i’ve sent several emails, one over a week ago, inquiring about the winter promotions for harmony standalone. i am a professional animate and animate pro user (yes, multiple licenses) and was curious about my upgrade options, but now i’m reconsidering due to the incompetent staff, who apparently aren’t interested in selling. i’m a fan of the toonboom products, indeed people like Lilly V. make it clear that there are folks at toon boom that do give a shit, but i’m quite unhappy with this unresponsiveness, and i’d prefer to give my money to developers that pay attention to customers waving money at them.
i know that toon boom is aware that harmony standalone is a somewhat controversial release, and i would imagine that they would appreciate every sale of this clearly expensive software and encourage some positive word-of-mouth. so far, they have neither a sale nor anything positive to say from me regarding harmony.
i guess i am going to have to call to get any information… if i feel like it.
You need to call them. The company seems to have growing pains. You’ll need to call them. They have an 800 number but I can’t locate it.
By the way a word to the wise unlike Animate Pro there are restrictions to the number of times in …2 days… you can activate your Harmony license to use on more than one computer. It was only after purchase that I realized it only has a 32bit core. This causes massive stability issues if you are wanting to use it with Maya 2012. I have also had issues with their flex licensing software not being as robust as say Autodesk’s Maya. Though I’m told it’s only my computers that have this problem. However, Tech support is polite, savvy but extremely overworked.
Harmony 9.2 is a revolutionary product that offers full 3d and 2d integration and it’s Deform tool is amazing.
yeah, the deform tool and the dynamic-width pencil (especially when combined) truly look like must-haves for me. i need to try the 3d handling to wrap my mind around it, dunno how much i need it vs just compositing.
the world waits to see what aspects of these new harmony features trickle in to animate pro 3, if there will be such a thing. i could live without the 3d stuff, cool as it is, but if deform and the pencil update didn’t make it into a.p. 3, i’d still have my sights set on harmony s.a… really wondering what will be added to a.p.3, if it will come at all. wise choice on their part would probably be to simplify and just end animate pro’s future, and make harmony the reasonably-priced upgrade option for existing pro users (or, should have instead called harmony s.a. “animate pro 3”, but too late for that!).
thanks for the heads up on the licensing, i’ll be sure to have that clarified when/if i talk to toonboom. i’m mostly annoyed because they were touting all these great incentives for upgrading to harmony via my email, but then ignoring my inquiries, hence i may have missed out on a promotion that would have made me even MORE inclined to jump to harmony. fools. i do see the phone contact info on the site.
If you have no need for 3D then Harmony 9.2 will work perfectly.
As for the license: Over 2 days you can switch 5 times. That is say from your laptop to tower and back. If you go over the limit then you are stuck for 2 days on the computer you last initiated. It’s annoying as I can switch my Animate Pro as often as needed. I do not understand the limit for Harmony. They will not budge on this limit. So it’s fine if you do not need to switch computers a lot.
As for price: I think if you mention you have emailed and missed the deadline that ToonBoom will help you out with a decent price. It’s not cheap though but it all depends on how much your desperately need the Deform tool as the dynamic width pencil. For my it was all about being able to use 3D and 2D on the same stage.
honestly I think it more likely they haven’t recieved the email. They have had some issues in the past with this. I hope it isn’t coming back!
I sent you a PM with a direct email address for sales.
thanks a bunch for the email.
perhaps if enough people purchased harmony they could relax the licensing a bit, though if the animate method is good enough why not use it? the animate license switching works pretty well for me, too. surely the harmony s.a. database or framework or whatever is on the toonboom servers that handles the licensing could be switched over to what animate uses, or at least start doing so with new harmony standalone customers(?)
how is harmony working in lion, anyone? i’ve got 10.7 on my main computer now, but 10.6 still on the laptop.
the 3d aspect of harmony sounds neat, i’ll have to review the videos about it. i purchased zbrush this year, so i imagine that i could make some vile 3d creatures to work with. is it more or less best paired with maya, or could i use blender completely? another thread for that, i guess.
On the 3D stuff you are really best to talk to support (i release how bad that advice is with the current situation).
The thing with the 3D stuff is uses Maya to render, so if you don’t have that you will only be able to get opengl renders. It is possible to import blender files by converting to a Maya format(I have seen a user post about doing this).
A few people are using Lion and the only problem reported so far is the colour dropper can’t reach outside the software.
On the licencing I constantly move my licence between my 3 computers and have no issues except for me forgetting to release the licence before i leave home(i have a desktop and then PC laptop and MacBook Pro depending on what I need for work).
Good luck getting in touch with support!
Well I’m not making up the 5 limit. Try moving your license 6 times.
I had this problem due to my computer crashing and erasing the license because of Harmony being 32bit trying to work nice with Maya 2012 which is 64bit, I was advised my techs support that the reason I could not switch was because I had exceeded my limit.
i’m not making it up. It’s a real hassle and right now I’m on a temporary text license while they try and work out why my computer can connect to the license server but Harmony wizard cannot.
I’ve had a lot, I mean a lot of problems because i’m running Maya 2012 and Harmony 9.2 round the clock and am constantly needing tech support.
However for most animation 2D it’s very solid, just the 3D is not.
The license software and the restrictions needs to be lifted. I’m able to repair license problems when they arise with Autodesk maya 2012 but not with Harmony?
I was more refering to stability issues.
The 5 limit is interesting. I think it should be higher. Actually I wish it autoreleased so I didn’t have to do it manually. I get toonboom needs to protect product but it can be really frustrating for the legit users.
Actually I’d be happier if Toon Boom would use the same industrial strength flex license software that Autodesk does.
When I have to clean install Maya 2012 because it crashed one too many times working with Harmony and declares I have no valid license, all I have to do is tap it back in after clean install and Mayal works again!
Sadly not so with Harmony
With Harmony the poor overworked tech support are trying to work out why my computer refuses to recognize my license. Since they are busy working on a new version and dealing with bigger clients they gave me a text license until the new year.
However, with Autodesk I have no problems when a license is corrupted.
I have two license of Harmony and it is a great product but with Autodesk I can run one license on 2 computers but not Harmony which has the flakiest license of the two!
It’s scary that it takes so much time and effort to simply get the license back up and working again. You’d think the owners would want tech support on something bigger than trying to make their weak license software work.
But Harmony is wonderful and truly revolutionary. Even at 32bit it is a great product.
hi lilly. no, i have not received a response yet, though i did not yet try the direct address that theraider provided. i appreciate you looking into it.
it would be good for sales to see this thread, i think. frankly this has been a great discussion and i’m thinking i might hold out on purchasing an upgrade (if there is such a thing) until this licensing system for harmony standalone improves, after enjoying the simplicity of the animate/animate pro license switching between my machines.
Just in case you are wondering Lilly, I PM’d him the direct contact email of Philip Greenstein which I thought might get him in touch with the right person more quickly than the generic support address.
Hope that was ok 
2 toonboom reps contacted me, actually, and everyone was very helpful and knowledgable. they hadn’t received my emails, still not sure why. i take back some of my initial venom at the beginning of the thread.
anyway, i have now purchased my harmony license – excitin’! it really is just like animate pro, with (great) new features added, so it is a very comfortable upgrade. the deformation feature (one of my primary interests in the upgrade) is quite deep and powerful, it will take some time to master all of the controls available.
so, thanks to lilly for facilitating sales to get back to me and look into the communication breakdown, and raider for passing along the contact info, and everyone else for the info on licensing, etc… i was able to give it a test drive for a day and make a very informed decision.
- Remember Harmony is 32bit and you should be fine.
You made a good choice in upgrading. Harmony Deformation tool alone is worth thousands of dollars as it offers ways to animate in minutes what usually takes days.
I also recommend getting a copy of Maya 2012 and playing with 3D in the 2D Stage. It is a mind blower.
2)…please make sure you download your exe or dmg installers and back them up as after a few months the links to their FTP are erased to avoid theft. So avoid calling ToonBoom by making sure you have all you need to do a clean install safely backed up!
There’s a 64bit version of Harmony coming out in 2012 so look forward to spending more money! You’ll want the 64bit.
3)
Despite all the negatives I use Harmony because it is the very best software in existence to create animations that can compete with the big boys. The 3D option is a revolution which when it is 64bits will bring on the biggest change since the invention of the printing press. I cannot hype this product. Yes it is unstable but their is nothing close to it.
I am creating scenes that can only be done in Harmony. Imagine 3D forms being sliced into by vector drawings and creating the kind of dance and movement that would have Disney drooling.
I recently showed some comrades 15 minutes of raw footage and they could not understand how i created the most basic of effects. The *.AI files colliding and flowing through a 3D form and then blurring, quaking, dancing blew their minds.
The Deformation tool used in conjunction with a Maya *.OSB file is freaking awesome.
Anyway the reaction I had to raw footage output on a plasma screen in BlueRay made all the hours spent with tech support worth it.
As for cost: If not now when?
Good luck: let us all know when you have something finished.
I am having the same issues now… multiple queries to sales@toonboom.com (both direct emails and through the website) with no responses. I just want some info on upgrading Animate Pro to Harmony and info on running Harmony on Linux. Guess I’ll have to call, was hoping to avoid that
I always call. They receive thousands of emails a day. If you want to buy, call them.
As far as I know the license for Harmony works on Linux. However, the easiest platform to set up and handle is Windows 7. It’s very easy to to create the path for Maya .osb files to render.
But with every license you get free and full tech support that with TeamViewer will enable tech to solve any problems. Ask them if they can support Linux with Teamviewer? I am sure there is some Linux app that can allow TB tech to take over your computer and fix things for you.
Anyway I own 3 licenses of harmony. I render around the clock using 2 licenses and create deformation animations with the third.
good luck, it;s a great application that will become the Caxton Press of animation and art video for the rest of us.
A great company who will work hard to see you are a happy customer.
I have a Linux machine I already use as an animation workstation and am running several other applications both commercial and opensource. This is why I want to use Harmony, because no other Toon Boom app supports Linux natively (I am running Animate Pro via VirtualBox right now).
TeamViewer runs on Linux. I use it all of the time in my “day job”
Then call ToonBoom. 800-962-8666
ask for Bernard but all the sales team are good.
You can also buy interest free installments.
Buy it, the Deformation tool and the Maya 3D bridge are awesome.
Say hello to Bernard for me but call!
Good luck,
Peter Noble
Yep, gonna call them this afternoon after I get home. Thanks!
Argh! I did call but it just rang and rang… guess I’ll try again on Monday. 