Which app use for cartoon-like animation

Chibi15

Chibi15

Official ai tenshi
We - 2 of my friend and my would like to start a little in animation - we all 3 are rather good in drawing characters and we all 3 have macs!

We would like to animate our work and make a little anime :D
We've tried serveral programs but this programs are not what we are looked for..

we’ve tried Toon Boom Studio (no option for us) and Macromedia Flash - but Flash actually does some other jobs very well but not what we would like to do - we've drawed our characters in Illustrator and we neeed a program that does preserve layers and transparency - we need background layers and also would like to add drop shadows etc. and at the end we want to export it to a quicktime movie so we could finish our work by adding music, sound and speech - we does not want export flash

To our knowledge we need some more professional animation program that renders the movie - all layers - and the effects like dropshadows - and let us export our work to quicktime - what options does we have?

Thanks in advance and sorry for my english!
 
Toon Boom Studio is not really what we were looking for - since all our work is done in illustrator we need something that preserves the different layers - has options for multiple backgrounds, nice rendered shadows and some other effects - Toon Boom studio seems to be a fun app but we are searching something with a bigger and more "professional" feature set.

To be exactly: We are searching the Photoshop of 2d Animation :D
 
Thanks for your link - but we are searching some tool targeted for 2d animation (we have already the models done in Illustrator)


At the moment we are trying Adobe AfterEffects but - i've never seen a software this hard to learn...

Do you think After Effects would be an good decision?

But from what we’ve seen this program is amazing..

We would however appreceate more helpful tips! Thanks again!
 
I don't have any artistic talent. That being said, I have really enjoyed Moho by Lost Marble (http://www.lostmarble.com/). I do not know how well it works with Illustrator files if at all, but I recommend that you download the demo and check it out.
 
AfterEffects would not be the best solution here, AE is better for video-editing and effects. My suggestion is Macromedia Flash MX. I have made some pretty good cartoons in short time in Flash, check them out at www.slackmedia.tk in the "flash" section. I made them basically with keyframing and a little motion tweening.
If you want the flash files in quicktime format I'm sure there is a plug-in/application that can convert to QT. And btw music, sound and speech is very easy to add in flash. Flash also has layer support and transparency. If you not have the latest version (Flash MX) you should try it. It has also support for QT in this version.
 
Chibi, I hate to keep driving this point home, but you are wrong about animation master. To prove it to you, I emailed them.

From: Support <support@hash.com>
Date: Mon Jun 17, 2002 09:49:12 AM US/Pacific
To: Hidden >
Subject: Re: Hash, Inc.

Yes, we have a 2D- toon-style renderer....

On 6/16/02 4:33 PM, "hidden"> wrote:


Can I do 2d style animation with animation:master ??

--
Steve Sappington
Hash, Inc. -3D character animation tools!
400 West Evergreen Blvd.
Vancouver, WA 98660
360-750-0042
http://www.hash.com
Click to expand...

Give it a try if you still havent found anything else.
 
I also really suggest you give a much harder look at Toon Boom. It is fantastic.

AE is not in your needs at all. It is primarily for film and video work.

Flash is alright, however as an animation tool (not speaking of the scripting at all) It can't hold a candle to ToonBoom.

Try exporting from Illustrator to SWF and use the option to output layers as frames, in order to make your preexisitng art work better in ToonBoom.
 
Here's a pros/cons analysis:

1. After Effects-AE rules earth, but it is not designed for traditional cel-based style animations. Having said that, I have seen (and done) some character animations using it (see http://www.mindbend.biz and go to the gallery section and choose the "Von Tobel" video. I screwed up the render, so it cuts off at the start, but ignore that until I fix it). AE is the only animation program I can think of that will import native AI files with layers and transparency, which seems like a big deal to you. Also, you can nest/precompose and create hierarchical relationships that work well for walking loops, etc. AE is not a completely illogical choice for today's Anime style look.

2. Toon Boom Studio-- TBS is very cool, and very rigidly follows the true cel-based model (too rigid in my opinion, vertical audio previews?!). What I love about it is that you can draw in a bitmap/painterly style, but it actually makes vectors. Cool!!! You can then erase areas of the vector. Illustrator needs to work like this. All reviews for this app are good, but it would require recreating some of the work. I would definitely look into this app closer.

3. Animation Stand (animationstand.com)--Nobody mentioned this app for some reason. The developer is a diehard Mac fan, and this app really takes advantage of G4s and I think DPs. I've only used the demo, so I don't know all its details, but it's amazing. It will give you the shadow effects you wanted. It also is a true cel-based model, but I'm not sure if you can import AI files (I doubt it).

4. Hash-Animation Master--This app is NOT a 2D application. Yes, it can render to a 2D-ish, Anime-ish stlye, but so can just about every other 3D app. Unless you want to get deep and dirty into, avoid this app. Don't get me wrong, it's an overachieving 3D app, but it's a whole different animal than playing in a 2D world. Also, the manual totally sucks and the community is a bunch of Mac-haters. Plus the app runs like crap on a Mac (constant crashing) and there is no multiple button mouse support. If you can put up with all that and are willing to spend months getting good at an odd 3D system (no true boolean operations, ugh), you can make some amazing images/animations.

5. WebPainter--I actually don't recommend this app, but I just wanted to talk about it. It's now a bitmap animation editor for web animations, but it originally was a Hypercard extension called AddMotion from about ten years ago. I did several very cool animations using its cel-based metaphor.

6. Flash--A lot of people seem to like using Flash for vector animations. I guess I can't blame them, I just still find the interface too clunky and the frame based timeline a poor choice.

If I were you, as others have said, I would really look into TBS and just deal with having to redo some stuff potentially. Depending on the look and stlye you wanted, if it were me I might even use AE, but only cuz I know it well enough to pull it off. Good luck!
 
Thankyou all again for your helpful posts :)

We will make a deeper look into Toon Boom Studio!

And we will also try to get it done using Flash and Aftereffects if TBS does not work but the critics of Toon Boom Studio looks promosing :)
 
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