------------------------------------------------------------------- Anime Studio® Pro 9 by Smith Micro Software Inc. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you for purchasing Anime Studio Pro 9 by Smith Micro Software, Inc.! This readme includes important information about your new software, some of which is not included in other documentation. Smith Micro Software, Inc. is committed to creating stable and functionally rich software tools. ------------------------------------------ Contents ------------------------------------------ - The Smith Micro Commitment - Registering Anime Studio Pro 9 - Content Distribution - Important Information - Known Issues - System Requirements - Technical Support - Copyright & Trademark Notice ------------------------------------------ The Smith Micro Commitment ------------------------------------------ In our efforts to fulfill our commitment to our customers, we post updaters for our products on an ongoing basis. Please visit http://www.smithmicro.com to check for updates. ------------------------------------------ Registering Anime Studio® 9 ------------------------------------------ Anime Studio 9 requires registration in order to receive updates and tech support. If you haven't registered your copy of Anime Studio 9 yet, please visit http://www.smithmicro.com/register. Please make sure you've entered all information marked as necessary, including the Anime Studio 9 serial number you received with your purchase. If online registration is not working or if you do not have an Internet connection, you may register Anime Studio 9 manually via postal mail, fax, or phone. To do this, print out the Smith Micro Product Registration Form included in the Anime Studio 9 Box. POSTAL MAIL: Smith Micro Software, Inc. (Attention: REGISTER) 185 Westridge Drive Watsonville, CA 95076 USA FAX: +1 (831) 761-6206 We require your serial number in order to register your copy of Anime Studio 9. ------------------------------------------ Content Distribution ------------------------------------------ Please refer to Section 5 ("Content License") of the Anime Studio - End User License Agreement ("EULA") included with this software for more information on modifying and distributing existing Anime Studio content. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Important Information: ---------------------------------------------------------------- *Installation of Adobe® Flash® Player 9 or higher (Macintosh & Windows) Portions of Anime Studio 9 require that Adobe’s Flash Player is installed on your system, version 9 or later is supported. Please verify that Flash Player is present before starting up Anime Studio 9. We have included an installer for Flash Player 10 in the ‘Third Party Installers’ folder on the disk (physical purchases only). You can also download the latest version of Flash Player by going to: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer * Microsoft® Internet Explorer® (Windows only) Anime Studio’s Content Library utilizes Microsoft Internet Explorer technology. Windows® Internet Explorer® 7 or later is required for the embedded Content Library in Anime Studio 9. To ensure the optimal experience and compatibility for the Content Library, the installer will disable “Local Machine Lockdown” for the Anime Studio application. This will not affect other applications outside of Anime Studio. Details about “Local Machine Lockdown” can be found at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms537641(VS.85).aspx. You can download the latest version of Internet Explorer by going to: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/worldwide-sites.aspx *QuickTime® (Macintosh & Windows) You must have QuickTime installed in order to playback MP3 audio files within Anime Studio, and for importing and exporting Quicktime .mov files as well as viewing included videos. The Quicktime Installer for Windows is included on the disk in the 'Third Party Installers' folder (physical purchases only). We recommend that Mac users update to the latest version of Quicktime. You can download the latest version of Quicktime by going to: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/ * Adobe® Reader® (Macintosh & Windows) You will need to have Adobe Reader installed to view the included PDF manuals. We have included an installer for Adobe Reader in the ‘Third Party Installers’ folder on the disk (physical purchases only). You can also download the latest version of Reader by going to: http://get.adobe.com/reader/ ------------------------------- * Note: The Upload to SendStuffNow feature that was introduced in version 7 is no longer part of the application’s file menu. If you previously signed up for a SendStuffNow account, you can access it through the website at sendstuffnow.com ------------------------------------------ Known Issues ------------------------------------------ Anime Studio Pro 9 : - Content Library: The library in Anime Studio requires Windows® Internet Explorer® 8 or newer (Windows only) to run. - Content Library: Images in the library will appear clipped in some instances, to remedy this problem, we recommend that you install Windows® Internet Explorer® 9 or newer. - Audio and Flash export; When exporting to Flash, the audio you embed in the Flash file must already be in MP3 format. You must have QuickTime installed in order to playback MP3 audio files within Anime Studio. - You can only have one audio track if you're planning to export a Flash movie. Because Anime Studio can't encode MP3 files, it also can't mix down multiple audio streams into a single MP3 file. If you're targeting Flash, we recommend that you mix down multiple tracks and encode as MP3 prior to import into Anime Studio. - Snow Leopard (10.6): If you just installed the Snow Leopard operating system, and have not rebooted your machine yet, we recommend that you reboot it prior to installing Anime Studio 9 to ensure that the application will function properly. - The F5 Function Key command; This will create a low res movie preview of the work area in the timeline if no work area us defined it will render a preview of the entire timeline. This feature was not included in the documentation. - EPS VS. Adobe Illustrator as an import choice; We recommend Illustrator as an import file format over EPS provided that the file being imported is Illustrator 8 or earlier compatible. Only import EPS if you have an EPS file. - Poser® Scenes in Anime Studio Pro 9: Poser Scenes can be very resource intensive. Using figures with large amounts of strand-based hair in Anime Studio can consume a lot of resources. We recommend to keep strand-based hair usage to a minimum. Also, importing multiple Poser Scenes, or duplicating one scene multiple times in Anime Studio may be resource intensive. Anime Studio Pro 9 requires Poser 7 or later for importing Poser Scenes. You will need to set up the preference to point to a valid Poser installation (Poser 7 or higher). - 64-bit Windows does not support QuickTime as such there are import and export limitations to video/movie and to audio formats. The only supported movie format for import and export is .avi. The only supported audio formats for import are .wav, .aif, .aiff and .aifc. The only supported audio format for export is .wav. If you require the use of QuickTime, then we recommend using the 32-bit Windows (Universal) version of Anime Studio Pro 9 as it supports QuickTime and video formats such as .mov, .mp4, .m4v, .mpg, .mpeg, etc. As well, it supports .mp3, .m4a, .m4p, .m4b, .mid and .midi. - When exporting a QuickTime movie with alpha channel on MacOS, the resulting movie always has a premultiplied alpha channel, regardless of the checkbox that says "Do not premultiply alpha channel." - When importing QuickTime movies with alpha channels, there is a new option in the Image tab of the Layer Settings dialog labeled "Premultiplied alpha". This is not documented in the manual, but allows Anime Studio to support both premultiplied and straight alpha channels. (Previously, Anime Studio only supported straight alpha channels.) ------------------------------------------ System Requirements ------------------------------------------ Windows * Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8 (64-bit OS required for 64-bit installation) * 1 GHz Intel Pentium or above * 512 MB RAM minimum * 1.25 GB (Universal) or 650 MB (32-bit) free hard disk space minimum * 16 bit color display or above; 1024x768 resolution minimum * CD-ROM (physical version only) * Internet connection for Content Paradise * Windows® Internet Explorer® 8 or newer * Poser® 7 or later needed to import Poser scenes Macintosh * Mac OS X 10.6, 10.7 or 10.8 (64-bit OS required for 64-bit installation) * 1.5 GHz Intel Processor or above * 512 MB RAM minimum * 700 MB free hard disk space minimum * 16 bit color display or above; 1024x768 resolution minimum * CD-ROM (physical version only) * Internet connection for Content Paradise * Poser® 7 or later needed to import Poser scenes. ------------------------------------------ Technical Support ------------------------------------------ You must be registered to receive technical support. If you haven't registered your copy of Anime Studio 9 yet, please visit http://www.smithmicro.com/register. US & GLOBAL SUPPORT: Please visit our Web site for the latest information on registration and technical support. For up to date information on our technical support policies or for our online frequently asked questions go to: http://www.smithmicro.com/support. Note: Smith Micro reserves the right to change its support policies at any time. ------------------------------------------ Copyright & Trademark Notice ------------------------------------------ Smith Micro Software, Anime Studio, Anime Studio Debut and Anime Studio Pro are trademarks of Smith Micro Software, Inc. Lost Marble and Moho are trademarks of Lost Marble, Inc. All other product names mentioned in the Software, the Documentation, or other documentation are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Registered and unregistered trademarks used herein are the exclusive property of their respective owners. QuickTime and the QuickTime logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Apple, Inc., used under license therefrom.