Better Than Flash to Create Classical Animation

Update: Magic N Colors have now adopted Toon Boom Harmony to produce Blu & Mo and strengthen their production pipeline.

How long have you been in this profession?

1 year. 

What are your most important accomplishments?

Our recent products, where “tradigital” techniques were used. We have combined cel animations and advanced Toon Boom tools to create rich quality.  These types of animations are inline with our Company’s Vision to bring classical animation tales to viewers globally.  

History with the Toon Boom Animate Pro

We are presently working on the TV Series titled Blu & Mo. For this series we are completely using Toon Boom software right from preproduction to post production. We are also working on an animation movie, which is in pre-production stage. This movie will also be made using tradigital methodology.

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

No. We use Adobe Photoshop and After Effects.  

Why did you choose to combine these products?

Photoshop is useful in creating rich backgrounds. We use After Effects for some additional effects which are not available in Animate Pro.

Please describe your workflow

We have three stages in our work flow.

1. Pre-Production

• Character Design
• Rigging
• Coloring
• Story Boarding

Rigging and Coloring are done in Animate Pro. Storyboarding is done using Storyboard Pro. The animatics and slugging will help animators during the production work.

2. Production

• Animations
• BG Designs
• Rendering

3. Post-Production

• Compositing
• Special Effects
• Final Output

 

What kind of animation do you create?

We would like to place ourselves as the best classical animation company in the world. So traditional animation is our cream and butter.

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

Module library for effects
Layers for the depth in background
Advanced cameras
Palette library for ink and paint
Counter editor tool for prescribed line quality

 

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

YES. Options such as color palettes help you to do character coloring much faster, excellent pan control provides complete control in tracing of rough animation. By rendering the file in SWF format, we have saved lot of time while reviewing our product. Moreover we can edit our animations at any point and even import animations by using library, for reuse in other scenes. This has helped us in gaining more productivity. Seamless integration with Storyboard Pro has made life of animators very easy in planning their animations. 

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

YES.  Overall production timelines have reduced by using the software which integrates seamlessly. The output produced by both software is exceptional, which is helping our company deliver the best quality products to our viewers.

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

Prior to purchasing Animate Pro, we have explored all other animation software for 2D like Flash. After thorough research, we found that Animate Pro is the best tool to get the required classical 2D output. It is more user friendly and has seamless integration with Storyboard Pro which makes it much easier for animators to plan their animations. My employees who have worked with Flash before have found Animate Pro far better than Flash. With the experience we had so far with Animate Pro, I do not think it is possible to get the same result with other software or would require lot of time and energy to get the same output

 

How do you feel about Toon Boom Animate Pro?

Very much user friendly software producing powerful animations.

Equipment used:

Tablets, Computers, Light boards, Pen and Paper