Best version of Toon Boom for a beginner

Out of curiosity, what is the best version of Toon Boom should a beginner get?

I am aware of the fact that it has been asked a lot. But I wanted to be sure of what I might be getting myself into beforehand.

And before anyone suggests this, yes there might be some animation software that I might get a better result with making 2d animation. (Provided they might have vector drawings and capable to using a graphics tablet.) But I tried some and some of them are terrible and/or tedious.

I tried Blender 2.8 and I had a terrible time trying to make a single image. And Adobe Flash kept on crashing every now and again.

All I want is the positives and negatives on THIS software. Which version that is more superior for a beginner, what tools will help make hand drawn animation and among many other things.

So Toon Boom has two main products right now: Harmony (for animation) and Storyboard Pro (for storyboards). For the sake of this question, we will stick to just talking about Harmony.

There are, however, three different versions of Harmony: Essentials, Advanced and Premium. The difference between the three versions can be quite a bit, but here is a handy bite-sized summary of each version from our FAQ:

Harmony Essentials is for simple paperless and cut-out style animation. In the introductory edition of Harmony, artists have the basic drawing, painting and animation tools they need.

Harmony Advanced is designed for freelancers, studios, and other creative professionals producing paperless and simple cut-out style animation projects. With vector and bitmap drawing technology, basic cut-out rig creation, plus additional art and animation tools.

Harmony Premium is the most powerful and complete professional edition for studios, small creative businesses, freelancers and schools working on the most demanding projects. Adds ability to create sophisticated cut-out rigs, very natural and realistic character movement, plus unlimited special effects for any style of animation.

I would personally recommend Harmony Advanced for what you are looking for. You can try ANY and ALL versions of Harmony completely free for 21 days by following this link: https://www.toonboom.com/products/harmony/try

I would also highly suggest you pair whatever version you try (or all of them) with our completely free Learn portal, which will help teach you the basics and can be found at https://learn.toonboom.com/

Hope this helps answer your question, please let me know if you need any additional information!

Well I have tried Advanced and for the most part, it works fine. Though I still have loads to learn. But when I get the money I might get the perpetual license for Advanced. (Mostly because I will never by the premium… Unless I am convinced.) While it is on the pricey side, it’s at least not as much and Premium.