[New App/Implementation: Affinity Animator]

I would be happy to offer you 1-2 hours free tut ;)

 

It’s not that hard as you think.

 

 

Thanks for the offer and I might take you up on that one fine day, but I am too busy right now:)

[New App/Implementation: Affinity Animator]

"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCscGP4oVmY"

 

Check this.

 

Blender is not the worst UI out there. Try 3ds max or Zbrush ;)

 

Yes, I am sure there are worse out there but I'd rather not see them :D

 

Anyway, the demonstration was good, but the question is how long it would take me to understand how to do that? It is like it is with math; for some it comes natural, for the rest of us it is an occult science:D

 

As for Zbrush it is way above my budget and the other is Windows-only. And subscription. 

 

No, I am still of the opinion that 2D animation software today is like mobile phones were before the iPhone. Serif seems to have the right approach. Hope they or someone else with the same appraoch are busy working on it.

 

But since I already have Blender, I will take a look at it some day. So far, just the sight of it has scared me from trying anything :D

[New App/Implementation: Affinity Animator]

Neither Fusion nor Blender is what I am hoping for. Fusion is more like Motion directed towards motion graphics and effects and Blender is not exactly what I call intuitive and with a boring interface. I want something with which I can turn my comix ideas into animation. Well, with Affinity to create images and multilayred files, Elements+ as an addon to Photoshop Elements and Harmony Essentials, I am at least beginning to see some way out of the confusion. Made this today as a test: https://youtu.be/7jjKk5hvBck

[Affinity Photo: layers grouped into folders]

Toon Boom doesn't recognise them and I don't have the full version of Photoshop, only Photoshop Elements, but then there is an add on which releases the hidden features called Elements+ and which those who are interested may find here: http://elementsplus.net
Using that I can add those folder and lo and behold! Toon Boom recognises it. 

[Affinity Photo: layers grouped into folders]

I have one question regarding Affinity Photo; does it have the ability to organise layres into folders in a psd-file? To be able to import a psd-file into Toon Boom that has to be done and it can't be done with Photoshop Elements which I have. This is the explanation Toon Boom gives:
 

​In Adobe Photoshop, organize your file so that all your layers are “grouped” into individual folders, or that all the elements you want to import as a single layer in Harmony are grouped together in their own folder. Any layer that is not in a folder group, by itself or otherwise, will not be imported.

 

 

[New App/Implementation: Affinity Animator]

I second what is said and I have Motion and it is good for what it is meant for; Motion graphics, but rather clumsy for classical 2D animation, something I want to work more with as I am full of ideas, but I have struggled uphill the steep learning curve of Toon Boom's products and althouth their latest Harmony Essentials is a step forward in the right direction, it is not there. As a cartoonist and illustrator I think 2D animation will be more and more important as we are moving from print to the web. 3D may be good for film etc. but 2D has a future as one can create much lighter animations and like animated illustrations, for instance. Animated ads. There are no limits. 
But what I want to see is an animation app for us who actually draw. 

The problem with everything I have tested so far is that they feel like mobile phones before the iPhone and mp3-players before the iPod. They do the job but they are clumsy and unintuitive. 

I have tried to create multilayered files with Affinity Designer to import them with layers intact into Harmony, but so far I haven't succeeded. Seems like the PSD-files need to handled in Photoshop to transform the layers into folders - and then you need the full version and no thanks. And why? Why can't the software do that for you? Creative software should remove all the hoops and loops, hurdles and obstacles and tedious tasks and let us concentrate on what we can, create. I am not a developer and neither do I need an animation software which resembles old time analogue animation studios. 

It is difficult to put it down exactly what I am looking for but Affinity Designer is to me the iPhone of vector design, something which I have struggled with during many years as well. After a few days with Affinity I am able to throw together illustrations very fast and keep the deadlines although I am procrastinating. 

If the people at Serif could do the same for animation, it would be like entering heaven! 

You could start by adding simple timeline animation to Designer, but I think it should be developed as a standalone app. Supporting multilayered files from Designer and Photo. 

You would be to artists what Apple has been to computers and devices:) 

And it is simple. Let the software take care of the tedious tasks. Make way for creation. Can't be that difficult? :D Hahaha! Sorry. Well, good luck! Here's to hope!


PS: And I have of course some ideas as to what is needed. The artist will always be in drawing mode. Perhaps skip the term "camera" since there are no cameras. Create the possibility to move around in a space. Add layers and objects (2D, of course) in that space. Snap in and out of the space and into each layer. Automatic keyframing or keyframing made easy and intuitive. Let the software guess at what you want to do and assist you in that. Automating tweening by dragging objects and layers around. Live previews. Automatic onion skinning. Fluent lip synching. Walk cycle templates to be dropped on to characters. Then you just adapt the template to fit the character. Snapping parts together to create a cut out figure, just by dragging an arm to the torso, drop and snap. Setting pivot points by clicking. Make bones relative to exact shapes. Just highlight the shape and that is what the bone will move and nothing more. And so on. Can't be that difficult, can it? :D

[Animation and iPad Pro]

This is two "requests" in one - or rather suggestions and kudos as well.

I've been working with digital illustration along with analogue since I bought my first Mac in 1998 and although I have done some logos etc. and during a period even had Illustrator and now have a few other vector based alternatives, I never really got into vectors. It felt slow and frustrating, especially since I work very fast and don't have the patience to read instruction manuals - and perhaps also since math is not my force, although one doesn't need to know math to work with vectors, but it shines through that it is code based instead of pixel based - or something like that. A "mathematical" approach to creativity. 

But this Affinity is different. I think you have nailed it. I don't know how, but to me it is just to dive in and start working and I can already work almost as fast as I am used to and that is not bad after less than a week. It would still be good to have a manual which goes into the finer details, and I hope it is in the works. 

I have also tried to work with animation, but it is even more frustrating than vectors used to be. I am using Toon Boom Studio Express, Toon Boom Studio and Toon Boom's Harmony Essentials and the latter is the better, but it is still not where I wish it was. I am sure you people could do it that way :D Oh well, but I guess you have your hands full, but I am hoping that there will come an animation application which makes 2D animation just as easy to get into as vector is in Affinity (you should pay me for all these nice words!)

 

But if files made with Affinity would work well with said programmes, that would also be fine. So far, they don't :/

And yes, I am planning to get the new iPad Pro. How about a vector app for that one? With support for CMYK since some illustration still need to be ready for print...

 

I am dreaming of a white Christmas...