Another "Which is better" thread...sorry!

#1

Hey guys…

I’ve been out of CG for awhile. I’m looking at animating a short toon shaded movie, and my decisions come down to “Shade Standard” or upgrading an OLD Animation Master version.

I need help. Can anyone give me advice. I’ve played with the Shade demo and its nice. One of the reasons I abandoned AM was life got too busy for me to troubleshoot issues.

HOWEVER, I’ve been looking at all the great stuff being done in AM (Haruko comes to mind!) and how the community has grown. But I’m still a WEE bit gunshy.

If you folks could give me any advice about pluses on Shade or maybe info regarding AM that might influence me, it would be appreciated. I’m just on the fence.

Thanks guys!
lafnjack

#2

I can’t comment on Shade, I’m not familiar with it…but, here is a great source of info on the toon tools in Animation Master.

#3

Thanks for the info! I’ll check it out!

All my best,
Lafnjack

#4

Hm… there it is again: Price-difference… and, if you are from US or UK, you should go with A:M… Just because there wont be so much language-difficulties…

And… if you got A:M already… you only have to pay 99 Dollars for an Update to the newest version… the newester full version… shade is much more expensive in the full version.

A:M can do the job with nice results(see the anzovin-spot the duell) and the newer versions of A:M(v10.0-12.0) are pretty stable…so why dont you give it a try?

Fuchur

#5

Thanks Fuchar. The price though for Shade Standard was only 50 bucks more, which was close enough for me (99 versus 149…pretty close). I’m definitely starting to lean more to AM 12.0 though. Those animated movies look so awesome.

Thanks!
lafnjack

#6

I meant shade prof or whatever it is called…
A:M have just one version, so you will have all features… I couldnt find much about shade, which I could look into(cant read japanese or whatever), but I know, that there is a “rob the bank” and a "go and look in the tipps-glass-version, if you know what I mean…

Fuchur

PS: In the end: You are in a A:M-Forum, so you will properly here more good things about A:M than another package here… A:M is great… I cant say that Shade isnt, because I didnt try it… cant say more…

#7

Shade is one of the rare programs that can export A:M model files, though I don’t know how well it does. I’m not sure but I believe it exports to an older version of A:M model files (v4?) so it might be of some use to you. The English version with decent documentation, in pdf files, is available from e-frontier who now owns Poser in addition to Shade. The English version has been released in the past a few months after the latest Japanese version.

Shade does nice renders. I don’t know if it is good at animating.

I read years ago about some Japanese users who used both Shade and A:M. Maybe they can give you more info if they’re reading this thread.

Kevin

#8

How about this…
Me with Animation:Master is better than Me with Shade:)

#9

Honestly if you are looking to animate you really can’t go wrong with Animation Master. Plus they have a very supportive community and there are tons of tutuorials out there to help you along.

#10

Thanks alot guys. I posted here, and over in a Shade forum on another board, to hear all sides. I decided to upgrade my AM. Just purchased the latest update, so I’ll be getting it soon. In the meantime, I can play with the old version and get my splining skills up to snuff.

Mucho thanks!
lafnjack

#11

So I have to say: Welcome back in the Community.
What version of A:M have you got before updating?

If it is an earlier one than v9.5 (? maybe 9.0?) you will have to learn the new interface, but it is more simple and simply more :wink:

Fuchur

#12

Thanks. Good to be back. Yee-hah!

I HAD AM 2002, which I think is 9.5. I’m sure it won’t be TOO hard to pick up the new interface. I also ordered Wil Sutton’s book from Cafepress yesterday and the Killer Bean’s animator’s DVD on animation. So I’ll have plenty of homework to occupy me. Can’t wait for that and my update to arrive. HURRY! HURRY!!!

Thanks!
lafnjack

#13

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