(after) effects for making anime

Hello TBers!

I would like to share a link to a book called “After Effects for Animation” :
http://bnninternational.blogspot.com/search?q=after+effects

Of course my main concern is not to promote Adobe Softwares, but to give TB nice suggestions concerning developping future effects oriented to anime.

This kind of books are really fantastic, because it’s not describing effects, but explains how to get a real ‘anime’ feeling by tweaking effects .
> Very handy for the developement of taylor-made effects that go straight to the point. ;D
The goal would not be to limit an effect but to further finetune it for specific animation purposes. :slight_smile:

An annoying detail: this book only exists in japanese language…

OK, thank you very much … good contribution for the info :wink:

I’m really very excited by that Standalone Harmony concept. I just hope the price will be interesting if crossgrading from Animate Pro 2. :stuck_out_tongue:
Now for answering your question, here a few examples:

1.) Ray of light
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_5Z9KRI9HHIc/S7Vs89xV4GI/AAAAAAAAAeI/ONBm0ikgJJA/s1600/AEFA_naka4.jpg
>Except the ray of light feature that is already really cool feature that i would like to have, you can see that they used a layer that creates the color subtilities of the rays.
Now if i was a TB Developper, and i would like to eradicate all my competitors by creating an effect that would be extremely innovative (i like to exagerate ;D), i would try to create an effect that combines the ray of light (upcoming particles?) and the “colors” layer in one single effect.

2.)Rain
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_5Z9KRI9HHIc/S7VsuCdNBTI/AAAAAAAAAd4/UkqkjdrK6ws/s1600/AEFA_naka6.jpg
>Except the rain feature that is already really cool, you can see that they used a layer that creates a kind of glow on some places where the rain touches the boy.
Now if i was a TB Developper, i would try to create an effect that combines rain (upcoming particles?) and that glow effect at once.

3.) Another kind of filter/effect that would be nice to have is a feature that makes forget that you are using vector/ultra sharp technology. Something closer to a “noise reducer” from photoshop than a “blur” and “glow” combination.
Please compare the two following images :
http://img01.imagecanon.com/_upload/img/49/compareason.jpg
I don’t want to argue on the difference in drawing style but on the “ambiance” created with the right filters and effects. It’s because the right effects that you can recognize in an eye-blink which of those 2 drawings is made in Japan and which one is not…


There is a lot of horsepower inside this book. (To me as much as the Animator’s Survival Kit by Richard Williams).The power consists in little details which combined can really make a difference!
I think that giving a rrrreal close look to this book would be a really good investement for an animation software company. But these are just my thoughts. :stuck_out_tongue:

Kind regards Lilly!

Wow that was a very helpful example, Lily. I was planning to rely on After Effects for my post processing effects, for there are many techniques in Japanese animation I was always curious about. To see this made in Animate Pro (I use normal Animate 2 but I think I can the same effects, just without the node system) makes inclined to further experiment with effects to get away from the hyper-crisp vector look.

I would go as far as recommending tricks like this for future Toon Boom tutorials. Not necessarily anime, but to show how closer Toon Boom is to a traditional animation look than Flash is.

Respect Lilly!

Very impressive. This is the best answer you can offer: a drawing to illustrate your point of view!! (I just hope i didn’t spoiled a part of your w-e :P)

The color-override module seems really nice. Have to test this out! :stuck_out_tongue:

But i just want to add: the purpose of my link is to submit some nice suggestions coming from a really nice book to the team. But you surely prooved with talent that TB can manage the picture i inserted in my last post! And great thks for that!!
Like Chakra-x mentionned, this kind of tuts would be really nice!! An idea would be to submit images, and see how TB professionals would “solve” the problem.

Out of context:
You’re making me soooo hot when talking about that new TB Harmony. When can we put our fingers on it? I mean in test -mode with some vidz and other explanations? Arrrrrrrrhhh!

Will Harmony Stand Alone be concidered like the evolution of Animate Pro as the top-software of the company?
(I have difficulties to imagine people investing a lot of money in a future release of Animate Pro when Harmony blast it away with the nice new adds. And i have also difficulties to imagine TB further developping in a revolutionary way new releases of Animate pro now that the new single user top-software will no longer be “Animate pro” but “Harmony Stand-Alone”!! ) </geek inside>

really impressive Lilly!

visual effects is a whole different field. it’s only logical that studios would have artists just for doing effects. i am new to this but it seems to me as though every effect no matter how sophisticated it looks has either, or a combination, of these: transparency, gradient, glow and blur.
so technically, one can reproduce any effect using Animate standard?

i am curious as to everybody’s experience on this…

I hope U put some new features from Harmony 9 to the next Ver. of Animate Pro.
I like new pencil line feature or 3D Model feature.

If U sell Toon Boom Harmony Standalone, Why don’t U put it in online store.
Or Show more details or can download PLE Ver or show Standalone Ver. price in this web.

But, I still hope for the big minor change in Toon Boom Animate Pro 3 Like Harmony 9.

Thanks… ^ ^

It’s really sad that particles, brush and 3d features won’t make it to TB Animate Pro3.
It has been the top-software of Toon Boom for single user for only two years…
A lot of money spent for such a short development lifetime. 2 little years…

Because let’s be honest: what will Animate III have to offer that will look exciting in compareason to These Harmony Stand Alone Features?

I took contact with the sales of TB, and it turns out that a crossgrade from Animate Pro 2 to Harmony Stand Alone will costs 1500$ (special price till end of august…)

The king is dead. Long live the king …

I would like to start a discussion about the future of Animate Pro here:
http://www.toonboom.com/support/forums/animate/index.php?board=15;action=display;threadid=3275&start=0

Kind regards,
Don B

In particular what kind of effects are you interested in seeing?

There’s a really cool Particle engine that’ll be available in the next version of Harmony. You can always get a Standalone version of Harmony if you’re just a single user, and you’ll have access to the particles and the other new features.

~Lilly

Well I just wanted to prove to you that you can get that sort of a look with Toon Boom software (in this case I used the new Harmony, because of the new pencil lines that are just much easier to work with, but you could get the same look in Animate Pro).

http://i790.photobucket.com/albums/yy184/lillybirdsong/final-0001.jpg

I just used a combination of blurs and glows on this to get the effects that I wanted. I also chose to not use black lines around my character, but rather to draw areas of colour using the Stroke tool. To do the sun rays, I just used a textured brush to draw the rays in, and then I applied to them a semi-transparent colour. For the vignetting I attached that drawing layer to a blending node.

To get the skin to look like it’s glowing, use the Colour Override module to filter out just the skin tone, then you can put a glow on that and blur it, lowering the opacity.

I’d like to try to do a test here on light rays using the particle engine, though. I have an idea of how I do it that I think wouldn’t be too difficult to accomplish. Rain is definitely an easy one to do. Though there are a couple of ways to achieve that misty look around the character. You can draw it in with a textured brush, or you can use some blurs and transparencies on a regular brush with a semi-transparent colour. I’m trying to think if I can have it create that effect automatically with the particle engine, but I’ll have to do some digging to see the best way to achieve this.

Anyway - just food for thought. My only point is that there’s always multiple ways to achieve a certain look, and that you can definitely get the look with the tools that you already have, it’s just a matter of being creative about how you wield those tools.

~Lilly

You can indeed produce it with animate standard, but it’s just easier to do in Pro because you can combine or layer the effects in more complex combinations that you can’t do with a straight-forward timeline drag and drop. And you can double-up on effects without having to clone the whole hierarchy.

Harmony Standalone does indeed send off my geek excitedness as well! I have so much fun playing around with it. We can definitely arrange for further information through sales@toonboom.com, so just contact sales to get more info on that.

Glad you guys like the image, I had a lot of fun doing it. I will pass along your suggestion to do some kind of a tutorial video on this, and I’ll see when we can schedule such a thing.

~Lilly

These features will most likely not make it into Animate Pro 3. If you’re interested in Harmony Standalone, you can always contact sales@toonboom.com

~Lilly