I have recently upgraded my Toon Boom to an Animate Pro 2 account. I work at a studio that is mentioned on this website, and know how amazing Toon Boom is. I recommend this software to everyone.
One of my major concerns regarding the software are the compatibility issues between Harmony and Animate Pro 2. Most major studio’s will have seats in Harmony, and most freelance animators (that I know anyway) and small studios, have Animate Pro (mostly due to price). Our studio upgraded from the old Digital Pro to Harmony, and we found character rigs and props that were properly template’d to a library, we were able to bring them into Harmony no problem. This saved the company a lot of money as we didn’t have to build up our library again. Great job!
I took some work home from Harmony and it worked fine on my Animate Pro, but I wasn’t able to bring it back into Harmony. The long and short of it turned out to be I needed to purchase a Harmony seat to allow my work to be brought back to the company. We lost many hours of work here… not so good!
I wouldn’t mind if some things were not able to work between both platforms, but to have a completely non-compatible file is extremely frustrating… especially when your dealing with the same company software. A solution in my mind would be to have, at the very minimum, templates be compatible between platforms.
Even if Toon Boom offered a script or a module to be used by the animation companies discretion to give to animators that would only work on the company network would be a great improvement, and wouldn’t discourage potential freelance animators or small studios from investing into the Toon Boom family. It also wouldn’t discourage a successful small studio to upgrade to Harmony at the cost of losing previous work.
If Toon Boom doesn’t want to bridge the gap between their own software editions, fine. BUT it would be nice to be able to Band-Aid a solution just in case. 
You wouldn’t lose previous work. Everything is forward compatable from what i understand.
I am suprised with that you said in that you took it from harmony and worked fine in animate pro but then wouldn’t go back to harmony. That sounds the opposite of everything i have read.
I think harmony is a network solution and it more the workflow for a large organisation it focuses on.
Hi,
Harmony and the Animate family has been completely branched out now. If you need to work on Harmony scenes at home you should get in contact with one of our sales representative has you will need to get an Harmony stand-alone license rather then Animate Pro.
This has been done to avoid situation such as what you are currently experiencing where the softwares are not in sync (the latest Harmony as been released last fall, Animate Pro 2 just got released) which made versions no longer compatible with each other due to feature discrepancy.
Best regards,
Ugo
Thanks Ugo,
Are there any other ways around finding a compatible way of transferring files other than bringing them back through the old Digital Pro?
Cheers.
To begin I strongly second this request.
Randelp is correct TheRaider you cannot bring animate 2 files into Harmony. Their solution has been to buy a seat of harmony. This is an impractical idea for several reasons. The first is obviously cost. Most freelance workers can’t afford animate pro at 2000$ and a seat of harmony which, though not listed must be at least equal price. So for arguements sake a freelance animator would be expected to buy 4000$ worth of software to be able to work with companies that use both products. For those animators who happen to have a few thousand dollars handy you will also need 2 computers because animate 2 and harmony cannot live on the same computer. The benifits of harmony are in my experience excusivly network oriented. All of the animation tools, drawing tools, options, modules, are exactly the same. There is no practical reason for an individual to own it.
It’s not just a problem for individual animators. Small studios that start out with Animate pro, cannot upgrade to harmony without re-building all of their asset libraries. This is dicouraging upgrades. It’s discouraging large companies from hireing freelance animatiors.
As the underdog to flash I would expect Toonboom to be trying to make their software more accessible. However this newest trend seems to be having the opposit effect. I have animate pro and hope to work exclusively in toonboom products in my future career. I have recently purchased Animate pro and am truely disillusioned at the discovery that it’s not compatible with my companies software.
If Toonboom does continue to keep both programs seperate, I don’t see a choice but to start saving for a harmony seat. However If no other changes are made, at the very least, the website should be updated to clearly indicate that animate pro files are not compatible with harmony. After executing a transition from digital pro to harmony I felt decieved when I found out Animate pro could not preform the same function as a ‘downgraded’ software.
I love toonboom, but I also love eating <3
That is a good point. I didn’t happen to notice if there was any information or warnings on the website regarding compatibility issues between any of the different products Toon Boom offers.
Hi,
If you are working for a studio as freelance you can send me an e-mail with who the client is and I will put you in direct contact with the appropriate reprensentative. In those specific case we will look for the best possible solution to address the situation with you to make the process as seemless as possible. You can contact me at ugo@toonboom.com and I will have someone contact you shortly after.
Best regards,
Ugo