Performance
Although I have not yet had the chance to do an elaborate project with ASP, the program seemed to work very well as I worked my way through my tests and experiments. As I mentioned before, John Lane seems to be very pleased with ASP and has used it for professional jobs, so it seems to be solid software. I plan to do something professionally with ASP, as it is just too tempting not to. Ages ago, I did some real cel animation, on real cels, using ink for the lines and special paint for the color. We shot it on super 8, a frame at a time. It took forever, plus it was boring; inking and painting, cleaning and shooting. It took a bunch of us at a commercial art school a month of hard work just to produce a few seconds of animation. Anime Studio Pro makes it possible for a single artist or small group to produce a real project in a short amount of time.
Character animation with pouring wine and animated flowers.
Value
Anime Studio Pro 6 is a great value, plain and simple. Not only is it a great program for animation but I could see using the tracking, particles, and the bone animation for visual effects as well. ASP could also be used for compositing. I plan to try animating the shadows for live action shot on a green screen using the bones and a simple figure. At the $199 list price, it is a great bargain for character animation. It out does the $1000 After Effects program in this area and has many features found in the $800 Lightwave program. I can't recommend it enough.
Lovers clothes are lifted and blown away by the wind. I tested another software package for this, then went back and animated it in a fraction of the time in ASP. The undulating grass being blown by the wind, that was all ASP particles and shading.
Final Comments Almost every visual filmmaker could use Anime Studio Pro. It could of course be used to make cartoon animation for everything from web video to hi definition animated movies. One could also do animated titles for a movie, animated logos for commercials, and even visual effects for indie movies and shorts. With the tracking and animation software you could track a sign onto a moving live action image. You could do multi plane compositing, clean up green screen by animating green patches then keying in editing software. Anime Studio Pro 6 is a wonderfully useful product at a very low price.
Ease
of Use
10.0
Depth
of Options
10.0
Performance
10.0
Value
vs. Cost
10.0
Overall Score
10.0
Craig
Herron is a filmmaker and artist who loves the world of visual effects and matte painting. He has worked on many indie movies as well as local commercials. His first two, award winning, shorts; A Fall From The Clouds, and Freedom Dance were full of 2d, 2.5D and 3D animation, matte paintings and other VFX. His current project Bermuda Triangle ― A Love Story is all green screen and pre-shot location backgrounds. He is the owner of Herron Designs.
