eFrontier Anime Studio Pro (Win/Mac)

List Price: $199.99 Discount Price: Too low to display

Features:

• Create your characters and objects by drawing or scanning directly into Anime Studio 5 Pro
• With bone-rigging, vector-based graphics, and layer-based workflow you can create animated shorts of any length
• Add a soundtrack or other special effects, such as lip-synching, line effects, camera angle, glows, particle effects, and more, to your animation
• Output your finished animations to popular movie formats, including AVI, MOV, and Flash, or transfer your work to other popular graphics programs
• Anime Studio Pro 5 is compatible with Windows and Macintosh operating systems

Accessories:
ColorVision Spyder2PRO Win/Mac	ColorVision Spyder2 Suite Win/Mac

Customer Reviews:

Don't be mislead [Posted on 2007-05-21]
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".

Import only [Posted on 2007-07-07]
This is a basic 2-d animation program only. You will first have to draw your image then import it. The drawing toolbar is extremely limited.

Do You Feel Like A Cartoon? [Posted on 2007-10-14]
If you at times feel like a cartoon character, now, this may become a reality thanks to the hardwork of the folks at e--frontier.With capabilities to import any image and add rigging to it,your dreams become a digital reality.
Maybe I should've gave it a higher rating,but it did take some doings to get things to work (still a lil buggy?)An improvement is needed in the color pallette (to eliminate all the import/export for quality) and I'm still waiting for my rebate/discount as well as the promised extra content( I'm an artist so the extra wasn't that important,would like it tho).Look for my new cartoon coming someday to a web nearest you(google,veoh).

Anime Studio Pro for Mac review [Posted on 2008-02-08]
Software works fine. Unsure if there if there was supposed to be a manual included, though.

Could be better, but still great fun [Posted on 2008-09-29]
This product was not the type of animation software i was looking for per say, but that does not mean it won't fit your needs. When I first bought this software,(not from amazon although i wish i had), i was hoping for a more traditional look instead the animation reeks of flash.
It a personal preference because I like the traditional Cel-animation like in an anime. This software is meant for ease and can do a lot of the work for you. It does all the in between frames all you have to worry about is the "key frames." It is fully capable of producing a fully professional work but like I said its a preference thing.
It you want animation that resembles more of today's web cartoons then go with this software. An overall mediocre product. If you want a more traditional look your best bet is elsewhere.

side note:
-sometimes the program will maneuver a different path than you intended.
-limited working area
-i could not figure out how to get the facial expressions to work
instead it would just carry the one i chose throughout the entire animation

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