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| eFrontier Anime Studio Pro (Win/Mac) | 
 enlarge | From: Smith Micro Software Inc.
Category: Software
List Price: $199.99
Buy New: $119.99
You Save: $80.00 (40%)
New (3)
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 443
Format: Cd-rom
Platforms: Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows Xp, Macintosh
Media: CD-ROM
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 9.6 x 7.9 x 1.7
MPN: 814956024054
Model: ASP-C50-DE-R
UPC: 814956024054
EAN: 0814956024054
ASIN: B000IK414I
Release Date: October 31, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Don't be mislead May 21, 2007
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
Don't be fooled by the product description which makes it sound as if this application is written for entry-level animators and hobbyists. It's not. This is a professional-level application. We introduced this tool into the production pipeline of our animation shop and we love it!
The ability to actually *rig* a 2D character for animation is fantastic enough. But then to be able to have vertice-level control too is mind-blowing! This doesn't even take into account the: particle system, or the depth-of-field rendering, or being able to move through 3D space, etc.
While the overall documentation may be a bit thin, the Anime Studio support community is strong and very willing to quickly answer any question. I found the Help File tutorials to be strong with the right amount of to-the-point brevity that quickly enables a new user to feel confident enough to begin creating right away.
And the price. How can you beat the price? Less than $200?! That's the same amount you'd pay for you and ALL of your executive buddies for lunch at 'Macaroni Grill'. Or....an evening for you and 2 of your buddies at "Cheater's Lounge". But anyway....
If you do *any* kind of 2D animation, do yourself a great favor and try this program. The last time I was this excited about a piece of software was back in 1996 when I started to hear a buzz about this goofy little animation program called "Flash".
$27 for the student discount April 6, 2007
20 out of 20 found this review helpful
I think people have said enough great things about the program, and I agree with them all. But what I want customers to know, if you can get a student discount (you're a student, someone you know is a student, or faculty) you can get it for $27 and the Pro version is $94 at places like academic superstore.
I Can Animate! March 9, 2007
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Coming from somebody who has always loved cartoons, but wasn't blessed with the talent to actually draw on paper, this software is great! I plan on using it to actually be able to animate my own pilot projects now without having to hire a bunch of animators to do it. Of course when they get picked up I will let the pros have some fun with this program as well. I used it to create a commercial for a client and they loved it. Mind you it is still on the simple side, but it was great to be able to see my own creation come to life. Now if only I can take the time to sit down and go through the manual step by step (which seems a bit lengthy, but it illustrates everything out), I bet I will love this program even more. Have fun with it and let your imagination run wild!
One of Three February 23, 2007
16 out of 16 found this review helpful
When it comes to 2D animation software, your choices are 1) Anime Studio for Windows and Mac OS X, 2) Toon Boom, for Win & Mac, and 3) KToon for Linux. Both of the other two are cell based animation where you draw the same character over and over in a new cell moving body parts as you go. I personally find this tedious and redundant. Anime uses the bone concept found in 3D programs that bends the vector shaped
drawing with the bones as you move them. You only need to set key frames. So this means all the frames between the key frames you set are calulated by the computer and you do not have to re-draw them. It lets the computer work for you, not just be a painting tool. While cell animation seems to bring traditional paper/pen artwork concepts to ther computer, the computer is not working for you as much as it is with the bone concept.
If you buy from Amazon you get the MAC & WIN version on the same CDROM, if you download from the manufacturer you get only one version.
The hardest part of character animation is lip-sync'ing, Magie Pro alone is as much as this software, this comes with Papagayo which is open source. I had to find an old Papagayo for my older Mac OS X version 10.3.9. I also use the built in amplitude lip syncing because is 'good enough' with out worring too much about the exact sounds. Less mouth flapping is sometimes better.
This is a wonderful program, a bit ahead of its time, and very stable.
Amazing capabilities in a cost effective package January 15, 2007
20 out of 22 found this review helpful
This is a really impressive piece of software! For only $200 you can get a 2D animation package that utilizes bone-rigging, distortion, in-betweening... and it's all quite easy to use!
E-Frontier, the company that owns Poser, a 3D character animation software package, has taken tools from 3D animation and translated them into a 2D package that can be learned in a matter of hours, as opposed to the several weeks required to learn even a basic 3D animation program.
Characters can be imported or drawn directly in the application. While the drawing tools can feel primitive and a little clunky, there are certain advantages to creating from inside Anime Studio. The first of these is the ability to "weld" points. In other words, you can attach a line segment to a point in the center of another line, something that Adobe Illustrator, the granddaddy of vector software programs, cannot do. This allows you to make adjoining shapes that can be filled seperately but still function as a single object. Another nifty little tool allows you to modify line width to zero surrounding a single point. This is a nifty way to avoid the overly perfect outlining that is the bane of those who create vector illustration.
The sophistocated bone rigging and the use of layers allow you to animate portions of your character independently and conversely to move bones dependently upon one another.
I could go on and on, but if you want to experience it for yourself before purchasing you can download a trial version of the "Anime Studio" from the e-frontier website to see for yourself. If you are an animation enthusiast, you will be ordering the full version for yourself soon afterward.
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