Help with 2D animation, please...

[masterhhili]

I know a free 2d animation software. You need :

-YourBrain.lib
-eyes.exe
-pen.dll
-And another plugin : 1001sheet.dlo

[mohsen123]

hi
i was mak e cartoon 5/6 month age with macromedia flash

it was very hard for me to make this (becouse “in flash” there is no bone for creat body…)
but flash have many good thigs for make a 2d animation (support many formats / use easy vectors and edit / highquality of published .swf animations And …)
now i wanna develop my cartoon but i wont use flash again and i wanna use another program that (suport bone / publish high quality “800x600 for DVD” / suport background transparent formats .png . .tga … )
{i creat and ilustrate my characters in photoshop . so i wont drow and animation}
:sad:

thank you for this good forum & tapic and thnak you if help me.

[TheCheshireCat]

Hey everyone!

A client asked me to make an intro for her website - She wants to have her signature “written” dynamically (As if some invisible pen is writing it)

I know how to use Flash and 3ds Max, and I was wondering if you could please point me to someplace where I can learn how this is done, or maybe give me the name of the technique or tool you recommend for me to use in order to create this effect. I could use any of these two programs. (Although if rendered in max I will probably make an swf out of it just for convenience)

Thanks for your help.

[ojcruz]

Hey Cheshire cat
As far as I know the only way to do that in Flash is to animate a stroke by hand or by tweening. As for 3dmax I’m not sure, but maya can deform an object across a path so I’m sure you can do it that way. You would have to animate the influence atributes. Alternatively I know for a fact that After Effects does it rather easily. You basicaly draw the first and the last frame of the stroke and it fills in the tweened frames following the the path from start point to end point. That’s how I would go about it. Combustion does it too.

Anyways, hope this is helpful

[Xevious]

My personal Preference is to use TVP Animation (tvpaint.com) - I also own Moho, PD Pro, CTP, and *paint - and have used Flash, US Animation/Toon Boom, etc…

But when it comes down to it, for me and when Im doing a solo project or with just a half dozen person team… TVP Animation is hard to beat. It is almost like if Photoshop were an animation program.

If it does what you want it to do, and you dont expect for it to do your work for you - all you need to do is decide which accomodates your workflow better. Really, if you were ambitious - you could animate something in MS Paint… it would be a long process, but its possible. But its not really the software that decides how it would turn out in many cases, but the work you put into it…

I’ve been giving a good hard look at this program TV Paint…I heard it used to be Bauhaus Mirage but now its under another developer. I have some concerns about the program though:

1. The website http://www.tvpaint.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=77
   Is not very well designed. Its doesn’t give you a lot of information on the software. Its hard to find screenshots for example.

2. What was interesting about Mirage was that it was a traditional animation tool but you can do effects like a composition program. I’m not clear if those extra features are carried over to TVpaint. The website is not very clear.

3. There are no reviews anywhere for TV paint

4. Its seems hard to find. I clicked on the link for resellers and the only one listed in North America is in Mexico City…That inspires confidence…

[Suricate]

Well, as far as I understood, TVPaint always had the same developer, it is only that version 7 has been licensed to Bauhaus Software to sell it under the name ‘Mirage’. Earlier versions had been sold under the name ‘Aura’.

There is a downloadable 30-day trial demo for TVPaint on their website, so you can give it a try.

As far as resellers are concerned, I understood that - if your country has no reseller - you can order directly at their online store and pay via PayPal.

[MTuttle]

I only just heard of MediaPEGS from finding a discarded July 2000 edition of Animation Magazene, since it had what looked like a CG Rocky & Bullwinkle that I had never seen before…Anyway PEGS seems to have dissapeared from the cyber map, does anyone know what happened to them?

[sirielle]

Thank you people for lot of information here I just struggled with animation in Painter 9, managed to do a 30 seconds test, but it would be hard to do anything longer in it. I just downloaded PAP and a few other recommended programs and will try them. I only hope I can import images from Painter into them or paint in a similar way inside of the programs.

[AlienMonsterRobot]

PAP is a good platform to start with, although a trial version of Toon Boom Studio would be more ideal. I’m not promoting TB per se (I use Digital Pro professionally and love the workflow and “faux” 3D effects), but the price of TB Studio (v4-4.5) has dropped to more “affordable” levels. Much of the 2D content out today (Family Guy, much of the Adult Swim catalog, etc.) uses Toon Boom in conjunction with Max/Maya.

Regardless of the software, be prepared for a steeper learning curve if you’re not familiar with rigging and keyframing, though. It helps to have some experience, whether in Flash or the “old-school” method of cell/plate animation. Also, you’ll be more prepared to move into 3D animation, if that is another possible area of interest.

Good luck!

[sirielle]

Thank you for the answer!

I’m definitely into the old school method of cell animation, I want to paint all the frames - my first test is here. Most of the recommended software is vector based, not what I seek. PAP is nice for learning basics of the movement, but does not offer real painting on a frame (cell). Probably TVPaint will judging by tutorials on-line, I’ll give it a try one day, don’t want to ruing the trial version ATM, when my animation is not ready enough and I need to take care of another projects first.

3D art seems to be the future so I’ll probably learn it one day, but want to get better in 2D first, as it’s what I enjoy the most. Yet for making animation 3D might be a better solution, too.

[joryayer]

Raising this thread from the dead!

Digicel’s Flipbook is pretty awesome stuff also…

[sirielle]

Thank you for the info

[staigerman]

if you don’t like hard, try easy: Anime Studio

some ideas: www.thebest3d.com/animestudio

If you need a tool that let’s you paint and then animate through custom brushes, tvpaint rocks, also Dogwaffle (cheaper and better for painting)

hi
i was mak e cartoon 5/6 month age with macromedia flash

it was very hard for me to make this (becouse “in flash” there is no bone for creat body…)
but flash have many good thigs for make a 2d animation (support many formats / use easy vectors and edit / highquality of published .swf animations And …)
now i wanna develop my cartoon but i wont use flash again and i wanna use another program that (suport bone / publish high quality “800x600 for DVD” / suport background transparent formats .png . .tga … )
{i creat and ilustrate my characters in photoshop . so i wont drow and animation}
:sad:
thank you for this good forum & tapic and thnak you if help me.

[TOONEDs]

hey guys
im learning 2D animation right now and im using toon boom and tablet. here is my question, what is the best professional 2D animation software? what does big studios use?
and my second question, what should i use? tablet or paper with pencil? tablet is faster and easier but paper has better quality. right? and is paper getting out of date?

[Breckman]

Hi guy’s,

I have just one question, what software use the Draftsmen for the Simpsons and Futurama ???

Thank you very much

[TOONEDs]

as far as i know, they use toon boom harmony for simpsons. thay draw on paper and scan to toon boom. i dont know anything about Futurama, but i think its toon boom too.

[Breckman]

as far as i know, they use toon boom harmony for simpsons. thay draw on paper and scan to toon boom. i dont know anything about Futurama, but i think its toon boom too.

Ok Ok, thank you very much russian boy XD . Bye and GL for the futur

[JanosHunyadi]

The wacom inkling conversation raised an interesting point for me. It seems the way animators still go about their work is by drawing out on paper and then scanning/coloring.

That physical divide between paper and digital seems to be starting to get solved, but it seems 2d animation still has this barrier that makes it unnecessarily labor intensive.

[coolpack]

Hi guys,

I need your help.
I see a really good software but I can’t remember the name.

I join a photo of the software. Does anyone know it ?

Thanks !

[Breckman]

Hello,

this software is can be to be part of the adobe license. Otherwise, which is widely used as software for 2D, there is TVPaint !