I’m fairly sure it’s computer animated, but what program do you use? Also, how much did it cost and is it hard to use?

I had drawings I had done for the Fake movie trailer animatic I did which I supplied him with, and I gave him higher-res versions of the art with no voice balloons in the way.  He chopped them up and animated it all in after effects.

[Ethan, from the Axe Cop motion comic thread]

Ethan’s not actually the one animating the episodes now, he has excellent minions that he delegates to! The first motion comic animation and score was by Dylan Marvin (http://www.dylanmarvin.com).

The animation, and most of the lighting/color-casting and blur effects were done in After Effects, but all the masking and background cloning was done in Photoshop first and imported in as .pngs.

A lot was experimenting as we went along, with technique, style, audio, etc. It’s a learning experience. As the team grows and we continue feeding on Ethan’s suggestions and viewer feedback, it can only go up from here. [Dylan, Axe Cop motion comic thread]

And from the blog:

Since posting that last motion comic a bad ass team of motion graphics wizards have joined my team (front kick checked out) and they are taking it to a whole new level (I was already amazed at what Dylan did with the first one).

In terms of ease-of-use and cost? I have no idea. I am only useful for aggregate Axe Cop knowledge. Perhaps Dylan or other useful folk—I’m looking at you, Sr. Member—could tell you?

How dare you take my reigns of answer man.

She dominated you on that answer.

I feel so insignificant and useless now. I should change my name to “NoAnswerMan” :(

Hey now PoutyPants I totally left HALF the question for you. Plus I took the easy/obvious part and left you the less obvious/double-barreled part which includes some subjective assessment. I figured it was a fair Junior/Senior split no?

I can answer the other part with quotes that aren’t mine too if you want. :p

Pshaw, you pretty much answered everything. I don’t use the program and I don’t know how much it costs since, as I said, I don’t use the program. I am only a forum member.

Cost:
Legally purchasing the programs from the Adobe website Photoshop is ~$700 and After Effects is ~$1000, so yeah, in my mind that is expensive. (But then again, I always think things should be cheaper than they are and I don’t buy much software, especially of this type.) The cheapest bundle that they both come in is Creative Suite 4 Production Premium, which is ~$1700, so you wouldn’t save on those two per se, but you would get 9 other things along with them. BUT you can also download trial versions of both. I am not sure how long those versions might be good for or how limited they might be in terms of function.

Ease-of-Use:
I obviously have no real idea here, but I’m going to tell you something anyways! From poking about online I would say that just trying to figure it out on your own might be a bit daunting, but if you find a good tutorial series (http://ae.tutsplus.com/tutorials/basix/after-effects-for-beginners-getting-started/) that should help a lot. “Hard to use” is super subjective, so I’m going to say that no, from what I’ve read (cursory glance through the tubes) AE is not super anti-intuitive or anything. So while it might not be “easy” it seems as though it’s not unnecessarily “hard.” People seem to think it is an excellent and useful program.

Well look at youm going out of your way to answer a question by someone who has yet to respond :p Just rub it in more, why dontcha.

Oh 42, you know I’m just avoiding real work. Plus I gotta do it up big every so often, since there’s no touching your sheer dominance by ever-presence. Let’s shake hands and be friends.

FIGHT FIGHT

Yeah well, the only reason I am here so much is because I don’t have a job at the moment. Not that getting one will stop me from being the ANSWER MAN. If it helps, you can be my side kick, ANSWER LAD!

AXE COP FORUM DRAMAAAAAAAAA

AXE COP FORUM DRAMAAAAAAAAA

YOU’RE ADOPTED

TheAnswer42 - 05 March 2010 07:45 PM

AXE COP FORUM DRAMAAAAAAAAA

YOU’RE ADOPTED

THE GAUNTLET HAS BEEN THROWN DOWN.

SEE HERE IT IS.

Pshaw! I see your gauntlet and raise you a dueling glove! Just… pretend it is slapping you!