Victor Paredes

The artist and animator on what he likes about Anime Studio

When did you start using AS?

I started with version 4 of Moho – the name Anime Studio had those days. I was looking for something better than Flash, as I never felt comfortable with it.

What made you choose it as your animation tool?

Bones. Bones were awesome, even when they weren’t 10 per cent of what they are now. But it was also the subversive way Moho worked. It was independent, with its own philosophy. It didn’t copy other software. Nothing inside Anime Studio is predefined, so you can experiment. And people share new tricks and techniques. That freedom is one of its greatest features.

Is there a feature you couldn’t do without?

There are many, but Frame-by-frame is one. Yet I think the software’s appeal comes from the combination of the tools. Bone rigging is extremely powerful, easy to use and always improving. For example, combining rigging with Frame-by-frame gives you great results and new workflows you didn’t imagine before.

Talk us through your process…

It varies, but we often start with an idea and make a simple animatic for it, in Anime Studio. Then an illustrator makes the characters and backgrounds using Manga Studio or Photoshop. I receive the characters as images and redraw and rig them inside Anime Studio, then export animated characters as MOV files with Alpha, then a partner puts characters, background, effects and so on together, using After Effects.

What’s the key part of Anime Studio 11 for your work?

There are two: Frame-by-frame and References. A new version is good when I ask: how did I survive for so long without this feature? And I feel that about both these features.