Anime Studio Debut 6: Review

Anime Studio Debut 6\
Take the plunge into animation with the latest offering from Smith Micro
Reviewed by David Cousens

Computer animation can be a bit of a daunting area to get started in. Not only has there been a remarkably high standard out there ever since Woody and Buzz first hit the cinema back in 1995 with Toy Story (was it really that long ago?), but anyone who has ever opened Adobe Flash can tell you it’s not the most intuitive program to cut your animating teeth on. Fortunately, Smith Micro has an option for all of you would-be animators.

Anime Studio Debut 6 is an affordable entry-level animation program for beginners. Upon opening the software, you’re offered a useful tutorial that gently guides you into the general options Anime Studio can offer you. The tutorial is short, efficient and wastes no time introducing you to the basics, getting you to the point where you’ll feel comfortable to start experimenting on your own.

The layout is clean and will be comfortingly familiar to Photoshop users; almost everything is in the same place, with the toolbox on the left and layers on the right. The only real difference is the animation timeline, which is nestled out of the way on the bottom of the screen. Even the icons themselves echo our favourite pixel-pushing app; things like the Paintbucket, Text tool and Shape tools are all there, making it easier to learn the new symbols quickly.

Animating is surprisingly intuitive, especially with a graphics tablet. Drawing shapes is a painless task, with the option of adding additional editing points at any stage of your drawing. Of course, you also have the option of scanning in your artwork, but it really is easiest to work directly into the program. Everything is vector based so you won’t have to worry about artwork scaling causing a drop-off in quality. Drawing on multiple layers allows you to approach the elements of your animation one at a time, so everything is easy to manage and you won’t end up accidentally ruining the previous elements you’ve drawn.

Anime Studio has an easy-to-use bone-rigging system that lets you define the areas of your image that you’d like to move. Giving characters their skeleton is surprisingly straightforward; a little bit of pointing and clicking gives you a fully working skeleton that can be easily manipulated with a single tool. You can also control how much influence each bone has on the next one; for example, you can edit the area of influence so that when you move a character’s foot it will drag the entire leg with it, but the head can move independently of the rest of the body. Things like this take a lot of pain out of animating. You won’t have to laboriously render any additional elements for your characters, as Anime Studio will generate all of the in-between art for you from your existing picture; you just need to select the relevant point in the timeline and move your character’s body parts into place.

If you’re not interested in the art side of things but still want to make animations, then you’re in luck. There’s an extensive library of ready-to-use content, including fully rigged anime-style characters and sound effects so you can jump straight to the action. As soon as you are done, you can upload your animations directly to YouTube from within Anime Studio so you can share your work in minutes. Anime Studio Debut 6 also supports SWF Flash files, AVI and MOV movie files.

So, any downsides? Although this is a very good place to start learning, the level of animation you’ll be producing won’t exactly be giving the guys at Pixar a run for their money; the appearance of the bone-rigging animation does give away that you haven’t done all of the hard work for yourself. The way some of the animation is stretched or squashed to match the bones doesn’t always appear natural and you’re limited to a flat-perspective fixed view, but you could definitely contend with the guys at South Park. The animations will only run up to two minutes, but you’re probably not setting out to remake the Lord of the Rings trilogy if you’re just starting out, so that’s not a major factor.

The cost is a good few hundred pounds cheaper than Adobe Flash CS4 (and dare we say it, Anime Studio 6 is a lot more stable than CS4, which still feels like it was rushed to be included with the CS4 suite) and the learning curve is nice and gentle thanks to the start-up guide’s tutorial. The interface and functions of Anime Studio 6 are very intuitive and you will be using it confidently in no time. People with animation experience who are after a more finished quality that they can show off will most likely get a bit frustrated by the limited options Anime Studio Debut 6 has to offer and would be advised to look towards Anime Studio Pro 6. 5