Award winning animator Sharon Katz has been a Studio Artist user and beta tester for many years. She recently completed a 4 part series of tutorials and product reviews associated with learning the basics of animating on your own. Her most recent tutorial post on ‘Teaching Yourself Animation‘ includes a nice description and review of Studio Artist. It also lays out some of the compelling advantages for adding Studio Artist to your personal arsenal of digital effects tools.
The example animation frame above was totally hand drawn by Sharon in Studio Artist, and is a part of a completed hand animated film totally made within Studio Artist. Sharon has in fact used Studio Artist for all of her award winning animated films except the first 2 she ever made, which were probably done before she was even aware of Studio Artist. And she chooses to use Studio Artist even though she is very familiar with every other option available for digital artists. And she discusses the pros and cons of all of them in her tutorial article.
Sharon has this to say about Studio Artist:
“Synthetik Studio Artist is a jam packed creative application that is completely unique. It is directed at artists of all kinds, and includes a module for animation. The brushes are brilliant. I have found none to compare in any other drawing, painting, or animation software. For those looking to create imaginative work, there is nothing that compares“.
Studio Artist is very unique, in that it is the only digital art program that includes full support for both 2D graphics as well as animation and video effects processing. Other companies go out of their way to break up their product lines to specifically focus on these individual areas. 2D artists, or animators, or video effects people all get separate products, as opposed to tools that bridge boundaries between different artistic genres and allow for new ways of working because of that. So they split off their products lines into separate feature limited pieces. As opposed to trying to look for synergistic interactions between the worlds of 2D art and time based animation or video effects. We try to provide tools that provide the best of all of these different ways of working to everyone working in the different artistic areas.
We think that creative artists lose out big time when digital art product lines are artificially split apart like that. People interested in animation or video effects get incredibly limited tools for manipulating 2D imagery or paint effects when products lines are artificially split up into 2D vs animation or video categories. People who focus on 2D art don’t have access to time based processing, which can open up all kinds of new creative options for them, like the ability to create key framed generative art processes that work over time to build up 2D imagery.
So at Synthetik Software, we’re all about trying to maximize your artistic potential. And we really mean artistic. Not some cheesy generic cookie cutter digital effect, but trying to strive to really create innovative tools that allow you as a digital artist to find your own unique and personal aesthetic looks, styles, and ways of working. Because art is supposed to be about exploring the unique and personal differences between different artists, as opposed to making everyone’s digital art look the same.
