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ToomBoom no more!

Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 4:03 pm
by InfoCentral
Well, I got my upgrade offer from ToomBoom. Are they crazy? They want $250 for the upgrade and they haven't done diddly for improvements. I emailed sales and told them I would be willing to pay the $79 upgrade price but anything else and I will stop here and use my current version and ASP.

I haven't received a reply and its been a week now. I assume that is my answer.

Re: ToomBoom no more!

Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 8:56 pm
by J. Baker
InfoCentral wrote:Well, I got my upgrade offer from ToomBoom. Are they crazy? They want $250 for the upgrade and they haven't done diddly for improvements. I emailed sales and told them I would be willing to pay the $79 upgrade price but anything else and I will stop here and use my current version and ASP.

I haven't received a reply and its been a week now. I assume that is my answer.
WOW! $250 is like re-buying it. Upgrades for a product in that price range should be no more then $50. And for a major update only. AS most developers won't charge for minor updates.

Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 9:58 pm
by dueyftw
I have TB 3.5 and upgrade it from 3.0. The only real change was a better layout the default settings. I haven't upgrade it to the new updates just because they want big bucks.

Dale

Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 2:44 am
by Ronbo
Well, let's at least clarify that the $249.99 is for upgrading from TBS Express version 3.5 or 4 to the standard version 5. That is a major upgrade. The upgrade from standard version 4 or 4.5 to version 5 is only $79.99.

Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 4:41 am
by dueyftw
I started with express and went to 3.5, total cost was $300. Humm. I could the rotoscoping feature, and to get it, it's just another $250. I could do rotoscoping in AS a long time ago.

Dale

Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 7:42 am
by InfoCentral
Ronbo wrote:Well, let's at least clarify that the $249.99 is for upgrading from TBS Express version 3.5 or 4 to the standard version 5. That is a major upgrade. The upgrade from standard version 4 or 4.5 to version 5 is only $79.99.
I too have 3.5 Studio. The current version is 5 so what is that a version and a half? Not even 2 full versions and they are acting like AutoDesk and want to penalize you for not keeping up with every upgrade. The hell with AutoDesk and the hell with ToonBoom too.

If they offered anything substantial in their upgrades then people would be more app to purchase it. What is the major feature from 4.5 to 5? Stop motion. Great, if your into stop motion but those of us who have never done it or plan to do it, are we supposed to buy it because they have made it another half point upgrade feature? And yes, they charge for half point upgrades!

Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 1:10 pm
by DarthFurby
When I read the thread title I thought it meant toonboom went out of business!

Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 1:53 pm
by Ronbo
TB does charge for half-point upgrades so it would be cheaper to wait for a full version upgrade before shelling out your money. I just switched from TBStudio to TBAnimate, which I'm very happy with, but I'm guessing that the pricing for Animate upgrades will certainly not be cheap.

Although ASP's pricing structure is hard to beat, I've never seen anything that tops Pixologic's ZBrush. This is a 2D/3D program, not animation, but I mention it because I bought version 1.5 several years ago, then I got version 2 for free, version 3 for free, and they've just announced version 4 to be released in August for free! Pixologic is the antiToonBoom. :)

Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 10:38 pm
by InfoCentral
I own several 3D programs which ZBrush is not one of them. I contacted Pixologic about a competitive upgrade price and they said no. The reason given is that they haven't ever charged for a upgrade and didn't plan on any in the future but said they are still leaving that open. The point being that you only have to pay once for the life of the program. I don't know of any other company that has that kind of a policy.

Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 11:46 pm
by Mikdog
DarthFurby wrote:When I read the thread title I thought it meant toonboom went out of business!
Same here ;) Ha ha. I was actually stoked because then I'd have a strong case for using AS if I move on to quite a big job that's been hanging in the air for a while.

Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 6:00 am
by Rhoel
DarthFurby wrote:When I read the thread title I thought it meant toonboom went out of business!
Give them time :roll:

rhoel

Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 5:24 pm
by bleep
we just start learning toon boom, got the influence from a local animation studio :D

Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 3:30 pm
by jackismyazz
bleep wrote:we just start learning toon boom, got the influence from a local animation studio :D
I also went to an animation studio and they told me to buy and learn real professional animation software if i wish to work in their studio 8)

Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 5:00 pm
by heyvern
jackismyazz wrote:
bleep wrote:we just start learning toon boom, got the influence from a local animation studio :D
I also went to an animation studio and they told me to buy and learn real professional animation software if i wish to work in their studio 8)
That's just silly. Most studios care about animation TALENT not skills with software. Anyone can learn software. Which buttons to push, which menus to use... that can be trained in a few weeks. It's the SKILLS as an animator that is more valued than knowledge of any specific application.

-vern

Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 5:11 pm
by Víctor Paredes
heyvern wrote:
jackismyazz wrote:
bleep wrote:we just start learning toon boom, got the influence from a local animation studio :D
I also went to an animation studio and they told me to buy and learn real professional animation software if i wish to work in their studio 8)
That's just silly. Most studios care about animation TALENT not skills with software. Anyone can learn software. Which buttons to push, which menus to use... that can be trained in a few weeks. It's the SKILLS as an animator that is more valued than knowledge of any specific application.
Most people in the studios I know first think AS is some kind of toy, they look at this as a so much non pro software, they even giggle. Then when they see the real power of AS they apologize and most times switch the studio to the new toy.