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Need help finding good 2D anim software

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Need help finding good 2D anim software

Hi all

I'm a 2D animator used to working on paper, where I create full animation, and in Flash for "Squidbillies", where it's a mix of cutout-limited, to fuller gestural animation. I am interested in finding a good 2D animation package that can handle both cutout animation as well as digitally drawn in, full animation. Any kind of Library for re-usability would be great.

This is for my own home studio and private film projects. I am considering Toon Boom V3, and am curious what any other users experiences are with the package, or any other good package besides Flash. I have a Mac G5 dual core and a Wacom tablet, so software advice is all I need.

Thanks!
Sketch2d

I studied up on what I thought TBS could do for me and found I was selling myself short, that it could do a lot more for me than I was letting it. I also got to talk to a few people from TBS to find out more about the other packages.

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Hey Rupertpiston

I'm actually being trained to learn TB Harmony right now, after first having to demo TB Solo. That is the reason for my posting. I'm used to Flash, and learning this new software has been.......a little backwards for me. But I can already see its power and I like what the TB tools can do, in addition to working in 3D space. However, $3-10 thousand dollars for the program is way out of my price range, which is why I am looking at Studio first as an alternative to Flash, and then whatever other programs you guys suggest.

Thanks for the advice!
Sketch2d

Here's a good program for cutout animation:

http://www.lostmarble.com/moho

It took me about a day to learn and now I'm using it for all my stuff.

You can do hand drawn frame by frame animation BUT that's not the program's primary use so it's not that great.

I'd suggest pencil and paper for frame by frame ;)

James :cool:

I'm a big fan of Toon Boom Studio.

It works a lot like Flash, but has more features and a more powerful library system.

In addition, it has a terrific peg system that allows for much easier animation of arms and legs.

It has automatic lip-synch. While it's limited to only eight mouth shapes, this can be compenstated by the animator without much trouble.

You can do color transforms on whole groups of elements at once, rather than on individual layers.

It has a rotating drawing area, which we animators just love.

It also features onion skinning like other good animation programs.

It works great for Flash type animation as well as drawn animation, though it's better when you draw in the computer than with scanned paper animation.

Lest I forget, it also features Z-space, 2D objects placed in 3D space, viewed through a 3D camera.

It's also pretty affordable, around $300.

I've been toying (not much) with a trial of their next up piece of software, Toon Boom Solo. While I haven't had much time to mess with it, I understand it has IK, as well as "glue" for the joints so you never see a gap when a limb bends too much. This software runs about $3000, I think, but has a layaway program of sorts from what I've seen.

Toon Boom software is behind some of the work in Curious George, as well as The Triplettes of Belleville. However, these works used Harmony or Opus.

If I seem to know more than I oughtta, I recently go re-inspired about TBS when they asked me to demo their software at an educator's conference. I studied up on what I thought TBS could do for me and found I was selling myself short, that it could do a lot more for me than I was letting it. I also got to talk to a few people from TBS to find out more about the other packages.

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