Learning Anime Studio: Bring life to your imagination with the power of Anime Studio

If you're accustomed to drawing traditionally with a pen or pencil, you will discover quite quickly that drawing with a mouse requires a different skillset. The way a mouse moves, the difference in control, and the lack of intimacy can really take some time getting used to. While initially overwhelming, it is possible to map your mind towards mouse drawing.

A graphic tablet is like a digital drawing pad that allows you to sketch on screen using a utensil that resembles a pen or pencil. What's nice is that Anime Studio was built to work with certain graphic tablets, thus making Plug and Play easy.

In this book, we will be creating cartoon assets with a mouse. This is the most universal way as most users have this accessory for their computer. In addition, the book covers both freehand and point drawing styles. We will be using point drawing for the majority of this book.

Before we begin drawing in Anime Studio, it's important to understand the differences between vector and raster graphics. Anime Studio allows you to output both types of graphics, and each has its strengths and weaknesses.

Vector drawings are created whenever you use a drawing tool in Anime Studio. This is also the main format for Adobe Flash, Toon Boom, and Adobe Illustrator. Vector format is a popular choice and has been dominating the Internet cartoon scene for several years.

The following image is an example of a vector image. Notice how all the lines retain a sharp quality.

Vector graphics tend to have smaller file sizes compared to equivalent raster graphics. This not only makes streaming embedded Shockwave Flash (SWF) easier, but also keeps your project files lower in size, thus freeing up more space on your hard drive and cutting down on load times.

Raster or bitmap images are made up of pixels. Common file types include JPEG,...

As we start working with the drawing tools in this chapter, it would be best for you to have a new document loaded up so that we have room to play around. In order to do that, navigate to File | New. We will also use the example files provided with the book's code bundle.

Your document's dimensions and settings should be set from the previous chapter. New documents always open with a vector layer on the right-hand side Layers Panel, labeled Layer 1. This is perfect for us as all of the drawing tools require a vector layer to be used. We will be discussing the difference in layer types in Chapter 3, Exploring Layers and Timelines.

Some drawing tools have features that can be adjusted at the top of the Anime Studio window. We will refer to this area as the top bar.

The drawing tools are located on the left-hand side of your screen by default. The tools we will be looking at are divided into two panels: Draw and Fill. If you go in order while learning these tools...

There are a lot of tools in Anime Studio and learning all of them can be an overwhelming process. The key is to pick up certain tools that will be used most (such as the Add Point, Freehand, and Paint Bucket tools) and slowly learn the others as they become needed in your projects. Following along with this book will help too, especially when we start drawing more complicated objects and characters. Finally, keep practicing! Like anything, the more you practice, the easier things will get.

In the next chapter, we will take a look at the Layer tools as well as the different layer types and the beginning stages of mapping out our animations.