WoodenBlog

So much for more frequent updates huh? Well right after my last post I took some time off to see the sky and get a tan, but now I’m back to work. I can prove it too. Here’s my new live cam so you can keep an eye on me. New image every 90 sec, manual refresh

ToonBoom Animate released

If (like me) you’re a Flash animator and (like me) you heard a lot about ToonBoom animation software. You tried it out and (like me) found it a bit confusing but that’s probably because you (like me) were thinking in Flash terms. Since the “Kenny” job, I’ve fallen completely in love with ToonBoom Digital Pro which, despite being just the most amazing software a 2D animator could own, is priced quite beyond what the average struggling animator can afford.

ToonBoom Animate was released last Monday and in my opinion, nicely addresses any previous issues that Flash animators have had with ToonBoom software. I like to call it the ‘little brother’ of Digital Pro, but there’s not really anything little about it. A few awesome features off the top of my head are:

• Unrivalled colour management – Give names to your colours and organise them into palettes for characters, background elements, etc. If you change a colour, that change auto-updates wherever you’ve used it. For example, mix a steely grey for your hero’s eyes. Later if you decide on icy blue, just change the colour itself and it’ll automatically recolour his eyes throughout the entire project.
• Seamless export to video formats - Anyone who’s ever tried to export a substantial Flash project to a video format knows just how painfully time-consuming this can be. Not so with Animate. Even changing your movie’s dimensions (increase OR decrease) halfway through is completely painless.
• Traditional tone/highlight workflow – From offset rims for quick easy lighting effects, or hand-drawn tones for that professional touch.
• Blurred & variable opacity masks – Just wow. Also invertible, masks in Animate can be blurred and can have variable opacity, simply by using paint that has transparency (even solid-to-transparent gradients)! Awesome feature especially if you’re an FX animator
• Layer independent onion skin - each layer has its own onionskin button.
• Library and Symbols - There’s only one type of symbol in Animate that does everything you need. Live preview, easy control of the first frame start, looping & cycles, apply effects (blur, tint, etc).
• Fluid brush resizing - hold down the ‘o’ key, drag your mouse left-to-right to resize your brush. Very fast. A whole bunch of really useful brush shapes too. Here’s me, resizing my 30° ellipse brush.

• Inverse Kinematics - for those animators who use cut-out style puppetry animation, this isn’t exclusive to Animate.. it has long been a feature of ToonBoom’s animation software.

That’s just a few things, otherwise needless to say that Animate is definitely an exciting release for animators who are frustrated with the animation limitations of Flash. It’s also the most intuitive of their fantastic animation programs to date and it’s priced very competitively. Packed with animator-friendly tools, is based entirely on traditional animation workflow (with all the benefits of digital animation) and has a library of effects that will put your work way ahead of the average web animator.

There’s a free version (personal learning edition) so download it now and you’ll see what I mean. Call me (below) if you need help getting started in ToonBoom Animate.Wow, that really sounded like an advertisement but it’s just an enthusiastic review

Flash CS4 released

If you’re sticking with Flash and you decide to upgrade to Flash CS4, I think you’ll be blown away by it. There are a few persistent gripes, such as masking, audio, video format export, brush sizes & shapes, colour management and the Timeline. However, certain new features have thrilled the shit outta me! They include armatures (Inverse Kinematics), 3D movieclip translate/scale/rotate, the Motion Editor (an amazing, kickarse version of the old Custom Ease window), Spray Brush (which can spray movieclips all over the Stage – perfect for say, millions of flowers in a meadow, animated swaying in the breeze) and completely new motion tween model.

Don’t be daunted by all the new features and workflows though.. Adobe have kindly left the old methods in there so you can gradually ease into the new stuff at your own pace. You can still use the old tween model and custom ease graph. Again, call me (below) if you need help getting started.

BCA Live Animation help

While I’m in the mood for doing live stuff, I’ve set up a live help service on Skype that you can call if you ever get stuck in Flash, animation, ToonBoom, FX or whatever else you think I might be able to help with. Introductory price of $1 per min (USD) but if you have ever made a Brackenwood donation, you can call me for a free 20 mins. Just use the button below and tell me the email address from which you sent your donation. As I personally corresponded with 99% of Brackenwood donors, I will probably remember your name anyway.

This is a Skype service, so obviously you’ll need Skype installed on your computer, but in order to be charged for the call, you’ll need Skype credit. Read more about Skype credit here.

BiteyCastle Academy Live – Call now

Call me with any Flash or animation questions you have. I don’t start the meter until we agree that I can help you.

Wrath of the Lich King released

I had pre-ordered the game, so I went to the midnight launch and picked up my copy of the second WoW expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. Upgraded my account and played a couple of hours, finally getting to bed around 3am. That’s my latest night in a loO0ong time.. probably won’t be able to play much until this current workload is out of the way but if you can get to the Oceanic server Khaz’goroth, drop me an ingame mail. I’m a lv 70 (soon to be 71) blood elf named ßitey (that’s spelled Alt+0223 itey)

gnight again!