Hi to everyone!..
I’ going to buy update to Animate 2 but I have dilema…
Wher Aniamte is better then Flash?
I’ve just noticed winner of CGSociety challange
http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/b-movie/player.php?entry_id=113344
all done in Flash + AF and looks awsome!!
I have CS 3 Flash… to but my old works were just for hobby and small jobs but now I get TV adv contract work … and I’ starting to tune up my tools…
So as in subject: WHY?
Thank You for any help…
:))
Having just started animating, period, I picked Animate because it is very easy to get the same thing done that would take forever in Flash. I bought Toon Boom a few days ago and I’m already animating. So I figure they’re doing something right.
The Youtube link goes to an example of the differences from someone who has actually used both.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6k9eyJO-Vm4
betterflashanimation.com has some of your answers.
Also I think it is pretty much univerisally agreed for animation, Animate is much better than flash.
While in theory you could do the same things in both software Animate has a much better workflow which changes the time required to do things drammatically.
That said what do you expect since flash is more designed for it’s interactive internet abilities and the animation came more because of people being really creative with it.
So if you are looking at it purely from an animation point of view it isn’t really close. If you are looking for some of the other features flash offers in the non-animation areas then that could change things for you.
One of the weaknesses of zillions of flash tutorials but not many Animate tutorials is changing as there is now a fair few high quaility animate tutorials from a number of people including Adam Phillips, cartoonsmart and myself 
shortage of tutorials focused on Animate is painfull 
Yes I need only for animation, no interectivity … just for TV, net.
Can You give me samples of the best works done on Animate?
Thanks for Your answers! 
http://www.toonboom.com/products/animatepro/gallery.php
but there is many more.
Grossology is a common example for professional useage.
But there are so many I can’t name them all. I am pretty sure even the simpsons use it in their workflow (although I don’t know how but from memory they were in the xmas card toonboom sent out)
In my opinion, it is not even fair to compare Animate with Flash. That is like comparing paint shop pro to Photoshop. A fair comparison would probably be Toonboom Studio, which is still better than flash for animation.
The basic answer from me would be, Animate is made by Animators for Animators.
Can you make quality animations in Flash? of course, it has been done many times. However, you have to fight with it in order to get things done.
If you want to make Animation for TV it is unanimous Animate.
Thank everyone for help!
Now I’m beliver of Animate! 
Regards
Here is a cause for concern: until a year ago or so, Flash seemed to be forgotten. More studios were using Toon Boom Harmony or Animate Pro/Digital Pro. But recently, I have never seen so many job opportunities offered for Flash animators, not just one but several companies. I am not a Flash user. Being a traditional animator by trade and experience, favoring Toon Boom over Flash is a no-brainer.
But I have been looking lately at the job connections here on this site and there hasn’t been any new postings for some time, now closing in on 2 months!
So, my question is: Why is the new Flash so popular with many of the studios hiring right now over Toon Boom?
i assume because of the internet capabilities and mobile gaming.
To me a good thing for toonboom would be to show how it can be used in a mobile gaming workflow. There is no reason in the world you can’t do all the art for an iphone game with Animate.
well said…
I just started using Toon Boom animate and what freaks me out is that Toon Boom has a way of solving everything that would give you a head ache in flash.
Because since I just started, eventually I would get to a point where I would
stick and wander…“but this doesn’t make sense, is just to much work” …and then a few mins later I would come across a solution (“wow! I see!”)… that would make animating so much easier!
Thanks Ross, you are right as well, the only thing that will hurt you when you first start using Animate is not knowing what you don’t know. You have to realize that this is a whoooole different ballgame from flash.
It is up to you to decide to stick with it and learn it, or take the easy route and go back to flash. I’ve said before, Animate has so many “easter eggs” lol, things that as Ross said make your life alot easier but also makes sense. You just have to find them.
When I first Installed Animate I found myself jumping back to flash. The conflict within me was, “I could do this so much easier in Flash”. I think I stopped doing that once I succesfully rigged a character and understood how and why you have to go through all that work of creating heirachies, and adjusting the z-depth, ect.
My only advice before you get Animate is to make sure your computer is up to specs, specially your graphics card. Otherwise, you will suffer my friend… you will suffer.
To me a good thing for toonboom would be to show how it can be used in a mobile gaming workflow.
I remember asking that question over a year ago to a Toon Boom representative, I never got an answer.
They just need someone to do it. There are lots of different ways, but there is no question it can be used.
I think potentially if they could get a few samples to show it is possible it would be a huge advertising point for the software.
I even thought about buying the cheapest mac notebook to try and implement it into an iphone app workflow because i think it would be so easy, but it seemed a bit pointless. I am sure someone could do it.
Hi everyone, I was pointed toward this thread by my contact at Toon Boom…
I run a small animation shop where we do mostly game and commercial work, and we use Animate Pro exclusively for all our digital 2D animation. Personally, I’ve used Flash on numerous occasions, but years ago I tried Toon Boom Studio and never went back to Flash for animating. I eventually upgraded to Digital Pro, then Animate Pro, and now AP2.
I’ve already used Toon Boom to animate all the assets for a cell phone game, and we’re currently in production on an iPhone game – again using Animate Pro for all the animation.
If you have any specific questions about how Toon Boom fits into our workflow for mobile gaming, feel free to ask and I’ll do my best to answer.
You might as well show off some work ;D
If you want to see some samples you can check:
www.slappypictures.com
www.pencilteststudios.com
Unfortunately most of our commercial clients don’t allow us to post their properties on our website. We did the animation for a cell phone game attraction for Disney’s Epcot Center called the Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure. You can read about it here:
http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/parks/epcot/attractions/kim-possible/
but Disney doesn’t post any images. A google search brings up lots of images though.
So, as I said, if you have any specific questions about how Toon Boom fits into our workflow for mobile gaming, feel free to ask and I’ll do my best to answer.
Thanks for contributing to this forum entry! I wonder if I can just ask on behalf of everyone, how does the pipeline work? Do you do your designs on paper or directly in the software? Do you do all the colouring in Animate Pro as well? Do you animate primarily with frame-by-frame animation or do you do any cutout style? Then when you finish the animation, what format do you output with and then how do you integrate this into the next phase of the pipeline? I.e. what’s the next software that you use?
Sorry for all the questions but I think that these questions have come up at some point or another and I want to take advantage of having you on here to give everyone some inspiration!
~Lilly
Toon Boom Support
Obviously every studio/production will have their own unique pipeline, but here’s a brief overview of our experience creating animation assets for a mobile gaming project.
Initial designs are all done on paper. That’s still the most expedient way to generate and flesh out ideas. When I say designs, I’m referring character designs, background layouts and game design in general.
Once we’ve decided on a direction for the characters, we scan the paper designs, import them into Animate as a bitmap and use that as a template for final character designs. Tracing over the scans, we create a cleanup model for each character.
Prior to creating color models and palettes for each character, I like to create a color script for the project, usually in photoshop. It’s basically a storyboard of the entire project with a small color thumbnail for each unique moment in the game.
Then I’ll create a new Animate file called Color Models and import the cleanup models I created earlier, with each character in their own layer. Then I open the color script in Photoshop and create a palette for each character in AP by using the AP eyedropper to pick my colors from the colorscript. Once the color models are done, you can drag each character’s layer into the template library so you can pull the palettes and color model into whatever scenes you need them for.
Based on our game design, we’ll create an animation draft document that lists all the individual animations needed for gameplay, as well as the specs for each animation. This will be our blueprint for what animations we need to create.
We prefer to animate frame by frame rather than working with cut outs or rigs. When I first started working with Toon Boom I did most of the animation traditionally on paper, scanning and vectorizing the drawings in AP, although now we draw directly in AP using a Cintiq. To be honest I still prefer drawing on paper, but the Cintiq is much more efficient, especially when it comes to changes and revisions.
Usually we create a separate layer for the rough animation, and rough out the drawings until the animation is working. Then we create a cleanup layer, and using that character’s color palette, trace over the roughs to get the final drawing. Once that is working, we create color art vectors from the line art and then do all the ink and paint on that same layer.
The animation frames are rendered out without a BG, since we’re making game sprites. In the render module we choose TGA4 so it adds an alpha channel. We render out sequentially numbered targa files using the render network.
Our in-house game engine, written by our programming partners, requires that animation be read as graphic filmstrips, which are basically long graphic files with each frame of the animation lined up one after the other. The filmstrip format was originally created for special effects, so you could paint frame by frame on a film sequence in photoshop. I’ve worked with several game engines for mobile devices and they’ve all used filmstrips for animation.
We use After Effects to create our filmstrips. AE allows you to import the sequential bitmaps rendered from AP and export them as filmstrips. The nice thing about using AE is you can reopen the filmstrips in AE later and edit them frame by frame and the save them back out if you need to make changes.
From that point it’s a matter of importing the filmstrips into our game engine and scripting the animations and game behaviors.
I’m glossing over a lot of details here, but this should give you a basic overview. If anyone has any specific questions let me know and I’ll try to answer them.
Thank you so much for sharing your pipeline with us! That’s exactly what I wanted to know, and hopefully it will help the other users in this forum to see the creative ways that Animate Pro can be worked into a game pipeline. Once again, thanks for your time!
~Lilly
Toon Boom Support
That was interesting to read.
Just curious
do you use toonboom just for character design/animation, or do you also any of backgrounds, interfaces, effects? and if so which ones?