Toon Boom Studio vrs. rindolphus: FIGHT!!

[rindolphus]

Hello guys. As some of you know, about 8 months ago, I bought myself a copy of Toon Boom Studio 4. It's been sitting there, just staring at me, with that look. You know the one. I finally said, "c'mon bitch, let's see what you've got. You are an overpriced second hand product, aren't you. Come on, prove me wrong". That did it. It got up and hit me with a combo of pegs, camera moves and z-axis I had never seen. Caught me by surprise. Wiping the blood off of my face, I said: "oh yeah, where's your blur effect"? I wish I hadn't opened my mouth. Bam, custom color palettes, one click color transitions, and rotation/pivot points that stay put rained upon me...

Long story short, this thing's kicking my ass. Heheh. Anyway, I'm determined to see how far one can go with it, without having to use other products. (...which I know is not sane btw ) This is a scene I'm working on: just a guy sitting straight and looking out the window, for now. I'll post some WIPs as I go about it.

SITTING UPRIGHT (Quicktime .mov)

I can't seem to get used to brushstrokes not blending in with previous ones, like in flash, so I'm having a great deal of trouble getting the "vectory" (is that even a word, lol) feeling off of it, but the ability to tint offset a whole palette is very handy, just click, and it's night, click and it's day again. Particularly in this story, that uses the same backgrounds in day and night shots.

Here are some sketches for other BG's. The first one is a set up for a a multiplane shot (TBS judo chop!).

...and the other one is an angle shot on wherever the multiplane shot camera lands. Sort of an establishing shot.

I know it's an investment I have to put to good use, but coming from a Flash background, it's been kind of intimidating/disapointing. I get a bleh, feeling every time. I guess I'll get used to it.

TO BE CONTINUED...

[Ferx]

Cool test, like the motion, and the backgrounds are really nice, like the spanish colonial style on the buildings, are you taking reference on Antigua?? I think you can get much juice of Toon Boom, you have the talent And looking forward for more animations

[kdog]

Hey Rindolphus,

Good work you've got going on here, really like the BG's.

I may have misunderstood what you said here:

I can't seem to get used to brushstrokes not blending in with previous ones, like in flash,

I just got flash myself, & haven't really played with it yet, but this might be what you're talking about - there is an option in TBS under the "tools" menu for "Draw top layer." If you check this option then all your brush strokes of the same color will automatically merge.

Again, that might not be what you're talking about, but just in case

Look forward to seeing your project progress.

[rindolphus]

Ferx: Thanks for the nice words, man. It means a lot, coming from such a great artist like yourself. Really. And yes, the story is supposed to take place on an old Guatemala City neighborhood ("barrio"), around 1915. I figured it looked a lot like Antigua back then, but I might be wrong. I drove around the place yesterday, and some of the old houses that still stand are more neoclassical than colonial (windows are more or less right, but no tiled roofs), but since I'm getting the church right, I guess the "Antigua" architechture does a better job of conveying a "beginning of the twenty century" feeling. I don't know, I might have to change things.

Kdog: Hey, fellow TB enthusiast. Thanks. Well that's exactly what I was talking about. You got it right. Big life saver. Although it works only halfway the way it does in Flash. Okay, with "Draw top layer" checked in TB, a brush stroke will merge with another one of the same color instantly, and it will also replace an existing line of another color that was there when drawing on top of it (by cutting through it). What does not happen is a replacement of different color strokes if you draw elsewhere and then drag and drop on top of the first color brush stroke, and deselect the shape, which is particularly useful when painting tone to intricate details on different layers and then just manually "flattening" the layers (cut and paste on the same layer ). I guess, that too is a matter of getting used to, because I found that very same feature that I now love, well... just stupid, when learning Flash, after having only used Freehand as a vector drawing tool (not for animation, though). We don't always get what we want, I guess.

[kdog]

Well, glad I could help a little bit anyway. I think I see what you're saying, though I'm fairly drunk ATM .

Drunk or sober, if there is a workaround or solution to your problem at this point it would be better addressed by JK, Nolan Scott, or Will (Calico Monkey).
Not having any background in flash & being a relative newb to TBS myself, I've given all the help I can offer here. Not much I know.

Anyway, I'd PM or email one of those guys, or try the TBS forums, you know where they are.

Cheers man, & good luck with your project.

[rindolphus]

Ha ha ha, Kdog. I'm impressed by your hand-eye coordination. I'm such a lousy drunk typer . I'm also glad to find out that I'm not the only one who comes back home after a night out, and turns on the computer to read forums, among other porn related activities, lol.

Thanks for the original advice though, it is helping me a lot with the background work. It's turning kick ass. I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

Check out a slight advance I uploaded yesterday.

[rindolphus]

Hello guys. I'm getting the hang of Toon Boom Studio's drawing tools. They lack precision aids, but they work ok. I thought I'd show you the work done with backgrounds so far. I'm in love with multiple palette styles. That is simply superb. Big time savers. Click: day! Click: night! There's still a lot of work to do, but I think they are turning out fine. Multiplane camera moves are awesome, I experimented a bit with them as well. Couldn't wait to finish all elements. Skipped ahead to the scene layout. I know, sloppy, but I was curious . I included links for you to see (Click on the last two images. Skies are provisional). Hope you like it.

BEFORE AND SLIGHTLY AFTER

Rough


Sunny Colors


Night Palette


Click on the last two images to see the multiplane scenes in action (Provisional skies). The movement is a POV shot over the shoulder of a glow worm (not drawn yet).

Well friends, that's it for now. See ya,

Renato

[rindolphus]

Now I'm missing a church in the far left. This is how I go about it. Notice how I do the guiding lines in a new element and send the element with the rest of the houses of the back row to the static light table. Later I'll do the oppossite; cleanup on the element with the houses, and send the lines to the static light table.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO VIEW FULL SIZE

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO VIEW FULL SIZE

See ya!

[Metalmadcat]

Originally Posted by rindolphus

Hello guys. I'm getting the hang of Toon Boom Studio's drawing tools. They lack precision aids, but they work ok. I thought I'd show you the work done with backgrounds so far. I'm in love with multiple palette styles. That is simply superb. Big time savers. Click: day! Click: night! There's still a lot of work to do, but I think they are turning out fine. Multiplane camera moves are awesome, I experimented a bit with them as well. Couldn't wait to finish all elements. Skipped ahead to the scene layout. I know, sloppy, but I was curious . I included links for you to see (Click on the last two images. Skies are provisional). Hope you like it.

BEFORE AND SLIGHTLY AFTER

Rough


Sunny Colors


Night Palette


Click on the last two images to see the multiplane scenes in action (Provisional skies). The movement is a POV shot over the shoulder of a glow worm (not drawn yet).

Well friends, that's it for now. See ya,

Renato

The movement applied in every fram of the man walking up plus these backgrounds were great! I'd rather choose the night palette. I like the most between both. I guess you can do this with flash. Oh well, I am not sure exactly how though. I am very beginner at using effects like those.

Keep up good stuff.

[rindolphus]

Thanks a lot. Yes, you can achieve the same results with flash, but it takes considerably longer to get right. With Toon Boom is just easier, because you don't have to figure out where things are going to move to. It's a nice feature. I'm still more comfortable with Flash, but TBS is slowly starting to sink in. I'm selling out

Renato

[Ferx]

Hey Renato, cool BGs ! , like a lot. Very nice camera test The camera movement on Toon Boom looks great.

[kdog]

Hey Renato,

Great progress so far, man. Love the color palettes & how you're making use of some of the cooler tools in tbs. The camera moves are looking great so far, & it's cool to see you posting stills of your workflow, always helpful.

Keep it up & keep us posted.