Creating More Quality and Professional Looking Animation

Bernard Derriman

Company
freelance

Occupation
Animation Director

Location
Sydney, Australia


Biography

Bernard Derriman began his animation career with Walt Disney Studios in Sydney, Australia, where he worked as a Supervising animator on various productions. In 1992 Bernard won Best Comedy at Tropfest, the world’s biggest short film festival for his first short Chopper. He directed and animated the music video Everyone else has had more sex than me which was a success on the internet. Bernard, along with US comedian Arj Barker, is the co–creator of the award-winning series Arj and Poopy. Two episodes won awards at the 2005 and 2006 Annecy International Animation Festival. Bernard is currently the animation director on the series Big Green Rabbit, which snared six Heartland Emmy nominations proving itself as one of the country's hottest new children's shows and online sensations. Big Green Rabbit was nominated for the 2009 Heartland Emmy Awards in the following five categories: Arts/Entertainment Program/Special, Children/Youth Program/Special (two nominations), Musical Composition/Arrangement ‘Best Musical Composition/Arrangement, Program Graphics and Writer – Program ‘Best Writer.

I used to use Flash, and when creating complex animation in Flash the programme would get bogged down a great deal. It would invariably become a nightmare. Toon Boom Animate Pro in comparison is such a solid programme, I can just get on with focusing on the animation and not fighting the programme itself.

How long have you been in this profession?

18 years

History with Animate/Animate Pro

I discovered Toon Boom at Annecy in 2006, and began using it the following year.

Do you create your animations using Toon Boom Animate Pro only? 

Yes!

Please describe your workflow

I do all my storyboards in Storyboard Pro – which is just so fast and intuitive. Then export to Toon Boom to continue my work pretty much traditionally – lots of roughing out and cleaning up afterwards.

What kind of animation projects do you create?

Only 2D

What animation technique are you mostly using?

Traditional animation

What are your top five favorite features in Toon Boom Animate Pro:

1) The camera 2) Pegs 3) The drawing line 4) Highlights 5) Perspective Tool

What Toon Boom Animate Pro features allow you to distinguish your animation productions?

With the compositing options Toon Boom provides, it adds so much more quality and a professional look, even to the simplest animation.

Did you experience any productivity gains in using Toon Boom Animate Pro?

Not yet, but for two reasons:
1) All the animation I have been creating in Toon Boom Animate Pro has been more complex and as a result takes more time (and it’s more complex because it can be in Toon Boom) and
2) I haven’t yet begun creating animation that really reuses a lot of animation – where I am sure Toon Boom Animate Pro will come into it’s own.

Are you more efficient today compared to your production toolset used previously?

Yes definitely. I used to use Flash, and when creating complex animation in Flash the programme would get bogged down a great deal. It would invariably become a nightmare. Toon Boom Animate Pro in comparison is such a solid programme, I can just get on with focusing on the animation and not fighting the programme itself. 

Is it possible to get the same results with other digital animation software?

In my experience yes, but using additional more programmes and a lot more trouble.

How was your leaning curve? Have you used the video tutorials?

The video tutorials were really helpful – a real eye opener to the new features.

Equipment used

I use Mac for my work