[JerkDouglas]

I’m the guy who was tagging the account with animations on twitter a week or so back, decided not to be so incessant about it, and post some here with an ulterior motive of making a few suggestions.

So first of all: this program is seriously the only thing I can animate in without going crazy. It gets out of my way enough to let me really slap a sequence together. Clip Studio is infuriatingly restrictive and procedural, TV Paint is overcomplicated, and everything else is vector-only, meaning you can’t actually sketch in them. (Of course, you already know that because you made this a raster program.) So thanks! Absolutely love this program!

Not sure how to embed but I think you’ve seen a most of these already anyway:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px417CSpufQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB77wY3USIA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72J6C5WPrnY

I really only have a few suggestions: Another animator friend said he doesn’t like the vertical X-sheet. And most people nowadays don’t work with vertical timelines… I’d say younger hobbyist animators have never even seen an X-sheet. He and I both agreed that just being able to flip the x-sheet on its side and dock it to the bottom or top of the screen would be essentially the same thing as a horizontal timeline that everyone is already used to.

2) Not sure if some kinda line-smoothing is feasible, like how it uhh… slows the stroke as you draw it in other drawing programs. This isn’t really a dealbreaker, but I’ve gotten some weirdly wobbly lines at times, no matter how fast my stroke is.

I suggest this because in the age of tablets, everyone is drawing on smooth plastic or glass screens with no tactile resistance. Smoothing algorithms are the only compensation I’ve found that feels right. Even a very small amount of smoothing can really help get a sketch out of the way faster.

3) The transformation handle in the bottom right of the transform box. It’s really disorienting to transform from the bottom of something, and I wind up using that more than the rotate/size handle top right, because what I’m really looking for is a skew transformer. Skew is super useful for nudging things around, or quickly demonstrating a slight ease out of an action in subtle arcs without having to draw several more frames of things coming to rest.

Also remapping keys would be handy, but I figure every program eventually will do that.

Anyways that’s about it. Program hasn’t once crashed on me, files aren’t corrupting like they did sometimes in PAP. This program has already replaced my entire rough drawing workflow. I’m definitely going to beat all my animation friends over the head until they try it.

[Niels]

Thanks a lot Jerkdouglas! Your animations are awesome.

And thanks very much for your suggestions. Let me comment on each…

1) Yeah, I know, even though many people love the vertical x-sheet (must be the old guys, like me;)), quite a few don’t. You might be right – maybe it is just a matter of doing the exact same thing, but horizontal. Noted.

2) Actually we do have a built in automatic stabiliser already working on all strokes. It is much “smarter” and more subtle compared to those simple smoothing algorithms. However,  people are used to the smoothing, so even though it wasn’t our plan from the beginning to include this kind of smoothing, we might add it. Others have requested this too.

3) Skewing is on our todo-list. As well as other ways of transforming, like “squash and stretch” that will keep a volume, while pulling or pushing it in any direction.

4) Remapping keys is on our todo as well.

You mentioned Animation Paper being a raster program. And it is. At least our ambition is for it to behave and feel like raster. But we do have a special line engine underneath, which means we are (and will be even more so) able to do kind of cool things. We will do line-nudging, so for close in-betweens you can simply push your lines slightly and still keep them crisp mind you. But, already, take a look what happens when you pick up a smaller part of your drawing using the lasso – then scale it up, or even way up – and stamp it down again. There’s no degradation or blurring or anything. It feels almost magic! (At least I think so) 😉

Anyway, thanks for your sweet words! Keep beating your friends over their heads! 😉

Thanks,
Niels