Would Animate Pro Benefit me?

Retired Products Animate General Discussion
1

I currently use the standard Animate 2. I am a senior in college and plan to use Toon Boom for most if not all my independent projects. I also plan to use it for my senior thesis. I am about to complete a job that will allow me to purchase a new computer, but I may have some left over for a Cross-Grade to Toon Boom Animate Pro.

I know there was a list floating around of feature comparisons, but I forget what they were and I am concerned if it’s beneficial enough for someone in my position.

So far, the reason I consider it is I like the way it handles effects better than having to constantly make effects in a hierarchy, the texture brushes look nice, and I believe it had a more efficient way of making under drawings?

I got Animate 2 when it as on a one-day sale of $300, which at that price is worth the jump from Flash to ToonBoom, but I am fumbling if the features offered in Pro are worth a cross-grade for myself…Any experience out there going from Animate 2 to Animate pro?

2

In my case, TBAP is irreplacilbe software when it comes to handrawn animation, it has an optical peg registration which is most important for me.

3

my advice, try the PLE.

Try before you buy :slight_smile: (but remember stuff in the PLE can’t be opened in the full version)

4

Here is the product comparison http://www.toonboom.com/products/compare/compare_animation_software.php?sl=US

5

^^^Thank you very much for the link!

I do hope Toon Boom launches one of their huge “one day sale” promos where TBA was $299 soon, which I would think a cross-grade price would also be reduced. The textured brush also seems like a useful addition.

6

There are a few things that I can think of off hand that are really handy.

1) Network View. As you said, this allows you to make use of all the effects in the Module Library. However it also allows you to construct more robust cutout characters, if you’re moving in that direction.

2) The “Enable 3D” feature. Animate Pro allows you to turn on “Enable 3D” on any drawing layer, letting you rotate that image plane in 3D space. You can also turn this on for a peg layer, so you can do complex rotations on your camera.

3) Texture Brushes. It can be lots of fun to draw with textured brushes, and semi-transparent colour pots, to get more of a blue-pencil feel when doing roughs, or to add to the style of final animation.

~Lilly