Thanks Nolan - that sounds like a smart way to do it. Keeping my scenes short will minimise the risk of losing everything in one big crash!
Its interesting (and liberating) to hear you say “there’re many different individual styles how to approach, continue and finish such a project” - Ive just been having exactly the same conversation about how to play the blues! I think with ToonBoom though I need a quicker learning curve, and your suggestions help a lot
thanks
Tim 
Hi. I am wondering if i am approaching my project from the wrong direction.
I have an animation project which is 8 minutes long (at 12fps thats 5700 frames) and ive been creating it as one whole ‘scene’ complete with a continuous soundtrack.
Currently I am about half way through and you can imagine the frustration of scrolling the time line back and forth through 000’s of frames - Im also worried about the size of the project and it crashing.
I am wondering if this would be better approached as a bunch of individual (say 8 off x 1 min) scenes that I stitch together later.
What is the usual approach to such a project?
How would I stitch these scenes? Can i do this all in Animate? How? Do I need any additional software? (is this what TB’s ‘storyboard’ is for?)
Sorry if this sounds like a daft question… its new to me… and if anyone knows of a ToonBoom Animate course happening in the UK, please let me know - I’d really welcome a training session
Thanks for your interest
Tim
Well, I guess, there’re many different individual styles how to approach,
continue and finish such a project…
Personally, I would recommend, creating all scenes separately as short as possible…
(but giving every scene enough room (frames) for cutting later in any video editor)
The same might apply for your sound-files (lip-sync or background-sound)…
you might have created earlier in any of your sound-editors, like e.g. “Audacity”, “Amadeus”, “GarageBand”, or else…
Create and export every scene individually in the format (resolution) you’re aiming for…
Import those movies or image sequences and sound-files into your preferred
Video / Compositing Editor… like, e.g. “Premiere”, “Vegas”, “Final Cut”,
“Ulead”, “Pinnacle”, “iMovie”, or else…
When ready, export your final movie to your desired format…
Regards
Nolan
I struggled with a similar construction problem. I am using adobe premiere elements to construct the final output (software I was already using to edit my regular video).
A camera view changes every few seconds. So my plan is to build a scene into the camera cuts, then “glue” them all together after each tidbit is finished.
If you have a camera cut that repeats, it looks like you can just throw things in the library for the next project, to use them again without re-drawing.
I am putting story board on paper and working from that. So if I have a scene say where someone is talking, then cut to the listener, then back to the talker. I am just building the talking as one longer scene. Then I can use elements to slice things up. You can still cut away to a listener though in elements as audio is handled separately from video.
Things like background noise, music, and atmosphere can be added in elements without continuity issues.
So my exported product from animate is just foreground, background (camera stuff) etc… and character voices. I also add in sweetener sounds, and effects in animate. but leave longer background noise and music tracks to elements to pull the whole project together and make final cuts.
Hi Thanks for replies.
Things have moved on for me a bit now. I got a couple of days training from a student doing her animation degree - she was very competent with TB, and this made a big difference to how I approach my work. She taught me some really useful productivity techniques - and also verified that some of my own approaches were right.
She uses Toon Boom Storyboard to create her animatics - and I can see how this would be very useful in communicating ideas with stakeholders and collaborative teams. For me, right now it appears that creating my storyboards on paper will work just fine.
Her tip to me was to keep the scenes as short as possible with lots of trim space either end and do the stitching together in a video editing package (she uses Final Cut Pro)
And so this is how I am approaching my projects now - The key thing now being “data management” - keeping all the files in the right place with correct and comprehensive labling… I was fortunate enough once to be talking to the chairman of one of the UKs biggest and most successful animation studios - and I asked him what the biggest challenge for his organisation was (i was expecting to hear him say funding, talent, ideas, competition etc etc) - he simply said “data management” - that was his single worry now - making sure that all the people were working on the right file at the right time… what a shame that this is what the industry boils down to in the end :-/