User Stories

Mike Booth

How did you find out about Anime Studio? Oh wait! Ha! Didn't Okse turn you onto it?
He did.

If you could eat or drink as much as you wanted of something for the rest of your life with no consequences, what would it be?
Eat bacon, drink scotch.

What software did you use before Anime Studio?
Flash - and I still do for certain things.

What was your inspiration for the psonar commercial? Did you have a lot of direction or were you allowed to roam around a bit in your mind?
The guys from Psonar wanted something quick and inexpensive. They gave me a script that at first contained three characters and several situations, but we simplified it to the bare essentials. Given the time We had to do the job (five days) I knew the designs would have to be very flat and easy to animate, so I went for the vector look without outlines.

Can you give an example of how AS made your psonar project go smoothly?
All the action was designed to take advantage of Anime Studio's bone system, which made animation of each gesture very quick. Cycling Keyframes came in very handy in the shot with all the dancing, and the Shape Effects saved a lot of time when making the electronic gadgets. What I also liked was being able to animate opacity using keyframes, and the ease of shifting keyframes around on the timeline.

What is one of your favorite features of Anime Studio?
The interface is very nicely designed, so probably that and the bone system.

If you could change one thing about AS, what would it be?
I'd like to be able to draw new shapes at any point on the timeline, rather than at just Frame Zero - or at least add new points to a vector shape while I'm animating. AS sort of demands that every element of your shot is prepared before you begin animating. For people who work more instinctively, it's a bit of a drawback. But then I know nothing about how AS works on a technical level, and I'm aware that it may not be feasible to program it to do that.

What other kinds of art arenas do you play in?
I dabble in Photoshop painting, and spend a lot of time browsing sites like Concept Art.org and seething with envy at the young people who have the passion and dedication to their art that allows them to be brilliant. I am old now, and in any case never had that degree of motivation. Looking at that sort of work fills me with regret and self-loathing. But it's nothing that alcohol and bacon can't solve, at least temporarily.

You can find more of Mike at his blog and his YouTube channel.