Others say...

"I Can Animate!"
Coming from somebody who has always loved cartoons, but wasn't blessed with the talent to actually draw on paper, this software is great! I plan on using it to actually be able to animate my own pilot projects now without having to hire a bunch of animators to do it. Of course when they get picked up I will let the pros have some fun with this program as well. I used it to create a commercial for a client and they loved it. Mind you it is still on the simple side, but it was great to be able to see my own creation come to life. Now if only I can take the time to sit down and go through the manual step by step (which seems a bit lengthy, but it illustrates everything out), I bet I will love this program even more. Have fun with it and let your imagination run wild!

"One of Three"
When it comes to 2D animation software, your choices are 1) Anime Studio for Windows and Mac OS X, 2) Toon Boom, for Win & Mac, and 3) KToon for Linux. Both of the other two are cell based animation where you draw the same character over and over in a new cell moving body parts as you go. I personally find this tedious and redundant. Anime uses the bone concept found in 3D programs that bends the vector shaped
drawing with the bones as you move them. You only need to set key frames. So this means all the frames between the key frames you set are calulated by the computer and you do not have to re-draw them. It lets the computer work for you, not just be a painting tool. While cell animation seems to bring traditional paper/pen artwork concepts to ther computer, the computer is not working for you as much as it is with the bone concept.

If you buy from Amazon you get the MAC & WIN version on the same CDROM, if you download from the manufacturer you get only one version.

The hardest part of character animation is lip-sync'ing, Magie Pro alone is as much as this software, this comes with Papagayo which is open source. I had to find an old Papagayo for my older Mac OS X version 10.3.9. I also use the built in amplitude lip syncing because is 'good enough' with out worring too much about the exact sounds. Less mouth flapping is sometimes better.

This is a wonderful program, a bit ahead of its time, and very stable.

"Amazing capabilities in a cost effective package"
This is a really impressive piece of software! For only $200 you can get a 2D animation package that utilizes bone-rigging, distortion, in-betweening... and it's all quite easy to use!

E-Frontier, the company that owns Poser, a 3D character animation software package, has taken tools from 3D animation and translated them into a 2D package that can be learned in a matter of hours, as opposed to the several weeks required to learn even a basic 3D animation program.

Characters can be imported or drawn directly in the application. While the drawing tools can feel primitive and a little clunky, there are certain advantages to creating from inside Anime Studio. The first of these is the ability to "weld" points. In other words, you can attach a line segment to a point in the center of another line, something that Adobe Illustrator, the granddaddy of vector software programs, cannot do. This allows you to make adjoining shapes that can be filled seperately but still function as a single object. Another nifty little tool allows you to modify line width to zero surrounding a single point. This is a nifty way to avoid the overly perfect outlining that is the bane of those who create vector illustration.

The sophistocated bone rigging and the use of layers allow you to animate portions of your character independently and conversely to move bones dependently upon one another.

I could go on and on, but if you want to experience it for yourself before purchasing you can download a trial version of the "Anime Studio" from the e-frontier website to see for yourself. If you are an animation enthusiast, you will be ordering the full version for yourself soon afterward.

"Excellent Vector animation tool"
Formerly known as Moho, this is an easy to use vector animation tool... but don't be fooled, it has some very powerful features such as layers, skeletal animation, lip synch, and even supports 3D camera motion and importation of 3D objects (although this is not a 3D animation tool like Maya).

One recommendation I will make for new users to Anime Studio -- learn some basic animation techniques such as squash and stretch, walk cycles, etc. It will improve your animations tenfold. Check out some of the films done by Grey Kid, they have really raised the bar on 2D vector animation almost to the level of traditional cel animation.

I'm hoping to see further development on Anime Studio, now that it has more commercial viability since it has been bought by e-frontier. And a Linux version is coming soon also.