Toon Boom Animate Pro

[DarthFurby]

I use Flash but I'd probably agree that Animate is the best frame by frame software on the market(I've never tried Retas tho.)

Animate also has some vector morphing/shape tweening capabilities too, but if it's the same engine they've been using in previous versions, prepare to be horrified. Still, someone did a bunch of (mechanical looking)shape tweened headturns in Animate recently that kind of surprised me, so it's possible they've either improved the engine or this animator went thru utter hell:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMNnYcha ... r_embedded

I'd say Anime Studio is the best vector morph/shape tweening program, and Animate is possibly the best frame by frame program. I use frame by frame to solve the character designs and performance(usually with stick figures), and import that into Anime Studio to build reusable, shape tweening vector models. It's the best of both worlds: the look and movement of high quality frame by frame at the speed of manipulating a 2d puppet.

[Mikdog]

Thanks, I'll be checking out Animate and TV Paint. Watched a couple of TV Paint gallery movies. The media use looks pretty good. Like real paint. Couldn't fine anything about Mac for TVPaint but Wikipedia says they have a version, so might try the demo.

Haven't tried Retas but I've watched the demonstration movie and it looks pretty cool. I understand much of the Anime series is made with it?

Anyways, lots to check out.

Thanks for all the replies. I wouldn't mind using Flash so I could publish smaller files to the web, but its pretty expensive. All this stuff is pretty expensive ha ha. Besides Anime Studio, which is awesome.

[Patmals]

Hi,

Haven't really thought about it. Thanks, I might check that out.

Do you use Animate? I couldn't quite figure out the differences from their product descriptions so I went with the PRO PLE.

Hi Mikdog,

Yes, i own Animate and I doubt I would upgrade to the PRO version. I would prefer to get RetasStudio (when I have enough cash - i have just found a full time job here so that will soon be a big possibility ).

The only REAL advantage I see, besides direct scanning and the modular effects thingy is the 3d usage Which Retas already has in it's "DigiLoca3 plugin" - this plugin allows the import of lots of types of files.

http://app3.celsys.co.jp/service/cs40/c ... 4225D7000/

http://www.retasstudio.net/howto/guideb ... index.html
its in japanese but there are pics

click the 次へ　at the bottom of the screen to go to the next page.

Retas is MUCH cheaper here now than picking up a licence of Animate Pro

oh..and sorry for the babbling on. rather useless to most people - i guess.

[Mikdog]

Thanks for that info. Very useful.

Now I know perhaps I don't need the PRO version if I decide to buy.

Tanks b0$$

[Patmals]

Thanks for that info. Very useful.

Now I know perhaps I don't need the PRO version if I decide to buy.

Tanks b0$$

No worries!

So, I reckon you should compare both Standard and Pro PLE's of Animate and TVPaint trial, as Slowtiger and dm have recommended.

[Patmals]

Mikdog,

here is some more about digiloca3 for stylos. it's in Japanese but the pictures sghould give you an idea of some of the possibilities.


http://www.retasstudio.net/howto/guidebook5/lesson1/

just start with the first link (1)3Dモデルの読み込み which means importing 3d models

and on each page click the 次へ to continue to the next page

[Mikdog]

Thanks I'll check that out.

I've used a bit of Animate and the drawing tools feel great. For frame-by-frame this looks like a winner. But I've only done one or two tests.

[dm]

while you're looking: http://www.toonz.com/ is nice in many ways. They make a point of letting you know that Miyazaki uses that too.

http://plasticanimationpaper.dk/

I've been around both of those in production. Animo is my personal favorite though. It's now becoming part of Toon Boom products. There are a couple of other packages out there that I can't remember now. Animate will probably do it for you, from the sound of it. It does have a pretty good feature set.

Doesn't Retas! have modules to add on? I don't know. I did one Retas job, many years ago. Can't remember enough to offer an opinion about it. (wonder if that says enough on its own?)

[Víctor Paredes]

I just love plastic animation paper. It's so simple and make exactly what it should. I hav the demo, but expect to purchase it sometime.

[Mikdog]

Also checked it out but I see the Mac version is still in beta, and from the forums looks like its a bit unstable. Thanks though.

[ulrik]

Also checked it out but I see the Mac version is still in beta, and from the forums looks like its a bit unstable. Thanks though.

I've checked their site every now and then for a couple of years now, and still no working beta for the mac version

[Mikdog]

Here's one of my first tests with Toon Boom software.

Ok, so I know its broken in about a million places:



Still, the drawing tools feel great and Im slowly getting my head around it. I'm doing the puppet-making tutorial next, and I'm interested to see how this compares to Anime Studio's switch layers.

I also see there's a Mac beta version of Plastic Animation Paper you can download if you look through the forums but it doesn't sound too useful at first glance.

[Mikdog]

Also think I might be able to get back more easily into Happy Land episodes with this kind of intuition in the drawing tools:



This is the original kind of look I had for the show. My original pilot was much cleaner, and although it looks alright, I've always wondered if a looser look would have worked better. Its a lot quicker too.

[madrobot]

Haha Awesome!

[dm]

What's your opinion of how you rig and deal with IK (bones) in Animate?

Just curious, since a few people around here have complained about it being horrible, painful, and slow (contrary to my experience).