Hi folks,
I’ve been a Flash user for about 5 years and have used the software for almost all the shows I’ve worked on, such Nick, MTV, and others. Now at my current job, we are using Toon Boom Animate 2 and I have been reading on tutorials, looking at shows using the software, forums, and emailing folks who have used TB to gain knowledge. I am still kinda having a hard time transitioning from Flash to Toon Boom and I was hoping someone here could help me out.
In Flash, we nest symbols, for example: on the main timeline, there will be two layers, which has one audio layer and one scene symbol layer.
-Within the scene symbol, it will have your a layer for a character and a layer for your bg.
-Inside your character symbol, there is a head comp symbol, torso, arms, hand, legs, and feet.
-Inside the head comp symbol, it has the eyes, nose, mouth eyebrow, hair, and eyebrows.
-If I wanted to say, have the character turn his head from a 3/4 view to a profile view on frame 25; I would place a key frame on the head comp symbol, go to properties panel, swap symbol, and go click on the profile head comp symbol. Now the head is profile along with the associated components within it.
Is there a way to achieve that method in Toon Boom? I’ve been trying all sorts of ways and I still can’t really pull it off well. I’ve seen a user have a head along with its head components, i.e. face, eyes, nose, mouth under a peg and when they wanted to change views, they would change each individual part and scrub within to the desire view. I think this is kinda cumbersome and I can see having hundreds of frames within a symbol such as the eyes. for example, you’ll need frames for 3/4 view eyes blinking, then looking in all directions, then special occasion frames such as twitching eyes. Then ya gotta go do frames for profile and do the same circumstances. I mean, I guess it’s not too bad, but if there’s another way please inform me.
Also, is there an easier way to have a symbol act like a graphic symbol with the play once option? When i draw a few frames of an eye blinking, then convert those into a symbol, it will create a new layer with the associated eye blink symbol and keeping the original layer that you drew on. I delete the old layer and the symbol would act like a single frame graphic symbol. The only way I found was that if you delete the layer with the symbol, grab the same symbol from the library into the timeline, the symbol itself actually plays out. The thing is that the object won’t be placed on the stage at the exact spot and I would have to nudge it to the original spot. Is there an easier way to do this?
Sorry for the long post, but I have been trying the get the most outta TB and doing a combo of puppetry and traditional ala Toot & Puddle and I think I can achieve similar results if I can have these questions answered.
Thanks
I am sorry but this is the Toon Boom Studio forum. You should post your question on the Toon Boom Animate fourms.
Thank you,
Simon.