Toon Boom Animation Inc. announced the launch of its unique Pilot Production Program. This program is ideal for anyone who has a concept and wants to pitch it to broadcasters, producers, investors at industry gatherings such as Kidscreen, Cartoon Forum, MIPTV or any others.

With the Pilot Production Program, Toon Boom offers professional animators a unique opportunity to create their TV, Web or Film pilot using the most advanced animation software solution available on the market.

Why should you embark on the Toon Boom Pilot Production Program?
* Produce a high-quality pilot using the world’s best animation production software
* Create assets that can be reused once the project gets the green light
* Rely on Toon Boom’s extensive expertise in animation techniques and production

What Toon Boom provides to you:
* Free access to Toon Boom Storyboard Pro and Harmony stand-alone licenses for up to 3 months
* Access to an in-house expert dedicated to your animation project. Certain conditions apply.

“We are honoured to support the creation of pilots for TV, Film or the Web that will become excellent programming for the small and big screens” shared Joan Vogelesang, President and Chief Executive Officer at Toon Boom.

Detailed information about the Toon Boom Pilot Production Program can be found online

Flex GIF Animator is a digital paint software program that works great with pressure-sensitive, Wintab-compliant tablets. It has a versatile and powerful brush engine that allows for creation of extraordinary brushes for making your art ,It has dozens of predefine brushs include Crayon,Charcoal, oil paints and Pencil etc). It has drawing, cloning, and retouching tools(including Dodge, light, blur,saturation modifier and many others), add 3D look with drop shadow,glow and other effects to the graphics.It supports a variety of awesome special effects, include deform, flag, wave, spray light,scroll, particle,wipe,color change,light,blur etc, It supports create between objects animation and keyframe ( include Position, Scale, Rotate, Alpha and Effect Parameter) based animation.You can also save animation in SWF Flash,Quictime and avi format with sound to your animation files.All this function is built in one simplified interface,This ensures that designers of any level, from beginner to expert, will find this GIF Animator worth its price.

Download Flex GIF Animator

In case you missed our announcements, we are pleased to let you know that Toon Boom’s professional line of products is compatible with both Snow Leopard and Windows 7, keeping all your OS options open.

Autodesk® Maya® 3D modeling, animation, rendering, and visual effects software offers artists an end-to-end creative workflow. Autodesk Maya 2010 software is the first release to unify the Autodesk® Maya® Complete 2009 and Autodesk® Maya® Unlimited 2009 feature sets, advanced matchmoving capabilities, and high dynamic range compositing into a single affordable package*. Also included for a complete CG workflow are 5 additional mental ray® for Maya batch** rendering nodes and the Autodesk® Backburner™† network render queue manager.

MAYA

http://rapidshare.com/files/263372938/Maya_2009.part01.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263377467/Maya_2009.part02.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263381128/Maya_2009.part03.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263396358/Maya_2009.part04.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263405196/Maya_2009.part05.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263411571/Maya_2009.part06.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263420977/Maya_2009.part07.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263424161/Maya_2009.part08.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263434811/Maya_2009.part09.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263439968/Maya_2009.part10.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263450008/Maya_2009.part11.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263453977/Maya_2009.part12.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263465342/Maya_2009.part13.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263465580/Maya_2009.part14.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263475418/Maya_2009.part15.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263478505/Maya_2009.part16.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263487231/Maya_2009.part17.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263487734/Maya_2009.part18.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263501745/Maya_2009.part19.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263512385/Maya_2009.part20.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263518782/Maya_2009.part21.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263155174/Maya_2009.part22.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263154897/Maya_2009.part23.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263155020/Maya_2009.part24.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263155274/Maya_2009.part25.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263155107/Maya_2009.part26.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263200788/Maya_2009.part27.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263202282/Maya_2009.part28.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263206271/Maya_2009.part29.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263208672/Maya_2009.part30.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263218229/Maya_2009.part31.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263237454/Maya_2009.part32.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263246002/Maya_2009.part33.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263249268/Maya_2009.part34.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263258379/Maya_2009.part35.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263266222/Maya_2009.part36.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263281639/Maya_2009.part37.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263290730/Maya_2009.part38.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263301466/Maya_2009.part39.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263310884/Maya_2009.part40.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263317609/Maya_2009.part41.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263335218/Maya_2009.part42.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263340695/Maya_2009.part43.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263344887/Maya_2009.part44.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263352535/Maya_2009.part45.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/263361795/Maya_2009.part46.rar

Click to Play: Toon Boom Animate Pro Test: (with shameless self promotion )

Alrighty, this animation is my first real testing session with Animate Pro. I installed it a couple weeks ago and as quick as possible turned some jpgs on their sides, rotated on the x, y, & z just to see the promised “true” 3D that Pro boasted…. Well today I managed to find a few hours to myself to really do the program justice, and I’m very pleased how my first test project came out. 

Animate doesn’t have 3D Primitive shapes but faking one like the box in the animation above turned out to be very easy. I already had the art done for these boxes, so I just exported out a few JPGS, imported them into Animate Pro, and had the box assembled in less than 2 minutes. Even though I didn’t really need to do this I parented all symbols for each JPG, into a Peg Layer, and later into a Group for the Network (more on that later) 

The camera move was next. Basically the same setup as in the non-Pro version, except this time with 3D enabled so in the animation above its the camera thats turning (vs. the box art moving around). Only thing I cheated was the shadow, you’ll notice it starts and ends on both sides that the camera is facing. So it skews slightly from start to finish. 

Okay now the REALLY cool part about Pro that I discovered today ( but I know there’s more to be found) was the Network and Module Library. Together these two new windows really make me feel like the software is living up to the name “Pro” First timers to the program might find the Network window a little crazy, but once you get used to it, it is very simple. Or lets put it this way, if you have trouble connecting your DVD player to your TV, you might be confused by the Network. And thats probably a good way of describing this window. It connects together Effects, Cameras, Objects on stage, basically any kind of element you use in the animation and gives you a graphical network (hence the window name) to identify each thing and plug them together by dragging a line from one object to the next . So for example a Glow Effect would be connected to a symbol of a light bulb. PLug them together, the bulb glows. OR say you got your Glow Effect perfect but want to use it for a different object, then just drag a line from the Effect to that other object. Very quick and easy.

Click to embiggen: Network and Module Library are new additions

And yes, a free tutorial on everything I learned today, is in the works.

Oh and if you’re curious, there is a Gaming Package now. =)

Oops. I probably should have mentioned this sooner, Toon Boom is offering $1100 off the price of Animate Pro but for only another 24-48 hours. This is an awesome program. I’ve had a chance to use it already and tinkered with some of the 3D camera and object aspects, and was very impressed. So much so actually, that I had a kind of upper-downer moment where I sat around thinking I’ve been out of college for close to 10 years now and haven’t done any serious short animation. Should I have won an Oscar by now. Probably not. Should I have done ANYTHING by now. Probably definitely. That was the downer. The upper was that now that I’ve got some kick-ass animation software, its actually kicked me in the ass and I’ve already started story boarding something I want to produce in Animate Pro.

So think on it!

This short demo illustrates how you can use the MATLAB Compiler to compile a 3D Animation application. No Simulink required. We use MAT files for different simulation runs to display the temperature profile for a cube. …[More..]


On the other hand, Arthur Christmas will be rendered in 3D animation computer graphics. The film, set on Christmas night, will answer the mysterious question “How does Santa deliver all those presents in one night? …[More..]

3d animation is an art, it is not a lifeless method that can be studied in two hours. It is an art that has to be practiced in order to accomplish good results. So how a professional 3d animator is different from other 3d animators that …[More..]

3D for the Web: Interactive 3D animation using 3ds max, Flash and Director (Focal Press Visual Effects and Animation) Publisher: Focal Press | ISBN: 0240519108 | edition 2004 | PDF | 328 pages | 7,25 mb Make sure you benefit from the …[More..]

This is a 3D animation created by friends Steve, Juan, and Eric made for their Intro to 3D Animation class. It is a Nintendo-themed Rube Goldberg device with influences from iconic video games such as Donkey Kong, Tetris, Duck Hunt, …[More..]

If you

This short demo illustrates how you can use the MATLAB Compiler to compile a 3D Animation application. No Simulink required. We use MAT files for different simulation runs to display the temperature profile for a cube. …[More..]


On the other hand, Arthur Christmas will be rendered in 3D animation computer graphics. The film, set on Christmas night, will answer the mysterious question “How does Santa deliver all those presents in one night? …[More..]

3d animation is an art, it is not a lifeless method that can be studied in two hours. It is an art that has to be practiced in order to accomplish good results. So how a professional 3d animator is different from other 3d animators that …[More..]

3D for the Web: Interactive 3D animation using 3ds max, Flash and Director (Focal Press Visual Effects and Animation) Publisher: Focal Press | ISBN: 0240519108 | edition 2004 | PDF | 328 pages | 7,25 mb Make sure you benefit from the …[More..]

This is a 3D animation created by friends Steve, Juan, and Eric made for their Intro to 3D Animation class. It is a Nintendo-themed Rube Goldberg device with influences from iconic video games such as Donkey Kong, Tetris, Duck Hunt, …[More..]

A visitor just left this comment question in one of the Toon Boom Animate articles, and I might as well answer this in a real post. Here’s the Q…

hey.
i’m completely new to animate and i wonder how i works together with illustrator, photoshop and after effects.
i’m used to do all of my characters and illustrations in illustrator and photoshop, and i’d like to import them into animate. (my HD is full of eps-characters … ) have you experienced any problems with adobe and animate? has anyone combined after effects and animate?
thanks for any comment.

*leBeat

Animate works great for importing in images either pixel or vector based (including .swf) . I wouldn’t praising this program at all if I didn’t. Importing in other formats has fortunately become pretty standard in the design world. Even before Adobe bought Macromedia, those two companies did a decent job of importing from one another ( AI to Flash, or Flash to AI). And although I can’t speak for the developers at Toon Boom, I’m sure they realize they are  an emerging player in the world of animation / graphics software and Adobe is king of that world right now. So it makes sense to support importing their files in, because most everyone’s past art has been made in Adobe programs.

Now the real reason I’m writing is because of the last part of leBeat’s question. After Effects and Animate do work VERY well together.  When I first published from Toon Boom Animate one of the things that surprised me (pleasantly though) was that it rendered out a transparent image sequence. First off I love image sequences. I majored in Computer Art at SVA (in da ’90’s!), and my focus was on 3D, so ever since then I get excited watching a computer render one file named sequentially after another….ohhh babby. Name those files in order…  But seriously, an image sequence is ideal for animation. Which might sound strange to my Flash crowd, because we’re just happy to publish a .swf file and be done. But a swf is horrible for doing anything other than popping it up on a website. So if you’re creating an animation for a demo reel, or  festival, or just to import into After Effects, you probably want an image sequence. Especially if its an HD sized project.  But by the way, you can export to a .mov file too (with sound). So don’t think that you are limited to just exporting image sequences.  Again, if you haven’t worked professionally in the video/animation industry and are just used to publishing .swf, the beauty of an image sequence might be lost on ya.

Anyway, long story short. YES! Animate is perfect for exporting either images or a movie to later be used in After Effects. Especially since it creates transparent image sequences, you don’t have to worry about keying out some color once its in After Effects.

Now what about bringing a video file into Animate?? I just did that, because prior to writing this, that wasn’t something I had tried yet. Here’s the options you get when you do this…

You might notice that says “Import Drawings” at the top, thats because the video first gets converted to individual frames, then this prompt shows up. So they are treating the imported video like an image sequence.

The defaults, seen above, are probably your best option for just bringing in the video like you’d expect. But notice you can choose to vectorize the video, which would be useful if you wanted to draw on some of the frames, or edit them. Or just give the video a vectorized look.

Once the video is in, you can scrub through the main timeline of your Animate project and see the progress of the video as well. So you aren’t stuck just seeing frame 1 of the video or something lame like that. So you can really time the rest of your project with what you are seeing in the video. Plus, the niftyness of the Drawing Substitutions panel got talked about a lot in my tutorial on that (refresher here), but the video gets treated like a symbol with frames to swap among. So you can really quickly move frame 150, in place of frame 10, if need be.

And best of all… You can animate the video in Perspective just like everything else in Animate. So to see what I mean…

The cartoon dude is vector art in front of the video. And you can see the video is obviously being viewed in perspective. And I could stack layers of video behind or in front of each other by changing the Z-depth. So imagine my camera panning or zooming paste different layers of video like that. Pretty cool right.

Animation is the easiest form of filmmaking to use in the classroom, as it requires only a small amount of equipment and you can create your actors, sets and props using paper, pens, scissors and plasticine! The stop frame animation process involves taking a shot of your scene and then moving your subject a little before shooting your next frame. When the frames are played at speed, and because of the way our eyes work, we see the still images as movement.

What type of animation?

2D drawn and cut out

Make your characters and settings from cardboard and attach split pins to joints so that you can move your characters.

Silhouette animation

Use cut out figures made from black card and animate them on a white background or a lightbox. Show children some of Lotte Reiniger’s work on Screenonline and the First Light Movies film ‘The Princess and the Pendant’ made by 5-6 year olds from Hartside Primary School.

Sand

Sand animation is produced using tools or fingers to make marks in a sheet of paper covered in sand or in a tray of sand.

Claymation

The easiest way to make your own Aardman style animations in the classroom is to make 3D characters out of plasticine.

Here are some tips on how to make the perfect 3D character for animation:

Keep models simple without too much detail

Insert wire so that you can make moving joints or make your whole figure from wire and mould the plasticine round it.

Don’t make your models too big or heavy; instead of using lumps of plasticine for the head, roll paper into a ball and cover it with plasticine.

Give your model a large base and not too big a head so that it doesn’t topple over!

Online animation resources:

Introducing animation

Flipbook!

Make and save digital flipbooks online. NB There may be flipbook animations created by users on this site that are unsuitable for children, so don’t allow them to browse without supervision.

Pivot Stickfigure

A free download you can install on your computer that demonstrates how animation works by enabling you to make short animations with stick figures.

Stop frame animation software

Frame Thief can be downloaded free from the internet and can be used on Mac computers.

MonkeyJam is a free animation download for PCs.

I Can Animate is suitable for Macs and PCs both these packages are quite inexpensive and have been designed to be used by children.

Pencil lets you create traditional hand-drawn animation (cartoon) using both bitmap and vector graphics. Pencil is free and open source. View more at http://www.les-stooges.org/pascal/pencil/index.php?id=Home

Here’s a Tutorial for Pencil

I’ve just seen this on Flash Magazine, its an Open Source (free) add-on for Macromedia/Adobe Flash. I’ve not tried it yet but will give it ago….looks impressive! Let me know if you’ve used it.

http://away3d.com/

DAZ Studio.

I’ve personally not used these but some of my students have and they think their pretty good…myabe i’ll try them sometime, I’m more of a Blender fan myself.

TrueSpace

Cartoon Smart offers video tutorials for a range of software, especially FLASH which is used for animation.

I’ve watched some of these and they are good, although I found it best to watch the video on a seperate computer so i could view on full screen and pause at specific stages.

They offer a wide range of other tutorials that can be purchased.