Toon Boom Announces Animate 2
Animate 2, a powerful software package that rivals Flash. The second iteration of the software includes full SWF export, better velocity controls and a type tool. The pre-launch price is $549.99, and if you buy now, they’ll give you the first version to use until its’ successor arrives. Here’s some of my favorite Toon Boom animation from recent months:
Um Lugar Comum (A Common Place) from São Paulo-based studio Split Filmes
Water FX from Canadian Chris Graf
I also really like André Ruivo’s Januário e a Guerra.
Toon Boom is a really cool program, if it would only work properly and it’s most basic functions operate in a logical manner. It’s a great tool, for a studio with the budget to afford the comprehensive customer support, but not for the individual user who can’t.
As an independent animator and Flash antagonist, the concept of Toon Boom seemed to be a ray of light in clouds of anger I have for Flash (buggy interface, broken code, and overall unstable product even though it is my bread and butter). Upon purchasing Toon Boom and becoming a “Post Seminar Advocate” the magic soon disappeared and the reality of another broken product materialized.
Toon Boom Animate, all $500.00 discounted rate of it, now sits on my dock and haunts me. I’ve gone back to Flash, made amends and have learned to work within it’s dysfunctional parameters. Swearing that one day I’ll master Toon Boom, someway, sometime.
With the bitter taste of feeling cheated from my first run in with Toon Boom, it’s hard for me to see this new iteration as a good thing until it arrives and the user reviews come in. I hope they’ve learned from their mistakes and produce a more stable product with the basic functions working in a logical manner (like the erase and undo functions being completely unresponsive on multiple users package).
Until then, I will lay with my evil mistress Flash, and she will torture me again and again until I waste away to nothing.
Hello Otis,
Cheated is certainly not the feeling we want you to have towards Animate. Please contact me directly at karina@toonboom.com to discuss and resolve your issues.
Thanks,
Karina
Otis I felt the same way towards Animate when I first bought it 3-4 months ago. There where so many simple functions not working, like the erase and undo functions(on single user package),or the color picker crashing my machine, ect. At first I blamed it on Vista or better yet Microsoft.
So I upgraded to windows 7 and the problems where still there. So I became a regular complaint poster on the tb forums. Someone suggested I u/g my graphics card to support open gl. Ever since I did that I have not had a single problem.
I have yet to master Animate, but let me tell you something, it is a very very powerful program and one that you should not give up on so easily. It is not as easy to learn as flash but nothing good comes easy.
The journey to learn it has been a bit tough, but I am enjoying the challenge and the rewards are more than satisfying.
Stick with it, learn it,Find what’s causing the problem, fix it, and I promise you, You will not regret it.
Put it this way, If you still feel the same way after setting up the multiplane camera for the first time, and watch your backgrounds move like it where done by disney or something, then I will say ok, marry you mistress.
I know how you feel. I bought Animate 2 about 6 months ago. compared to Flash it’s complex – and counterintuitive. I just have to walk away from it after a few hours. But it does have one thing that I love – vectorizing. So that means pulling out the peg board > hand-drawing the frames > inking on light table > scan into Photoshop for cleanup > importing frames into Animate 2 > vectorize > color in Animate 2. Yeah, I know. I could save a step or two, but drawing the frames outside Animate 2 eliminates that “computer look.” If anyone wants to tell me a better way to use Animate 2, I’m listening.