Dear ToonBoom developers
ToomBoom Animate is a comprehensive package, perhaps even overly so.
But do you know what would make it a truly better alternative to doing 2D frame by frame animation in Flash?
Simply if ToonBoom Animate had a raw graphics enveloping manipulation tool with tangent handles and independently movable points on a selection box (as an option). It doesn’t even have to be as comprehensive as a manipulation mesh with pins, just simple selection handles with tangents & points that are independently movable around the selection bounding box allowing for manipulating a selection of raw toonboom created brush strokes & artwork on a frame.
Visual Example
http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/1746/toonboomanimateneedsthi.png
This is all that ToonBoom Animate would need in order to to make it my go to vector based paperless animation program and truly the superior alternative to flash for 2D frame by frame FX & animation.
Is this functionality available in ToonBoom Animate Pro or only Harmony? And if so then why the difference between selection tool functionality in these ToonBoom programs?
There are a lot of great features to the many tools ToonBoom offers, and there is a lot to like about in ToonBoom Animate, I only wish that I could be a greater fan of this particular software package, but for the price of this software having a lack of a function like this one sullies it a bit.
I hope this selection tool feature / function or something like it will be avalable in the next version of Animate.
The envelope tool in flash is very useful. However, I have always though that a “magnet” brush tool would be more useful. An envelope/Magnet brush is just so nice for adding some flexibility to cutout style animation.
In my opinion it’s always better to get the basic tool implemented and working well and then build sub-options & tools underneath that basic one to create a set of enveloping options. Don’t go straight from 0 to overkill and only implement the sophisticated stuff without an option for a more straightforward tool or manual approach as well.
Always give the user the ability to NOT use the automated functions or overly sophisticated tools and do things simply. Sophisticated tools might save a lot of time in most cases but their functionality might not be entirely appropriate for a certain task. No tools functionality is absolute, but a set of well designed options to choose from should keep you well covered to do what you want without fighting a tool or the program.
We currently don’t have an envelope tool. We have a perspective, but it’s not the same in that it doesn’t have other points other than on the four corners.
I’ve submitted a feature request for this.
~Lilly