is a
Vector based
2D Animation software for animators distributed by
E Frontier . Anime Studio is compatible both for Windows and Macintosh operating systems. A Linux version is announced. The software comes in two flavours, named Anime Studio and Anime Studio Pro, the first being restricted in terms of possible length and image size as well as not having all the functions of the Pro version.
The software was originally developed under the name "Moho" by LostMarble, the last Moho version 5.4 is identical with the current release of Anime Studio Pro. LostMarble is still the home of
Papagayo , a free lip sync software which works with Anime studio.
Despite its name, Anime Studio isn't restricted to animation in anime style. It can serve as a time-saving frontend to create
Flash Cartoon s, it can create
Cutout-style Animation quite easily, and it can, within its restrictions, even mimick some pencil drawn animation. Since it features some basic 3D funcionality, it can be seen as a 2½D program. Short films, especially those which tell their story in one scene, are fast and easy to create. For bigger projects some additional software is required, like video and sound editors.
- Anime Studio features of different types for artwork as well as for grouping and switching assets. Layers can be animated in perspective.
- can be animated easily.
- tablets in combination with brush shapes create strokes which look quite good and more similar to natural media than pure vector graphis. Artwork created in Anime Studio is basically resolution-independent.
- The animator can create a skeleton of to which he attaches pieces of artwork. The skeleton works with Inverse Kinematics and makes it much easier to animate a character.
- of all layer, vector shapes, and bone animation.
- for outlines and fills can be defined and applied easily.
- are possible, if just a bit difficult to do.
- Anime Studio supports several file formats to . Alpha channels of PNG and video files are recognised.
- A can be add (only one at a time). In combination with Papagayo Anime Studio provides automatic lip sync.
- Anime Studio films to .swf, but without certain effects which are not part of the .swf file format. Export to video includes everything and can be done in any resolution. Videos can be rendered with an alpha channel.
- Most tools are completely (in Lua (programming Language) ).
- Anime Studio is not able to combine several files into one, and it doesn't have several scenes within one file. For longer projects additional software is needed (a video editor for video output, or Flash for .swf output).
- Only one soundtrack can be loaded into a scene, this starts at the first frame and can only be shifted in time by changing the start frame of the project in the project setting dialogue box (though downloadable scripts can make the sound more flexible).
