We are very excited about our new service coming out in January and have gotten a number of great questions as we prepare to roll it out. Below are some of the highlights – the whole breakdown can also be found on our updated FAQ page. If you have other questions about the new service or how it affects your past purchases or groups, feel free to send us a comment via email.

Day 7: You’ve got questions? We’ve got answers (plus, meet Reno!)

We are super excited to premiere one of our newest characters, Reno! Scroll down for more information on our newest service, which will include this super happy guy!

Here are some of the most asked questions about our new service so far:

How many months do I need to sign up for?
Just one. We don’t require you to sign up for any more than one month to use our characters.

If I cancel my subscription, what happens to my animation?
Nothing. All the files stay the same. Without a valid license, you can still open all your files, but you can’t unlock the rigs. If you cancel for a few months and then come back and renew, you be able to unlock everything once again!

If I already have a login, do I have to make a new one?
No! You can purchase a subscription using your existing account username and password.

Can I sign up if I am not already a member?
Yes! We’re always excited to make new friends.

Do I have to install anything for the characters to work?
Nope! We take care of everything for you. After you sign up, you’ll download a LONGWINTER_INSTALL.ma file. Just open that using Maya and everything will be installed for you!

How do I access the characters once I sign up?
You can access everything from right inside of Maya! After opening our Maya install file, you’ll have access to our character manager. This tool will allow you to download the whole collection with one button. That’s right. One button. Whenever you open a character, you’ll enter your login information and bam! Start animating!

Will there be discounts for people who sign up for multiple months?
Not at the start. We want to keep things simple. No complicated multi-level memberships. Everyone joins at $10/month and everyone gets access to every character. Every. Single. One.

How does a school sign up?
Just shoot us an email! We’ll give you all the info. Email – info[at]longwinterstudios[dot]com

Are there group discounts?
YES! For groups, we start with a discount of 50% per user. The more users you have, the higher the discount. It just gets better and better!

If I’ve already purchased characters, do I need a subscription to use my old files?
Nope! We’re dedicated to our promise that you have those files forever. We’ll continue to service those characters for the near future. When you want to access our other characters, just sign up for our new service and you’ll get full access to those (as well as your previous characters – those stay in your account forever.)

Will you still offer single character, full-license purchases?
We’re going to discontinue the single purchases at this time. We may decide to open that up again at a later date but we want to focus fully on this and see if this ends up being a better solution for our users. If you have thoughts on that, feel free to shoot us an email!

If you have other questions about the new service or how it affects your past purchases or groups, feel free to send us a comment via email. We’ll get back to you right away. We’re always happy to hear from you guys and we want to make this as easy as possible for you.

Ready to sign up?

JOIN NOW

Do you want to see the rest of our big announcements? Subscribe to our Long Winter Studios Facebook page and check back for each new post about our new characters!

In case you missed it, our 12 Days of Awesome so far:

Day 1: Meet Paul!
Day 2: Want all 37+ characters – our entire library? You got it.
Day 3: Wild Animals!
Day 4: Better price AND better characters
Day 5: Woof! More animal rigs coming in 2017
Day 6: Best rigs for animation students
Day 7: You’ve got questions? We’ve got answers (plus, meet Reno!)
Day 8: Look how cute our kids are!
Day 9: Super simple, point-and-click install in Maya
Day 10: We’ve launched! Become a member today!
Day 11: The nuts and bolts of how membership works
Day 12: Let’s rock and roll (recap)

Enter our 2nd Annual Tommies Awards contest!

Are your animations ready? The 2017 Tommies animation contest is coming up in February! Stay tuned on our Facebook page for more details, polish up your shots with our Long Winter characters, and watch our awesome winners from last year: People’s Choice 2016, and our Staff Picks 2016!