Why someone *wouldn't* want Toon Boom Digital Pro

[chucky]

I second that, bioroid, good to hear your thoughts.

[fraaaankieee]

I've been using ASP for about 8 months. I've used the trial version of TB DP, and the one feature I like is the drawing tools, but the problem is this- It's not worth $2.5k. Now for students, there's a version for about $600 (does anyone know if there's any difference in the versions besides a student discount?)

So help me out: from following the forum, I gather that Adobe Illustrator will allow me to draw vector images which I can import into AS Pro. Is this so? It would make my frame -by-frame sequences much easier, I think.

[slowtiger]

Importing from Illustrator is possible, but not really recommended since often you need a lot of cleanup in AS. It's much faster to draw directly in AS, this also prevents you from drawing something which would be hard to animate.

[fraaaankieee]

Importing from Illustrator is possible, but not really recommended since often you need a lot of cleanup in AS. It's much faster to draw directly in AS, this also prevents you from drawing something which would be hard to animate.

Thanks for that! I have been able to make do with the AS tools for frame-by-frame (sometimes that's the only way to make the scene look like I want).

Of course, I've had success in sketching in Photoshop elements and then loading those images into AS for the "inking" process.

[mkelley]

Make sure you give the AS drawing tools a real chance. I was an Illustrator Maven for years and resistant to using AS for drawing until Vern here convinced me to try again. After a couple of weeks I was hooked -- now I like it *better* than Illustrator.

Also, there are free replacement drawing tools for the default ones that you might want to try -- Facek (sp?) wrote some that people here say they would not do without (I keep meaning to try them one of these days :>)

[fraaaankieee]

Thanks, mkelly. I found the drawing tools you were talking about. I especially like the freehand tool and the magnet. It looks like just what I needed.

The freehand drawing was the most disappointing feature in AS, but Fazek fixed it.

[jahnocli]

Wow, that is the biggest footer I've ever seen! Or is it an icon? (In which case, it is simply monstrous!)

[synthsin75]

I'd have to agree. Frankie, could you please use a smaller avatar? Yours is crowding out the text of the posts.

[madrobot]

I'll try it out of course, but out of interest;

What's different about Fazek's freehand drawing tool?

[fraaaankieee]

I'd have to agree. Frankie, could you please use a smaller avatar? Yours is crowding out the text of the posts.

sorry about that- I linked it to a URL where I had some art posted. I think I'm good artist, but my computer skills are awful. I'm sure I can get along fine without an avatar- I'm too lazy to resize.

[synthsin75]

Thanks Frankie!

Madrobot, I don't think there is a big difference with Fazek's freehand tool, but I don't really use them anyway.

[fraaaankieee]

The differences are very minor, but they do make some tasks easier. For example, his magnet tool will only affect points you have selected. This makes it easier to adjust a group of points when making inbetweens. without it, I had to drag an object out of the drawing area, and so, the onion skin was useless.

The freehand drawing tool just feels more natural for some reason. I think it responds better to short strokes with the stylus on my Wacom tablet. but it makes my sketching easier- the AS standard add point works better for the inking process, I think.

Those two have been the most useful so far.