I am investigating the use of Alias' Sketchbook pro for 2d animation. Anyone with any insights into the feasibility of doing so, please comment and make suggestions.
I am familiar with the route of doing animation traditionally, scanning and then painting in photoshop. I have even animated in photoshop, so to speak, by using the layers palette and it's ability to "flip" thu the "drawings" on each layer. Is this possible with Sketchbook?
Thanks!
Sketch2d
sketchbook has layers. although they do not turn off and on as easy as photoshop.
It can work.
There should be a free demo of it for download on their website.
www.alias.com (yah, they arent alias anymore i guess, but this will re-direct you)
"who wouldn't want to make stuff for me? I'm awesome." -Bloo
They have layer, but I think you should consider other softwares like plastic animation paper or something similar... As far as I know ppl do concepts and sketching on sketchbook usually. Not final finished painting or other product..
=~My Animation Blog~=
I have alias sketchbook, but I don't use it for animation. I use a program called Mirage for my hand-drawn animation work. It's not that expensive, and it was made for doing traditional animation, so it has alot of features a program like sketchbook just wouldn't have. That said, I do use sketchbook ALOT. I would dare say it's more useful to me than Photoshop. I mean, if you know how to do alpha channels on photoshop, you can make your drawings in Sketchbook and import them over to photoshop to paint them. The thing is, photoshop seems to have a tendency sometimes to slow down as I draw. I have a very vigorous line stroke, and Photoshop usually doesn't keep up with it, while Sketchbook does. So, I mean, you could use Sketchbook with Photoshop with Imageready or Premiere or After Effects in order to do your animation, but I think it's easier to just get something like Mirage.
Yeah, what you want is Mirage or TVPaint (the same thing ... except...well, it's complicated. TVPaint and Mirage (Bauhaus) are involved in a lawsuit over who owns the rights to the software.)
Try the TVPaint demo . (especially if you have an Intel Mac. Mirage won't run on Intel Macs yet . TVPaint runs just fine on Intel Macs)
http://www.tvpaint.com/
and try the Mirage demo:
http://www.bauhaussoftware.com/products_LP.php
The situation between Bauhaus Software (Mirage) and TVPaint , according to TVPaint:
http://www.tvpaint.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=589
TVPaint says that they own the source code. TVPaint is releasing updates. Mirage hasn't updated in the last year-and-a-half. Draw your own conclusions.
But either version Mirage or TVPaint are excellent for doing traditional animation in a digital environment with a Wacom tablet.
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