Moving to Harmony

Im sure this is a subject that comes up, did a few quick searches but couldn’t see anything too obvious.

Question is, i’m seriously considering moving from Animate Pro 2 bypassing Pro 3 and going straight to Harmony. Money isn’t really an issue, so it’s not about cost, i suppose I’m looking for reassurance it’s a wise move, especially as i understand my Pro 2 files would need to be ‘converted’ to work which is a worry.

Detailed feature lists are not ToonBooms way, so hard to get exact comparisons, but from what i can tell there are some cool features but Pro 3 has adopted some of these now… wonder what real ‘clincher’ features are to set it apart…

Toonist | Animate Pro User | Apple Mac Addict

Twitter @jasonvenus
www.youtube.com/user/Illustriate
www.facebook.com/drawmill
www.drawmill.com

I appreciate the comments regarding 3d integration, and relationships with other 3 d software. Is there a list of 3d software that plays nice with Harmony? Also, how is working the import of generic .obj or .fbx from other apps, like Houdini, daz3d, Blender? Why exactly you are required to have the latest version of the 3d software you are exporting from?

Main ones I guess are…

(1) New effects as illustrated by Adam Phillips in his new tutorial videos
(2) Curve deformers

In the near future…maybe…

(3) Bitmap painting is just around the corner, and they are experimenting with some kind of bezier mesh deformer

Harmony purchased, let the games begin!!

Toonist | Animate Pro User | Apple Mac Addict

Twitter @jasonvenus
www.youtube.com/user/Illustriate
www.facebook.com/drawmill
www.drawmill.com

I’m sure you’ll love it :slight_smile:

Fact is you are already in with Harmony, OSX 10.9.1 is SLOW… with MAYA 2014 does not work.

The Tech supported my problems with my MacBook Pro Retina GPU nVidia750M 2013 OSX 10.9.1 with a Windows computer!!!

Then I was essentially told off for having MAYA 2014 which I installed as part of my subscription upgrade like I have Harmony 10.3!

Even without MAYA batch-render it is very, very, very slow on a new Apple.

But I am unique…no one else has any issues according to sales or tech.

Yeah, I went straight to Harmony. Not ever using any of the others. From what the sales people were telling me, Harmony is the Grand Daddy of all of the animation software sold by Toonboom. Plus they have an update coming in a few months that will incorporate connection to Unity the game development software and other new features. If you purchased your software a little before Christmas your eligible for a free upgrade. Anytime after you will have to pay.

I was given the pitch that it would work with any 3D program, and told you could import different models with textures. The reality? After spending the 1600 bucks on the original release, then found out that I had to have a ‘supported, updated Maya’. In other words, any older Maya programs . . . and apparently some new ones . . . don’t work in the integration. I work in 2D almost exclusively, and was looking for a program that could ease times for doing camera moves, and the 3D option was the best time-saver for that.

Oops. Nope. Found out after the fact that you need a current copy of a 4 grand program in order to use the feature’s ‘plug-in’, which you need to get AFTER you buy the program. Can’t use any old stuff you still use because you didn’t need to upgrade due to the fact that you don’t do special effects for movies, and you just wanted a 3D option that’s 6 years old, and you just finished paying for two years ago.

Use Animate Pro 3 . . . it’s cheaper, it has some 3D features, and you can import anything else into an editing program that’s still less expensive than buying a new 3D program and Harmony together, and just animate it there. Rendering time is WAY faster, as well without all the ‘extras’, especially if you have a lot of elements in your Timeline in Harmony. It also has ‘deformer rigs’.

Wouldn’t have minded so much if they were just up-front about it during the phone call sales pitch. The program has a few toys to play with, but all in all, it’s only real selling point that was any different at the time were the effects modules that Animate Pro 2 didn’t have apart from the 3D option.

If you already have an up-to-date 3D software, seems you’re ahead of the game.

Apart from that, I spent most of my time learning the basics of Harmony in the Animate Pro video tutorials, because the quality of the videos are better, they explain pretty much all the stuff you need to learn, and the only real tutorials for Harmony are specific to the program.

For what it’s worth, the Animate programs are fantastic time-savers, and what you can do with it is great, but the ‘support’ and or ‘sales’ departments in Toon Boom need some work. But if you’re on a tight budget, Harmony isn’t the way to go. If you’ve got 5 to 8 grand lying around or to spend, you can use all the features, and not have to construct the ‘time-intensive’ 3D sets of Animate Pro 2-3. It’s nice to have that option, because even the 3D space of being able to manipulate 2D objects via camera moves past foreground elements is good enough for creating depth.

Other people may have not the ‘sour’ experience I did, or surprises, but that’s to be expected. The older you get, the grumpier you get.

Thanks all for comments, i currently don’t import much 3D into ToonBoom, so by sounds of things i wont be having some of the issues mentioned. I’ve not actually installed it yet! trying to finish off a few TB pro projects before it all goes to sh***t :stuck_out_tongue: hehe

Toonist | Animate Pro User | Apple Mac Addict

Twitter @jasonvenus
www.youtube.com/user/Illustriate
www.facebook.com/drawmill
www.drawmill.com

Just to correct some information presented here earlier…

You do NOT need a plugin to import 3D objects into Harmony. This was a requirement in Harmony 9 that supported only OSB format imports. The plugin was for Maya to allow the creation of these files.

Currently you can import FBX format files from most 3D programs. This does NOT require a plugin of any sort. You can render these objects using the OpenGL representation if you do not have access to the program to render through. There is information in the documentation’s 2D-3D Integration chapter on how to set up a project to render through Maya and again this does not require plugins of any sort. This information can also be adapted to render using Pixie and 3Delight.

For details on Pixie and 3Delight rendering setup:
https://forums.toonboom.com/toon-boom-harmony/general-discussion/no-posts-about-pixie-and-3dlight-renderers-within-harmony

Thanks for clarification.