Review: MotionArtist lets artists become animators without learning code

MotionArtist 1.0 generates interactive HTML 5 video presentation of comics and more.  This full release offers more customization of animation files, tighter recording controls, and better asset editing compared to the July 2012 beta. MotionArtist ($60, buy-only) makes animating images and text relatively easy for comic artists and web designers with imported files. Unlike with Flash, you can't draw in the program and then animate their creations. The focus is on animating existing image files from other sources.

Artwork by Karen LukThe blue line with dots represents an animation path. Under Project Settings, MotionArtist offers common video dimension sizes.

MotionArtist opens to a default project designed by Smith Micro, showcasing various animation techniques. However, comic artists unfamiliar with using an animation program or film terms might find all the controls tricky to animate their comic pages. Imported PSD files maintain their layers for animation or the user can composite the layers into a single layer. JPG, PNG and MotionArtist vendor Smith Micro's Anime Studio are other supported file types.

MotionArtist has three different views: Director, Camera and Panel. Animators will recognize the toolbar and scene list, and the timeline setup with its default of 30 frames per second. Thanks to GPU acceleration, users can play working files back in real time, which assists in editing the video. In addition to using your own video, you can animate panels, text and speech balloons with various effects in MotionArtist.

Comic artists can use difference scenes to cut between comic panels or pages. For example in film, opening credits can be the first scene, followed by the next one of the characters walking into camera view. In comics, it can be moving from one panel to the next or page to page. MotionArtist is set up for multiple scenes, so comic artists can animate individual pages or panels and then cut them together for a single presentation.

Artwork by Karen LukAfter exporting the HTML 5 video to its own index page, web designers can modify the CSS or JavaScript.

The rub is getting familiar with MotionArtist to maximize the effects of a motion comic. A comic artist may have many layers of their comic art and have to merge them into different layers for animation output. Separate layers for each character, sound effects, backgrounds and so on in order to animate them individually. For more painterly comic pages, MotionArtist offers camera tilt, zoom and a parallax effect to create interest in moving from panel to panel.

Typical film scene transitions like Fade to Black and Iris Wipes are listed in the scene list tool bar. Artists can make buttons to either “turn the page” or use the animation scene transitions to continue the story. You can add sound to any to scene, too. MotionArtist has pre-loaded background templates for the exported video. Once the animation is exported as HTML 5 file, web designers can view source code in their browser to edit the CSS or JavaScript. Users can also upload an AVI file directly to YouTube and Facebook. MotionArtist allows the comic artist to control the motion comic’s presentation, right down to the second and specify the size of the presentation for HDTV 1080p or an iPad.

MotionArtist 1.0 offers more animation control and options than its beta release. Web designers can use the program to generate quick loading, interactive graphics without Flash and ready to go for HTML 5. Comic artists willing to learn basic animation techniques and spend some time using MotionArtist will be rewarded with creating their own motion comics without learning lots of code.

Note: The Download button on the Product Information page takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.

Karen Luk is a freelance illustrator and art instructor who creates comics. Her work has been featured at the Cartoon Art Museum and Google. Recently, she successfully funded her upcoming Steampunk ABC children's book on Kickstarter.
More by Karen Luk

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Review: MotionArtist lets artists become animators without learning code

Motion Artist 1.0 generates interactive HTML 5 video presentation of comics and more.  This full release offers more customization of animation files, tighter recording controls, and better asset editing compared to the July 2012 beta. Motion Artist ($60, buy-only) makes animating images and text relatively easy for comic artists and web designers with imported files. Unlike with Flash, you can't draw in the program and then animate their creations. The focus is on animating existing image files from other sources.

Artwork by Karen LukThe blue line with dots represents an animation path. Under Project Settings, Motion Artist offers common video dimension sizes.

Motion Artist opens to a default project designed by Smith Micro, showcasing various animation techniques. However, comic artists unfamiliar with using an animation program or film terms might find all the controls tricky to animate their comic pages. Imported PSD files maintain their layers for animation or the user can composite the layers into a single layer. JPG, PNG and Motion Artist vendor Smith Micro's Anime Studio are other supported file types.

Motion Artist has three different views: Director, Camera and Panel. Animators will recognize the toolbar and scene list, and the timeline setup with its default of 30 frames per second. Thanks to GPU acceleration, users can play working files back in real time, which assists in editing the video. In addition to using your own video, you can animate panels, text and speech balloons with various effects in Motion Artist.

Comic artists can use difference scenes to cut between comic panels or pages. For example in film, opening credits can be the first scene, followed by the next one of the characters walking into camera view. In comics, it can be moving from one panel to the next or page to page. Motion Artist is set up for multiple scenes, so comic artists can animate individual pages or panels and then cut them together for a single presentation.

Artwork by Karen LukAfter exporting the HTML 5 video to its own index page, web designers can modify the CSS or JavaScript.

The rub is getting familiar with Motion Artist to maximize the effects of a motion comic. A comic artist may have many layers of their comic art and have to merge them into different layers for animation output. Separate layers for each character, sound effects, backgrounds and so on in order to animate them individually. For more painterly comic pages, Motion Artist offers camera tilt, zoom and a parallax effect to create interest in moving from panel to panel.

Typical film scene transitions like Fade to Black and Iris Wipes are listed in the scene list tool bar. Artists can make buttons to either “turn the page” or use the animation scene transitions to continue the story. You can add sound to any to scene, too. Motion Artist has pre-loaded background templates for the exported video. Once the animation is exported as HTML 5 file, web designers can view source code in their browser to edit the CSS or JavaScript. Users can also upload an AVI file directly to YouTube and Facebook. Motion Artist allows the comic artist to control the motion comic’s presentation, right down to the second and specify the size of the presentation for HDTV 1080p or an iPad.

Motion Artist 1.0 offers more animation control and options than its beta release. Web designers can use the program to generate quick loading, interactive graphics without Flash and ready to go for HTML 5. Comic artists willing to learn basic animation techniques and spend some time using Motion Artist will be rewarded with creating their own motion comics without learning lots of code.

Note: The Download button on the Product Information page takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.

Karen Luk is a freelance illustrator and art instructor who creates comics. Her work has been featured at the Cartoon Art Museum and Google. Recently, she successfully funded her upcoming Steampunk ABC children's book on Kickstarter.
More by Karen Luk

From PC World. Electronics product reviews and advice for best reference

QNAP TS-269 Pro review: A fast and powerful NAS box with a steep learning curve

Jon L. Jacobi has worked with computers since you flipped switches and punched cards to program them. He studied music at Julliard, and now he power mods his car for kicks.
More by Jon L. Jacobi

Few would dispute that QNAP makes very fast NAS hardware—the company's boxes are consistently at the top of PCWorld's performance charts. The TS-269 Pro is no exception, being the overall fastest two-bay NAS box that we've scrutinized on our new test platform. The margin of victory, however, wasn’t that great. What really sets this $600 (unpopulated) unit apart from the crowd is its slew of software features and its superior connectivity.

The TS-269 Pro features a 2.13GHz, dual-core Intel Atom D2700 CPU and 1GB of memory (which you can expand up to 3GB, using the single free SODIMM slot). One of my few complaints about the TS-269 Pro is that removing the case cover to access said memory slot was a bit of a chore the enclosure is baby smooth with nothing to grip. QNAP populated our test unit with two 1TB Western Digital WD10EFRX hard drives mirrored in RAID 1. The drive normally ships without drives.

My other minor gripe concerns the TS-269 Pro's otherwise top-tier port array. The front USB port, normally used for quickly copying the contents of a USB flash drive, is only USB 2.0. I'm now using USB 3.0 thumb drives almost exclusively and reaching behind the unit to access the two significantly faster USB 3.0 ports is a bit of a pain. Otherwise it's all good: dual gigabit Ethernet ports with failover and binding, an eSATA port, and two additional USB 2.0 ports. There's also a Kensington lock port for securing the unit to your workbench or rack, and an HDMI port for outputting HD content and surveillance to a monitor or TV.

Don't be fooled by the friendly graphical user interface; taking advantage of the TS-269 Pro's advanced features requires deep knowledge on the part of the IT admin.

QNAP outshines everyone but Synology in the breadth of software features n its Linux-based operating system. These go way beyond simple file-sharing, administration, and backup to include iSCSI, iTunes and DLNA servers, direct photo/music/video viewing in your browser, and video surveillance support. You also get a VPN, FTP, and TFTP servers; full domain and LDAP support; and more. Check the company’s website for the full list, where you can also play with the operating system via an online demo. QNAP matches—and in some small ways beats—Synology in operating system features, QNAP’s OS is generally not as easy to use; it takes a fair amount of knowledge to implement many of its features.

As I mentioned up front, the TS-269 Pro is very fast, although it’s not as fast writing data as previous QNAP models we've tested. It wrote our large 10GB file at 85.8MBps, read it at 94.2.4MBps, and wrote 10GB of smaller files and folders at 66MBps. For some reason, the TS-269 Pro read the smaller files and folders slower than it wrote them, at 41MBps. Overall, those are first-place numbers, and very good for a box running in mirrored mode, though Iomega's px2-300d is a faster reader. Note that we tested using only one Ethernet port.

All in all, the TS-269 Pro is a very good NAS box—arguably the best in its class. It's not remotely budget-priced, and you’ll need decent IT chops to get the most out of it, but more advanced users and IT personnel will love it.

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