User Stories

Jon Canham

How long have you been using Anime Studio?
I've been using Anime Studio for about two years, ever since my friend found Anime Studio on the internet. I've used both Debut and Pro versions of Anime Studio 5.

What was your art level when you first started using Anime Studio?
When I first started using Anime Studio I thought, what's animation and how the heck do I start? I have learned some things since then.

Have you ever used any other software to create your art?
Before I started working with Anime Studio, I looked at Toon Boom, which was way over my head. I had never animated or drawn at that stage before!

What is your favorite feature?
Anime Studio plays an important role in my workflow from start to finish. One of my favorite features of Anime Studio is it's generally accessibility. That's what makes the software great. Anybody can do it! The bone function is also brilliant and great for making the quick toon. I'm also particularly enjoying the actions tool even though I have only done head turns on them.

What was your inspiration for SuperReality?
I've always found it hard to say exactly where ideas come from. I just focus my eye to the middle distance and go for it.

Tell us about your art featured on the UKTV GOLD website.
When I first started animating videos I posted them on my YouTube account. Then some of my art was featured on UKTV Gold: Meet Steve, Living with ghosts 1&2, Funny Joes fancy dress and a couple of my live action pieces. My art has also been included on the BBC3 website.

If you could change one thing about Anime Studio, what would it be?
It would be a magical portal to another realm, where I'm the king! Other than that, nothing.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
Being invisible would be pretty cool or having the ability to turn back time.

You’ve created a new series called Frank ‘N’ Steve, can you tell us a little about it?
Frank 'N' Steve is a sit-com about a regular sort of guy (Frank) who, after being thrown out of his girlfriend’s parent’s house, has no other choice but to move in to the local cemetery.
Frank’s landlord and new best friend is Steve, a monster made from parts of corpses. Together they face life in the cemetery which isn't easy when everyone they come across ends up trying to kill them!

How did you come up with the idea for your characters?
Some of my close friends say it's like the two halves of me, which is true to an extent. Frank is the ridiculous side, he doesn't have any clear motives for what he does but he does them anyway. Steve is a monster, but he's the hero. Steve always knows what to do which, I guess, is the way I'd like to be. The characters began to live a life of their own after the first series of shorts.  In all there are 22 episodes; I'm now making the final two episodes of this series.
 
Are you working on any other projects using Anime Studio?
After finishing this series of Frank 'N' Steve I'm looking toward a reboot of Super-Reality and doing some more shorts. Now that I'm in the YouTube Partner Program it's important for me to keep making videos, Anime Studio lets me do that professionally and quickly!

Is there anything else you would like to share with us?
If  you would've told me five years ago that I would be making cartoons and actually having people interested in what I do, let alone the company that makes the software I use, I would have laughed in your face and slapped you with a wet kipper, but that is literally what has happened to me! Anime Studio and animation has changed me from someone with no motive to do anything at all into something like the monster I'd always wanted to be!

Thanks again to Smith Micro and Anime Studio for helping me share my cartoons with the world!

View Jon’s animations on his YouTube channel or at his Frank ‘N’ Steve page on Facebook.