So this Emperor Penguin walks into a bar...

[jimiphoenix]

Any Mirage users in the audience tonight? ;)

[Terro]

LOL, awsome title sucked me in. I must admit.

Not sure that we have a lot of stable mirage users, but a few people here are testing out the demo as we speak.

[jimiphoenix]

Hehe, yeah, the title came AFTER the post :D

For anyone reading this, I HIGHLY recommend Mirage...although I'm still trying to complete my first animation with it. The trial version is great, because as is mentioned elsewhere on these forums, it has all the features the full version does. Couple this with the fact that the Bauhaus site hosts some awesome tutorials (video and html) and learning resources and you'll be animating in no time.

[ori@r.a.m]

i do... and i'm saving money for it, really powerfull program :)
it's like the Photoshop of animation in my opinion :D
though my only problem with it is that you could get huge file sizes for a simple effecet or something (or i'm just missing something).. also i'm liking flash because it easier to publish it not like quick time movies or video, a lot of peoples that i know and peoples that art and animation isn't interest them don't have quick time plug in and that too bad :( of course their is also the vector issue.

BTW how do you compare it to animo?

[jimiphoenix]

BTW how do you compare it to animo?

I've never actually used Animo myself Ori - I turn 18 next month, and everything I know about art and animation is self-taught; I've really never had the opportunity.

Keep in mind, Animo has a kind of modular design - almost completely seperate programs to do vastly different things. If you think about this you really begin to understand how studio-orientated Animo is. I'm not saying you CAN'T work with it, but in the long run you'll probably end up putting more energy into something less impressive for more money :)

I agree with you about Mirage being the Photoshop of animation. There are so many features I've stumbled across that I've thought, "If I hadn't just come across that, it would be like one of my dream features on some other app..."

[NOOB!]

i borrowed,and by borrowed i mean stole :D ,a copy of mirage from my college that was just lying there unused *don't worry i bought it back*

so its sitting here on my pc,haven't used it yet.

[ori@r.a.m]

hahahah it's still a copy, i'm jealous :p
btw they love the painting at the news paper Ma'ariv!!! weeeee i'm so happy now i'll have money also for a new wacom!! later i show you what i did for them. (i can't show it until the issue will publish, about 2 weeks).
weee about half of my country will see my painting!!!

[Mistchiff]

Mirage is fast as hell.

but its a really journey to finish off a whole work.

i dont have the energy for it since i animate like i draw so i tend to get to caught up on ****ty details....

plus the inking part i have no idea how to do..
i know i can ink it but. it wont look as good as it is scetched.

then the coloring and the backgrounds... geez....

then SFX and music wich i gladley make but.. then again i need something to make it for =D

[kayoto]

I wasn't sure if i should open a new Thread so... I used this one.
Mirage is Amazing, it's the only program that can actually let my wacom Cintiq forget it's digital and make me feel like I'm drawing "almost" on a real paper, I love the Light table !

I'm still testing it so I don't know much about how to use it and I didn't found a solution to my problem over the Tutorials, so maybe you can tell me how to solve it:

The problem is the color issue... Let's say I'm using the PenBrush tool for outlines (black) then I want to FILL inside a color.... what I got is that the color will kind of Ruin the outline (make the outline look weird) ...I tried also to paint using "Behind" but.. still it's weird... anybody know how to Draw + Color without any issues ? ...I would like to hear and test it by myself.

I can't really use mirage until I found how to use that basic problem... :D hehe

[ori@r.a.m]

kayoto same problem for me, Mirage is amazing but the most basic thing isn't there! it isn't the only problem u mentioned, there is also changing color issue if u painted or drew something even just to select it and changing it (move, copy, scale) isn't easy to do and some of the times can't do. i'm hoping it just because i'm new to it cuz if those thing are problematic to do it's a really big disadvantage for this program.
though, i got the Mirage manual, i may check it soon and see if there is a slution or a mention about those problem, there is an hope!

[kayoto]

Sound like you're used to work with Vectors when it comes to animation, (that's another reason for hard to get used to Mirage) I didn't found my solution using the Manual but ....I'm still trying to figure it out, it looks so simple but somehow It's not working for me.

[ori@r.a.m]

naa, on the contrary, i'm more use to pixels instead of vector :) hey i found something, u know there is for every kind of brush modes (like color, behind etc...) so "Tint" mode is painting on pixlels, let say u drew a line with a blue color, if u will then change the brush mode to Tint and pic the color yellow for example, if u will paint something with it, it will paint only on the line u did.

hoep it's help u :)
also there is the "color replacer" on the effects, it will make you life much easier instead of painting again every frame.
(p.s, sometimes the Tint option isn't working then try the Add mode 'mostly on brushes'.)

p.s if u are more into disney style or anime, when there is a out line for characters, i recommend u to use the "Mechanical pencil" brush, it only gets to something like 1 pixels size, it's the perfect tool for characters outline because of it uniformity , if u will draw with it u see what i mean.

[kayoto]

Thanks for the tips Ori, I will try it ASAP.

Say.. Can you try this and tell me if it works for you with no "weird problems"

Try drawing Black outline of a closed shape or character, and then filling it with any color... (Do short animation even only few frames) then WHEN you click (Release) FILL tell me if the OUTLINE is corrupt... OK... so using the BEHIND is "ALMOST" solve the problem! ...but it won't FILL ALL THE SHAPE, I will have to work really hard to fill the small parts that stay without color...

Another problem:
I'm working using markers for shading (similar to the traditional), Now... We all know how EASY is to get rid of the markers after coloring with vectors... but how you do it with pixels ? (Specific mirage, is there a solution?)

After check the Manual, that "basic" stuff that are very Animation Related, I didn't saw anything like those issues and much more issues I'm running into.

I don't know how to explain this better so have a look on those few screenshots...

http://www.krazykartoons.com/images/WIP/mirage/Mirage-001.jpg

http://www.krazykartoons.com/images/WIP/mirage/Mirage-002.jpg

http://www.krazykartoons.com/images/WIP/mirage/Mirage-003.jpg

http://www.krazykartoons.com/images/WIP/mirage/Mirage-004.jpg

[ori@r.a.m]

about your first problem, try to change the smooth option, i make the same thing u did and changed the smooth to 2 with behind mode, worked great.
though i don't know if 2 work for eveything so try to play with it.
about the second one, i really don't know, there is the "magic wand select" but it didn't worked well for me.. i don't use markers tough so it isn't critical for me. why don't u make the markers same color as the shades? or u can do them in a separate layer. btw mirage is suppose to be that way, i'm more into for disney style so i don't shade same as anime that's looks like vector shading, don't forget there is the airbrush tool that is awesome for shading and very disney style..

BTW u know if there is a way to delet an fx i already applied (of course i mean after there isn't an history)?.. it's really bothering me if i did and fx and i can't cancel it after.

[kayoto]

About the brush & Fill color, I wanted to have 1 format so I will get very thin outline, and also be able to color it without any problems. but it seems that is much more complicated and less comfortable as I thought (that's why I'm testing Mirage).

About the markers isn't a way of vectors it's actually come form the traditional techniques I used to, I just show it on the screenshots above more "Obvious" to the eye, I use the Red & Blue colors for markers because it's easier to locate and deal with.
if I use the same color as shaded it will be sometimes HARD to see or notice the differences between the shaded color to the original color.

About FX, I didn't mess with it because I don't use Mirage for my compositing and FX, it looks nice, try duplicate your layer where you want to put the effect so you will be able to undo it or delete, then you have the original before the FX, or just have 2 versions, one clear finished animation version, and 2nd you do the FX (it's suppose to be at the end as compositing and broadcasting stage anyway).

I use Combustion for that part plus much more then Mirage can give me.

[womball]

Mirage is amazing! You have to try out the plugins. There is one for storyboarding which I want to try out soon. The blue pencil kit is awesome for roughing out animations. You draw with the blue pencil. You clean up with a black pencil and everything that is blue can be automatically deleted.

[elephant]

Downloaded the trial and I have to say I'm impressed. Although the interface is a bit confusing right now.

If I ever should get the full version of Mirage, then I'll definitely use it for bigger and more graphic-intense projects. Right now, Flash will do the trick.

[vlasvlasvlas]

long live mirage!!!

how's tvpaint 8 motor TVPaint Animation?

anyone tried it?

[ZigOtto]

TVPA v1.1 is released!
here's some infos (http://www.tvpaint.com/display_news.php?idnews=32&lang=2)
I like the new "Sketch Panel",
to work quickly from scratch to clean, on the same layer!
:cool: