I was able to get up and running with Anime Studio after about an hour. I liked the bones feature- by manipulating a bone the attached bones go with the others, allowing the software to render motion. The skeletons are pre-built for the Anime Studio characters, or you can create your own skeleton as well. That allows for complete control of where the bones are. The software also utilizes layers, as graphic artists know are very important.

The software allows for the importing of audio, addition of text (such as Ka-Pow!) in cartoons, and even lip synching. The characters and objects are also automatically resized as they move into the background, creating realistic depictions.

There are also a variety of output formats including widescreen, you tube, VGA, NTSC, PAL, web, and custom.

The software installed perfectly in 64-bit Windows 7.

I do have two complaints though, I’d like to see video tutorials like other software companies offer, and an indexed Users Guide. Since both the Users Guide and the Quick Start Guide are PDF files, I had to use the search function to find keywords related to what I was wanting to do. An index of the help file would be helpful.

No real hard copy users guide is included, but the PDF files include a 231 page Users Guide, a 41 page Quick Start Guide, and plenty of sample images and characters to get you up and running in minutes. The software also works for 30 days before you are required to register it, which might be important if you want to make sure it will work on your computer.
Rating: 4 / 5

Strengths

* Easy to get started: The tutorials are one of the software’s strengths. They are enjoyable, easy to follow, and very comprehensive in the use of the Anime Studio tools. However, the tutorials do not attempt to teach you much about important animation concepts. (You’ll need to learn about rigging, timelines, walk cycles, etc., somewhere else. I recommend The Animator’s Survival Kit or similar.). I animated a simple pre-made figure in about an hour using the Quick Start tutorial.

* The Bones System: It’s a bit harder to create your first animation sequence from scratch than it was to use the Quick Start files, but it’s MUCH easier than it was with Maya, thanks to the “Bones” system which makes rigging extremely easy and intuitive. (See my video demo.)

* Animate your own photos: Another cool feature of the software is the ability to animate photos or mix them into vector animations.

* Automatic lip-sync: Anime Studio Debut 6 has an automatic lip-sync feature that will instantly make your character’s mouth move along with an audio file.

* You can create dramatic camera moves easily.

Other Notes

* It definitely helps to understand Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator concepts (layers, vectors, curves, channels, etc.). Although, I have to say, Anime Studio’s method of making curves is MUCH more intuitive and easy to use than Photoshop or Illustrator.

* Be aware that the tutorials come in the form of PDF files rather than being software-based and are not included as a pre-printed manual in the box — this means you’ll have to alt-Tab between the PDF and the Anime Studio program to use them. Although the PDF tutorials are great, the online tutorials pretty much stink for this software since they are primarily geared towards the Pro version of the software, not the Debut version.

* Sometimes in the large User’s Guide (231 pages) it’s hard to tell which features are only for the Anime Studio Pro version instead of this version. For example, it covers using “Scripts,” but there is no feature for scripts in the Anime Studio Debut 6 (non-pro) version.

* The software description makes it look like anyone can animate with this software, but you do need to have drawing skills or access to licensed artwork. If you can’t draw a flower, it won’t draw one for you. It also doesn’t do cel shading for you or come with any textures or backgrounds. (You’ll need the Manga Studio Debut 4 (Win/Mac) software for that.) You can create drawings with a mouse, tablet, or by scanning them in and tracing them.

* This software is a bit oddly named. You can make any type of 2-D animation you want, not just anime.

System Specifications

I did not test this on a Mac, but the software ran very smoothly on these two Windows computers with no slowdowns or freeze-ups:

- Vista Home Premium SP1 on an HP Pavilion dv2700 Notebook with an AMD Turion 2GHz processor and 3GB RAM

- XP Media Center Edition SP3 on a Dell XPS 410 Desktop with an Intel Pentium 2.8GHz processor and 4GB RAM

Don’t forget to watch my 47-second video demo of how the Bones system works.
Rating: 5 / 5

I selected Anime Studio Debut mostly for my kids’ sake (teen and pre-teen). Since earlier this year, they’ve all enjoyed using a digital camera and Windows Movie Maker to create movies, especially Lego-based movies using Lego-built characters, vehicles and movie sets. Anime Studio seemed like something they’d enjoy using. Okay, and I’ll admit I was intrigued, too.

In reality, I think the program offers a lot of value for the money, but the implementation for a “Debut” program — one where no prior knowledge of animation is required or expected — left a lot to be desired. Although the makers offer a very thorough tutorial to help new users explore the program, I found it to be tiresome switching back-and-forth between the PDF-based, 41-page tutorial document and the actual program. I prefer the more elegant way of learning a new program where the program itself uses wizards to hand-hold me through the learning process. For instance, when I learned Sony Vegas Movie Studio earlier this year, its wizards got me using a program that is certainly no less complicated than Anime Studio, and perhaps is more so. Whereas I continue to enjoy learning how to use Vegas, my enthusiasm for Anime Studio waned quickly.

My older, pre-teen daughter and I were both frustrated at the lack of context-sensitive help or menus in Anime Studio. I like programs that let me right-click anywhere I happen to be, and a context-sensitive menu pops up with appropriate suggestions for what I’m doing at that moment.

I will credit Anime Studio Debut as being a “fun” program. My pre-teen daughter especially has enjoyed manipulating the template characters that come with this program, giving herself and her siblings a lot to laugh at. My daughter hasn’t tried using the Users’ Guide to learn the program — her learning so far has been by trial-and-error. If the authors of this program could see my daughter interacting with their program, they could see why a PDF Users’ Guide tutorial isn’t what’s needed for this “Debut” program.

I am concerned that Anime Studio crashed a LOT while we’ve used the program on an otherwise stable Vista laptop computer. If you install this program, I suggest monitoring the Reliability Monitor (in Vista and Windows 7) to see how reliable your computer currently is, and again how reliable it is after you’ve installed and begun using Anime Studio Debut. (To find the Reliability Monitor, click the Start button, then type “Reliability” in the Start Search textbox to find the monitor).

SUMMARY: I think Anime Studio Debut offers a lot of value for the money. I’ve spent nearly as much money on stupid kids’ games that weren’t nearly so interesting to play with. The functionality of this program is pretty deep. Where the program comes up short is not on the functionality it has, but in how new users must go about learning how to use those functions. For a “Debut” program, there is a lot that can be done to make learning Anime Studio Debut easier to do.
Rating: 3 / 5