Toon Boom Animate Pro

A place to discuss non-Moho software for use in animation. Video editors, audio editors, 3D modelers, etc.

Moderators: Víctor Paredes, Belgarath, slowtiger

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Mikdog
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Post by Mikdog »

Well I bought Toon Boom Animate. Felt obliged to as I used the Pro version for a commercial ad while TB gave me a trial license for another pilot project. So I now have a frame-by-frame program I'm glad about that.

Also bought Toon Boom Storyboard Pro on the cheap from a reseller as part of their financial year end sale so I look forward to testing that out.
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Squeakydave
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Post by Squeakydave »

Well. I bought Animate standard and though it promises much but is pretty flaky.

Drawn Animation. It might be me but the interface seems to get in the way and I can't seem to get any flow. With paper and pencil you can flip as you draw and get into some kind of groove. I can't find a way to manage this in Animate.

Import
trying to get stuff in at the correct size is way more complicated than it should be and there is no way to measure stuff which is a bit of a handicap when working with swf files for the web.
Swf import - stills are imported with all their elements broken apart and put on pegs (often not in the correct position)
PDF imput - No text! And lined shapes with gradients import without lines which are then impossible to put back on and are thicker than the originals (I'm waiting for tech support on this one)
Light table - Doesn't seem to work properly in Animate standard.

I really wanted to like Animate but there have just been too many broken bits that need work arounds to make the experience all that it could be. Apparently there is a PAID upgrade soon that might address some of these issues. My advice would be to wait for that and test the hell out of it before even thinking of buying (I wish I had) or even Stick with ToonBoom Studio which is way cheaper and does most of the things Animate does (No IK though :-( ) and indeed some things way better....and with a text tool.
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Mikdog
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Post by Mikdog »

Hmm...I may have even been better off with Studio.

I gotta say I found Animate a bit of a pain in the butt in the beginning stages but then a project or two kind of got me through the frustrating parts. I still don't know how the IK works but for frame-by-frame stuff it works pretty well for me. I adjusted the onion-skin presets in the preferences pane, and you're right: Animate 2 is coming out in about a month apparently.

In any event I've found it works well with a Cintiq, its a really good frame-by-frame option for me I've found, for more puppet-style stuff I'll use Anime Studio Pro still, my ultimate would be Anime Studio Pro that adopted the drawing tools of Toon Boom...THAT'D be something.

Toon Boom Storyboard also looks good from the few minutes I've played with it. Kind of excited about using that for storyboards in the future and not having to wing it in Photoshop, or using cardboard index cards, or making one in AS Pro.

I don't like the TB interface, but after a while it melted away and I became more focused on the work. Also colours are a bit of a pain in the butt but once they're set up its fine.
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Squeakydave
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Post by Squeakydave »

Yeah. The onion skins were a bit of a surprise. Completely unusable in their standard form. I kind of have a nagging feeling that Animate was rushed out in an unfinished state so I'm pretty unhappy that the next upgrade is a paid one.
I found AS v6 not much use due to the new gradients so I sent it back. AS5 will do for most things though the lack of professional work flow has me looking for other options sadly. Animate has pretty good Flash export (Though not as good as TB studio) the gradients work and it exports symbols which is a BIG help with Flash work which is all I seem to do nowadays.

I'll persevere for a while longer to justify the price and hope that I can break through the pain barrier and get to where animation is fun again.

I'm quite tempted to go back to TVPaint for rough animation as I just feels so much nicer and has page flipping.

I also had the opportunity to see a demo of Celaction. It is amazingly focused on animation -It's pretty much the UK industry standard for TV animation and I can see why. You can even save out animation to use on other characters -drool!
It has no Drawing tools; the idea being you can create assets in anything you are comfortable in. I have the opportunity for some hands on in the next month or so. Maybe that will be the one :D
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Mikdog
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Post by Mikdog »

Celaction hey...sounds nice. I'm Googling it.

I don't do much Flash stuff so I haven't run into that pain barrier. However I think if you write a letter complaining to Toon Boom about your grievances with Animate and you word it well and all that, I'm almost positive they'll let you have the Animate 2 upgrade on the house especially if it addressed the issues you're facing at the moment. It'd be in their interests to keep you as a customer than lose you at the cost of an upgrade. For realz.

I've also heard good things about TVPaint. Slowtiger uses it afaik.

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dm
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Post by dm »

Animate: flipping> try pressing the "<" ">" or "F" "G" keys. There's also a "jog" controller that you can scrub back and forth that's positioned next to "Start" in the playback bar. You can improve this response by getting a jog/shuttle controller (and setting it up to to work with Animate). No, it doesn't flow as nice as paper. Nothing else really does.

SWF? PDF? I don't think they made Animate to compete with something like Flash. SWF support is more in the realm of TB Studio.

Light table only works in drawing view. Works fine for me.

Sort of sounds like Animate wasn't the proper tool choice for what you want to do with it. Animate used to be Digital Pro. Not rushed out, already in existence for some time.

TV Paint might be a good choice if you already like the interface of Anime Studio. I find it as convoluted, or more so. Seems like a programmer's logic interface to me, rather than the 'artist' interface that something like Photoshop or Toon Boom are trying to emulate. Good luck dealing with SWF in TVPaint.

Considering how much stuff is trying to be crammed into a computing interface-which is wildly limited by the things that you can actually connect to that computer, it's no wonder that the software interface can get so nuts. How in the world is anything supposed to be easy and straightforward with a thousand different features to deal with?
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Squeakydave
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Post by Squeakydave »

Hey DM.
I've had all kinds of basic problems with Animate. Tec support have been pretty good but most of my hiccups it seems will be fixed in the next release -April ish.
I have got a shuttle controller but as you say, not as nice as paper - or TVPaints flip button.

SWF - Animate is sold as an upgrade from Studio and there is a lot of advertising regarding taking your Flash animation to the next level. Again the tools are going to be upgraded in V2.

All in all the vibe I get is that Animate 1 was the preliminary sketch Animate 2 should do better.

Regarding interface. You are right but I would really love it if app designers wouyld concentrate on a fewer clicks work flow rather than flashy crowd pleasing toys in new upgrades. I'm sure they could make quite significant speed increases that way.
dm
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Post by dm »

Interesting, I never noticed anything about Animate advertising that pushed Flash animation, etc. Of course, I don't need that, so I have no particular reason to pay attention to it. Animate always seemed to be oriented toward being the all in one solution to Harmony. I would never expect it to be an upgrade to Studio (which does seem more web oriented). More of a side and up direction of grading to be a different solution.

TVPaint flips aren't all that flippy. TVPaint annoys me, but not enough to stop using it. I'm doing a job with it right now to see if it will be functional for a TV show, and I'm certain that it won't be. A commercial, yes. Bigger production, no. Similar reasons to why Anime Studio isn't appropriate for those jobs.
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Squeakydave
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Post by Squeakydave »

I have a soft spot for TVP. I just like the drawing tools. Though saying that I do most of my drawing with Sketchbook Pro on a tablet PC - it just works better on that platform.

I just had a training day on Celaction and must say I am VERY impressed. It is very productivity based in the nicest of all ways. It is pretty much cut out only and has no drawing tools of its own -the theory being that the user/studio use whatever they are happy with. I would highly recommend anyone thinking of series work get in contact with celaction.

After V6 of Anime Studio it was pretty clear that its focus is the hobbyist. It's is fine for light duties but on bigger stuff I don't have the energy for it. Hence my quest for something a little more robust.
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gutter_no2
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Post by gutter_no2 »

:arrow: Thank you for the information, I was on my way to get TB free stuff.
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Mikdog
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Post by Mikdog »

I bought Toon Boom Animate 1 recently enough to receive the complimentary upgrade to 2.

Made in Animate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP8vOIo4KGk
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GCharb
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Post by GCharb »

Hello all

Just installed ple of Anime 2 Pro, took 2 hours to render the 200 frames of the stereoscopic sample on my quad system, so damn slow, does not make sense, must be a problem somewhere!

This said, rendered nicely I must say!

G
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GCharb
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ToonBoom Animate 2 Pro anaglyph sample

Post by GCharb »

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AmigaMan
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Post by AmigaMan »

I stuck my anaglyph specs on and had a look. Works pretty well. Shame about the rendering times though.
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