An entire 2D animation suite in one package: is this the only software a studio needs?

Toon Boom Animate 2 £550

Video effectsUse real-time visual effects in your animation, including blur, glows and shadows

✔ All the animation tools you need – frame-by-frame animation, tweening tools, onion skinning and more

✔ An interactive camera that can be attached to objects and keyframed, so it’s easy to create pseudo-3D effects

✔ Audio tools allow you to import speech, sounds effects, music. Automatic lip-syncing lets you get characters talking

3 reasons to buy…

Colour paletteCreate your own custom colours that update the

entire project – a massive time-saver

Real-time cameraWork with a virtual camera, and attach it to objects to create a

pseudo 3D effect

An entire 2D animation suite in one package: is this the only software a studio needs?

£550

78 Digital Artist

Reviews Toon Boom Animate 2

Ever imagined yourself as the next Walt Disney? With the proliferation of affordable 2D and 3D desktop animation tools, there’s never been a better time to bring your imagination to life. Whereas an army of artists was required to create a fi lm prior to the digital revolution, any artist with ambition and spare time can now produce an animated short fi lm using a single computer.

Toon Boom Animate 2 is the latest 2D animation suite from developers Toon Boom Animation Inc. Think of it as Flash stripped of its interactive features and lingo, throw in some incredibly clever features that any 2D animator will appreciate, and you’ll get a good idea of

what this program brings. This intention to mimic many of the Flash principals is evident when the program is fi rst opened – a pop-up window appears asking if the user would like a Flash-based layout. It’s a good idea to agree if you’ve ever used Flash before, as this iteration of the interface is both intuitive and effi cient.

Within the program you’ll discover a myriad of clever 2D animation tools: vector drawing and painting tools, a camera that can be attached to objects, a Smart Puppet system, the ability to import and synchronise sound, automatic lip-sync audio, tweening tools and more. This latest version brings the ability to export SFW fi les with embedded visual effects, heavy optimisations, greater inverse kinematics manipulation,

improved HD image composition and direct import of scanned drawings via TWAIN. There are also plenty of further improvements and under-the-hood tweaks that optimise and streamline the interface. There’s no standout feature that screams ‘essential upgrade’, but the combined new feature-set makes this an attractive upgrade for existing users.

2D animators new to the program will fi nd some clever touches that take the tedium out of everyday digital animation. For example, take adding new frames (or cells). Instead of adding new frames one at a time, Toon Boom Animate enables you to simply drag a red fl ag along the timeline to automatically add new frames. The program also has an incredibly advanced colour feature. It’s possible to

Manufacturer Toon Boom | Web www.toonboom.com

078-079_DAR007-DPSReview.indd 78 29/4/10 16:51:56

Professional touchBlend, blur, colour and deform effects give your animation a professional look

Multi-plane backgroundsThe true space environment enables multi-plane backgrounds and 3D depth

Animate in real-timeUse bone rigging and Inverse Kinetics to animate your characters in real-time

Advanced animation toolsAnimate’s most advanced featuresPerhaps the biggest limitation to animating in Flash is its camera abilities – there are none. With Toon Boom Animate, you’re given your own virtual camera that can be attached to objects, moved in real-time and quickly set up using motion path settings.

Another powerful tool is Smart Puppet. This enables you to add a

bone-like rigging system to characters, so you can move and morph them in a realistic manner. Move a hand and the entire arm will move as a result.

Finally, you’ll find dozens of advanced visual effects that can be attached to layers, giving your animations a professional look with real-time shadows, blurs and more.

2D animators who are new to the program will discover some clever touches that take the tedium out of everyday digital animation

79Digital Artist

Toon Boom Animate 2 Reviews

8/10

Features ........................... 9/10Ease of use .......................7/10Quality of results .............. 9/10Value for money ...............7/10

Ou

r ver

dic

t

A powerful animation suite with every tool a pro 2D animator needs to create a broadcast quality film

FinalScore

create your own custom colours – as expected – but if changed further down the production line, your entire project will be updated with the new colour. That means you can change the colour of a character’s clothing throughout an entire project with just one click of the mouse. This is the kind of feature you’d expect to see in top-end 3D rendering suites.

However, we have some reservations. Importing PNG or bitmap files results in transparency issues, and the program never quite imports them at 100 per cent size. No matter how much tweaking is

done, they never retain the detail of the original. It’s a frustrating situation to say the least. The program renders vector art without any anti-aliasing until exported. This can be turned on in the Preferences window, but that shouldn’t be necessary. Newcomers also face a steep learning curve – there’s a lot to learn here. Thankfully, the user is prompted to view over two hours of free video tuition when the program first opens.

This is the most feature-packed 2D animation suite available for desktop computers. It comes at a hefty price, and

you’ll find cheaper versions of Toon Boom Animate aimed at home users and beginners (see below). Flash is also a viable alternative if you’re looking to work with interactive features. However, any pro animator will easily justify the price – within this program is every tool required to produce a professional 2D animation.

Toon Boom StudioToon Boom Animate 2 is aimed strictly at the professional 2D animator – and the price immediately reflects this. If you’re a budding 2D animator or simply want to try your hand at animation, then try taking a look at Toon Boom Studio, the younger sibling to Animate, priced at $329 (£215).

It’s aimed at students and beginners, but includes nearly all the essential tools required to create a 2D animation. These include the ability to draw, scan and import artwork, paint using vector tools, lip-sync audio, apply video effects over layers, export video and upload to Facebook and YouTube.

078-079_DAR007-DPSReview.indd 79 29/4/10 16:52:06