Animation Software for Cartooning....

**TDolce** · 03 November 2006, 05:08 PM

Ya know,..I was just thinking the other day how much I rely on Xara for almost all of my professional work and how lately I have used the heck out of the animated gif feature set as well and then it hit me! It continues to hit me! How I wish that Xara would make a true vector 2D animation program so that "artists" and NOT just programmers could have an affordable and easy to understand option for producing cartoon animation with sound track capabilties as well.

The ability to export as a .swf would give so many of us another option to use besides Flash. The thing would be that only the folks at Xara could be able to produce a product as powerful and as easy to use as Xara Xtreme and that would be a Godsend!

I mean if they could create an animation package with the same user friendliness and logical flow as they put into their other products, they could really have something!

I would want it so that one could actually create cartoon animation and not just object oriented stuff. It would be so neat because it would allow for the creation of characters to be developed in Xara Xtreme and the transition would be seamless! OK,..Perhaps I;m dreaming or perhaps others would not share the same excitment for this.

It was just a thought. Thanks for letting me vent.

Todd

**Soquili** · 03 November 2006, 05:23 PM

Hi Todd,

If they created a program like that I would buy it.

**TDolce** · 03 November 2006, 05:26 PM

Well,...thanks. At least now I know that I'm not alone. I keep thinking that this would be an area that Xara really hasn't touched on yet and seems so logical to round out their portfolio of applications.

td

**Logo Kid** · 03 November 2006, 05:37 PM

Flash is the standard just because it's the complete package and has been developed over a number of years more that 10 at least. It's a pain to use I admit but at the end of the day it works and works well. So I don't think that there would be much point xara creating something that wasn't as good. And the thing with animation is that you can't do simple things quickly any way ...

**Odat** · 03 November 2006, 05:39 PM

I checked out Lost Marble (Anime Studio now) and was impressed with the tools it had for doing the actual animation. However, actually creating the artwork seemed like a horrible chore compared to using Xara to do the same thing.

If Xara provided software like that, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

**TDolce** · 03 November 2006, 06:51 PM

Yes Indeed THAT is where I strongly feel that there IS indeed a need for Xara to do this. Flash is indeed a powerful tool, but drawing in Flash is a bit like hammering a nail with the butt end of a screw driver. It may work,..but man,..what a hassle!

There is so much clutter and programming stuff in Flash that it's a bit overwhelming for one to get their hands around and intimidating to many. Moho was way too clunky to work in and just didn't seem to have a GUI that was very appealing to me.

Again,..just my opinion....

Yeah and we can call it XarAnimate!

**ZEBtoonz** · 03 November 2006, 07:38 PM

Well, here's my two cents. I've used Moho, now Anime Studio, and it's great! There are some good examples over on Dave Cockburn's site http://www.squeakypics.co.uk/ under Web animations. Most of it was done with Moho and exported to flash. Dave is a Xara user as well and does some of his character creation and backgrounds in Xara before he animates in Moho.

Moho is like any program, at first it's a lot of trial and error, but once you get the hang of it, you're off and running! I agree that the drawing tools for Xtreme are easier to use than Moho, but once you get used to it, they're not so bad.

**Odat** · 03 November 2006, 08:00 PM

Indeed, you do eventually get used to the interface of Moho. It's not the greatest in the world, but overall there are a lot of programs with a far larger barrier in this regard. Blender springs immediately to mind.

**Intbel** · 03 November 2006, 09:35 PM

I fink Xara is perfick for 2D animations so there. >sniff<

Well .. almost perfect ... it needs a "Reverse Frames" button and
it could do with not being likely to crash when going over 120 frames or so.

If Xara were to produce a brand new programme then the animation module it has now, with the ability to add sound and export to swf, would be right up my street.

**Odat** · 03 November 2006, 11:47 PM

Originally Posted by Logo Kid

Flash is the standard just because it's the complete package and has been developed over a number of years more that 10 at least. It's a pain to use I admit but at the end of the day it works and works well. So I don't think that there would be much point xara creating something that wasn't as good. And the thing with animation is that you can't do simple things quickly any way ...

Quite true, quite true.

However, what would happen if Xara were to enter the animation arena? They could either create a Xara spinoff, or just enhance the animation facilities that already exist in Xara (though I think a spinoff would be a better idea).

In this new software some of the features that flash provides, say for example keyframing/tweening (perhaps based on blends as they currently exist, but working over a range of frames or something) would allow for creating animations easier than what is currently possible.

Although such software wouldn't be up to the same high standard as Flash, certainly with a reduced toolset, it would most likely have a price tag quite a bit more appealing than the one that flash currently sports. Something like that might sell quite well, since the barrier to getting into flash animating would be greatly reduced for people who can't afford (or just flat out won't pay) the high price of Flash.

Of course, this is from the POV of someone who won't use flash due to cost reasons.