Cartoon animations ?

[Romanianuser]

Hi ! I just wanted to know what software did u use in creating the cartoon videos . I use flash < not good for cartoons . Some of u work in Adobe After effects . But in what program are the cartoons made ?

[Vincent Veidt]

Head over to ToonBoom.com and look at the "Feature List" in the "Showcase" section. It's a very extensive list and they make very nice products. I recommend Harmony, Opus, and Digital Pro.

P.S.- Not a salesman

[Bruno Chekerdimian]

Hello!! What´s the difference bettwen Toon Boom Digital pro and Toon Boom Harmony?

[Niko Anesti]

I actually use Flash, which seems to be becoming more and more popular, despite the fact that it was never intended to make cartoons. The only major problem I have with it is exporting it to a normal video file that other programs can read without something going horribly wrong, haha. I've thought of changing programs, but I cannot get a grasp on After Effects at all (and I never really liked the final outcome of any AE cartoons), and I don't know much about ToonBoom, even though I've checked out their site before. I'm afraid to stray from Flash after using it for so long. It gets the job done and it's useful for many things. But you can just never post a Flash movie on any kind of these sites, it seems. I actually just made a topic in the forum about this to see if we can get some FLV (Flash Video file) compatibility here. Who knows, I'll probably end up switching programs in the future if problems continue to arise...

[Vincent Veidt]

Niko, ToonBoom offers a trial version of their "Studio" software for download. With the latest release, it's been redesigned to act as a bridge between Flash and the more intricate programs designed for feature animation... plus it exports to a variety of filetypes, making conversion unnecessary in most cases.

P.S.- Still not a salesman

[Steve Stark]

Woo! Im a huge fan of ToonBoom Studio myself. If you are into Old school pencil and paper cartoons that is the way to go. I have also worked with Toon Boom Harmony at work and it is made for animators as flash is not. Flash is alot more affordable though.

[Fred Seibert]

Steve,

I'm no artist or animator, but I can speak from the perspective as a producer who's worked on films in almost every medium. If you're working on a picture who's final "look" is 2-dimensional the prevailing software is most definitely Flash. Fewer and fewer TV show and movies are working in tradition 2D, more and more are Flash.

Sure, a lot of people prefer After Effects for the control and flexibility, but rarely for pieces longer than 30 second commercials.

Currently at Frederator we've got one series in traditional 2D (The Fairly Oddparents), three in Flash (Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!, The Meth Minute 39, and Ape Escape Cartoons), and one with everything (Random! Cartoons).

[Romanianuser]

ur wrong about the 2d part in Flash ... For 4 years of experience that i have i can create ALMOST everything move in 3d but its very hard .. Agree with the after effects part .. but if u wanna create 3d use maya / 3dsmax and for effects like in starwars use FXhome VisionLab Studio .. anyway its a dramatic end of career if i stop using macromedia flash now ... but if there will appear 1 software good enough to create art from my creations i would prefere to start learning in that program the same way how i started learning flash ..

[Stephen M. Levinson]

"flash < not good for cartoons"

Flash is amazing for cartoons. There wouldn't be a coldhardflash.com if they weren't. I use flash and it's the easiest program once you get used to it. How are you animating in flash? You can do symbol animation or you can do complete traditional animation so there's no reason Flash is BAD for cartoons.

Cartoons like you see on TV like Fairly Odd Parents are done traditionally all on paper and pencil, or done on a Wacom. Let me tell you, you can get the EXACT same quality as FOP IN flash. It's all about skill, not the program.

Fred is right. Flash IS getting more and more popular for cartoons and it's easy to see. There are a TON more flash shows on TV now.

[Vincent Veidt]

Flash may be more popular, but it still was not intended for large scale animation. I will agree that the Flash format .SWF is very attractive and an excellent platform for cartoons for obvious reasons. That said, there are better programs (in my opinion) for traditional animation. Of course, I still believe that the best platform is pen-in-hand.

[Stephen M. Levinson]

Yeah Flash isn't the greatest for traditional work. I bet ToonBoom is, but Flash is capable of doing it. Flash isn't as animation friendly as those other programs since it's meant for programming which is why.

[Vincent Veidt]

Exactly. Sure, Flash can do it... any drawing program with a timeline can do it, that's the beauty of traditional animation. The question is about doing it well. For an output similar to the films you see on Newgrounds.com, Flash is best. For higher-end .SWF work, I recommend Toon Boom Studio, for cut-out animation, I recommend Toon Boom Digital Pro, MOHO (now Anime Studio by eFrontier), and Flash again [in that order]. For the upper-crest "traditional" animation techniques, I recommend Toon Boom Digital Pro/Harmony/Opus with Apple Motion, Final Cut Pro, Color, and Compressor, then using Bauhaus Mirage for post-rendered sweetening if you don't want to have to re-encode. For 3D animation (which I speculate will be on the decline with a not-too-distant fallout in public opinion), the big three (Maya, 3DS MAX, C4D) are changing slightly, but still most powerful. Bare in mind that 3DS MAX and Maya are merging a lot since Autodesk bought Alias. Also, to do 3D work for free, check out Blender ( http://www.blender.org ). Also, for sweetening, I recommend Bauhaus Mirage and Apple Motion, editing in Final Cut Pro.

Industry Outlook:
Toon Boom software is used in most major "traditional" animation studios spanning from Warner Bros. to Nickelodeon to Disney to Klasky Csupo and Film Roman. The trick is, the "tradigital" software from Toon Boom is far too expensive for the casual animator... it's really an investment in yourself if you believe you're in for the long haul.

Many studios use Flash, but more for the .SWF format than the workflow. You can easily substitute Flash and Toon Boom Studio and get better results and make the work a lot easier on yourself.

If your dream is to work at Pixar, you're out of luck. Pixar uses it's own proprietary software "Marionette" at last I checked. The closest you will get is Maya using Pixar RenderMan. Maya is the industry leader simply because of its cross-platform releases. 3DS MAX was/is Windows only, thus limiting the potential of the Mac (the preferred platform in most creative communities). Your best bet would be to learn both. Fortunately, they're getting more and more similar with each release.

For building a portfolio, it is best to emphasize your specialty but include a little of everything. This includes pen-and-paper, folks. If you happen to despise the overwhelmingly tasteless 3D animation coming hot off the presses and would likely do yourself harm if you were to find yourself in the employ of the Dreamworks gang, leave it off. That does not work both ways, however, for, you see, even the 3D animation techniques are based upon old-fashioned drawing and timing ability... leave it on.



(I wish formatting to be allowed on this network)

There is another sect of animation I intentionally neglected to mention. Motion graphics and VFX. For these, you want Apple Motion, Adobe After Effects, Maya, and C4D... with a few others I never particularly cared to learn.

That was a mouth full, but I hope it answers everyones' questions.

[Romanianuser]

I know that pixar uses some 17 computers in a secret place and if a new component appears on the shops it is upgraded on all 17 pcs .. thx for that big-ass comment .. i printed it :P .. i learned somth. from it .