Web vs App

Help
#1

Hi,

I’d like to use Wick in my classroom to teach the principles of animation. My lab has i7 Windows machines with 16gb RAM. Are there any advantages/disadvantages of running Wick as the app vs using the web version?

Thanks!

#2

Hey @king, I suggest using the web version because the app version is less stable than the web version cause wick editor was originally made using html, CSS, & JavaScript. but here’s a list of advantages & disadvantages.

Web Version/Advantages

  • Built-in Assets
  • More Stable
  • Less Bugs

Web Version/Disadvantages

  • No offline capability (Needs Wi-Fi)
  • That’s literally it

App Version/Advantages

  • Available through Android, IOS, MacOS, Linux, & Windows.
  • Works Online & Offline
  • Has somewhat the capabilities of the Web version

App Version/Disadvantages

  • May Crash, if project to big.
  • Probably has more bugs than the Web version.
  • Still in Beta Version
  • Only works for Windows 8 & above, & only works for MacOSX and above.

(Hopefully this list I made helps, if not try checking their website, which contains tutorials & instructions for The Wick Editor. Looking at your message Wick Editor should work, but what do I know. Happy Animating & Thunderstorz out).

#3

the desktop app version actually is on 1.19.0 still (at least, i think) while the web editor is on 1.19.3 (or 1.19.4 for the test version). so you would probably want to use the web version.

also, just make sure you tell your students to save your work often, because wick can be pretty susceptible to crash.

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#4

Oh dang. I’m on winter break mode still and forgot I started this topic. Thank you for your responses. We will stay with the web version!

I’ve done some testing with many objects, sounds, and placed images and everything is playing, saving, and exporting well. I’ve been using 720x480 @12fps and have gotten up to 200 frames of animation (15+ seconds) with no problem. My concern here is based on other animation solutions I have used before like brush.ninja, which can start to lag if students create lots of hatched lines (I think it’s because there are too many objects in the animation). Here’s the question: Do y’all have any guidelines or suggestions about what to avoid to keep Wick from crashing or getting laggy? It sucks when a student is working on am ambitious project only to realize that the tool is getting crashy.

#5

the problem with hatching lines or basically any other pencil shading method is that it creates a lot of vector path objects, which are very “expensive”. if you’re shading by going back and forth and not lifting the brush, it’s a single path which isn’t that laggy. however, if you shade by brushing down, lifting, moving back up, and brushing down again, you’re creating a lot of path objects which, after enough time, can potentially lag the editor (maybe, i think so anyway). if you just use the fill bucket you will be fine probably, although the fill bucket isn’t the most reliable at times.

if it really comes to the point where your project can’t handle XYZ frames in a single project, you can also split the project in 2 and merge them at the end. i don’t think a few hundred will be that bad though, and i’m not actually sure if the number of frames affects performance that much.

TLDR, don’t hatch lines because the more lines, the more lag. at the bare minimum, hatch sparingly.

#6

Thanks for your response.

What’s the issue with the Fill Bucket?

Are there any other red flags I can warn my students about? What should they avoid? (Again, we will be animating without any coding so I’m not worried about any coding issues).

#7

make sure to let them know that with the fill bucket, if you try to fill a huge area it lags the editor a lot, and sometime can crash the editor, luckily it autosaves every time you play the project, but make sure to save a lot.

#8

at least on the web version

#9

i think the fill bucket doesn’t always fill the way you want? i don’t remember actually.

also, for some weird reason undoing used to cause crashes. not sure if it’s still a thing but be careful when you undo, and i guess don’t undo rapidly (i’m not sure if the rapid undoing thing is placebo/superstition or not).

last thing, tweening is really odd. if you try to tween something and resize it to make it grow/shrink, you have to do it very intentionally. otherwise the editor won’t register that you are making the clip grow or shrink and it will just revert. here’s how i tween (provided that you already made the tween frames and stuff):

  1. select the clip
  2. resize, move, rotate it however you want
  3. click off the clip, but still in the canvas thing so that you deselect the clip
  4. use the comma or period to move the playhead forward or backward a couple of frames and make sure you actually made the tween

to change the easing type of a tween:

  1. select the tween marker thing on the frame
  2. change the easing type
  3. click on the canvas to deselect the tween
  4. use the comma or period to make sure the easing is correct

if you’ve never touched tweening before and don’t plan to, don’t worry about this. but tweening is really useful, so if you don’t know how tweening works you can watch the official wick tutorial on tweens (keeping in mind the bugs).

#10

Thanks. That is very helpful. I have found tweening to be odd and limited (yes I realize this is not AfterEffects or ToonBoom :slightly_smiling_face:).

I haven’t run into any paintbucket problems.

One week into our animation unit and the Wick Editor is definitely the best solution I have used with my students. Loving this tool!

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