In order for Anime Studio to play MP3 format audio files you must have QuickTime installed Anime Studio Menus What Can t be Exported On the other hand some things in Anime Studio are just not compatible with Flash and cannot be exported to a SWF file The following list covers the most important of these objects and effects e Brushes e Fill and line eff
49. list with an entry that looks something like this Layer type A Thorn Rig Layer visibility Layer name A single layer in Anime Studio Only one layer can be edited at a time in the Anime Studio working area The layer currently selected for editing the active layer is displayed in a highlighted color To select a different active layer just click on its entry in the layer list A layers entry provides you with three pieces of information what type of layer it is its name and whether the layer is visible At the left side of a layer s entry in the list is a visibility control which controls whether a layer is visible or not If a pair of eyes is visible in this box any objects drawn in the layer will appear in the main Anime Studio window as well as in any rendering of the project If you click this Anime Studio Windows box the layer will turn invisible and will not appear in the main Anime Studio window This can be a convenient way to remove clutter in the main window when you don t need to see all the layers at once Also only visible layers will appear when you render a view of the project or export an animation you can generate test movies much quicker if you turn some layers invisible that don t involve what you re currently working on Note the visibility box of the currently active layer behaves differently The currently active layer is always visible how could you edit it if it wasn t and cl
50. move Anime Studio will try to keep the bone still by moving its parents as necessary to keep the bone in place This isn t always possible depending on what else is happening in the animation but it is still an extremely useful feature Select the Frank w Skeleton layer in the project e re oe E n AS t amp Frank w Skeleton na Ca l Bone locking is often used to keep a character s feet from moving Select the left shin around on the ground To do this Anime Studio needs to move the character s legs automatically Thus it helps to use angle constraints to Now set up angle constraints for this bone The minimum angle should keep the knees from bending backwards Use the Select Bone tool to be 10 and the maximum should be 120 select Frank s left shin bone as shown MAngle constraints Min max degrees 10 00 120 00 Anala santral hana Angle constraints for left shin Now select the right shin and set its angle constraints to 120 and 10 Bones Users Manual 48 sin Studio M Angle constraints Min max degrees Angle control bone Angle constraints for right shin OK the legs are prepared Set the time to frame 24 Use the Translate Bone tool to drag Frank s spine bone around a small distance Select the left foot In the tool options area turn on the Lock bone checkbox for this Translate Bone bone Next select the right foot bone and turn on Lock bone
51. note that this tool like most of the Anime Studio drawing tools modifies points not curves If you select all the points in an object and use this tool the entire object will move However if you only select some of the points then you ll end up distorting the object which can be very useful In the pictures below the selected points are highlighted in red Notice the effect of using the Translate Points tool on these points Tool Groups Anime Studio 107 Users Manua of a curve just drag it on top of another point and let go of the mouse Below is a movie demonstrating auto welding After dragging each endpoint into place it becomes welded to the existing point and the two can be moved around After translation Holding the Shift key while using the Translate Points tool will constrain the selected points to only move vertically or horizontally Using Translate Points and auto weld Nudging When this tool is active you can nudge the selected point s by small increments by holding down the Ctrl key and pressing the arrow keys Hold down Shift in addition to Ctrl to nudge the point s by a greater increment The Translate Points tool can also be used in conjunction with Anime Studio s welding feature To weld two points together use the Translate Points tool to drag one point on top of another you must drag just one point to weld not a group of points While dragging the first point on top of the second press
52. o E HEHE SG The Copy Current Frame dialog Anime Studio Users Manua Anime Studio Menus 169 Users Manual 170 sin Studio Blend Morphs You can use the Animation gt Blend Morphs command to blend poses or morph targets together to create a combination pose or morph This new feature in Anime Studio 6 is very easy to use NOTE Anime Studio Debut 6 does not allow you to create actions for blending however you will be able to blend poses contained in content that is created by others When you first create a character you ll notice that the Animation gt Blend Poses command may not be available This is because you need to use a character that has morph targets that you can use for blending To blend your morphs begin by moving to the frame at which you want the new morph to appear Next choose the Animation gt Blend Morphs command The Blend Morphs dialog appears The sliders in this dialog are named the same as the morphs you created in the Actions window Adjust the sliders until you get a combination of the morphs that you want to keep Then click OK to set the new combination Use the Blend Morphs dialog to combine your morphs together in any combination of values You can then advance to other frames in your timeline and use the Blend Morphs command to create new combinations throughout the timeline As you scrub through the timeline you should then see morphs blend from one to the other You can
53. programs is the concept of welding In Anime Studio two points can be welded together into a single point In fact any number of points can be welded together When points are welded together moving one of them moves them all along with any curves that pass through that point This is particularly useful when you start to animate objects For example if you want to move a character s nose then welding it to the face might not be a bad idea That way however you distort the nose or the face they ll always stay connected Image Layers Image layers are a way of importing artwork into Anime Studio that was created in other programs Any program that can produce image files can be used together with Anime Studio this way For example a painting program photo editor or 3D modeling program can produce images that can be used in an Anime Studio image layer You can t edit the pixels of one of these images in Anime Studio but you can move resize and rotate image layers and attach them to skeletons for more complex animation iyer 1 Image As 849A103 gif Image Layers The best image format to use with Anime Studio is PNG PNG files have high quality good compression and support full alpha channels for transparency effects Although PNG is the preferred format for use with Anime Studio you can also use JPEG BMP Targa or GIF images Image layers can also be used to bring external movies into Anime Studio Instea
54. select which animation channels to copy to a new frame or you can copy everything in the document by selecting the Copy entire Anime Studio Menus document checkbox There doesn t need to be a keyframe at the current frame in order to copy the current value This command will copy the current value whether it is a keyframe or an interpolated in between value An important note about bones if you position a skeleton system during your animation and try to copy that pose back to frame 0 the bones themselves will take on that pose at frame 0 but anything bound to the bones points in vector layers warped images other sub layers will not take on that pose This is because frame 0 is a setup frame bones are set up at frame 0 but they have no influence over other objects at frame 0 If you re trying to copy a pose back to frame 0 in order to set up an initial pose consider copying it back to frame 1 instead frame 1 is actually the beginning of the animation and the bones will influence other objects starting at frame 1 Track Layer to Video This command allows you to link a layer to trackings points that have been set up with the video tracking tool For a complete description of the process refer to Video Tracking on page 140 Mute Audio Mutes the soundtrack when playing back your project in Anime Studio but the soundtrack is still a part of the project Just un mute it to hear it again Anime Studio 171 User
55. side handles to change the horizontal scale or the top or bottom handle to change the vertical scale If you hold the Alt key while dragging a side handle Anime Studio will resize the selected points in such a way to maintain the overall volume of the object this can be useful for squash and stretch Rotate Points Rotate Points Rotate Points Options Rotate Points Tool Options e Select Group Used to select a group that was previously created with the Select Points tool e Rotation Allows you to enter a numerical value for rotation e Modify Click to apply the value entered in the Rotation field e Reset f pressed at Frame 0 resets a layer back to its default value If pressed at any other frame resets the layer to the value or values set at frame 0 e Flip Horizontally Click this button to flip horizontally e Flip Vertically Click this button to flip vertically Using the Rotate Points Tool The Rotate Points tool also operates on the currently selected group of points Two or more points must be selected to use this tool Click near the outer boundary of the selected group of points Next drag the mouse in a circle around the selection to rotate the points Holding the Shift key while using the Rotate tool will constrain the rotation to 45 degree increments Anime Studio 109 Users Manua Add Point Add Point Options Add Point Tool Options e Select Group Used to select a group that was previously
56. start Anime Studio Style Shows hides the Style window The Style window is shown by default when you start Anime Studio Actions Shows hides the Actions window The Actions window is hidden by default when you start Anime Studio Help Menu Help Menu Help Opens this document the Anime Studio User s Manual Open Content Library Opens the Content Library Online Tutorials Opens a web browser with Anime Studio online tutorials Internet connection will be required Anime Studio 173 Users Manua Welcome Screen Opens the Welcome Screen Register Your Product Register your product to receive information on updates and upgrades Internet connection will be required About Anime Studio Displays some information about Anime Studio including which version of Anime Studio you re running About Scripts Displays some information about all the scripts currently loaded by Anime Studio All of Anime Studio tools and all the entries in the Scripts menu are implemented in a scripting language called Lua Although some programming scripting experience is required Anime Studio users are welcome to write their own scripts to extend Anime Studio s built in features Buy Content Help speed up your animation workflow with ready to use content Buy content from Content Paradise Internet connection will be required Anime Studio Menus 174 sin Studio Users Manual Check For Updates Check to see if there
57. t display correctly Turning on this option will just use the standard system arrow cursor regardless of what tool is active on the canvas It may not be needed anymore I m not sure if that bug happens for anyone these days e Disable audio feedback When welding points you hear a clicking sound in Anime Studio Turning this option on will disable the click Video Uploads This tab is used to enter your YouTube user account name and password Anime Studio will log into this account to post YouTube videos when you select the File gt Upload to YouTube command Editor Colors Allows you to change the color scheme for the editor window including various options for background and object colors Press the Reset button to return to default application colors Object Color Default Edge Color Default Fill Color Background Color Selection Color Editor Colors Anime Studio Users Manua Draw Menu Draw Insert Text Peak Smooth Raise Shape Lower Shape Raise To Front Lower To Back Hide Shape Show All Shapes Draw Menu Insert Text A dialog will pop up with controls to type in some text and choose a font When you click OK the text will appear as a set of curves in Anime Studio These curves are just like any drawing in Anime Studio you can manipulate them with any of the Anime Studio tools like any other object There is also a checkbox that lets you decide whether to create the text as a
58. the Library select Help gt Open Content Library Photoshop Tips Advice for working with Anime Studio and Photoshop Anime Studio is equipped with a Photoshop export script that will give you the ability to take your PSD files and export them into ANME format The AANME format is the native Anime Studio format This process helps users from having to re draw or export individual layers as images into Anime Studio What does the Script Do Basically the script converts PSD formatted files to ANME files It exports every layer that was created originally in Adobe Photoshop and makes it completely readable when imported into Anime Studio All versions of Adobe Photoshop since version 7 should support this script Anime Studio 155 Users Manua How does the Script Work The script exports the following 2 things Firstly it converts the PSD file into a ANME file Secondly all the individual layers of the PSD file are converted into individual PNG files and are placed in a folder of the same name as the ANME file The folder with the PNG s and the newly converted ANME file will be located side by side It is important to note that whenever you open the ANME file it will reference the PNG folder So please keep them side by side If the PNG folder and the newly converted ANME are not located in the same folder the layers within your newly opened ANME will not work properly in Anime Studio Where is the Script located and h
59. the character back together Start With a Sample File For this tutorial we ll start with a project file that already has the artwork for the character drawn you ll just set up the bones It s named Tutorial 3 4 and it s located in the Tutorials 3 Bones subfolder Bones Users Manual 54 sin Studio within the main Anime Studio folder Open this file in Anime Studio and you should see something like this Starting point for this tutorial Split Apart the Character In order to make bone setup easier the first thing to do is split apart the character Choose the Edit gt Select All menu command All the points in the right arm your right his left should be selected Activate the Translate Points tool and drag the mouse to move the arm off to the side and up a bit Starting point for this tutorial There are six vector layers in this project containing the body parts for this character Although all the artwork could be drawn in one vector layer it is often easier to draw a character in multiple layers arranging the body parts from back to front as shown below Translate Points Bones Anime Studio 55 Users Manua Arm moved off to the side Body parts split apart Next select the Head layer and move all of its points upward Repeat the process for all the layers of the character except the Torso layer moving the body parts away from the center as shown below The reason we spli
60. the spacebar to weld them together into one point If the Auto weld option is turned on in the tool options area Anime Studio can automatically weld points for you Only the endpoint of a curve can be automatically welded To automatically weld the endpoint Tool Groups Users Manual 108 sin Studio Scale Points Scale Points Scale Points options Scale Points Tool Options e Select Group Used to select a group that was previously created with the Select Points tool e Scale X Allows you to enter a numeric value for scaling along the X axis e Scale Y Allows you to enter a numeric value for scaling along the Y axis e Modify Click to apply the values entered in the Scale X and Scale Y fields e Reset f pressed at Frame 0 resets a layer back to its default Tool Groups value If pressed at any other frame resets the layer to the value or values set at frame 0 e Flip Horizontally Click this button to flip horizontally e Flip Vertically Click this button to flip vertically Using the Scale Points Tool The Scale Points tool operates on the currently selected group of points Two or more points must be selected to use this tool When this tool is active a red box will appear around the currently selected group of points The handles around the edges of this box allow you to resize the points Drag a corner handle in and out to scale the points while maintaining their proportions Drag one of the
61. to accomplish this After creating the fill shape and setting the desired line width simply click on the edge s that you want to hide those edges will simply disappear from the outline without affecting the fill Below is a before and after example Tool Groups Users Manual 124 sin Studio Click on an edge to hide it The Hide Edge tool in action Complex Fill Shapes When creating fills Anime Studio tries to be clever and ignore selected parts that can t possibly be part of the outline of a fill such as points on dead end curves However there are times when Anime Studio needs a little help from you As an example take the shape below Tool Groups A complex shape two curves welded together To fill this shape with color your first thought might be to select the entire group of points Unfortunately Anime Studio recognizes this as a shape that can t be filled and will only allow you to create an outline A shape that can t be filled The reason for this is that a fill is defined by the points along its boundary In this case it s not obvious to Anime Studio which boundary you intended Many times Anime Studio can figure it out and provide you with the fill you were after but in a case like this you have to be more specific about what points define the boundary of the shape The definition of a fill hasn t changed but sometimes your intentions aren t as obvious to Anime Studio as they are to you The fo
62. to include or exclude from the scaling operation The icons representing the various animation channels are described in the Timeline Window section Examples To reduce the amount of time the animation takes in other words to speed it up you could set the start frame and new start frame to 30 the end frame to 60 and the new end frame to 45 45 30 15 which is half as long as 60 30 30 You can shift a section of your animation by changing the start time For example to shift the range of keyframes between 30 and 60 you could set the start frame to 30 the end frame to 60 the new start frame to 90 and the new end frame to 120 The duration will be the same 120 90 60 30 but the animation will take place between frames 90 and 120 instead of 30 and You can rescale a portion of the entire document by clicking the Rescale entire document checkbox e To rescale the current layer select the animation channels that you want to be affected For example you may want to rescale the bone animation but leave the layer rotation alone Copy Current Frame With this command you can copy values from the current frame in the timeline to any other frame in your animation For example if you position some objects in a way that you really like at frame 243 you can use this command to copy that position back to frame 0 to make it the starting position as well i 3 3 F j p a x i 5 z 3 SE By Sy
63. to move the project side to side and up and down Note that this isn t the same as moving the objects in your project only your view of them is changing not where they appear in the final image A shortcut for the Pan Workspace tool is to click and drag in the working area using the right mouse button it s a quick way to pan regardless of what tool is selected in the toolbar Anime Studio 149 Users Manua Zoom Workspace Zoom Workspace Tool Using the Tool The Zoom Workspace tool is similar to the Pan Workspace tool it moves your view of the project without modifying the objects themselves With this tool dragging the mouse zooms your view of the project in and out A shortcut for the zoom tool is to click and drag in the working area using the right mouse button while holding down the shift key it s a quick way to zoom regardless of what tool is selected in the toolbar Tool Groups User Interface User Interface Anime Studio Menus Anime Studio s menu bar contains commands for managing projects Open Save etc as well as commands that apply to certain layer types the Draw and Bone menus This section will describe all the menu commands available in Anime Studio File Menu File Menu Anime Studio 151 Users Manua New Creates a new empty Anime Studio project Open Prompts you to open a Anime Studio project file that was previously saved to disk Open Recent Displays a list of recen
64. to place a copy of the keyframes at the current time Anime Studio Windows 201 Users Manual 202 sin Studio Sequencer The sequencer new to Anime Studio Debut 6 and Anime Studio Pro 6 provides another view of the timeline It displays each layer as a block of time Keyframe changes are not displayed in the sequencer but you can create keyframe changes in this view The Sequencer The Sequencer allows you to easily move a layer forward or backward in time Move the clip toward the left to have it start sooner or toward the right to have it start later The green arrow in the time ruler located at the top of the Sequencer timeline indicates the frame at which the currently selected clip will start NOTE You can also reposition your clips in the Channels timeline view Select the channel you want to move then right click in the Time Ruler to drag the green arrow to the right or left You ll notice the keyframes and arrow relocate with the mouse For example you can reposition a layer from frame 1 to frame 38 causing the animation in that layer to start at a later time To move a layer and its sublayers click the topmost layer and move all of them at the same time To move a sublayer click the desired sublayer to move it on its own Anime Studio Windows You can also move a sublayer by itself You can also use the sequencer to show or hide a layer at any time during the movie Advance to the frame where you
65. want the layer to become invisible Open the Layer Settings dialog for the layer that you want to hide uncheck the Visible checkbox and close the Layer Settings dialog The contents in the layer will disappear in the project window and the track in the sequencer will appear as though it ends at the point where it was hidden Anime Studio 203 Users Manua Visibility unchecked Visibility checked Layer Hidden Layer Visible Click to open Layer Settings dialog and uncheck Visible option The sequencer shows a break where the layer is hidden If you import an audio file it has a fixed duration in the sequencer You can see where the sound effect will happen Say you want a pop to happen when your character disappears trom the scene You can place the pop in the right place It works the same way if you import a video layer For example if you want an explosion to happen just before the pop you can import a video layer and place it just before the sound effect Check or uncheck the Visible setting in the Layer Settings dialog to show or hide a layer To make the layer reappear later in the timeline repeat the process Select the layer you want to unhide open the Layer Settings dialog and check the Visible checkbox After you close the Layer Settings dialog the layer will reappear in the sequencer You can precisely place audio and video files in Sequencer view Anime Studio Windows 204 nime Studio Users
66. with a project file that s almost finished It s named Tutorial 3 3 and it s located in the Tutorials 3 Bones subfolder within the main Anime Studio folder Open this file in Anime Studio and you should see something like this Bones Users Manual 50 sin Studio Select Bone Starting point for this tutorial Play back the animation to see what we re starting with The entire structure will tilt side to side and bounce up and down remaining rigid the whole time Only the vertical bone in the center of the skeleton is animated all the others move with it because they are its descendants Rewind the animation to frame O when you ve seen enough Use the Select Bone tool to select the top left bone in the structure as shown below Select this bone In the tool options area at the top of the main Anime Studio window click the Bone constraints popup box to open it In the popup box turn on the Bone dynamics check box This tells Anime Studio to move the selected bone automatically according to the spring simulation Bones Angle constraints Min max degrees GI GRIND Angle control bone Turn on bone dynamics Select seven more bones two in each of the arms and turn on bone dynamics for each one Here s a tip you can leave the Bone constraints popup box open the whole time just click on each bone in turn then turn on bone dynamics for each one If the Bone constraints
67. you reach a point where there is more contrast Then drag the tracking point to position it where it should be When you press Play the tracking point will continue tracking from there Advance the video to a clear spot and adjust the tracking point Sometimes color similarities occur for a period that is longer than a couple of frames For example in our video there is a segment where the thumb passes across the face This is a much larger area where there is very little color contrast between the tracked object and the area it passes over The solution here is slightly different You can use interpolation to calculate the path between two good points First move back to find the last good point before the thumb crosses the face Delete the keyframes from that point until the thumb passes across the face and reaches the other side Tool Groups Users Manual 144 sin Studio Here we move to the point just before the thumb passes over the face and we delete the keyframes that occur until the thumb reaches the other side of the face Jump ahead in the video to a point after the thumb passes over the face and reposition the tracking point When you play the video back Anime Studio will interpolate the motion between the keyframes that are missing Tool Groups On the other side of the face we reposition the tracking point to a good spot Adjusting Tracking Point Sensitivity When you add tracking points
68. 75 Track Layer to Video ix dccseesicevecerenaansboercaseeaverdin 171 CE E EEE A 175 Mute AUCIO cc ecseccceesseeceesseesseesecsserseseeersesaeees 171 The Layer List ccscsscsssscsssrsssseessrsesssersnreen 175 Restart Audio TraCk ccescceseessssesssssseseeeseeseees 171 Layer TOOIDAM cccsscscssssssccessrssecseerssrssesesersarees 177 Audio LOVE ccssecsssssesssrsseessesssrssseessrseeesersansas 171 LOVER SUMS E 177 View MON cccceccecescsscsscseseeceeceecseseeseeseeseesereensenes 171 Style WINdOW ceeeseececesseeseetecetesteseesetesieseeeeneeeeen 188 FSS E A T A E T 171 PU NEE ET OE E 189 AE E E E 172 E T A EAT ATA 192 Grid S ttiNGS seucoiierskorerererenereneprerenerorerenireierensiekeni 172 Color SWatCheS ccecscecsssseessesssrsseessrsessseesereaees 194 SHOW Output ONIY epua anne 172 O E EA ETT AEE EET 194 Window MENU csececseeseeseesececsecsecsecsessscseceseaseeseasass 172 Advanced Options cccccsscseeseesecscseeeeseeseeseerees 194 VOUS EAE IAIA A E AT I E E 172 Timeline WiINdOW ccsecscecssssscssesssrseceserssrsassesesarees 195 E ie OEN TTI E E I T 172 OETA ET O ES 195 Timeline eessessecescessesssseessrssecseersaesaseessesatsasesaneass 172 Controlling TIME 0 eceeeseeceseeseeeseeeseessteeseseseseessees 197 Se E ET 172 Playing a Partial Segment c ccsessseeereerseeees 198 PROMO IG daececsaceaceencecdstevacttuncueaaecbeeiacetaaeuaceupeecaacenanente 172 Animation Channels c cccccssssse
69. Anime Studio Debut 6 Users Manual i sin Studio Users Manual Contents Welcome csscceceseeeeeeeeeeseeeneeseeeeesees 1 PEACE OCU GHON sisisi nisnin aai aE 2 Demo Limitations ccececeeesssssssseserestrsstsseessrestteenees 2 What s New New Features in Anime Studio 6 00 2 ESE I VAM Ci E A 2 Sao TE E E E N E 3 Tool Improvements cscsceseeseceeecesseesseeseeseeeeeees 3 Audio and Video ee 4 PMI AL OMiacae syastuateccneaestieawaatianeaesaiecnteniudarnnnenens 4 HITS L TEE E O A A E 4 Morpa TAIE IS uynno o aA 5 port VEO erarnan rE EE aTe 5 Motion MOCKING ceexcurssauscaescianiudasctenduensswitudaddusdarnaieste 5 Rendering savixesinsncvvannnnivensvendinnvendtinivendtentenndienteniverss 5 LICENSE assina an a 6 Anime Studio License AGre Ment ccccessececeeeeneeneees 6 Anime Studio Tutorials 000 5 10 DF AWG P E E A 11 Tutorial 2 1 WeIdING ciiiesisii esisiini iiaia 11 How to Weld POINtS ccccccscsscsscecscseeseeeesereeeees 11 Way 10 Weld PONS siviainietciuudiiceuudiintrenditenetinteund 14 Examples of Good WeIdING ccssscssereeeeeeeeees 15 Examples of Bad Welding ccccccssseseeeeteeseeees 17 Tutorial 2 2 Drawing Shapes with Holes 19 Reminder of Fill RIGS cesses 20 Creating HOMES acs stineaaatarerncasesuasevnceeraswinsusaeianeesusaass 20 Tutorial 2 3 Hidden Edges cccessceeseeeeeeee 22 Start With a Sample File ccceeesseeeseeeseeeeeen 22 Hidden EdG S
70. PURPOSE OR NON INFRINGEMENT NO ORAL OR WRITTEN INFORMATION OR ADVICE GIVEN BY SmithMicro IT S EMPLOYEES DISTRIBUTORS DEALERS OR AGENTS SHALL INCREASE THE SCOPE OF THE ABOVE WARRANTIES OR CREATE ANY NEW WARRANTIES IN NO EVENT WILL SmithMicro OR ITS DEVELOPERS DIRECTORS OFFICERS EMPLOYEES OR AFFILIATES BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY CONSEQUENTIAL INCIDENTAL OR INDIRECT DAMAGES INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFIT BUSINESS INTERRUPTION LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION AND THE LIKE WHETHER FORESEEABLE OR UNFORESEEABLE ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE OR ACCOMPANYING WRITTEN MATERIALS REGARDLESS OF THE BASIS OF THE CLAIM AUTHORIZED SmithMicro REPRESENTATIVES HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES The above limitations will not apply in case of personal injury only where Anime Studio Users Manua and to the extent that applicable law requires such liability Because some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of implied warranties or liabilities for consequential or incidental damages the above limitations may not apply to you 6 Content Distribution A As used in this section the term Restricted Content means all files and data included with or part of the Program including but not limited to Included files in all proprietary Program file formats MOHO ANME and any subsequent compressed formats e Included images including but not limited to materials textur
71. Text Tool To create a text object just choose the Draw gt Insert Text menu command Type in the text you want select a font and click OK The text will appear in your document pre filled with the current fill color and style and it can be resized and positioned just like any other object Remember there s nothing special about a text object It can be manipulated just like anything else This includes using any of the drawing tools to distort its shape or to add new points in the middle of a character This also means that in order to move or rotate a text object you need to select all the points in the object This is easy to do using the Select Points tool just click on the filled in area of the text to select all of it Scatter Brush The Scatter Brush allows you to spray shapes into your scene There are a number of preset shapes or you can also copy any shape to your clipboard and spray multiple copies of that shape into your scene Anime Studio 115 Users Manua Angle Jitter Specifies the maximum amount of angle variation in the objects that you spray Spacing Specifies the minimum amount of space between the objects that you spray Color Jitter Specifies the maximum amount of color variation for the objects that you spray Flip X Check this option to flip the objects being sprayed along the X axis Flip Y Check this option to flip the objects being sprayed along the Y axis Preset Men
72. When you choose Soft Edge Fill effects a dialog displays the following options e Blur Radius Allows you to increase or decrease the softness or blur around the edge of the fill Anime Studio 191 Users Manua e Halo Only Check this option to only add the halo effect to the layer Soft Edge Fill Options Halo Fill Options Halo Fill Effects When you choose Halo Fill effects a dialog displays the following Gradient Fill Effects options Gradient fill effects can be animated and can also respond to bone warping You can animate the location and color of all of the color markers in the gradient All changes in color will show up in the timeline e Blur Radius Adjusts the softness around the halo when added This is the dialog used to control the gradient effect The following options appear e Onset Radius Adjusts the radius of the inner area e Halo Color Click the Color chip to select a color for the halo Anime Studio Windows 192 sin Studio Users Manual e Type Allows you to choose one of four types of gradient effects used as a texture fill Linear Radial Reflected or Angle The preview shows an example oe of each type Tile Choose this option if you want the image to repeat more than once to fill the selected area Below that are two controls for the colors at each end of the gradient Finally a preview area after modifying the other controls this region will Don t Repeat Choose this option if you
73. ZOOM WOFKSPACE ecseseeseeseeseeseesecsessssateaterseaees 149 Draw MENU ssi scars okesic cane dglne naaa 163 User INGOT AGG scsceccccavedicccpeceennsscusceekendeteesetesaseee 150 HS EWG e E E 163 Anime Studio Menu c cccsscseeeesessseneeeeeees 151 FO SOSAV IE AEA A 164 File MON scssessesscscsscssssssssssscesssssessesseserseaserserseaees 151 SITIO aracari anane mi Ka 164 IGN a a 151 Raise Shape esessesseessssessssssssssssssssessesseseaseasees 164 E EEE AN E A E 151 Lower SNAPE uu csessesseseessssscsssessssssssessaseessaserseasens 164 Open Recent ccscsscsessesssessrssteesssersersersesssersars 151 Raise to FONt ccescsecsssecssessssseessressresrsensssresaes 164 66 N E E EE T E Ia ONE TO B I eE cece ecusteneesueeoar 164 E ETA A A E ENR EAE 151 FOS EF OUMUS E E A AET 164 E E E 151 Reset All Points 0 ccscscsscsescssesscsscsssssseserseesees 164 Project SE UINGS 4stoxssacisansexeacsnenessanterseeinnion 152 BOS TSIM rena 165 0 00 6 er 153 Release POINTS cccscsscseesecsscssesecssssssssesssasereeeeeas 165 FOV E AA 155 Flexi Binad POINtS s ceccessessssssssssssssssssssesseseesees 165 Exporting MOVIES aii ueirsonpipcensiptanitnenpsmneheepivinneienetanonnnes 156 Release LAYEr cssssccsssssssscesssrsssesssrssrssseesersaees 165 Export AMIMation ccceceeseesseeeseeeeseeesereeeeeeeeeeees 156 Flexi Bind Layer ccccessesesesessssesseeessessesseeessessees 165 Exporting FAS i etsvitsusuentinewausrinesetuin
74. a while and finally turns back on Using cycling you can make the light blink over and over Right click on the second keyframe the one at frame 48 and in the popup menu that appears select Cycle You re telling Anime Studio that after this keyframe you want the animation to cycle back to an earlier point in the animation A dialog will appear asking you the specifics of the cycling Enter the values shown below Animation 81 Users Manual 82 sin Studio Cycle settings When you click OK in the cycle dialog the timeline will update to show the cycle There are three changes you will see First the keyframe in question will change to a left pointing arrow to indicate that it cycles backwards Second a long red arrow will point back to the point in the timeline that the visibility channel is cycling back to Third later in the timeline you will see other sections with red backgrounds to indicate that the layer is invisible during those periods Cycling reflected in the timeline You can play back the animation again to see the result The Red Blinker layer will flash on and off multiple times even though you didn t add any more keyframes the Layer Visibility channel is just cycling back and repeating a section of animation over and over again Animation Let s try adjusting the cycle duration In the Timeline window hold down the Ctrl key while you click and drag on the second keyframe the one tha
75. abel will say Shape any changes you make now will apply to just that one shape Finally when a style is selected the label will say Style any changes you make to a style will not only affect that style but also any shapes that use that style Anime Studio 195 Users Manua Timeline Window Overview The Timeline window is used when animating in Anime Studio to control the current time and to control objects keyframes ay This keyframe is set to cycle back to the beginning The Anime Studio timeline The Timeline window only displays information about the currently active layer in the project When you switch to a new layer the timeline panel will update its display to show the new layer s keyframes There are several new features in the way that keyframes are displayed In previous versions of Anime Studio all keyframe types were displayed in the timeline For example you would see keyframe types for bone Anime Studio Windows 196 nime Studio Users Manual changes layer translation layer scale layer rotation and color changes whether or not they were actually being used If you were looking for a particular change it could be hard to find what you were looking for The timeline view is now much simplified Changes are not displayed in the timeline until you actually create a keyframe change in a channel For example you won t see a change in the Bone channel until you actually move a bone
76. able fill is turned on or off depending whether you want that shape to be filled or not Click the fill color rectangle to Anime Studio Windows 190 sin Studio Users Manual Gradient for the first effect and Spots for the second effect The result would be a color gradient for the background of the fill with spots drawn on top of it To the right of the fill effects are buttons that allow you to control the specifics of the fill effect If a fill effect has been chosen from the popup menu these buttons will bring up dialogs that are described in the following sections Some fill and line effects can be animated with keyframes being added to the timeline when you change colors blur radius angles offsets blurs and more Shaded Fill Effects When you choose Shaded Fill effects a dialog displays the following options e Light Angle Provides a dial that allows you to change the direction that the light is coming from You can also enter a numerical value Zero degrees is located at the bottom of the dial e Offset Allows you to assign a value for how far the shadow is offset from the filled area e Blur Controls the softness of the shadow e Shadow Color Allows you to choose the shadow color from a color palette e Shadow Only Check this option to only display the shadow without the object that is used to generate the shadow Anime Studio Windows Shaded Fill Options Soft Edge Fill Effects
77. ace Delete the currently selected points e Spacebar Weld two points together usually used with the Translate or Add Point tools Working with Fill Tools e Delete Backspace Delete the selected shape e Spacebar Define a shape based on current selection e Up Arrow Raise selected shape up one level hold shift to raise to top e Down Arrow Lower selected shape down one level hold shift to lower to bottom Working with Bone Tools e Delete Backspace Delete the selected bone and any child bones e Spacebar Bind points to selected bone e Up Arrow Select parent of current bone e Down Arrow Select child of current bone only works if current bone has just one child Anime Studio 219 Users Manua Working with the Timeline Window e Alt Option Backspace Delete the selected keyframe s e Alt Option C Copy the selected keyframe s e Alt Option V Paste the previously copied keyframe s e Spacebar Play stop the animation e Page Up When in graph mode zoom in on the timeline hold shift to move the graph up e Page Down When in graph mode zoom out from the timeline hold shift to move the graph down e End Auto zoom the timeline based on the active animation channel when in graph mode Keyboard Shortcuts 220 sin Studio Users Manual Mouse Shortcuts There are a few shortcuts that take advantage of the mouse making work in Anime Studio more convenient once you learn them Workspace Navigation
78. ad BBS forum ftp e mail etc You may use one copy of Anime Studio 6 ona single computer at a time To use the Software means that the Software is either loaded in the temporary memory i e RAM of a computer or installed on the permanent memory of a computer i e hard disk compact disk etc The Software is protected by the copyright laws of the United States License You may also make one copy of the Software in machine readable form solely for backup purposes As an express condition of this EULA you must reproduce on the backup copy the SmithMicro copyright notice in the following format C 2004 2009 SmithMicro Inc 2 Restrictions The Software contains trade secrets in its human readable form and to protect them YOU MAY NOT REVERSE ENGINEER DECOMPILE DISASSEMBLE OR OTHERWISE REDUCE THE SOFTWARE TO ANY HUMAN READABLE FORM YOU MAY NOT MODIFY ADAPT TRANSLATE RENT LEASE LOAN RESELL FOR PROFIT OR CREATE DERIVATIVE WORKS BASED UPON THE SOFTWARE OR ANY PART THEREOF 3 Termination This EULA will terminate immediately without notice from SmithMicro or judicial resolution if you fail to comply with any provision of this EULA Upon such termination you must destroy the Software all accompanying written materials and all copies thereof You may also terminate this EULA at any time by destroying this Software all accompanying written materials and all copies thereof 4 Export Law Assurances This Software i
79. add tracking points that identify the two points you want to follow The Primary tracking point controls the position of the object s origin The Secondary tracking point controls the angle or scale of the object To add the tracking points select the Video Tracking tool from the Layer panel Video Tracking tool The first tracking point is added to the thumb Tool Groups Anime Studio 141 Users Manua Now we add the second tracking point for the wrist and name it appropriately Wrist 13133 SE EE Display Quality w EE The second tracking point is added to the wrist After the tracking points are added keyframes are generated in the timeline After you place your tracking points make sure the Video Tracking Tool is still selected Play the video back and watch the tracking points Fine tuning Marker Positions follow the points you selected Playback runs a little slower during video tracking You might notice some places where the tracking points seem to drift away from the marker or stop following it entirely If this happens stop the video playback Go back to the beginning of the movie Zoom in more closely to the video and use the Video Tracking tool to reposition the markers that need to be adjusted As you play the video back you ll notice keyframes being added to the timeline While the video is playing watch for any problem spots in the way that the tracking points follow the items you want t
80. age with the drawing tools The real work that happens in the working area is not covered here but is described in chapters starting with Using Anime Studio on page 94 Toolbar The toolbar to the left of the main Anime Studio window is where you select which tool you want to work with The available tools will change depending on whether you re currently animating which objects are selected and what type of layer is currently active The purpose and use of each tool is described in Tool Groups on page 102 Fill 4 Tools Anime Studio Tools Anime Studio 223 Users Manua Status Bar The status bar along the top of the Anime Studio window displays a short description of the currently active tool in the toolbar If you don t know what a tool does the best thing is to read this manual However if you just need a quick reminder the status bar can be helpful Status Bar Playback Buttons Near the bottom left of the main Anime Studio window are a set of playback buttons that allow you to play stop rewind etc your animation Anime Studio s Main Window 224 sin Studio Users Manual Previous Step Step Next Keyframe Back Forward Keyframe ft E et en fo Rewind Play Jump to End Playback controls Anime Studio s Main Window
81. alue for the Y coordinate e Length Allows you to view or enter a numerical value for the length of the bone e Reset f pressed at Frame 0 resets a layer back to its default value If pressed at any other frame resets the layer to the value or values set at frame 0 Tool Groups Anime Studio 131 Users Manua length of a bone at frame 0 use the Translate Bone tool and drag the ti F Scale Bone of the bone i i Rotate Bone Scale Bone Options Tool Options Rotate Bone Options e Select Bone Click this menu button to select a bone by name Tool Options e Scale Allows you to view or enter a numerical value for the length of the bone e Select Bone Click this menu button to select a bone by name e Reset If pressed at Frame 0 resets a layer back to its default e Angle Allows you to view or enter a numerical value for the angle value If pressed at any other frame resets the layer to the value or of the bone values set at frame 0 l e Reset f pressed at Frame 0 resets a layer back to its default Using the Tool value If pressed at any other frame resets the layer to the value or values set at frame 0 The Scale Bone tool is used to change the length of a bone This tool is only available during an animation not at frame zero To change the Tool Groups 132 sin Studio Users Manual Using the Tool The Rotate Bone tool is used to change the direction a bone is pointing in Click the tip of a bon
82. and drag to extend the end of a curve Uses of the Add Point tool The Add Point tool can also be used to weld two points Click and Tool Groups drag in one of the ways described above to add a new point Drag the new point on top of an existing point and press the spacebar before releasing the mouse An example is shown below This works just like the Translate Points tool above Read about that tool for more details on welding then drag to here and press the spacebar Click here to create a closed curve like this Closing a curve To prevent the Add Point tool from adding on to an existing curve regardless of where you click hold the Alt key to force the tool to start a new line segment The movie below demonstrates the Add Point tool Notice how clicking on different parts of an existing curve causes the new point to be added in different ways Using the Add Point tool Freehand Freehand Freehand Options Anime Studio 111 Users Manua Freehand Tool Options e Freehand Options Click this button to display the following options Pixel Tolerance The minimum distance between points when drawing a curve Angle Tolerance Removes points when the angle between points is less than the value entered Variable line width When set to None does not vary line width You can also vary line width based on pen pressure or randomly The line width will vary between the minimum and maximum w
83. annels Switch Only Channels Layer Motion channels Anime Studio Windows Particle Only Channels 240 lt Particles On Off Layer Motion channels Along the length of an animation channel are displayed keyframes A keyframe represents a point in time at which you the animator made a modification to an object For example if you set the current time to frame 24 then scale the layer a keyframe will appear in the layer scale channel at frame 24 Keyframes appear as small markers on the channels At points in time that lie in between keyframes Anime Studio automatically calculates how to move an object from one keyframe position to the next Working with Keyframes Keyframes are not just static elements displayed in the animation channels They can be moved deleted and copied To modity a keyframe first it must be selected This is accomplished simply by clicking a keyframe in the timeline panel A selected keyframe shows up in a highlighted color Multiple keyframes may be selected by holding the shift key while clicking on keyframes Alternatively you can click and drag a rectangular selection box around the group of keyframes you want selected To delete selected keyframe s either click the Delete button in the timeline or press the Alt Backspace keys Deleting a keyframe removes motion from an object Keyframes can also be moved by Anime Studio Users Manua dragging them forward and back in time If you wan
84. annels point animation bone animation layer translation layer rotation etc this option groups all channels into one in the timeline palette This is on by default in Debut and off in Pro Status bar at top of window Shows the status bar at the top of the window rather than the bottom The status bar is where tools show their descriptions like what modifiers keys do what etc Highlight frame 0 If on a red box is drawn on the canvas if the current time is set to 0 This can be helpful to remind you when you re working on frame 0 the setup frame vs some other frame Enable drawing tools only on frame 0 Creation tools Add Point Freehand Draw Shape Add Bone are only available on frame 0 if this option is on Otherwise they can be used at any Anime Studio Menus time e Use SMPTE timecode Shows time in the timeline using SMPTE timecode instead of frame numbers SMPTE timecode looks like this 00 02 34 07 That would be 0 hours 2 minutes 34 seconds and 7 frames e Show angles in degrees in timeline Angle values like layer rotation or bone rotation are shown in radians in the timeline s Motion Graph This is because angle values in radians are smaller numerically and fit in better with other values in the graph But if the user chooses to they can display these curves using degrees with this option e Disable custom tool cursors A long time ago there was a bug on some Windows systems where tool cursors didn
85. avertamaeravsainants 211 COT CIN EAT A A mannucenudinapmaunnanaeis 212 SCID i AAEE E E N A 212 VIEW voeccccsccsscecseecssecssesceeceeceseecsesceeeesescseecteeesseesseesgs F O ranore EEE E T 215 EXPONE FONA ieee E E 213 Technical Support Where to Go When You Need He ID iievesewsceisveunstesnuininsilenauinotdieasuvesuasans 215 Online Manual cccccccsecsccscssecsecsesssecseesesssecseeeeens 215 Anime Studio on the WeD cccccccsecscteseceeseenee 215 Anime Studio Discussion Forum ccccecseeeeeeseeeeees Z 5 Email SUDPOMt cceccsscsecseceesscsecsscsseescsscesseseaseeseaees 215 ACKNOWlEAGEMENMNS cccccceeceeeeseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 216 Artist Acknowledgement c ecccsesseeeeeteeees 216 Keyboard Shortcuts ccecceeeeeeesseseeeeeseees 218 Anime Studio Users Manua Common SIMON GUNS nsaan 218 Working with Vector Layers ccceccceeeseeeeeeeeees 219 Working with Fill Tools ccccsesesseeesseeseeeeeteeaees 219 Working with Bone TOOIS c ccccescceseseeseseeteeees 219 Working with the Timeline WindOW ccccsseeeee 219 Mouse Shortcuts ssc tien ert rete encnmeaces 220 Workspace NaviQatiOn c cccccssssesesseeeeees 220 Timeline Scrubbing ceeeeceeceteetseeetessetesteseessssreseeaees 220 Numeric Fields and Angle KNOBS 220 Anime Studio s Main Window 0 0 221 VEIN GW saiisine ninnaa 221 TOO T ea EA 222 E D e ET 223 Playback BUTTONS 1 csnssacatanasacvtsnarbostavanagdsdan
86. ayer masking Try double clicking each of the layers in turn to bring up the Layer Settings dialog then go to the Masking tab You ll find that the Sky group has masking turned on by default all objects are invisible The Moon layer is set to be immune to masking while the Cloud layer adds to the layer mask The result of these mask settings is that first the Moon layer is drawn this is the regular sharp moon and is not affected by any masking Next the Cloud layer is drawn on top of that When the cloud moves in front of the moon it covers up the moon Finally the Blurry Moon layer is drawn on top of the cloud Because of the mask the blurry moon only appears on top of the cloud it is not visible outside of the cloud object Even though the blurry moon is in front of the clouds the effect looks like the moon shining from behind the clouds Here s another example of the same technique In this case we see a character who appears to be blurred by the smoke passing in front of him The exact same blurring and masking trick is used as in the case of the moon Anime Studio 93 Users Manua The final result Effects Using Anime Studio Using Anime Studio Layer Types Drawings in Anime Studio are vector based Vector drawings are different from pixel based images like a photograph in that they use lines and curves to represent a picture rather than a grid of colored pixels
87. bone may have multiple children The relationship between parent and children is that when a parent bone is moved all of its children move with it When a child bone is moved however it s parent remains unchanged Parent of selected bone Each bone s region of influence determines which points will move with that bone A bone and vector setup A skeleton hierarchy Layer Types Moving bones moves the curve control points Switch Layers Switch layers are used to group together multiple layers much like Group layers However switch layers have an interesting twist only one of their sub layers can be displayed at a time Anime Studio 99 Users Manua Switch An FJ Layer 2 Switch Layers One reason you might want to do this is for lip sync animation In this case each of the sub layers would correspond to a mouth shape for a particular sound A O TH etc To control which sub layer gets displayed at which frame in an animation you can to assign a switch data file to the switch layer An excellent way to create this data file is by using a lip sync program A great and free lip sync program is Papagayo You can also create a switch data file by hand To do this the data file should look like this MohoSwitchl 1A 2A 10 B 22 A a 40 C Layer Types 100 nime Studio Users Manual e The first line is a header that just tells Anime Studio that the file is a switch data fil
88. d Export e Upload to Youtube e Improved Illustrator import Now the paths are parsed much better and match what is in illustrator e Fixed a problem with darkened or lightened transparent edges on PNG files Motion Tracking e Debut can track 3 points e Pro can track unlimited points Rendering e 2D Screen Space Ambient Occlusion Anime Studio Users Manua Introduction 5 6 sin Studio Users Manual License Anime Studio License Agreement End User License Agreement EULA and Limited Warranty PLEASE READ THIS EULA CAREFULLY BEFORE OPENING ANY COMPUTER READABLE MEDIA PACKAGE S BY OPENING ANY COMPUTER READABLE MEDIA PACKAGE S YOU AGREE TO BECOME BOUND BY THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS EULA 1 Grant of License The enclosed computer program The Software is licensed not sold to you by SmithMicro Inc SmithMicro for use only under the terms and conditions of this EULA and SmithMicro reserves any rights not expressly granted to you You own the compact disk on which the Software is recorded or fixed but the Software is owned by Lost Marble Inc amp SmithMicro and is protected by the copyright laws of the United States and international copyright treaty provisions The copyright restrictions of this EULA extend to any further updates software patches or bug fixes made available to you by SmithMicro whether distributed on floppy disk compact disk or in an electronic format via downlo
89. d of selecting a still image select a movie file when creating a new image layer Anime Studio can import QuickTime Windows and Mac OS or AVI Windows only movies as image layers When importing a movie file Anime Studio will use the movie s alpha channel if present to composite the movie with other elements in the scene Bone Layers Bone layers are similar to Group layers they can both group together multiple sub layers that can then be manipulated as a single object Anime Studio 97 Users Manua However bone layers have an additional feature In a bone layer you can set up a skeleton that can be used to manipulate your artwork A skeleton is exactly what it sounds like an internal structure that can move the outer visible portion of your artwork Bone Layers Setting up bones is sort of a pre animation phase You don t draw shapes in Bone layers you set up controls that will help you animate later on The purpose of setting up bones is exactly what you might think creating a rigid skeleton inside your drawing Later on during animation when you want to move an object bones make the job easy By moving a single bone in the arm of a character for example the whole arm will move with it Around the elbow the drawing of the arm will bend and stay smooth as long as the bones were set up well with the Bone editing tools Bones by themselves don t really do much of anything you can move them around but they re in
90. e e The following lines contain two items each the first item is a keyframe The second item is the name of one of the switch group s sub layers In this example the switch layer should have three sub layers named A B and C If you make changes to the switch data file outside of Anime Studio and you want to incorporate those changes you will need to re load the data file To do this double click the Switch layer in the Layers panel and in the dialog that opens up go to the Switch tab press Source Data and re select the data file You don t have to use a data file to work with Switch layers you can also control them manually from within Anime Studio To control which sub layer is displayed at any frame in your animation just right click on the Switch layer in the Layers panel A pop up menu will appear that lets you choose which sub layer to display Anime Studio includes several sample mouth sets for doing lip sync with Papagayo take a look at those files to see how a switch layer should be set up Also check out the lip sync tutorials included in this manual Switch layers have a feature that allows for smooth switching To use this feature all the sub layers need to be Vector layers and they need to have the same number of control points Then when switching Anime Studio can smoothly transition between sub layers To enable this feature turn on Interpolate sub layers in th
91. e and drag it in circles around its base to change its direction Hold the Shift key to constrain the bone s direction to a multiple of 45 degrees Add Bone Add Bone Add Bone Options Tool Options e Select Bone Click this menu button to select a bone by name e Text Field Allows you to assign a name to the currently selected bone Tool Groups Using the Tool Use this tool to add new bones to a skeleton The location you click will be the base of the bone the point it rotates about and where you drag to will be the endpoint If another bone is selected before you click and drag it will be the parent of the new bone you create Otherwise the new bone will be parentless a root bone Hold the Shift key to constrain the new bone to point in a direction that is a multiple of 45 degrees Note that bones don t have to be touching to have a parent child relationship In the example shown in Bone Layers on page 97 the upper arm bones are children of the spine even though they are separated from it by a small distance This will often be the case arms should rotate about the shoulders not the neck even though they move when the spine moves Reparent Bone Reparent Bone Tool Options e Select Bone Click this menu button to select a bone by name Using the Tool Sometimes when building a skeleton you may accidentally add bones to the wrong parent Later when you discover the error deleting bones a
92. e Bind Points tool operates exactly like the Select Points tool described in Draw Tools on page 103 Use it to select a group of points to bind Select Bone Click this menu button to select a bone by name to a bone In order to use this tool a bone must first be selected When a bone is selected the points that are currently bound to it are automatically selected as well Use this tool to add or remove points from that selected group When the correct group of points is selected e Animation Offset Y Allows you to numerically enter a value that you want to bind to the bone press the spacebar this tells Anime for the amount of offset on the Y axis Studio to perform the binding e Animation Offset X Allows you to numerically enter a value for the amount of offset on the X axis e Reset f pressed at Frame 0 resets a layer back to its default value If pressed at any other frame resets the layer to the value or values set at frame 0 This tool used to be very important for setting up connections between bones and points in Anime Studio However starting with Anime Studio 5 0 we don t usually recommend using the Bind Points tool Instead the best way to attach points to bones is to use automatic bone binding together with the Bone Strength tool This technique is demonstrated in the Tutorials section of this manual Tool Groups Users Manual 136 sin Studio Using the Tool The Offset Bone tool lets you add an extra a
93. e Switch layer s properties dialog An example of using this feature is included in one of the mouth sets mentioned above Layer Types Finally switch layers can be set up with skeletons just like bone layers More accurately a switch layer is a bone layer just a specialized one If you add bones to a switch layer you can use them for example to change the shape of a mouth as it speaks bending it into a smile or a frown Don t feel restricted to lip sync animation with switch layers They have a lot of potential uses controlling eyes syncing to music amp sound effects switching between different hand gestures etc get creative Audio Layers Audio layers allow you to add an audio file to your project You will be prompted to select a file after choosing this layer type A graphic representation of the audio file appears in the timeline after the file is selected 5 B5 4 click wav Audio Layers Anime Studio 101 Users Manua Layer Types 102 sin Studio Users Manual Tool Groups Draw 4 Tools Tool Overview Anime Studio s tool categories lt Fill l Tools Anime Studio s toolbar window holds all the tools you can use in the main working area The tools are grouped into five categories Draw Fill Bone Layer Camera and Workspace These groupings are illustrated Bone below Tools Layer a Tools Camera Tools Workspace Tools Anime Studio 5 tool groups Each of the tool groups
94. e and transparency maps e included documentation e Included scripts e Restricted Content extracted or exported from the Program remains Restricted Content except as expressly permitted by this agreement B Third party content included with Program and Documentation is copyrighted and owned by the original content creators C The Company claims full ownership and copyright rights to all Company created Restricted Content and all derivatives of these files which are not expressly permitted by this agreement D You cannot sell resell distribute cause to be distributed or allow any portion of the Restricted Content to be distributed under any circumstances via any public or private medium except where expressly permitted by this EULA and US copyright law without the Company s prior written consent a copy of which must be furnished with all Restricted Content distributed in accordance with this section You may only use the Restricted Content for exclusive use on one computer unless License 7 8 sin Studio Users Manual authorized within this EULA and or the contents of the Company s official written consent E You may copyright and distribute rendered still or animated images derived from the Restricted Content without restriction or royalty to Company provided you do not violate other clauses of this agreement F If you purchased a Site License you may distribute the Restricted Content between all computers con
95. e appearance and behavior of the layer This dialog is described in the Layer Settings section below Layer Toolbar At the top of the Layer panel is a toolbar that provides several layer operations The buttons in the toolbar are described below New Duplicate Delete Layers Layer Layer Layer Settings as Thorn Rig Layer Toolbar e New Layer Adds a new empty layer to the project A popup menu allows you to choose the type of layer you want to add The new layer is placed directly above the current active layer e Duplicate Layer Makes a copy of the current active layer and adds it to the project This new copy is placed directly above the current active layer If you duplicate a group layer all of the sub Anime Studio 177 Users Manua layers inside it will be duplicated also e Delete Layer Deletes the current active layer This operation cannot be undone so you will be asked to verify if this is really what you want to do e Layer Settings This command brings up a dialog with various controls to modify the layer s appearance and behavior The next section Layer Settings goes into detail about these options The Layer Settings dialog can also be invoked by double clicking the current active layer in the layer list Layer Settings The Layer Settings dialog can be invoked either by double clicking a layer in the layer list or by selecting a layer then clicking the Layer Settings button in the layer toolba
96. e edges they should disappear from view and the result should be as follows After hiding the edges The Hide Edge tool works by simply hiding the selected edges of an outline It does not affect the underlying curve the curve is still there you just can t see the outline on that particular section of the curve Because it works on the outline and not the curve itself be sure you only use the Hide Edge tool after you ve created the outlines Otherwise with no outline you would not see the result of hiding some edges The other thing to know about the Hide Edge tool is that you can also un hide edges If you change your mind or hide the wrong edges just click on a hidden edge to re show it Drawing 24 sin Studio Users Manual Finishing Touches click and drag to adjust the width of any other points you choose After cleaning up the endpoints you should get a result like this If you hide the edges of a thicker line you ll often end up with abrupt ends to the outline You can see this below Tapered endpoints Blocky curve ends Tutorial 2 4 Shape Ordering In an Anime Studio vector layer shapes are ordered from back to front This ordering determines which shapes will appear in front of or behind others This tutorial will show you how to work with shape ordering Line Width A nice way to finish off these endpoints is to use the Line Width tool With this tool click on the endpoints to set their widt
97. e guides to appear in the final output Note layers have this option turned on by default Compositing Effects This group of controls allow you to change certain layer properties over time When you modify any of these at a frame greater than 0 you will add a keyframe to the corresponding layer effects channel For example if you go to frame 1 and un check Visible then go to frame 20 and re check Visible that layer will not appear in the final animation until frame 20 e Visible Controls whether a layer is visible in the final output It is important to note that this checkbox is totally independent of the visibility box displayed in the layer list these are two separate notions of visibility and don t affect each other at all The visibility control in the layer list is meant for your editing convenience you can turn one layer off while you work on another The visibility checkbox in this dialog is meant to allow certain effects during an animation For example if you had a layer with a drawing of a glowing lightbulb you could un check the visibility of this layer at frame 1 then turn it on at frame 10 off at frame 20 on at frame 30 etc to create the effect of a blinking light Blur radius Lets you apply a blur in pixels to an entire layer to simulate such effects as camera focus The blur can be animated over time to make a layer look like its coming in and out of focus Opacity Allows you to modify the transpar
98. e i x x resulting shape is much cleaner and easier to work with Tutorial 2 2 Drawing Shapes with Holes Drawing shapes with holes is very easy in Anime Studio but many new users don t realize that this can be done There s really no trick at all just follow the basic rules for creating a fill Drawing 20 sin Studio Users Manual Reminder of Fill Rules Creating Holes So a fill shape is defined by the curves on its border If we want to create a hole then all we need to do is create curves that outline the shape of the desired hole s Below we ve added some extra curves before creating a fill shape Create Shape As a reminder let s consider the rules for creating a fill shape A fill must be composed of closed curves that define the border of the shape So as an example below is a valid fill shape A basic fill shape Create Shape Once you ve set up curves to define the shape of the hole all you need to do is select the outline and the hole s using the Create Shape tool Drawing Anime Studio 21 Users Manua Notice that Anime Studio automatically identifies the inner curves as borders of holes in the shape There s nothing in particular you have to do just draw the holes and Anime Studio will know what to do with them When you ve selected all the correct points press the spacebar to finalize the shape The finished shape Here s another example of a shape with a hole Selected points fo
99. easy to manipulate in place of moving around lots of individual points In order for bones to do their job vector control points and other objects must first be bound to the bones There are three ways to bind objects to bones automatic binding manual binding and layer binding This tutorial will show you the difference between the three Start With a Sample File For this tutorial we ll start with a project file that contains some artwork to get started with It s named Tutorial 3 1 and it s located in the Tutorials 3 Bones subfolder within the main Anime Studio folder Open this file in Anime Studio and you should see something like this Bones Starting point for this tutorial Automatic Binding The most common method of binding objects to bones is also the easiest automatic bone binding Whenever you draw new artwork in Anime Studio or import image files as image layers those objects are set up for automatic bone binding All you need to do is add the bones In the Layers window click the New Layer button and select Bone from the popup menu Anime Studio 35 Users Manua Add Bone Create a new Bone layer Double click th bone aerial herer ened In the main editing view create two bones the first one starting at the D if acre aa ae aa eee shoulder and ending at the elbow and the second starting where the Sa ee ee ae eee first left off and ending in the hand And that s all it takes for a
100. eate another image layer for body_tex png and place it just above the Body layer And finally create a third image layer for front_tex png and place it just above the Front Legs layer Here s how the new image layers should be arranged Three new image layers At this point the textures are finished and in place but they are a little messy and go outside the bounds of the actual body parts Images 74 sin Studio Users Manual Textures applied in Anime Studio Use Masking for Clean Edges Turn masking on for the group The final step is to clean up the texture edges using layer masking Double click the Skeleton layer in the Layers window to bring up the Layer Settings dialog Go to the Masking tab and set the group mask to Next double click the Back Legs vector layer to bring up the Layer Hide all Properties dialog for that layer Go to the Masking tab and set the masking mode to Clear the mask then add this layer to it Images Set the masking mode for the Body layer What this masking mode does is make all objects invisible except where this layer has solid areas So the back_tex png image layer will only be visible directly on top of the Back Legs vector layer preventing the texture from going outside the lines of the back legs Anime Studio 75 Users Manua Set the masking mode for both the Body and Front Legs vector
101. ecking Motion blur on turns on the effect The default settings work pretty well for a basic motion blur effect e Frame Count Controls how many copies of the layer should trail behind itself The higher this number the longer it will take to render your animation Sometimes a high number may be used for an exaggerated anime or cartoon effect e Frame Skip Controls the separation between blur frames A larger number will cause the blur effect to trail farther out behind the current position e Start Opacity and End Opacity Control how the blur fades away behind the layer Generally a motion blur effect will fade a bit as it trails behind the layer For some special effects however you may not want the motion blur to fade at all In those cases set both values to 100 to keep the motion blur completely opaque e Blur Radius Controls the radius in pixels of the motion blur effect Masking Tab This tab is used to control layer masking Layer masking controls the visible region of a layer objects in a layer that are not within the visible region of the mask will not appear in the final output Anime Studio 183 Users Manua Masking Layer Settings If the layer is a group or bone layer then the following additional options are available No masking in this group means that no masking will occur in this group Mask on reveal all means that Anime Studio Windows 184 A Users Manual nime Studio
102. ected in this case no points are bound to the lower arm bone Next drag a selection rectangle around the points in the lower part of the arm as shown below Press the spacebar to bind the selected points to the selected bone Bind Points Drag a rectangle around all the points in the arm to select them Press the spacebar to bind the selected points to the selected bone Select the lower arm bones You re done you have manually bound points to both bones in the arm Now test it out with the Manipulate Bones tool Bind all points to the upper arm With the Bind Points tool still active hold down the Alt key and click on the lower arm bone to select it When you select the lower arm bone notice that no points are selected When you select a bone the points Bones Users Manual 40 sin Studio Manipulate Bones Although this method does work for binding points to bones we don t really recommend it unless you have a special need to bind specific points to specific bones You may have noticed that the arm doesn t move so smoothly with manual point binding This is because the points around the elbow only move with one bone or the other and so stretch apart and get distorted With automatic binding on the other hand the points around the elbow move under the influence of both bones and so move more smoothly Manual point binding can also be very labor intensive especially when your artwork has lots of contr
103. ects except gradients e Layer effects shadows shading layer blur motion blur etc e Image warping or 3D movements in image layers e Image layers that use progressive JPEG images Flash can t handle progressive JPEG images e Layer masking e 3D layers e Multiple audio tracks or audio tracks other than MP3 format How to Create Efficient Flash Files When you re creating an animation with the intent to produce an SWF file as output there are several things to keep in mind An important concern with SWF files is keeping the file size down The key way to do this in Anime Studio is to keep as many layers optimized as possible An optimized layer when exported to SWF will take up much less space than a non optimized one For other formats like QuickTime or AVI it doesn t matter You can tell which layers are optimized by looking for a little red dot next to the layer s icon in the Layers window Not S Optimized BJ Mouth Optimized Notice the red dot by the optimized layer A new layer is optimized to start with but depending on the effects you apply that optimization can go away The following things will de optimize a layer Note a non optimized layer will still export to Flash it just won t be nearly as efficient e 3D camera movements this will de optimize all layers in the project so it should be avoided if possible when targeting SWF e 3D layer rotation X or Y rotation or perspective rotat
104. ed points This is the tool you use to select de select points This tool can be used in a few different ways The most basic way to select points is to drag a rectangle around them Also using this tool you can click on a single point to select it The third method of selection is to click on a curve to select the entire curve Finally clicking on a filled in area will select an entire object Each of these selection methods is illustrated below Tool Groups Click here Click here to and drag select a single point to here to select a group of points Click here to Click here select an entire to select an curve entire fill shape Selection methods Below is a short movie clip showing the different ways to select points using the Select Points tool Anime Studio 105 Users Manua page 151 a a The currently selected points may be deleted by pressing the Delete or Backspace keys 4 E 5 d Translate Points Translate Points Different methods of point selection rem Pesos A r Modifier keys Translate Points options e By holding the Shift key you can extend a selection Otherwise you will always start a new selection when using this tool Translate Points Tool Options e Holding the Alt key will prevent this tool trom selecting curves or shapes when you click on them sometimes when things get e Select Group Used to select a group that was previously crowded it s hard not t
105. egion the set of points along its outer edge We ll take a look at some examples later You can also create outlines using these tools Outlines are less restrictive than fills an outline is not a set of points along an outer boundary Instead an outline can be any set of points you choose The curve segments between these selected points will form the outline Fills and outlines are stacked on top of each other in the order you create them This determines which fill or outline will be visible when two or more overlap There are tools that allow you to change the stacking order of fills and outlines but you ll learn that you can save yourself a lot of time by planning ahead and creating fills in the proper order to begin with Color Picking If the Select Shape or Create Shape tools are active and a shape is selected you can quickly set the shape s color by picking it from another shape in the current layer Just hold down the Alt key and click on the shape you want to copy the color from The color and style will instantly be applied to the currently selected shape You can also push a shape s color and style onto other shapes If you Anime Studio 117 Users Manua hold down Alt Ctrl and click on a second shape the selected shape s color will be pushed onto the shape you click on This is an easy way to propagate one shape s color and style onto several other shapes in the same layer The following Fill tool
106. ency of an entire layer An opacity value of 100 will not affect the layer at all while a value of 0 will make it totally transparent By changing the value from 0 at frame 1 to 100 at frame 10 the layer will seem to gradually appear out of nowhere which in some cases is more desirable than the type of on off visibility provided by the Visible checkbox Auto shading radius Allows you to simulate 2D ambient occlusion effects Double click the desired layer or highlight a layer in the layers panel Turn the Auto Shading option on and set the radius to a value other than zero A good starting point is somewhere between 8 and 16 pixels Anime Studio 179 Users Manua Without Auto Shading With Auto Shading Anime Studio Windows 180 nime Studio Users Manual Flip horizontally and Flip vertically Clicking these boxes flips the entire layer in the direction specified If the layer is a group layer then the sub layers inside it get flipped as well This can be convenient in the case where you want to duplicate a layer and have the second copy face the first one as a mirror image Options Rotate to follow path When this checkbox is turned on the layer will automatically rotate to follow its direction of movement Specifically the up direction will turn to follow the direction of layer translation This can be useful for creating things like flowing arrows that need to point in their direction of movemen
107. eneeen 198 Help MON cccccscscssscsscsssrssrssseesseseseseesrseesssersarsaees 173 Working with Keyframes ccccsseseeeeeeeees 201 ICU e EE N AEA A A NT 173 SE E S E A E S 202 Open Content Library s ss sssssesesisisessreisrsrrerrrerseen 143 Online Tutorials A A EI O 173 Appendix a o a a See a 207 WeICOmE SCTE C1 reeset ne noacmnenesennacharte nates easiest 173 Anime Studio Shortcuts s s s 207 Register Your PrOQUCL c cccecceecsecseeesecsesessseestenees 173 Product Comparison ne a ee ee ee ee ae 208 AGOULT MMC SG Oirccticrectaentoranamtarsvarieeraaihevatiet 173 Vecior Drawing Fenu ESen 208 AOUN SMDS asirasa 173 Vector Modifiers 208 BUY C OMEN sustereiersionsieneiossirssipnoressneaiitashoneieastenti 173 FETS US E E seaseeenevarsconess 209 FIP oE OEE E E 209 Bone features icicnsnnndvsertonstendiboniheasvenshvashendninenendoondbanss 209 Ui CF Re T E A E eoeeeeree tes 209 Layer Modifiers cccecesstesstecssteeetesstessetessetesseeees 210 HOD WO cote sees A cence gencu A T 210 Camera Features snircinisnoiennsitenssoanuencumantnnsieawennorennneastion 210 Workspace Features ccccscsecsececececsessscesseseeseesees 210 AIT IVS FeatiES serere aner 211 Action Features xcscomsscciceuniavaderrieaiaredernieersiraducnianicaeres 211 Style FOAtUICS ccecssccsessssrssscssseserssseesersessseesrsatses 211 Preferences cssesscssesscssesessacseesasssesaesascaseaeeaseaseaeeaees 211 Project Settings scaiereriranocareriaenicrniesnin
108. er Settings dialog In the Masking tab set the Layer masking value to Add to mask as shown below and click OK Drawing Users Manual 32 sin Studio The wall acting as a mask Another Example Simplified Modeling Now open the file Tutorial 2 6_2 Take a look at the masking group in this project in this case the masking function is already turned on In this example the eyes are used as a mask and the eyelids are forced to render themselves only inside the eyes This makes it much easier to construct and animate the eyelids without having to worry about them spreading outside the eye region with a mask layer they can t Drawing Another Example Transition Effect Finally open the file Tutorial 2 6_3 This project uses a mask layer to cause a text object to fade into existence Play back the animation or export it as a QuickTime movie then play back the movie In this example a variation of the masking feature is used the mask itself doesn t have to be visible In this case the mask is a rectangle that gradually exposes the text but we don t really want to see the rectangle To use an invisible mask the Mask layer uses the Add to mask but keep invisible option in the Masking tab Anime Studio 33 Users Manua Drawing 34 sin Studio Users Manual Bones Tutorial 3 1 Bone Binding The purpose of bones in Anime Studio is to provide high level objects that are
109. ers Anime Studio Pro Anime Studio Feature Peak Smooth Flip Points Horizontally Flip Points Vertically Anime Studio 209 Users Manua Fill Features Bone Features Feature i Anime Feature Anime Anime Studio Pro le Studio Pro a Ce Franetone a Er Ce Ce x lt x lt Select Shape x lt x lt Create Shape x lt x lt Paint Bucket x lt x lt Delete Shape x lt x lt Line Width eC Ce CC a a Fill Modifiers Batar XK Feature Anime Anime Studio Studio Pro x lt x lt Hide Edge x xx x lt x lt Bind Points li Offset Bone Layer Features Feature Translate Layer Studio Pro Product Comparison 210 nime Studio Users Manual Rotate Layer Z Switch Layer Rotate Layer X Rotate Layer Y Shear Layer X Shear Layer Y Particle Layer Layer Modifiers Anime Anime Studio Studio Pro Feature Layer Types Feature Anime Anime Studio Studio Pro Product Comparison Camera Features e a p Feature Anime Anime Studio Pro Track Camera Zoom Camera Roll Camera Pan Tilt Camera Workspace Features Anime Anime Studio Studio Pro pp Feature Pan Workspace Zoom Workspace X Rotate Workspace Anime Studio 211 Users Manua fone o o E Style Features u n Feature Anime Anime Timeline Features Ca ae Rane Ghana sese TX Studio Studio Pro E Playback Controls Prefe rences feature Anime Anime
110. es around when using the Scale Layer tool The location of the origin can also define how a layer This is a specialized tool for use with Switch layers only This tool has will move when it is attached to a group of bones no effect if you click and drag in the workspace What it does is supply Although you can change the origin at any time the position of a layers a popup menu in the tool options area that lists all the sub layers of a origin is not animated We recommend setting the layer s origin just switch group You can change the active layer by selecting it from the Tool Groups Users Manual 140 sin Studio menu Video Tracking To use the video tracking feature you need to have a movie file in your project Either import a movie into an existing project or open a movie Video Tracking tool file from scratch The following sections describe the process of how the video tracking feature works Click on the first point you want to track You can click and then drag i to position the point exactly where you want to place it It is optional Adding Tracking Points but recommended that you name the tracked point in the Tracker Name field of the status bar For example since we are tracking a thumb here Assume that you have imported a video and you want to eventually add we name the tracking point Thumb an object that will follow the position and rotation of a person s thumb and wrist The first step of the process is to
111. eyframe for animation To manipulate a skeleton just click and drag the various bones that make it up If points or other layers have been bound to the bones they Tool Groups will move as well The way the skeleton and the bound points move with this tool is exactly the same whether at frame 0 or a later frame If some part of the skeleton doesn t move correctly you can find out with this tool and fix it before you start animating Note If you only want to rotate a single bone it s better to use the Rotate Bone tool The Manipulate Bones tool will move a whole chain of bones which is definitely not what you want if you plan to rotate a single bone Bind Layer Bind Layer Using the Tool Other layers can be contained within a bone layer For example you could create a hand layer and place that within an arm layer To bind the hand to the arm use this tool Just click on the bone in the parent layer that you want to connect to and the entire layer will move with that bone In the arm hand example you would click on the bone nearest the wrist to bind the hand to the end of the arm Use this tool to bind an entire layer to a single bone If you would rather Anime Studio 135 Users Manua bind certain points in a vector layer to certain bones then you should Offset Bone use the Bind Points tool instead Bind Points Offset Bone Offset Bone Options Bind Point Using the Tool Tool Options Th
112. f Anime Studio Users Manua these tools are used by selecting them from the toolbar then clicking and dragging in the working area of the main window a few are used simply by clicking on them and this is noted below If you hold the mouse over a tool a tooltip will appear with the name of the tool if you need a quick reminder Also most tools have a shortcut key that can be used to activate them If a tool has such a shortcut this will show up in the tooltip as well If a tool has the following symbol next to it a3 then it can be used for animation using the tool at different frames in the timeline will cause the object you adjust to change over time Select Points Select Points Select Points options Tool Groups 103 Users Manual 104 sin Studio Select Points Tool Options e Select Group Used to select a group that was previously created with the Select Points tool e Text Field Assigns a name to the currently selected group of points e Create Creates a group from the selected points e Delete Deletes the currently selected group from the selection list e Lasso Mode When checked allows you to draw a lasso around the points you want to select When unchecked selects a rectangular area e Flip Horizontally Click this button to flip horizontally e Flip Vertically Click this button to flip vertically Using the Select Points Tool Many of the following tools work only on the currently select
113. f an object is separate from its appearance If you use this tool to delete a fill the underlying points and curves will remain If you want to delete those as well go back to the Draw tools to work with the points and curves Eyedropper Evyedropper Using the Tool To use the Eyedropper click on a shape to copy its parameters Hold the Alt key to push the current color Line Width Line Width Line Width Options Tool Options e Select Group Used to select a group that was previously created with the Select Points tool e Width Allows you to enter a numerical value for the line width Using the Tool The Line Width tool is used to adjust the width of a line as it passes through a particular point Using this tool you can create lines that taper at the ends get thinner in the middle or change width several times along their length To use it just click on the point you want to adjust and drag the mouse left and right to adjust line thickness Be sure you first either set up an outline through the point or a fill shape with a non zero line width otherwise this tool won t do you much good You Anime Studio 123 Users Manua can adjust more than one point at a time by selecting multiple points with the Select Points tool from the Draw tool group Hide Edge Hide Edge Using the Tool Sometimes you will have the need to create a fill shape with only a partial outline The Hide Edge tool makes it easy
114. f welding is automatic For automatic welding to a A SE work be sure that the Auto weld checkbox is turned on in the tool Before spacebar is pressed left After spacebar is pressed right Drawing Anime Studio 13 Users Manua Automatic welding also works with the Add Point tool Add Point Automatic welding When you add a new point you can drag it around as if you were using l the Translate Points tool As long as the new point you added is a curve Here s another example of automatic welding Remember that only a oe endpoint it can be automatically welded to another point If the new curve endpoint can be automatically welded However the point that it uS l aa point is not an endpoint you can still weld it to another point manually is welded to does not need to be an endpoint by pressing the spacebar when it overlaps another point Welding Example 3 SWF File Add Point tool with Auto weld option on Besides welding two points together Anime Studio can weld a point Drawing 14 sin Studio Users Manual to the middle of a curve segment This can be done with either the Why to Weld Points automatic or manual welding methods Here s an example OK so that covers welding points but why do you want to weld points again Well the main reason is to create fillable shapes In order to fill a shape with color that shape needs to be completely closed This is only possible if you weld some po
115. fluence Vector points are controlled by the bone s whose regions overlap them If a vector point is not within any region of influence it will move with the closest bone Using the Bone Strength tool click and drag on each of the bones to resize its region of influence The idea is to make the regions just large enough to contain the body part that the bone is meant to control Resized regions of influence Don t worry about the parts of the forearm that are outside the forearm bone s region of influence they will just move with the closest bone which is in fact the forearm Use the Manipulate Bones tool again to try moving the arm The movement should be a little cleaner than it was with flexible binding Bones Users Manual 38 sin Studio Manipulate Bones Select Bone Manual Binding Manually binding points to bones is a process that exists mostly for compatibility with older versions of Anime Studio Automatic binding combined with bone regions of influence is the easiest way to work with bones in Anime Studio However there may be some times where you want more control over exactly which bones control which points To manually bind the arm points to bones first select the Arm vector layer Select the upper arm Next activate the Bind Points tool Arm Vector Layer Then use the Select Bone tool to select the upper arm bone Bones Anime Studio 39 Users Manua that are bound to it also get sel
116. g is changed in the text box labeled Pixel tolerance The second adjustment tells Anime Studio to simplify a freehand curve by removing unnecessary points This is controlled in the text box labeled Angle tolerance Points that deviate from the curve by less than that angle will be automatically removed To preserve every single point created by the Freehand tool set the angle tolerance to 0 After using the Freehand tool you will often want to go back and use the Translate Points tool to modify the result delete unnecessary points and weld points together If you have a drawing tablet the Freehand tool can also use the pen pressure from your tablet to control the thickness of the lines you draw Windows and Mac OS only Draw Shape Draw Shape Options Draw Shape Tool Options e Auto Fill When checked automatically fills a closed shape when you create it e Auto stroke When checked automatically creates a stroke around the shape that you create Uncheck this option to create a shape that has no outline Rectangle Rectangle Anime Studio 113 Users Manua The Rectangle tool is a shortcut for creating a rectangular shape Just click and drag to draw a rectangle Hold the Shift key to constrain the shape to a square Hold the Alt key to make the click point the center of the rectangle instead of one of its corners There s nothing special about rectangles created with this tool they re just four point
117. h to 0 You can also Drawing Start With a Sample File For this tutorial we ll start with a project file that s almost finished It s named Tutorial 2 4 and it s located in the Tutorials 2 Draw subfolder within the main Anime Studio folder Open this file in Anime Studio and you should see something like this Starting point for this tutorial As you can see there are four shapes in this file By the way they overlap one another you can also tell their ordering From back to front there is a red shape a green shape a blue shape and a yellow circle Anime Studio 25 Users Manua Raising and Lowering Shapes Select Shape tool If you want to change the order of some shapes the first thing you need to do is select a shape to work with Using the Select Shape tool click anywhere on the red shape It will become highlighted with a checkerboard to indicate that it is selected Notice that you can also see it faintly beneath the other shapes this is so that you can see the entire selected shape even if it is normally obscured by other shapes Drawing Users Manual 26 sin Studio Selected shape highlighted Raised shape To raise the shape press the Up arrow key on your keyboard Notice that the red shape has now moved one step up in the layer order above the green shape Right now press the enter key to de select all objects in the layer The red shape will switch back to normal to
118. he display in the editing view will update to match With this method you can watch the display in the editing view and not worry so much about the actual numerical value Control Bones The next type of bone constraint allows one bone to control the motion of another This is a way to set up simple automatic animation Select the small bone above the upper arm Selected bone Anime Studio 45 Users Manua Bring up the Bone Constraints popup again and select Forearm from the Angle control bone popup menu this is why we named it earlier and enter the value 0 5 in the angle control field as shown below Angle constraints win max degrees SS SSN Angle control setup We ll do something similar for the small bone below the upper arm Select that bone and set Forearm as the angle control bone but this time set the angle control value to 0 5 Bones 46 nime Studio Users Manual O Angle constraints Finally use the Manipulate Bones tool again to move the forearm Notice that now the muscles in the upper arm move automatically this is what the Angle Control Bone does it tells other bones to move automatically when it moves Bones Manipulate Bones Upper Arm bones move automatically Anime Studio 47 Users Manua Bone Locking The third category of bone constraint is bone locking When you lock a bone you re telling Anime Studio that you don t want it to
119. he current time to frame 24 and choose the File gt To make the spotlights more realistic we can use Anime Studio s Preview menu command Notice how the spotlights spread across the masking feature Double click the Masking Group layer In the Layer hole as if it were a flat object as shown below Settings dialog that appears go to the Masking tab and set the Group Mask setting to Hide all as shown below and click OK Mask setting for the Masking Group layer Drawing Anime Studio 31 Users Manua In the editing view you ll notice that the wall and spotlights have disappeared trom view This is because the masking mode we just set hides all objects in the group we ve got a bit more work to do Mask setting for the Wall layer What we ve done is tell Anime Studio to add the contents of the Wall layer to the visible region of all objects in the group No other layers in the same group will be allowed to draw outside this visible region the mask If you temporarily turn off the Background layer you ll see that there is an actual hole in the wall Because the wall acts as a mask the spotlights cannot draw themselves in this area You re welcome to render out the entire animation as a QuickTime movie to see the full animated effect Everything in the group is hidden The next step is to define which parts we actually want to see Double click the Wall layer to bring up the Lay
120. he folder The contents within that folder will be displayed e Double click a content item to insert it into your project e Some content items may come with additional options For example if you double click the Backgrounds item a dialog displays a menu Anime Studio Windows 206 nime Studio Users Manual Content Libra E Dns eee Use buttons in the top toolbar to navigate backward to previous folder levels Anime Studio Windows Appendix Anime Studio Shortcuts How to work quickly in Anime Studio Once you ve been using Anime Studio for a while you ll probably want to find ways to speed up certain operations Luckily Anime Studio provides several shortcuts for common operations such as activating tools navigating the workspace and entering data Anime Studio Users Manua 207 208 nime Studio Users Manual Product Comparison The differences between Anime Studio Standard and Pro Vector Drawing Features Feature Anime Anime Studio Studio Pro Ce CC ecard FC a Cs frowerons Cd eC Ce a CC femewe a re Ce freed fom mooo Ce EC C a Product Comparison X X x lt x lt x lt x lt x lt gt x lt gt x lt gt x lt x lt x lt x lt x lt x lt x lt x lt x lt gt x lt gt x lt gt x lt gt x lt gt x lt x lt x lt Perspective Points H Perspective Points V Bend Points H Bend Points V Noise Magnet Snap to Grid Reset Line Width Random Line Width Vector Modifi
121. he horizontal bone at the base of the statue This bone doesn t move at all in the animation so why is it even there When using image warping the image is distorted by all the bones in the skeleton and the nearest bone to any part of the image has the most influence We don t really want the base of the statue to move so an easy way to prevent this is to add a bone in the area we want to remain still and not animate it Another trick you might use when warping images is to break up an image into logical parts for example make the arms and legs of a person separate images from the main body Then use different skeletons to control the various re assembled parts This way a leg bone can t have any influence over an arm Tutorial 4 4 Image Textures In this tutorial you will learn how to use images as textures to add detail to a character Start With a Sample File For this tutorial we ll start with a project file that s almost finished It s named Tutorial 4 4 and it s located in the Tutorials 4 Images subfolder within the main Anime Studio folder Open this file in Anime Studio and you should see something like this Starting point for this tutorial Anime Studio 69 Users Manua Play back the animation to see what s going on and then be sure to rewind the animation to frame 0 What you re going to do is hand paint some texture details to go on this character Paint the Textures The first step is
122. hecked Anime Studio will do smooth transitions between the sub layers as long as they re all vector layers and contain the same number of points Style Window The Style window is where you set up colors line widths fill effects and other properties to control the appearance of your vector artwork The Style window has a lot of controls but it s not too hard to understand if you break them down into sections Anime Studio 189 Users Manua The Style window has two views With the Advanced option unchecked pick a new color for the fill A color picker dialog will appear In addition the following options appear to the actual color of the fill you can choose the level of transparency in the color picker dialog Faj Fill Fal Stroke Anime Studio 5 color picker If a style has been applied to this shape the style s color will be used instead of the shape s color Turn on the checkbox to the left of the color swatch to override the style s color Style window Fill Below the fill color are two popup menus that allow you to choose one or two fill effects to be applied These effects include such things as color gradients spots and shading effects Just pick an effect from the menu to apply it to the fill If you choose two effects they will be applied in order one on top of the other For example you could choose These controls allow you to set the appearance of a shape s fill region First be sure that En
123. hotographs hand drawn artwork or anything you can get into an image file in a flexible way Start With a Sample File For this tutorial we ll start with a project file that s almost finished It s named Tutorial 4 2 and it s located in the Tutorials 4 Images subfolder within the main Anime Studio folder Open this file in Anime Studio expand the Skeleton layer in the Layers panel and you should see something like this amp t Skeleton Starting point for this tutorial The bone layer contains two sub layers an image layer and a vector layer Try playing back the animation Notice that only the vector layer moves with the skeleton Anime Studio 67 Users Manua Only the vector layer moves The reason that the image layer isn t moving is that it hasn t been connected to the bones yet as the vector layer has been Using Image Warping To warp the image layer with the skeleton double click the statue png layer and go to the Image tab in the Layer Settings dialog Turn on the checkbox marked Warp using bones and click OK Images Users Manual 68 in Studio Also turn off the visibility for the vector sample layer it was only an example and we don t want it in the final animation _ statue png e3 2 Play back the animation again and you should now see the image moving with the skeleton Images Image warping Tip Notice t
124. icking its visibility box while holding the Alt key will turn all the other layers at the same level visible or invisible To the right of the visibility control is an icon that indicates what type of layer each entry in the layer list is The different types of layers include vector image group bone switch particle 3D and note layers Certain types of layers act as groups and can contain other layers within them You can think of them like folders on your hard drive These layers have a triangle on their left side Clicking this triangle opens and closes these group layers allowing you to access or hide the sub layers they contain Layers can be re ordered simply by dragging one layer above or below another layer Just click and drag the layer you want to move you will see a red insertion bar indicate where the layer will be placed when you drop it When the insertion bar appears at the location you choose just drop the layer and you re done You can also use this method to drag sub layers into or out of group layers Layers can be re ordered at any time although their order is not dynamic over time That is the layer ordering cannot change in the middle of an animation for example to make one object appear to move in front of another object The last thing you can control in the layer list is the property set of any layer By double clicking a layer in the list a dialog will appear with various options controlling th
125. idth settings that you specify Taper Start When checked tapers the start of the line Taper End When checked tapers the end of the line Reset If pressed at Frame 0 resets a layer back to its default value If pressed at any other frame resets the layer to the value or values set at frame 0 Tool Groups Users Manual 112 sin Studio Variable line width Pixel tolerance Angle tolerance e Auto Weld When checked automatically welds a new point to an existing point The existing point is highlighted when the mouse hovers over a point that can be welded e Auto Fill When checked automatically fills a closed shape when you create it e Auto stroke When checked automatically creates a stroke around the shape that you create Uncheck this option to create a Tool Groups shape that has no outline e Auto close When unchecked closes a shape when the cursor is released over the beginning of the shape When checked connects the shape from the current position to the start point when you release the mouse button Using the Freehand Tool The Freehand tool lets you draw complex shapes by just dragging the mouse around You can adjust the sensitivity of the Freehand tool in the tool options area when this tool is active In the Freehand Options popup there are two adjustment parameters for this tool The first is the minimum distance between points when drawing a curve with the Freehand tool This settin
126. ike Tool Groups the Select Points tool described in Draw Tools on page 103 Using the Create Shape tool select all the points that form the outer border of the shape you wish to create If you select a set of edges that completes an enclosed shape a highlighted checkerboard will show you the extent of the region you are creating Otherwise you will just see a highlighted outline on the selected edges When you have the desired region selected press the spacebar or press the Create Shape button in the status bar to actually create a shape from the selected edges The Style Window see Style Window on page 188 can now be used to choose the shape s color line width style etc This is a very important step until you press the spacebar or use the Create Shape button you are only preparing the selection A shape is only created when the spacebar or button is pressed The picture below shows a selection in progress using the Create Shape tool Note that the figure on the left is not filled with a checkerboard because its border points are not all selected The checkerboard area indicates the region that would be filled if the user hit the spacebar at this particular moment The left figure would only receive a partial outline and no fill since then entire border has not been selected Anime Studio 119 Users Manua After creating a shape if you decide that you only want a fill and not an outline you can un check the
127. indicate that it is not selected Drawing De select the shape Next use the Select Shape tool and click on the blue shape to select it Select Shape tool Press the Down arrow key twice to lower the blue shape below the red shape and then below the green shape Anime Studio 27 Users Manua Lowered blue shape You can also raise a shape to the top above all others in that layer or lower it to the bottom behind all others in that layer Select the green shape and hold down the Shift key while pressing the Up arrow key With a single key press the green shape moves all the way to the top of the layer s shape order Selecting Hidden Shapes If you now press the enter key the green shape will be de selected Notice that at this point the yellow circle is behind the green shape and can t be seen You can still see the curves that make up the yellow circle but the shape itself being behind the green shape is not visible Drawing Users Manual 28 sin Studio Hidden yellow circle Selected green shape Now we want to bring the yellow circle back to the front Using the Now comes the trick for selecting shapes lower in the ordering Hold Select Shape tool click on the yellow circle even though it s hidden down the Ctrl key while pressing the down arrow key This tells Anime Studio to pick the next deeper shape in the layer ordering at the same point you just clicked The yell
128. ints together The following shape cannot be filled with color because it is not closed Welding Example 4 SWF File A non closed shape By welding the two endpoints together we can create a closed shape that can then be filled Welding to a curve segment Drawing Anime Studio 15 Users Manua A closed shape that can be filled Joining two curves The next case shows the classic case of welding a curve closed to create a fillable shape Examples of Good Welding Let s look at some examples of good welding choices First the following two points could be welded to create a single continuous curve Drawing Users Manual 16 sin Studio Closing a curve Next we show a shape made up of several curves Notice that a closed fillable shape does not need to be made up of a single curve The shape below after welding is made up of three curve segments but is still closed and can be filled with color Drawing Joining multiple curves into a single closed shape The welded and filled shape Anime Studio 17 Users Manua Finally the example below shows two circles lined up side by side The you were considering welding the pairs of circled points two side points of the circles have been welded together so that when they move around during an animation they remain joined If those points were not welded moving them in sync like this would require a lot of extra work Before welding
129. ion e Layer shear e A group layer that has 3D rotation or shear will cause all of its sub layers to be non optimized e Uneven scaling in the X and Y directions e Point animation Anime Studio 159 Users Manua e Bone animation is a common cause of non optimized layers What s happening is that because Flash doesn t have a bone system like Anime Studio Anime Studio needs to export a lot of extra information for Flash to be able to produce the same effect One way to use bone animation and to stay optimized is to attach a vector layer to a single bone instead of letting the bones warp all the points in the vector layer The vector layer will then remain optimized While you can t do this in all cases sometimes you can break up a character into multiple body parts some parts will be warped with the bones and some will be attached to a single bone At least some parts of the character can remain optimized Here are some other things to think about when exporting to SWF e Consider using a lower frame rate 12 fps for example for your animation Fewer frames means a smaller file If some of your layers can do without any animation at all or just layer translation scaling rotation background scenery props background characters etc that can save a lot of space e f most of a layer is stationary except for one small object move that object into its own layer if possible Example a character who is waving his arms bu
130. ion binding Flexible binding means that every bone will influence every point Region binding on the other hand means that a point will only move under the influence of the bone s in whose region of influence it lies If that point only lies in one bone s region it will only move with that bone if the point is overlapped by the regions of two bones it will move with both of those bones Flexible binding is the default setting for new bone layers because it works reasonably well almost automatically The downside is that it Tool Groups 134 sin Studio Users Manual leads to rubbery movement of the attached vector artwork Region binding will give you cleaner movement but takes a little more work to set up The Tutorials section of this manual shows you how to use the Bone Strength tool together with both types of binding to quickly set up a character s skeleton Manipulate Bones Manipulate Bones Using the Tool The Manipulate Bones tool has two purposes First when the current frame is set to O it is used to test whether a skeleton is set up and working properly Although it moves bones and points around the changes it makes are only temporary When you switch to another tool the skeleton is reverted back to its original shape The second use of this tool is at frames greater than 0 If the current frame is greater than 0 then this tool will move the skeleton in the same way but the move will introduce a k
131. irst one The rule is the same we ve just added more boundary curves to this fill i u a8 a ml a a a B a Another compound fill There s no limit to the kinds of shapes you can create this way By adding more boundary curves you can create more and more complex fills feel free to experiment A Trick Using Two Fills Instead of One Sometimes you may want to create an object with parts that overlap in complex ways Consider the image below Anime Studio 127 Users Manua Two interlocking rings After the discussion about stacking order is the red ring in front of or behind the blue one Well the answer isn t so simple There is no way two objects could be arranged this way with simple stacking If Anime Studio were a 3D program things would be very different The red ring is in fact two objects one behind the blue ring and one in front of it The next image shows the same object but colored differently so that the two parts of the red ring stand out Tool Groups Users Manual 128 sin Studio The coloring shows three different shapes It takes a little more work to set up an object when you have to split it into two or more parts but sometimes it s the only way to achieve a certain effect The picture below shows the project in an Anime Studio window so that you can see the arrangement of points and curves Note how the ring on the right has some extra curves set up so that it can be
132. just barely extend beyond the edge of the layer The exact color you choose is not important just be sure to make the color opaque Alpha 255 A transparent glow may be too faint to see Render the scene again and it should look like this Effects Layer glow Layer Outline Let s change the shadow options once again to create an outline effect Some styles of animation use a heavier outline around the outside of objects than for interior lines Adjusting the layer shadow values in the right way can make this style very easy to accomplish Double click Layer 1 again to bring up the Layer Settings dialog Change the Layer Shadow settings to match the values below Outline settings Again we use an offset of 0 to keep the shadow centered under the layer A blur value of 0 is used to keep a hard edge on the shadow Finally the expansion parameter is used in this case to set the width of the outline effect For this effect it s important to make the color totally black and totally opaque Alpha 255 to match the interior lines Render the scene again and it should look like this Anime Studio 87 Users Manua Layer outline Tutorial 6 7 Camera and Depth Effects This tutorial demonstrates Anime Studio s camera tools These tools allow you to move an entire scene around as if you were pointing a camera at it With a little setup work you can even create different layers of depth in the scene Effects
133. layers are the only ones with a point animation channel and bone layers are the only ones with bone animation channels At the left end of each animation channel is a small icon that indicates what type of channel it is Shown below are the icons for the various types of animation channels Note that the red colored channel icons represent animation for the currently selected object If you re ever unsure about which channel an channel icon refers to just hold your mouse over it momentarily for a tooltip reminder Note To help reduce visual clutter not all animation channels have to Anime Studio 199 Users Manua be displayed at once in the timeline For example you won t often have Layer Effect Channels to refer to the Layer Shading channel in the timeline Hidden channels are still doing their work behind the scenes they just aren t displayed in ae 4 Layer Visibility the timeline em Layer Motion Channels 7 Layer Blur Layer Opacity Layer Translation q ETEVA Layer Scale g Layer Shading oe IEL Layer Motion Blur Layer Y Rotation Layer Motion channels A Layer X Rotation g Layer Horizontal Flip Camera Channels t a T fo Camera Tracking f Layer Shear TIA Camera Zoom Layer Motion channels Camera Roll T Camera Pan Tilt Layer Motion channels Anime Studio Windows Users Manual 200 sim Studio Vector Only Channels Bone Only Channels Layer Motion channels Layer Motion ch
134. layers to Clear the mask then add this layer to it just like you did for the back legs At this point all the textures should be forced to stay inside the lines Images Users Manual 76 sin Studio Textures cleaned up with masking Play back the animation again and you ll see the image layers warp along with the vector layers in response to bone movement Images Animation After all the preparation time drawing your objects assigning fill colors and setting up bones you move on to animating them This is where things actually start to move around Animating in Anime Studio is based on the concept of keyframes A keyframe is a point in time where you position some object either a point a bone or an entire layer A keyframe tells Anime Studio exactly where that object should be and when Keyframes are set up at important moments in time typically where an object begins moving stops moving or changes direction Between keyframes Anime Studio automatically calculates how to move an object so that it gets from one keyframe to the next in the amount of time allowed between the keyframes To create a keyframe just set the current time to whenever you want the keyframe to occur then move the object to the desired position Controlling the current time and working with keyframes after they ve been created is discussed in Timeline Window on page 195 You can animate several types of motion in an Anime
135. le gt Import DK Toons http www contentparadise com Search aspx searchText DK Toons Cartoon Solutions http www cartoonsolutions com ToonProps http www toonprops com Vernon Zehr www lowrestv com The Smith Micro Content Team Smith Micro would like to thank the following artists for imagery used in collateral and Promos DK Toons http www contentparadise com Search aspx searchText DK Toons Cartoon Solutions http www cartoonsolutions com ToonProps http www toonprops com Vernon Zehr www lowrestv com TUI Studios http www tuistudios com Freakish kid http www freakishkid com Splinter Arts http www splinterarts com Anime Studio 217 Users Manua e Bru and Boegie http www bruandboegie co za Acknowledgements Users Manual 218 sin Studio Keyboard Shortcuts Many tools and features in Anime Studio can be accessed quickly by pressing a single key These shortcuts make working with Anime Studio much faster than the regular method of moving the mouse to a toolbar and clicking a button and are worth learning to reduce your drawing and animation time However all these features are also available through standard user interface elements buttons and menus so learning these shortcuts isn t a requirement to using Anime Studio Note these shortcuts are not the same as menu shortcuts Many of Anime Studio s menu commands can be accessed through the keyboard for example Ctrl Cmd S will save the cu
136. lick an onionskin marker again to turn it off If you turn on the Relative frames checkbox in the Onionskins popup box Anime Studio will move the onionskin frames along with the current time so that they maintain the same relative distance from one another You can also turn on the Selected layer only checkbox to tell Anime Studio to display onionskins for just the currently active layer Anime Studio can display up to 8 onionskin frames Anime Studio Windows Playing a Partial Segment Sometimes you may want to play back just a short segment of the timeline instead of your entire animation For example you may be working on one small move and you want to play it back over and over while you make small changes to see when you ve got it just right To set a limited segment of the timeline for playback hold down the Ctrl key while you click in the time ruler Click with the left mouse button to set the beginning of the segment and click with the right mouse button to set the endpoint To remove the limited playback segment Ctrl click on the segment endpoints to remove them from the timeline Animation Channels Most of the timeline panel is taken up with animation channels drawn as horizontal bars below the time ruler Each animation channel displays a certain type of motion or effect that can take place in an Anime Studio animation Different types of layers have different animation channels available For example vector
137. llowing selection contains only the boundary points of the desired fill region the points along the interior curve are not selected Anime Studio 125 Users Manua ee T a oe ee ee TI LE BEBE ET BREE ee BER EP eGR EERE REE unu u u a 8 eee ee u u _ oe A selection that can be filled Here are two other examples of possible fills based on the same set of curves Tool Groups Users Manual 126 sin Studio Alternate shape 1 el u n an nnn Alternate shape 2 Tool Groups Remember when a fill shape doesn t look right or can t be filled at all make sure that you ve only selected the points along the fill s boundary and nothing else Compound Fills Remember how a fill is defined a fill is defined by the set of points along its boundary With that in mind let s talk about fills with holes To create a fill shape with one or more holes inside it just select the points along the edge of the hole as well as the points on the outer boundary The picture below shows a selection made with the Create Shape tool If only the four points of the rectangle had been selected then the fill shape would have been a solid rectangle However by selecting the interior curves as well we can create a shape with holes in it it s simply a matter of defining more boundaries for the fill A compound fill The next picture shows a small variation on the one above In this case there s a smaller circle inside the f
138. lso modify the transparency of the shadow with this control Shadow Direction Controls the direction the shadow is cast Just drag the knob in circles to change the direction of the shadow Layer Shading This section is similar to the Layer Shadow section above However instead of producing a shadow effect behind the layer these controls let you apply a shading effect on top of the layer Shading On Checking the Shading on checkbox will make all Anime Studio Windows 182 sin Studio Users Manual objects in the layer appear shaded giving them a rounded edges effect e Offset Controls how far inside the layer the shading appears A larger offset makes objects appear to have more rounded edges e Blur Determines how hard or soft the edges of the shading appear e Contraction Allows you to pull the shading further into the center of the layer e Shading Color Clicking on the Shading color color swatch lets you change the color of the shading that is applied You can also modify the transparency of the shading with this control e Shading Direction Controls the direction the shading appears Just drag the knob in circles to change the direction of the shading Motion Blur Tab The controls in this tab control the motion blur effect for this layer Motion blur can be turned on and off during the course of an animation Anime Studio Windows Motion Blur Layer Settings Motion Blur On Ch
139. ly If you enter the number by hand the change won t take effect until you press tab or enter An especially helpful place to use this feature is when setting bone angle constraints these numbers can be tricky to figure out but spinning the mouse wheel you can see exactly what s happening Finally you can adjust the value of a text field by dragging in it side to side with the right mouse button With a regular mouse the mouse wheel is probably more convenient but this feature was added specifically for animators working with tablets A drawing pen usually has no mouse wheel so right dragging allows you to adjust the value of a text field without having to switch back to the keyboard Anime Studio s Main Window Overview The Anime Studio interface has various windows that are used for controlling different aspects of a Anime Studio project In this chapter we ll briefly describe some general components of the Anime Studio project window The more complex parts of the Anime Studio interface such as the Layers window have their own chapters that follow this one Although this chapter will describe how the main window works it won t go into detail about creating a drawing or animation For that please refer to one of the chapters in the section entitled Using Anime Studio Anime Studio 221 Users Manua Anime Studio 8 interface Working Area Most of the Anime Studio project window is taken up by the working area This is
140. mode While in demo mode Anime Studio still Introduction allows you access to all features of the program Anything you can do in the full version you can do in the demo Also any files you create with the demo version of Anime Studio will still work fine if you purchase the full version The demo version has just three limitations First you can only run the demo version of Anime Studio for 30 days Second you cannot import any external file formats including images and movies Third you cannot export your animations to other formats QuickTime AVI Flash etc To purchase Anime Studio click here What s New New Features in Anime Studio 6 The following is not a comprehensive list of new features but it covers most of the major changes in version 6 that might be of interest to experienced Anime Studio users User Interface e New presets for document resolution Debut is limited to 788x768 e New UI colors e Dockable windows and resizable while docked e Tool consolidation e Add checkbox to doc window to turn on off Construction Curves Space bar pans canvas No more separation between default and current color style Mini Style window with an option to switch to advanced mode Layer properties pop up is in layers on each layer Dialogs remember where they were placed and open in the same location Hot keys and menu items to Hide a shape and Show All shapes All hidden shapes are shown upon opening a file
141. mount of bone movement Starting at frame 1 of your animation The reason you might want to do this is to simplify the setup of a complex character Often parts of a character such as arms and legs overlap making it difficult to set up bones and attach the proper parts of the character s body to them The Offset Bone tool lets you draw the parts of a character in disconnected positions set up bones and then move them all back into position It s difficult to describe the usefulness of this tool without a hands on example so look in the Tutorials section of this manual for character setup examples Layer Tools The following tools are available to be used with any type of layer Their purpose is to modify an entire layer not just an individual object in that layer If a tool has the following symbol next to it oF then it can be used for animation using the tool at different frames in the timeline will cause the object you adjust to change over time Tool Groups Translate Layer Translate Layer Translate Layer Options Tool Options e Position X Allows you to numerically enter a value for the X coordinate e Position Y Allows you to numerically enter a value for the Y coordinate e Position Z Allows you to numerically enter a value for the Z coordinate e Reset f pressed at Frame O resets a layer back to its default value If pressed at any other frame resets the layer to the value or values set at frame 0
142. nd adding new ones is just too much work Instead use the Change Parent tool to change a bone s parent First select the bone whose parent you want to change using the Select Bone tool Then using this tool click on the new parent bone The new parent will become highlighted in blue If you want to turn the selected bone into a root bone one that has no parent just click on the background Bone Strength Bone Strength Options Anime Studio 133 Users Manua Tool Options e Select Bone Click this menu button to select a bone by name e Bone Strength Allows you to view or enter a numerical value for bone strength Using the Tool When using bones to control the points in a vector layer or to warp an image layer by default every bone has some degree of influence over every point in the vector layer or image The Bone Strength tool lets you adjust how much influence each bone has When this tool is activated a semi transparent region appears around each bone this region indicates the strength of the bone If you drag side to side on a bone with the Bone Strength tool you cause the region of influence to shrink or grow Points that are closer to the center of this region move more when the bone itself is moved Although by default all bones have some influence over some points you can change this behavior In the Layer Settings dialog under the Bones tab there are two options Flexible binding and Reg
143. nd the head by its single bone When each part is independent moved back into place the character should look like this Re assembled character Frame 0 is considered the setup frame for bones When the time is set to frame O the character will still appear split apart unless you re using the Offset Bone or Manipulate Bones tools However at other frames in the animation the character will be re assembled according to how you used the Offset Bone tool Final character Try moving the character around again with the Manipulate Bones tool The body parts will still move independently even though they now overlap Because the bones were set up on a split apart character If you re interested in taking a look at the final Anime Studio file it s Bones Users Manual 62 sin Studio named Tutorial 3 4 Final and it s located in the Tutorials 3 Bones subfolder within the main Anime Studio folder Bones Images Tutorial 4 1 Image Layers This tutorial introduces another type of layer in Anime Studio Image Layers Image layers are a way of including artwork created in other programs in a Anime Studio project Any application that can produce image files can be used with Anime Studio photo editors 3D modeling programs natural media painting programs the list goes on An image layer in Anime Studio contains a single image file that can be used as a background or combined with a bone layer to build
144. ne layers Depth Sort has two controls that can be used with Anime Studio s 3D features Anime Studio Windows Users Manual 186 sin Studio Sort by true distance Depth Sort Layer Settings e Sort Layers by Depth Allows sub layers to move in front of and behind each other during an animation Normally layers are Anime Studio Windows drawn in the order they appear in the Layers panel However with this option turned on layers are displayed according to how far they are from the camera See the Tutorials section for an example of using this feature Typically layers are sorted by their depth from the camera but if you re trying to create a 3D object using multiple Anime Studio layers like a cube or pyramid you may want to turn on e Sort by True Distance Tells Anime Studio to sort layers by the distance from the camera to the layers origins rather than by depth Usually this option will be left un checked Image This tab is only available for image layers There are five options in this tab AVI movie has alpha Loop movie indefinitely Image Layer Settings Source Image Lets you select the image to be used in the image layer Use this if you want to change the image or if it got Anime Studio 187 Users Manua lost for some reason e AVI movie has alpha Turn this on if the image layer is using an AVI movie and that movie includes an alpha channel e Loop movie indefinitely e Movie FPS
145. nline Manual The first source of help when using Anime Studio is the online manual that you re reading now If you re just getting started and need some basic tips on how to use Anime Studio beginning with Anime Studio Tutorials on page 10 as a good place to start For more in depth instructions on using Anime Studio the sections Using Anime Studio and Interface Reference go into great detail about performing specific tasks in Anime Studio and what all the user interface elements are used for respectively Anime Studio on the Web Another good source is the Smith Micro web site at http my smithmicro com tutorials index html anime http my smithmicro com tutorials index html anime We plan to keep this updated with questions and answers and new sample files You can also submit feature requests and bug reports through the web site Anime Studio 215 Users Manua Anime Studio Discussion Forum Share tips and tricks with other Anime Studio users on the online discussion forum http www lostmarble com forum Smith Micro staff members also participate in this online group and are happy to share techniques and answer questions News about the latest Anime Studio updates is first posted to the online forum Email Support You can also get your questions answered by email If you have a question feature request or would like to report a bug contact us at cs smithmicro com Please provide us with as much detail abou
146. nsgeadeinnsadadens 223 vii Welcome 2 sin Studio Users Manual Introduction Anime Studio is a complete animation system for creating 2D anime and cartoons This document is the user s manual containing useful information to get you started as well as a detailed reference to all of Anime Studio s features If you re just getting started using Anime Studio the best place to begin is with the Anime Studio Tutorials on page 10 This section will give you a quick overview of how Anime Studio works and what you can do with it Even if you ve used Anime Studio in the past you might want to give the tutorials a quick read to see what s changed in this version If you ve been using Anime Studio for a while now and you want more information on some specific feature or interface element choose the section that interests you from the table of contents The Using Anime Studio section describes how to perform the basic tasks of working in Anime Studio while Interface Reference goes into detail about what every menu item and button in Anime Studio is used for Finally if you re having a problem that just isn t answered in this document please see Technical Support Where to Go When You Need Help on page 215 We want to do everything we can to make using Anime Studio a fun and productive experience Demo Limitations If you haven t purchased a copy of Anime Studio then the program will be running in demo
147. ny bone The arm under bone control Bind Layer Next select the Edit gt Select All menu command to select all the vector points Finally choose the Bone gt Flexi Bind Points menu command to flexibly bind the points as they were at the very beginning Bones Users Manual 42 sin Studio The final result SWF File Tutorial 3 2 Bone Constraints This tutorial demonstrates Anime Studio s bone constraint features Bone constraints allow you to define limits on the way bones can move simplifying your animation work When used carefully bone constraints can let the bone structures do some of the work for you Start With a Sample File For this tutorial we ll start with a project file that s almost finished It s named Tutorial 3 2 and it s located in the Tutorials 3 Bones Bones subfolder within the main Anime Studio folder Open this file in Anime Studio and you should see something like this Starting point for this tutorial This file contains two skeleton layers that have no constraints set up We re going to add constraints to these skeletons to show how useful they can be Angle Constraints The first type of bone constraint is angle limits By limiting the angle that a bone can rotate you can prevent arms and legs from bending backwards Make sure the Arm layer is selected and then use the Select Bone tool to select the bone in the Arm as shown below Select Bone Selec
148. o 95 Users Manua background scenery a character or a title Some layers can even contain other layers so a more complex object such as a character might contain separate layers for each arm and leg Anime Studio currently supports the following types of layers Vector Layers are used to hold vector based artwork These are the main type of layer you will use to create drawings See Vector Layers on page 96 for more information Image Layers can be used to bring in images from other applications Image files created in 3D programs or photo editing applications can be used in Anime Studio with Image Layers See Image Layers on page 96 for more information Bone Layers contain skeletons that are used to control the artwork in your vector and image layers You manipulate skeletons as if they were puppets by bending arms and legs to make a character move See Bone Layers on page 97 for more information Switch Layers are just like Bone layers except they will only display one of their sub layers at a time Switch layers are an excellent way to perform lip sync animation Which sub layer gets displayed is controlled by a switch data file You can create this data file by hand or better yet use a lip syncing program like Papagayo See Switch Layers on page 99 for more information Audio Layers allow you to add a sound file to your project When adding an audio layer you will be prompted to select an audio file
149. o click on a shape by accident created with the Select Points tool e If you hold down the Ctrl key this tool will work in lasso style e Position X Allows you to numerically enter a value for the X You can also activate lasso style selection by turning on Lasso coordinate mode in the tool options area The selection commands in the Edit menu are also very useful for managing selections These are described in Anime Studio Menus on e Position Y Allows you to numerically enter a value for the Y coordinate Tool Groups 106 nime Studio Users Manual e Reset f pressed at Frame 0 resets a layer back to its default value If pressed at any other frame resets the layer to the value or values set at frame 0 e Auto Weld When checked automatically welds a new point to an existing point The existing point is highlighted when the mouse hovers over a point that can be welded e Auto Fill When checked automatically fills a closed shape when you create it e Flip Horizontally Click this button to flip horizontally e Flip Vertically Click this button to flip vertically Using the Translate Points Tool Top circle fully selected Bottom circle partially selected The Translate Points tool is used to move a group of selected points It operates only on the currently selected points unless fewer than two points are selected then it operates on the nearest point to where you clicked It s important to
150. o track When you see a problem don t worry there are ways to fix them Choose View gt Reset to reset the zoom level of the video back to the default Play the video again and watch for any other problems Keep Tool Groups Users Manual 142 sin Studio making adjustments until you are happy with the results The following a way to fix that The next movie shows one of those problem areas movie shows our markers after they have been adjusted The tracking point loses focus after reaching the paper on the wall Markers after they are adjusted To fix this type of problem you scrub through the timeline until you find the point where it loses track In the next figure you see the spot where the thumb appears to blend in with the paper This is the area that causes the tracking point to lose sync with the thumb Re syncing Tracking Points You may also find instances where the tracking points go out of sync with the tracked object The most likely cause for this is when the tracked area touches or passes over another area in the video that is very close in color For example when the tip of the thumb goes in front of the paper on the wall there are similar colors in the paper that cause the tracking point to go out of sync with the thumb Fortunately there is Tool Groups Anime Studio 143 Users Manua Find the point where the point loses focus After you find the problem frame advance ahead a couple of frames until
151. ol points Finally automatic bone binding can be used to warp image layers while manual binding can t another reason to stick with automatic bone binding using either flexible or region binding mode Layer Binding The last way to bind an object to a bone is to bind an entire layer to a single arm Make sure the Arm vector layer is still selected and activate the Bind Layer tool Bones Click on the lower arm bone to bind the entire Arm layer to the lower arm bone Bind the Arm layer to the lower arm bone Use the Manipulate Bones tool to try moving the bones around Notice that the entire arm moves rigidly with the lower arm bone the entire layer is bound to that one bone This isn t very useful for this particular arm but binding a layer to a bone is useful when you want to attach an object to a character For example a switch group containing multiple mouth shapes can be attached to a bone in the head Or if you want to make a character hold an object in its hand you might bind that object to the character s hand bone Anime Studio 41 Users Manua Bone Flexi Bind Points Use the Manipulate Bones tool if you wish to confirm that the points are Manipulate Bones automatically bound again Go Back to Automatic Mode Let s undo all of this extra binding and go back to automatic mode With the Bind Layer tool click on some empty space in the editing view this tells Anime Studio to not bind the layer to a
152. on point to a new layer Now we want the exclamation point to follow the hand in the video To assign the layer that will track the points choose Animation gt Track Layer to Video The Motion Tracking dialog lists the videos in your scene in this case there is only one Tool Groups 146 nime Studio Users Manual The secondary tracking point can control the angle or scale of the tracked layer We The crosshairs of the exclamation point representing the origin now follow the want the thumb to control the angle of the exclamation point primary tracking point The following movie shows the results of our selections Now when you The secondary tracking point is optional You can use it to control either play the movie the origin of the exclamation point follows the wrist the angle or scale of the tracked layer In our case we want the thumb to and the angle of the exclamation point is follows the angle line from the control the direction of the exclamation point so we select the thumb as wrist primary tracking point to the thumb secondary tracking point the secondary tracking point Then we check the option to control Angle Tool Groups The exclamation point now follows the wrist and points in the same direction as the thumb Offsetting the Origin You can use the Translate tool in the Draw panel to move the tracked object away from the origin The origin still tracks to the two tracking points but the object that
153. or focal length of the virtual camera Track Camera Tool Using the Tool Roll Camera This tool moves the camera up and down and side to side By giving the project s layers different depth values you can create parallax depth effects see the tutorials section for an example Holding the Shift key while using the Track Camera tool will constrain the camera to only move vertically or horizontally Holding the Alt key will move the camera forward and back Using the Tool If the Show Path box in the tool options area is checked then the motion path for the camera will be displayed in the working area when this tool is active This makes it easier to visualize and plan out the motion of the camera The camera s motion path is only visible when the Orbit Workspace tool has been used to view the scene from outside the camera Roll Camera Tool This tool rolls the camera side to side Try tilting your head side to side and you ll understand this tool immediately Tool Groups Workspace Tools Change your view of the workspace The last group of tools in the toolbar is always available regardless of the current layer type or the current selected object These are the Workspace tools and are used to control your view of the project but don t actually modify the project itself Pan Workspace Pan Workspace Tool Using the Tool When the Pan Workspace tool is selected you can click and drag in the working area
154. ow circle will now be selected It will be kind of faint to remind you that it is actually behind other shapes in the layer Select Shape tool As you may have expected the green shape gets selected because it is in front Drawing Selected yellow circle Finally hold down the Shift key while pressing the up arrow to bring the yellow circle all the way to the top of the layer ordering making it fully visible once again Anime Studio 29 Users Manua Raised yellow circle Tutorial 2 6 Layer Masking This tutorial is more of a show amp tell than a hands on creation of an animation We will demonstrate some examples of a powerful feature of Anime Studio layer masking Layer masking can be used for all kinds of effects such as shadows compositing depth effects transitions and to simplify certain modeling and animation tasks Start With a Sample File For this tutorial we ll start with a project file that s almost finished It s named Tutorial 2 6 and it s located in the Tutorials 2 Drawing Drawing Users Manual 30 sin Studio subfolder within the main Anime Studio folder Open this file in Anime Studio expand the Masking Group layer in the Layers window and you should see something like this Masking Group Starting point for this tutorial Spotlights shining across the hole This is a simple scene of a wall with a hole broken through it a jailbreak maybe Set t
155. ow do you use it The PSD to ANME script is named Export Layers To Anime Studio jsx To access this script please make sure you ve installed Anime Studio The script is available in the installation directory of Anime Studio in a folder labeled Extra Files To use the script within Adobe Photoshop please make sure you have it installed on your computer Copy the Export Layers To Anime Studio jsx to your Photoshop Presets Scripts folder You should then be able to open up a Photoshop document run this script from File gt Scripts gt Export Layers to Anime Studio and it will generate a new Anime Studio file complete with an image layer for each original Photoshop layer Preview Generates a preview image of what your project will look like If you re in the process of animating your project the image will be of the current Anime Studio Menus 156 sin Studio Users Manual frame in your animation A preview image does not contain all the fill styles and is of lower quality but is quicker to generate than a fully rendered image When the Preview window opens up to display your work you can save the preview as a still image using the popup menu in the Preview window Exporting Movies Most often you ll export an animation as a movie file You have two choices QuickTime Windows and Mac OS QuickTime is a very flexible format for working with movies We generally recommend using QuickTime with the
156. pes of bones are often not animated by the user their animation is automatic through the control feature and hiding them can clear up some of the clutter in the workspace This function is not available when the time is set to frame 0 Anime Studio Menus 166 sin Studio Users Manual Track Bone to Video Animation Menu Allows you to link a bone to the tracking points that you defined with the Video Tracking tool For a description of how to use this tool see Video Tracking on page 140 Animation Reset All Layer Channels Reset Bone Moves the selected bone back to its original position adding a new keyframe for it at the current time Blend Poses Reset All Bones Shiela ho le Restart Audio Track Audio Level Same as above but moves all bones in the layer back to their original positions not just the selected one Animation Menu Allow Frame Skipping Normally when playing back an animation Anime Studio will display each frame one at a time Depending on the complexity of your animation the display quality settings and the speed of your computer the animation may play back slower than its specified speed Select this command to force the animation to play back at actual speed In order to accomplish this Anime Studio may have to skip some frames to keep up to speed so the animation will play back at the correct overall speed but may not appear as smooth The best way to see the animation
157. r The various controls are grouped into tabs that we ll describe in order General Tab This tab is available for all layer types and controls general layer properties Anime Studio Windows Users Manual 178 sin Studio Layer Settings Thorn Rig is General Layer Settings e Name This field allows you to change the name of the layer You can type in any name for the layer you want here and the name Anime Studio Windows will appear in the layer list after you click the OK button Good names make working with large projects much easier Examples of layer names might be Background Body or Head e Hide in editing view Turn on this checkbox to hide the layer while editing The layer will still appear in rendered output but will be invisible in Anime Studio s edit view This can be useful to reduce clutter and improve performance Things you might consider hiding in the editing view are background details texture and detail layers or special effects like particle layers Note that if a hidden layer is the currently active layer it will temporarily un hide itself so that you can edit whatever it contains e Don t render this layer f this box is turned on then the layer will not appear in any rendered exported movies This option is usually used for some kind of helper layer For example you might draw a layer with some guide lines to help you draw and animate a scene but you don t want thos
158. r filling Finally here is the resulting shape The Line Width tool was used to narrow the width of the outline at the corner points Another shape with a hole Drawing 22 sin Studio Users Manual Tutorial 2 3 Hidden Edges Hidden Edges When drawing more complex objects like faces you will often run into The drawing we re working with could be the beginning of a character s situations where you want an outline to only go partway around a face In this face the nose and ear are separate shapes from the main shape There s an easy way to accomplish this in Anime Studio head outline The general shape looks OK but where the separate parts join up we don t want to have lines separating them To fix this activate i the Hide Edge tool Start With a Sample File For this tutorial we ll start with a project file that s almost finished It s named Tutorial 2 3 and it s located in the Tutorials 2 Draw subfolder within the main Anime Studio folder Open this file in Anime Studio and you should see something like this Hide Edge There are two edges we want to eliminate from this drawing Click on these two edges as shown below If you don t see an immediate result try dragging the mouse across the lines in question to make sure you hit them Starting point for this tutorial Drawing Click on these two edges to hide them Anime Studio 23 Users Manua Edges to click on After clicking on thes
159. rame Rate The number of frames per second in the animation Start Frame The starting frame of the animation End Frame The ending frame of the animation Background Color Sets a background color for the project just click on the color swatch Sort Layers by Depth The Sort layers by depth checkbox allows top level layers in Anime Studio to move in front of and behind each other during an animation Normally layers are drawn in the order they appear in the Layers panel However with this option turned on layers are displayed according to how far they are from the camera See the Tutorials section for an example of using this feature Sort by True Distance Typically layers are sorted by their depth from the camera but if you re trying to create a 3D object using multiple Anime Studio layers like a cube or pyramid you may want to turn on Sort by true distance This tells Anime Studio to sort layers by the distance from the camera to the layers origins rather than by depth Usually this option will be left un checked Extra SWF Frame Check this option to add an extra frame at the end of the video Save as Defaults When you create a new project in Anime Studio your animation defaults to 320x240 pixels at 24 frames per second If you create most of your projects at different settings you can change these defaults Just type in new values in this dialog and click Save As Defaults to make the new se
160. rames can never affect an object s original shape and position so even if you think you really screwed something up you can always delete some keyframes and get back your original drawings This chapter has a useful hands on overview of how to animate in Anime Studio using each type of motion point bone and layer Once you ve mastered Anime Studio s animation tools animating is a simple job of repeatedly using the tools you already know keyframe by keyframe Tutorial 5 1 Automatic Lip Sync This tutorial uses Anime Studio s Switch layers to show you how to perform instant automatic lip syncing A switch layer contains multiple sub layers but only one of the sub layers can be displayed at a time This makes it very useful for lip sync animation each sub layer can be a Animation Users Manual 78 sin Studio mouth shape for a different sound The method of lip sync described in this tutorial is quick and easy though not always super accurate but give it a try it may be accurate enough for your animation For the most accurate lip sync results we recommend using a program like Papagayo Lip syncing using Papagayo is covered in Tutorial 5 2 Phoneme Lip Sync on page 79 Start With a Sample File For this tutorial we ll start with a project file that s almost finished It s named Tutorial 5 1 and it s located in the Tutorials 5 Animation subfolder within the main Anime Studio folder Open this file
161. recommend PNG since the PNG format provides for variable levels of transparency allowing you to create non rectangular images that can blend in smoothly with other elements in the scene e Movie Imports a movie file as a new Image layer Anime Studio supports importing QuickTime Windows and Mac OS and AVI Windows only movie files A movie that you import into Anime Studio will play back along with the Anime Studio animation allowing you to combine 2D and 3D elements or to composite an Anime Studio animation on top of a pre recorded video sequence On Windows if you have problems importing QuickTime movies then you probably need to download and install QuickTime Anime Studio will also import native Moho files files ending with moho e Audio File Loads a sound file to be used as a soundtrack for the current animation The audio formats supported by Anime Studio are listed in Product Comparison on page 208 This command is the same thing as Select Soundtrack in the Animation menu Anime Studio has limited support for audio but you can import a single sound file as a soundtrack for your animation Anime Studio uses libsndfile to handle sound files so any format that libsndfile supports is fair game Generally it s best to stick with uncompressed WAV or AIFF files Anime Studio Menus Import Notes and Tips Referenced Files Please note that Anime Studio references the directory location of images OBJ s sound file
162. red selected and becomes part of the final shape If you hold the mouse button down and drag the mouse around you can get a preview of how the fill will look when you release the mouse button Below are some examples of sets of curves in Anime Studio where the user might click with the Paint Bucket tool and the resulting fills In each case the shape on the left is the starting shape the red X indicates the point where the user clicked with the Paint Bucket tool and the result is the shape on the right Tool Groups Filling a basic closed outline gt So ae w N A s s C4 CY Clicking outside a closed outline nothing happens no fill Anime Studio 121 Users Manua A more complex shape There are some dead end curves but the overall shape is still Clicking inside the hole fills just the hole closed The shape is not closed close but not good enough no fill is created A shape with a hole in it Tool Groups Users Manual 122 sin Studio No fill will be created by any of these clicks The paint bucket cannot fill an entire enclosed outline in any of these cases Clicking here will not fill the circle since some of it is off screen The paint bucket can only fill shapes that are entirely on screen Tool Groups Delete Shape Delete Shape Using the Tool Using this tool click on a fill or outline to delete it from the project Remember in Anime Studio the shape o
163. rrent document Those types of shortcuts are listed next to the menu item they apply to just run the program and look at a menu to find the shortcut Press the T key to activate the Translate Points tool Many of the keyboard shortcuts in Anime Studio are used to activate a tool in a toolbar If you want to know whether a tool has a shortcut hold the mouse over the tool and watch the tooltip that appears If the Keyboard Shortcuts tooltip has a single letter at the end ex Translate Points T then that key can be used as a shortcut to activate the tool These keyboard shortcuts are not listed here just look at the tooltips in Anime Studio if you want to learn them Some keyboard shortcuts work all the time and some only apply in while using certain tools in Anime Studio the sections below lists all the shortcuts and when they can be used Common Shortcuts The following keyboard shortcuts can be used at any time Escape Automatically adjust the view to see everything in the active layer hold the shift key to zoom in on the currently selected points Home Reset the view to see the overall project Enter Return De select all points Tab Select all points that are connected to the current selection Left Arrow Step back one frame in the timeline hold shift to rewind Right Arrow Step forward one frame in the timeline hold shift to advance to end of animation Working with Vector Layers e Delete Backsp
164. rvice SmithMicro com Legal EULA questions illegal activity reporting legal smithmicro com 10 Copyright amp Trademark Notice SmithMicro Inc and Anime Studio 6 are trademarks of SmithMicro Inc Lost Marble Inc Moho 6 are trademarks of Lost Marble Inc All other product names mentioned in the Program the Documentation or other documentation are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies Registered and unregistered trademarks used herein are the exclusive property of their respective owners Anime Studio Users Manua License 9 Users Manual 10 sin Studio Anime Studio Tutorials In this section we will walk you through various aspects of using Anime Studio This is the perfect place to start if you ve never used Anime Studio before Even if you re an experienced Anime Studio user this version of Anime Studio has some big changes so we recommend reading through the tutorials again The best way to get started is to read all the tutorials in the Basics section in order Each of these tutorials builds on skills learned in the earlier ones and one by one will get you up to speed with Anime Studio s basic drawing and animation techniques Once you re comfortable working in Anime Studio then you can move on to the other tutorial sections You don t have to read them all although that probably wouldn t hurt but choose the ones that address the
165. s but may inspire you to think of new ways to use layer masking Anime Studio 91 Users Manua Examine a Finished Animation For this tutorial we re going to examine an animation that is completely finished Open the file Tutorial 6 9 located in the Tutorials 6 Effects subfolder within the main Anime Studio folder The layers in this file are arranged as shown below Starting point for this tutorial This animation relies on masking and blurring effects that aren t apparent in Anime Studio s editing view To see what the final effect is either export the animation as an AVI or QuickTime movie Because blurring is a key part of this effect exporting to SWF is not an option SWF export does not support blurs Effects Users Manual 92 sin Studio The final result Notice that the moon appears sharp until the cloud moves in front of it Then the parts of the moon obscured by the cloud become blurry This effect is easy to achieve using layer masking How It s Done There are two parts to this effect First there are actually two moons in the animation The Moon layer is the regular sharp version of the moon you see in Anime Studio s editing view Two layers up is the Blurry Moon layer this is a duplicate of the Moon layer with some layer blur applied Effects The trick is to control which moon is visible at which point in time in the final exported movie To do this we use l
166. s Manua Restart Audio Track Starts the audio track in the selected track over again from the beginning This allows you to add repeats in the audio track Audio Level Opens a dialog that allows you to enter a numerical value for the audio level View Menu View Menu Reset Resets the view of the working area to the starting pan and zoom values Use this command when you want to jump back to the original view of the project Anime Studio Menus 172 sin Studio Users Manual Enable Grid Toggles display of the grid on and off A checkmark appears beside the command when the grid is displayed Grid Settings Displays the Grid Settings dialog which allows you to set the number of pixels between each grid space Default is 20 pixels Show Output Only This command will hide all artwork that lies outside the final output rectangle This makes it easy to visualize the final staging for your shot Of course it s hard to edit what you can t see so be sure to turn this option off when you need to edit an object that lies outside the visible area of the project Window Menu Window Menu Anime Studio Menus Tools Shows hides the Tools window The Tools window is shown by default when you start Anime Studio Layers Shows hides the Layers window The Layers window is shown by default when you start Anime Studio Timeline Shows hides the Timeline window The Timeline window is shown by default when you
167. s and four curve segments and can be manipulated just like anything else You could create the same shape with the Add Point tool but for a simple rectangle this tool is quicker Oval Oval The Oval tool is a shortcut for creating an oval shape Just click and drag to draw an oval Hold the Shift key to constrain the shape to a circle Hold the Alt key to make the click point the center of the circle There s nothing special about ovals created with this tool they re just four points and four curve segments and can be manipulated just like anything else You could create the same shape with the Add Point tool but for a simple oval this tool is quicker Triangles IO OMA alo Triangles Tool Groups Users Manual 114 sin Studio The Triangle tool is a shortcut for creating a triangle shape Just click and drag to draw a triangle Hold the Shift key to constrain the shape to an equilateral triangle Stars Stars The Stars tool is a shortcut for creating a star shape Just click and drag to draw a star Hold the Shift key to constrain the shape to a star with five equal points Spirals Spirals Click and drag to draw a spiral shape The number of windings increase as you drag outward By default the spiral radiates in a clockwise direction from the center Press the Alt key to create a counter clockwise spiral Tool Groups Insert Text Insert Text Insert Text Options Using the Insert
168. s and movies files that have been imported for use When exporting into movie format Anime Studio continues to reference this directory location Moving referenced items from one location to another will prevent the item from being displayed or heard We recommend that all items used in your animations or artwork accompany it s native file format ANME and final exported format Startup Folder Adding your own anme file to the Startup Folder located in the root directory of your Anime Studio installation will always make Anime Studio open this anme document first when it s initially launched Please make sure to rename your anme file to StartupFile anme Moho Files Anime Studio will also import native Moho files files ending with moho Library Content Please read Section 6 of the EULA End User License Agreement for rules on using the content that has been supplied with your version of Anime Studio Please note that when importing existing content movies from the Anime Studio Content Library using the File gt Import option some animations movies exceed the default End Frame This will prevent you from seeing the full movie To adjust the default End Frame settings please select File gt Project Settings and change the field beside End Frame The default is typically 72 frames You can also double click the movie content file you would like to view from within the Content Library To access
169. s are available Select Shape Select Shape tool Using the Tool This tool is used to select an existing shape either a fill or an outline Just click on the desired shape and it will be selected At that point you can press the Delete or Backspace keys to delete the shape adjust its properties in the Style Window see Style Window on page 188 or change its stacking order using the fill modifiers described below After clicking on a shape to select it you then have the option to select shapes lower in the stacking order Just hold down the Ctrl key and press the down arrow key to select the next shape lower down at the point you clicked the mouse Hold Ctrl and press the up arrow key to select the next shape higher in the stacking order at that same point Tool Groups Users Manual 118 sin Studio Create Shape Create Shape Create Shape Options Tool Options e Select Group Used to select a group that was previously created with the Select Points tool e Create Shape Press the Create Shape button to complete the shape This is the same as pressing the Spacebar after your selection is made e Lasso Mode The Create Shape tool selects a rectangular area by default Check this option to select points by drawing a lasso around the desired area Using the Tool The Create Shape tool is used to select a region to be filled with color or a set of edges to be drawn as an outline It operates exactly l
170. s subject to restrictions and controls imposed by the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Control Law Export Trade Control Ordinance and any other related regulations referred together as Regulations hereafter You acknowledge and agree that neither the Software nor any direct product thereof is being or will be shipped transferred or re exported directly or indirectly into any country prohibited by the Regulations or will be used for any purpose prohibited by the Regulations 5 Limited Warranty and Disclaimer Limitation of Remedies and Damages YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE SOFTWARE MAY NOT SATISFY ALL YOUR REQUIREMENTS OR BE FREE FROM DEFECTS SmithMicro WARRANTS THE MEDIA ON WHICH THE SOFTWARE IS RECORDED TO BE FREE FROM DEFECTS IN MATERIALS AND WORKMANSHIP UNDER NORMAL USE FOR 90 DAYS FROM PURCHASE BUT THE SOFTWARE AND ACCOMPANYING WRITTEN MATERIALS ARE LICENSED AS IS ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED AS TO THE SOFTWARE AND ACCOMPANYING WRITTEN MATERIALS AND LIMITED TO 90 DAYS AS TO THE MEDIA YOUR EXCLUSIVE REMEDY FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY WILL BE THE REPLACEMENT OF THE MEDIA OR REFUND OF THE PURCHASE PRICE THE ABOVE WARRANTIES ARE EXCLUSIVE AND IN LIEU OF ALL OTHER WARRANTIES EXPRESS OR IMPLIED AND SmithMicro EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL OTHER WARRANTIES INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
171. s we just did for the vista dat example To hear the sound along with the animation choose the File gt Import gt Audio command from Anime Studio s menu and select the vista wav file located in the Tutorials 5 Animation folder Now when you play back the animation in Anime Studio you will hear the audio that goes with the lip sync Also if you export the animation as a QuickTime or AVI movie the audio will be included in the movie file The final result SWF File Tutorial 5 5 Cycling It is possible in Anime Studio to automatically cycle a section of animation repeating it over and over as many times as you wish Cycling is a special type of keyframe interpolation and this tutorial will show you how to set it up Start With a Sample File For this tutorial we ll start with a project file that s almost finished It s named Tutorial 5 5 and it s located in the Tutorials 5 Animation Anime Studio Users Manua subfolder within the main Anime Studio folder In the timeline you can see that the top layer Red Blinker has two keyframes in the Layer Visibility channel The layer becomes invisible at frame 36 and visible again at frame 48 This is also shown by the red background in the timeline during the layer s invisible period Starting point for this tutorial You can play back the animation to see what s going on Basically the red light starts off turned on then it shuts off for
172. s width setting Brush Options Finally the last control in the Outline section is a popup menu used to apply a line effect to the shape s outline Anime Studio Windows Users Manual 194 sin Studio Color Swatches Finally at the bottom of the Style window is a color picker You can use this as a shortcut for selecting colors for your objects Just click a color in this palette to assign it as the selected shape s fill color Right click a color swatch to assign it as the selected shape s outline color The Swatches popup menu lets you select from different sets of color swatches These color swatches are just image files stored in a folder called swatches You can add your own image files to this folder and they will appear in the Swatches popup menu the next time you start Anime Studio Or you can select Custom Image from the popup menu and Anime Studio will prompt you to select an image file to use Other There are three buttons that we ve classified as other controls Press Reset to switch back to editing the default fill and line properties if a shape or style is currently selected it will be de selected Press Copy to copy the properties of the selected shape or style Finally press Paste to apply a previously copied set of properties to another shape or style Advanced Options Advanced Style Options To view the advanced options check the Advanced option that
173. sdiveinaneavewesnntneeds 197 Hide Controlled BONneS csecsscsssssseerssrssees 165 E EEEE EAA 160 Track Bane tO VideO sirisser 166 EGIL VIGIL E E A E 160 Reset BONG sccescscccssssssssscsssssssesssssseserssesesesarees 166 I oara AE E A O A 160 Reset All BONES cesesscsecssscsscsscsscssessseseesersees 166 REGO essesscsscsssssssscsscsssessescessessessessessassessaseaseasens 161 Animation MENU sccccesecseeseeseeesseeseecsesseesessreeeenees 166 ERE Fas Be cca themes ce dinncestcanrennrdesennricenceeeusene 161 Allow Frame SKIDPINg cccsescseeeeeeeeeeeeeeee 166 CIE E EEA E E A AT 161 Clear Animation From Layer 167 Select All c ccccccccscscssssssssscscsssssssseeseeserseeees 161 Clear Animation From Document c cceeeereeeees 167 SEEE NONE seraa ENEE 161 Reset All Layer Channels 167 Select INVETSE csecseecessrssscsssrssrssseesersseesersareass 161 Set Layer Start TIMG ccssesccsssesceeeseseeeeees 167 Select Connected ccecsseseesssssssssesssrsseeseerseeass 161 Select All K y TAMES ccsccsessceseesstsesssesssteeeeeees 167 vi sin Studio Users Manual Rescale KeyfraMes ccscccsseesseseeseseeeeeeeen 167 Check For Updates snteavatcnsetesaaetannaionvacantnianetnasannet 174 Copy Current Frame 169 Anime Studio WINdOWS ceeeeeeeseeeeees 175 Blend MOrphs ccssccssssssscesssrssscsserssrsssseserserees 170 Layers WINdOW csccccccesssseceesssessesessessesesesteseeaees 1
174. sin Studio Users Manual Try using the Manipulate Bones tool again to test the bone setup The character should move much more cleanly now when moving an arm for example only that arm should move and you should see no extra movement in other body parts Manipulate Bones Put the Character Back Together The final step is to reassemble the character Activate the Offset Bone tool Initial regions of influence Using the Bone Strength tool click and drag on each bone in turn to adjust its region of influence The correct adjustment for a region of influence it generally to surround the points along that section of bone The most important regions are at the joints the knees and elbows and such Those are the areas where the regions of two bones overlap and points will bend under the control of both bones For parts like this character s head the region of influence isn t very important since there s just one bone the points outside the region of influence will still move with that bone Here s how you should adjust the regions of influence don t worry about matching this exactly just try to get kind of close Adjusted regions of influence Click and drag on the top bone of each body part to move that part Offset Bone Bones Anime Studio 61 Users Manua back into position Move each arm by the upper arm bone each leg that character could be re assembled while still keeping the body parts by the thigh bone a
175. single fill or as separate fills for each character in case you want to color style them differently The text will be filled using the current fill color style There is no font size control when you create the text the Anime Studio scale tool should be used to control the size of the text after you create it Anime Studio Menus 163 164 sin Studio Users Manual Peak This command creates a peaked or hard transition between the curves at the point that you click Smooth This command smooths the transitions between the curves at the point that you click Raise Shape Select this menu item to raise a shape in the stacking order This will move it in front of the next higher shape The stacking order only applies to shapes within the same layer all shapes in a layer will appear above any lower layers and behind any upper ones regardless of stacking order Note that if there is no shape overlapping the selected one you may not see any change when this item is selected even though the shape gets moved higher Lower Shape Select this menu item to lower a shape in the stacking order Raise to Front Works like Raise Shape but raises the shape above all others in its layer Anime Studio Menus Lower to Back Works like Lower Shape but lowers the shape below all others in its layer Reset Points Moves the selected points back to their original positions adding a new keyframe for them at the current time
176. specific techniques you want to learn about Finally all of the Anime Studio files created or used by the tutorials have been installed along with Anime Studio itself You can find them by going to the Anime Studio program folder and looking for the Tutorials sub folder If you re having trouble with a tutorial try opening the corresponding Anime Studio file to see what it should look like Once you ve finished the tutorials you should be comfortable enough to continue on your own However the tutorials won t teach you how to use every feature of Anime Studio the rest of this manual is a reference that covers Anime Studio s features in detail and is recommended reading to be able to use the full power of Anime Studio Drawing Tutorial 2 1 Welding As you learned in the Quick Start tutorials Anime Studio features an Auto Weld feature that automatically welds shapes and segments together when your cursor reaches a point that you can weld to However there are cases where you may want to manually weld points together When drawing in Anime Studio s vector layers the concept of welding points is very important These tutorials will show you examples of how and why points can be welded and will go on to show you some examples of good and bad welds you can do in Anime Studio When you weld two points together in Anime Studio Anime Studio really is combining those two points into one There are a couple reasons to do this
177. t Rotate to face camera When this checkbox is turned on the layer will automatically rotate around its vertical axis so that it always faces the camera This can be useful when using Anime Studio s 3D camera especially for scenery type objects Trees for example that always face the camera can save you a lot of work Use HSV modifier image This checkbox lets you use an image file to distort the colors of the layer Sometimes you may want to do this to break up the solid colors in your project and make it look less computerized The exact behavior of this feature is difficult to explain The best way to try it out is to use one of the HSV modifier images included with Anime Studio These images should be pretty close to 50 gray Other images may produce bizarre unexpected results Feel free to experiment you can always turn off this checkbox if you don t like the results Anime Studio Windows e Scale compensation When this box is checked as it is by default and you scale an entire layer larger or smaller the lines in the final rendered output will automatically get thicker or thinner so that they retain their relative weight in the overall image Also layer effects like blurs and shadows will become larger or smaller to match the scale of the layer e Immune to camera movements Sometimes you may want to make some layers ignore camera movements For example certain backgrounds or title or logo layers you may want to stay in
178. t your problem as possible so that we can understand exactly what s happening and more quickly come up with a solution for you Technical Support Where to Go When You Need Help 216 A Us nime Studio ers Manual Acknowledgements Some parts of Anime Studio are based on libraries written by third party organizations Below is a list of libraries used by Anime Studio Anti Grain Geometry http www antigrain com Copyright 2002 2004 Maxim Shemanarev McSeem FreeType http www treetype org Portions of this software are copyright 1996 2002 The FreeType Project All rights reserved libjpeg http www ijg org This software is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group Copyright 1991 1998 Thomas G Lane libpng http www libpng org Copyright 1998 1999 2000 Glenn Randers Pehrson libsndfile http www mega nerd com libsndfile Copyright 1999 2005 Erik de Castro Lopo Lua http www lua org Copyright 2004 Tecgraf PUC Rio Ming http www libming org Copyright 2001 Opaque Industries PortAudio http www portaudio com Copyright 1999 2000 Ross Bencina and Phil Burk zlib http www zlib net Copyright 1995 2002 Jean loup Gailly and Mark Adler Acknowledgements Artist Acknowledgements Smith Micro and Lost Marble would like to thank the following artists for contributing to the content section To access these files please start your Anime Studio application and select Fi
179. t apart the character is so that we can add bones to each part while keeping the bones independent of each other Later in the tutorial we ll put the character back together again Add Bones The next step is to add bones Add a new Bone layer to the project name it Skeleton and move all the vector layers into it keeping the same order they are in now Bones Users Manual 56 sin Studio Skeleton of New bone layer Using the Add Bone tool add two bones going up through the torso starting with the bottom one Ginna hones Use the Select Bone tool to select the lower torso bone Then select the Add Bone tool and add three bones to one leg starting at the hip and moving down through the foot Repeat the process for the other leg The hip bones should be parented to the lower torso bone Add Bone Next add two bones to each arm starting at the shoulder and going down the shoulder bone should be parented to the upper torso bone Bones Anime Studio 57 Users Manua Leg bones added Head bone added Use the Select Bone tool to select the upper torso bone and then use Select the upper torso bone with the Select Bone tool Then use the Add the Add Bone tool to add one bone to the head Bone tool to add two bones to one of the arms Repeat the process for the other arm This figure shows all the bones in place Bones 58 sin Studio Users Manual All the bones added All the bones added And
180. t cycles As you drag the mouse side to side you ll see that the cycle duration changes as the arrow that points back from the cycling key gets longer and shorter Adjust the cycle duration so that the keyframe cycles back to frame 24 Adjusted cycle duration If you play back the animation now you ll see that the light blinks more quickly now since the cycle duration is shorter Finally to break a cycle all you have to do is add another keyframe when you want the cycle to end Set the current frame to 102 right click in the Layer Visibility channel and select Add Keyframe from the popup menu that appears The new keyframe will appear and at that point the cycling will end Play back the animation to confirm this New keyframe at frame 102 Conclusion Cycling can be used in any animation channel in Anime Studio Any keyframe can be made to cycle back in time by setting Cycle as the key s interpolation method You can cycle a channel all the way back to the beginning of an animation or just back a few frames Cycling will repeat itself forever or until a new keyframe is reached Anime Studio Users Manua Animation 83 Users Manual 84 sin Studio Effects Tutorial 6 6 Shadow Tricks This tutorial shows you how the layer shadow options can be used to create visual effects other than shadows Glows and outlines are the two possibilities we ll look at Start With a Sample File For this tu
181. t files that you can reopen Close Closes the current project Save Saves the current project to disk Save As Prompts you for a name and location then saves the project to disk Anime Studio Menus 152 sin Studio Users Manual Project Settings Brings up the project settings dialog As seen below the project settings dialog lets you control the pixel width and height of the project as well as the number of frames per second You re free to change these values at any time although it s easiest if you set up the values you want before you start creating your animation particularly the frame rate Also in this dialog you can set the start and end frames of your animation defining how long the overall animation will be F Sort by true distance The Project Settings dialog e Dimensions Allows you to set Custom dimensions or choose from a wide variety of presets Presets include the following Anime Studio Menus Custom Allows you to enter or edit your own settings NTSC D1 720 x 534 pixels 24 frames per second PAL D1 DV 788 x 576 pixels 24 frames per second VGA 640 x 480 pixels 24 frames per second Web 320 x 240 pixels 24 frames per second Web Widescreen 426 x 240 pixels 24 frames per second YouTube 480 x 320 pixels 24 frames per second When you select a preset the following settings appear below Width The width in pixels Height The height in pixels F
182. t is otherwise still move the arms into a separate layer from the rest of the body The body will remain optimized and take up much less space e fan object sits still for a time with no animation consider replacing it with a non animated object for that time period Anime Studio Menus 160 A Us nime Studio ers Manual What to Avoid If your goal is to create a SWF animation there are some things you should try to avoid Besides the effects that just are not possible to export you should try to avoid the following effects if possible These are all things that can be exported it s just that they make for a less efficient SWF file Of course you won t want to avoid all of these things all of the time However if you plan your animation carefully and use as few of the following effects as possible the resulting SWF file will be smaller and will load quicker over the web 3D camera moves no Flash optimization is possible when you re moving the camera around in 3D Simple side to side pans and zooms are OK but when you start using camera pan tilt Flash efficiency goes down the drain Try to use as few control points as possible in your vector artwork The freehand tool and the insert text dialog can generate a lot of points resulting in a big SWF file Limit the use of variable width lines It s easy to overwhelm Flash with the complexity of variable width lines making the resulting SWF file play back unpredictably
183. t outlined above you may reproduce distribute sell copyright publicly display and publicly perform using Restricted Content provided that such activity is limited to the Legitimate Uses enumerated above and does not violate any other clauses in this agreement and or applicable US copyright laws 7 U S Government Restricted Rights The Program and The Documentation are provided with restricted rights The use duplication or disclosure by the United States Government is subject to restrictions as set forth in subparagraph c 1 ii of the Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software Clause at DFARS 252 227 7013 or subparagraph c 1 and 2 of the Commercial Computer Software Restricted Rights at 48 CFR 52 227 19 as applicable The Contractor Manufacturer is SmithMicro Inc 8 Applicable Law The laws of the state of California govern this EULA except that federal and international law governs copyrights patents and registered trademarks Should any court having appropriate jurisdiction find any provision of this EULA invalid that particular provision will be deemed null and void and will not affect the validity of any other provision of this EULA 9 Contact Information If you have questions concerning this EULA or need to contact Customer Service please contact Company at this address SmithMicro Inc 185 Westrdge Drive Watsonville CA 95076 USA 831 761 6200 phone 831 761 6206 fax Customer Service returns warranty se
184. t some motion to take less time drag its keyframe to the left To take more time drag it to the right As mentioned before Anime Studio automatically calculates what happens in between keyframes However you do have some control over this By default Anime Studio will compute a smooth transition from one keyframe to the next most of the time this is probably what you want However you can change the transition type by right clicking a keyframe and choosing a new method from the popup menu that appears The transition methods are smooth the default ease in out also a smooth motion but the object starts off moving kind of slowly and slows down again as it approaches the next keyframe linear motion is straight from one keyframe to the next leading to a somewhat mechanical look to the motion step there is no transition at all the object just jumps from one keyframe to the next noisy the object moves in a slightly wobbly motion and cycle the value from this keyframe to the next will be taken from some earlier section of the timeline Another way of creating keyframes is to copy an object s position from another point in time To do this first select the keyframes you want to copy Next click Copy in the timeline or press Alt C Now set the current frame to when you want the copied keyframe to appear using the time ruler or the step forward back buttons Finally click Paste in the timeline or press Alt V
185. t the Arm bone Anime Studio 43 Users Manua When the Select Bone tool is active the Bone Constraints popup box will be available in the tool options area of the main Anime Studio window Click the Bone Constraints popup to open it and adjust the settings as shown below Specifically turn on the Angle constraints checkbox and set the min max angle fields to 10 and 100 Bones Users Manual 44 sin Studio W Angle constraints Min max degrees Angle control bone Set angle constraints Click the Close button to close the constraints popup box Then set the bone s name to Forearm we ll see why later Name this bone Forearm Once you ve set up angle constraints you can see them in the working area as two lines around the bone that indicate the minimum and maximum angles the bone is allowed to rotate between Try using the Manipulate Bones tool and move the forearm notice how Anime Studio doesn t allow you to move the bone beyond the minimum and Bones maximum angles you set up Manipulate Bones Visual display of angle constraints Tip Here s a handy little trick Often it can be hard to judge the correct numerical angles for bone constraints There s an easy way to adjust them if you have a mouse with a scroll wheel Hold the mouse over the angle constraint you wish to change in the Bone Constraints popup and roll the mouse wheel up and down The angle will change and t
186. taining valid copies of the Program other Company products and or other software able to process Restricted Content G You may use and distribute the Allowed Content in accordance with all applicable license terms imposed by the content s original creator The Company does not enforce third party rights H The purpose of defining certain content as Restricted Content is to protect the Company s investment interests and ownership of Restricted Content It is not the Company s policy to unreasonably restrict or inhibit any third party s creative or commercial activities The following are Legitimate Uses of Restricted Content Creating tutorials books or other educational materials using images of Program interface for sale distribution public display etc provided they are intended to educate users as to use of the Program or when used under the fair use guidelines of US copyright law Any other use of images of the Program interface must be approved by the Company s prior written consent Creating original content for Restricted Content for sale distribution public display etc Creating materials for use with either Restricted or Allowed Content Creating characters or props based on Restricted Content in proprietary file formats where the original art texture or other Restricted Content Files are not distributed with said characters props scenes License J As part of the legitimate uses for Restricted Conten
187. that appears choose Image Anime Studio will prompt you to select an image file Choose the file _hand png inthe New image layers are centered in the workspace so the dancer s hand is Anime Studio Tutorials 4 Images folder Double click the new layer not yet properly aligned and rename it L Hand At this point your Layers window should look like this Images Anime Studio 65 Users Manua Translate Layer The new hand To position the arm properly use the Translate Layer tool to drag the left hand into position at the end of the left arm Allow for a little overlap between the two parts at the elbow Left hand in position The last step is to attach the new part to the dancer s skeleton Select the Bind Layer tool and click on the lower arm bone on the dancer as shown below Images 66 sin Studio Users Manual Bind Layer Bind the image layer to the forearm You re done To see the animation in action press the Play button Of course we skipped over the process of building and animating the skeleton but the basics of working with skeletons were covered in previous tutorials all of that information applies when using bones with image layers Images The final result SWF File Tutorial 4 2 Image Warping This tutorial demonstrates Anime Studio s image warping feature This feature allows you to use a skeleton to distort an image In this way you can animate p
188. the marked points gt Although Anime Studio will let you perform those welds it isn t really a good idea What you would end up creating is a shape with lots of little holes in it Along the section of curves that you welded together are little bubbles that make it impossible to fill the two main shapes Joined circles SWF File Examples of Bad Welding Typically when you weld together two points one of them should be a curve endpoint This isn t always true but most often it is If you find yourself welding together two points and neither is an endpoint take a moment to think whether the weld is appropriate Here s an example of a bad choice of welding Suppose you had the following two shapes and Drawing Users Manual 18 sin Studio Fill the shapes without welding them together Bad welding Instead a better approach is to just move the two shapes closer together without any welding at all In this case welding the two shapes together doesn t have any benefit Delete Edge Another approach in this situation would be to cut the top shape apart with the Delete Edge tool and then weld the remaining endpoints to the lower shape First cut the top shape apart Drawing Anime Studio 19 Users Manua Cut the redundant curve away Weld the new endpoints Then weld the newly created endpoints onto the lower shape With this approach you don t end up with a double curve all welded together The
189. the region where you will create and view your drawings and animations In every project even an empty one two items will be displayed in this area The first is a cross marking the center of the currently active layer The second is a blue rectangle that indicates the visible region of the project Only objects that are within this rectangle will appear in your final animation Anime Studio s Main Window Users Manual 222 sin Studio Working Area Although every project has a fixed image size for example 640x480 pixels the working area is basically an endless flat space on which you can draw and animate The blue visibility rectangle mentioned above indicates the actual image area for the project While working you may want to zoom in or out to see more or less detail in your project A quick way to do this is by using your right mouse button By dragging the right mouse button in the working area you can move around from side to side If you hold down the shift key while right dragging you can zoom in and out If you want to restore a reasonable overall view in the working area press the Escape or Home keys or choose Reset from the View menu see View Menu on page 171 The background of the working area is usually just a blank color but if you drag an image file into the working area it will appear in the visibility rectangle This is a helpful feature meant to allow you to trace Anime Studio s Main Window the im
190. this command if all the points on the head are somehow connected together the whole head will now be selected Preferences Brings up a dialog that lets you customize some aspects of Anime Studio such as the display colors used in the working area of the Anime Studio window Some of these features including Edit Colors and GUI Colors are only available in Anime Studio Pro Options e Auto assist with bone locking keyframes Adds an extra keyframe when bones are locked or unlocked to prevent them from drifting e Scale compensation for new layers When a layer is scaled up or down its lines get thicker or thinner to match If you don t want this behavior turn off this option You can also Anime Studio Menus 161 162 nime Studio Users Manual control this on a per layer basis in the Layer Settings dialog This option controls it for any new layers you create Show paths for new layers Determines whether the paths previously called construction curves are displayed for new layers They re always shown for the selected layer but usually hidden otherwise Auto name bones and shapes Bones and shapes can be named by the user If this is turned on all bones and shapes get names like 1 2 etc Zoom with drag box When this option is on allows you to draw a box around the area that you want to zoom into rather than using a continuous zoom Consolidate timeline channels Instead of showing separate ch
191. this next figure shows the parenting of all the bones The parenting TESE l arrows point from child bone to parent bone and can be seen by ie ane fea t ee r a eal ie Ieee activating the Reparent Bone tool ow the bone system works so far The body parts should mostly move how you would expect but not totally cleanly the next step is to clean up the bones influence Reparent Bone Bones Manipulate Bones Adjust Bone Influence Double click the Skeleton layer in the Layers window to bring up the Layer Settings dialog Go to the Bones tab and set the binding mode to Region binding Turn on region binding When region binding is used bones only move the points that lie in their region of influence If a point is overlapped by multiple regions of influence it will be affected by all the corresponding bones If a point is in no bone s region of influence it will move with the nearest bone Anime Studio Users Manua This is different from flexi binding where all bones affect all points Flexi binding can be quicker to set up but leads to more rubbery motion since moving a hand will always cause a little bit of movement in a foot Region binding makes separate body parts truly separate For region binding to work however you need to adjust the region of influence for each bone To do this activate the Bone Strength tool to display the bones regions of influence Bone Strength Bones 59 60
192. to paint some textures to go on this headless animal s body Select the File gt Preview menu command to create a full quality view of the animal s current state In the popup menu at the bottom of the Render window select Copy To Clipboard Images 70 sin Studio Users Manual of texture details onto the animal s body parts It s very important that CEE the texture be on a layer of its own If you re using Photoshop the layer arrangement would look something like this LAYERS CHANNELS PATHS Morrial Opacity 100 Lock O Fil 100 Layers in Photoshop Copy To Clipboard You can paint whatever details you want Here s an example of something you might paint in your image editor Don t worry about painting outside the lines Rendered animal Then start up your favorite image editing program we recommend Adobe Photoshop and create a new document the same size as the Anime Studio project 320x240 in this case Paste the copied image into the new document Create a new layer in your image editing program and paint some kind Images Painted on texture When your texture is finished get rid of the background layers so that only the texture is left with a transparent background you re still working in Photoshop or similar program at this point Anime Studio 71 Users Manua Background removed Finally you need to save the texture as three separate files one for the
193. torial we ll start with a project file that s almost finished It s named Tutorial 6 6 and it s located in the Tutorials 6 Effects subfolder within the main Anime Studio folder Render this file to see what it looks like to start with Effects Starting point for this tutorial Basic Layer Shadow Before we try any tricks let s take a look at a basic layer shadow Double click the only layer in this file Layer 1 to bring up the Layer Settings dialog Go to the Shadows tab and leaving all the other settings alone turn on the Shadow on checkbox Click OK to dismiss the dialog Default shadow settings Try rendering the scene again just to be sure that you have an idea what a regular layer shadow looks like in Anime Studio Anime Studio 85 Users Manua SE Ti vy Layer shadow Layer Glow Now we ll change the shadow settings to create a glow effect Double click Layer 1 again to bring up the Layer Settings dialog Change the Layer Shadow settings to match the values below Effects 86 sin Studio Users Manual Glow settings An offset of O means the shadow will be centered under the layer that is casting it With an offset of 0 the shadow direction has no significance A high blur value gives the glow a nice soft edge Finally the expansion parameter tells Anime Studio to expand the shadow making it bigger than the layer itself Without expansion the glow would
194. ttings the default settings for all new projects Restore Defaults Resets the project to the default values Import Anime Studio can import several kinds of other media files into an animation project The commands in this sub menu let you import these Anime Studio Object This command will ask you to choose a Anime Studio project file Once you ve chosen a file a list of layers in the project will show up in the dialog Anime Studio 153 Users Manua The Insert Object dialog Select one of the layers to add it to your own project a preview of the selected layer appears on the right side of the dialog The entire layer will be copied into your open project including any animation in the layer This is an easy way to share objects between project files and reuse bits of animation here and there Several files are included with Anime Studio that contain scenery characters props etc You are welcome to include these in your own projects by using this menu command Image Imports an image file as a new Image layer The most common type of file to import into Anime Studio is images It Anime Studio Menus 154 sin Studio Users Manual doesn t matter how the images are create so feel free to use pictures from digital cameras backgrounds from scanned drawings or painted on the computer textures computer generated 3D scenery etc The image formats supported by Anime Studio are JPEG BMP Targa GIF and PNG Generally we
195. u Click the Preset menu to choose from a number of different presets that you can spray into your scene If you choose Use Clipboard the Scatter Brush tool sprays the contents of your clipboard into the scene Min Width and Max Width Sets the minimum and maximum width of the objects that you spray If you want all of the objects to be the same size set both values the same Higher values create larger objects Using the Scatter Brush Tool Insert Text Options Copy a vector object into your clipboard or select one of the preset options from the Preset menu Choose the vector layer that you want Scatter Brush Tool Options to paint into Set the Min and Max Width settings appropriately for the scale of the objects Set other options in the Scatter Brush Options panel e Scatter Brush Options Click this button to display the if you want to increase or decrease variation in the angle spacing or following options color of the objects you are spraying Tool Groups Users Manual 116 sin Studio Delete Edge Delete Edge Using the Delete Edge Tool It s easy to delete points just select them and press backspace or delete However sometimes you may want keep two points but break the curve connecting them To do this use the Delete Edge tool Just use it to click on the curve segment you want to delete and it will disappear Note If the edge you delete makes up part of the outline of a fill shape that shape will also be deleted
196. ultiple Audio Tracks and Multiple Video Tracks e Audio Panning e HD Video Import HD Video Export in Anime Studio Pro Only e Video support improved Footage is reinterpreted during import and audio is imported e Movies may be opened directly in Anime Studio with proper dimensions duration and frame rate Good for doing tracking right away or for working on a video composite project e Video Features Tracking allowing you to track bones base tip or both Animation e Non Linear Animation e Scale keyframes Select keys Alt Click and drag on timeline to rescale Introduction Timeline channels only show when they are actually used Right drag in the time ruler to edit timing offsets Onion skins need to be manually enabled helps avoid doing it accidentally In timeline minimize how much it automatically scrolls to the current frame Timeline buttons to navigate to previous next keyframe Default interpolation is now set in the main Preferences dialog Preference to show all animation channels consolidated into one Animated layer effects must now be turned on manually When rendering the current frame saving as PNG saves an alpha channel Lip Sync Integrated LipSync AST production sync lib in Pro Only Debut version uses amplitude only PapaGayo can still be used as always Morph Targets e Pro can be used to create morph targets e Debut can use and blend morph targets but has no setup tools Import an
197. utomatic vector layer upward to move it into the bone layer bone binding Arm layer placed inside a bone layer Make sure the bone layer is selected then activate the Add Bone tool Create two new bones Bones Users Manual 36 sin Studio Use the Manipulate Bones tool to try moving the bones around Double click the bone layer to bring up the Layer Settings dialog Go to The arm will move with the bones automatically since it was well the Bones tab set the binding mode to Region binding and click OK automatically bound to them Manipulate Bones Turn on region binding Flexible binding the default for new bone layers uses a method of bone binding where every bone has some influence over every point in a vector layer The farther away a point is from a bone the less influence that bone has over the point However you can still experience some rubbery movement where a moving arm can cause a toe to twitch a little bit With region binding on the other hand every bone has a cutoff radius outside of which it will not affect the movement of vector points This can be used for cleaner movement but requires a little extra setup Now that region binding is in effect activate the Bone Strength tool Test moving the bones This arm setup works pretty well as it is but let s try to refine it a bit Bones Anime Studio 37 Users Manua Bone Strength Around each bone you will see its region of in
198. visible in the final Anime Studio output To really make use of bones they need to be attached to objects in other layers This process is covered in Bones on page 34 and also Bone Layer Types 98 sin Studio Users Manual Tools on page 129 When you use bones with a vector layer you need to consider how the bones and curve control points will interact When a bone moves it moves the points around it as well Each bone has a region of influence which you can adjust Points move mostly with the bone whose region of influence they fall within although other bones can still have an effect on them Below is a picture of some points and bones Notice the region of influence around each bone The second picture shows the same object after the bones have been moved Notice how the points follow Below is a picture of a skeleton created in Anime Studio Red arrows the bones according to regions of influence and how the curves pass have been added that point from each bone to its parent the spine has smoothly through the points wherever they move to no parent and is referred to as the root of the skeleton Note that the currently selected bone is highlighted in red and its parent if it has one is highlighted in blue as shown below When you create a skeleton out of a group of bones the bones have a hierarchical relationship Each bone has a single parent or maybe no parent at all in which case it s called a root bone and each
199. you are tracking can be offset Anime Studio 147 Users Manua You can offset the object from its origin with the Translate tool Once you have applied video tracking points to another layer the two layers are totally independent The tracking feature creates standard keyframes You can edit add or remove keyframes to the tracked object You can also hide or delete the video layer that was used to initially create the tracking points and keyframes The layer that was tracked to the video will still continue to follow the motion This allows you to use a video file as a reference whether or not you want to see the video in your final project Camera Tools Moving around a scene The following tools let you move a virtual camera around in a scene Although layers in Anime Studio are primarily 2D Anime Studio s camera Tool Groups 148 nime Studio Users Manual can be moved around in true 3D space The camera tools affect all layers in the document not just the currently active layer Zoom Camera If a tool has the following symbol next to it D then it can be used for animation using the tool at different frames in the timeline will cause fey the object you adjust to change over time Zoom Camera Tool Track Camera Using the Tool La This tool zooms the camera in and out on the scene just like the zoom fo Oo ob control on a real camera Technically the Zoom Camera tool is changing a the field of view angle
200. you can change the sizes of the inner and outer rings to adjust the falloff Click and drag on the edge of the rings to change the size The inner ring defines the region that you are trying to track For example if you are trying to track an eye adjust the inner ring so that it surrounds the eye The outer ring represents how fast the object can move From one frame to the next the outer ring represents the maximum distance that you want the object to move If you have a fast moving object you may need to increase the size of the outer circle for tracking Expanding the search area too much can lead to further errors so you want to keep it as narrow as possible The default settings are generally sufficient for Anime Studio 145 Users Manua most cases Select the movie to track then choose the primary and secondary tracking points First we ll assign the Primary Tracking Point which is associated with the origin point of the tracked layer We want the origin of the exclamation point to track the Wrist point So we select Wrist here and choose OK When we play the result the origin of the exclamation point Assigning the Tracked Layer represented by the crosshairs tracks the wrist Two rings control the sensitivity of the tracking point After you set the two points on the object you want to track you can then assign the layer that will track those points In our example we returned to Frame 0 and added an exclamati

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