Should You Switch to Toon Boom? Maybe Not. [Scribble Kibble #96]

Pros and cons of switching to Toon Boom and why it might be best to keep using Flash / Adobe Animate if that's your main program. Toon Boom and Flash are so completely different that almost nothing works the same way, which means learning both is a lot of work.
TUTORIALS: www.scribblekibble.com/episod...
CLASS: www.scribblekibble.com/class/
Given what I know now, this is the program I recommend learning first depending on your situation:
Studio Animator: Toon Boom
Hobbyist: Flash
Animator with No Money: Flash
Heavy After Effects User: Flash
Frame-By-Frame Animator: Toon Boom
Puppet Animator: Either, hedging towards Toon Boom. If you need to globally update character designs a lot and if you create puppets in 3rd party vector programs, Flash.
I should also mention there are changes coming to Adobe Animate (not sure when) that make it even more competitive with Toon Boom. I don't have an inside scoop on Toon Boom's development, so I don't know what may be next on that side of things. There are plenty of other animation programs to choose from as well, TVPaint being the most notable.
► TOON BOOM CONS ◄
1. Expensive.
2. Doesn't work well with other programs. Exported SWFs break when imported to After Effects. Illustrator puppets don't import right. Only .mov files can be imported or exported. Managing imported audio is even more awkward than Flash (didn't think that was possible).
3. Multiple scenes and video editing program required.
4. Globally updating puppets takes forever.
5. Big file sizes.
6. Poor documentation.
► TOON BOOM PROS ◄
1. Way better drawing program.
2. Way better organization and animation environment.
3. Each layer has separate line and color layers within it.
4. Smart color picker.
5. Deformer and mesh animation tools (expensive version only).
6. Node view (expensive version only).
► Scribble Kibble ◄
A bi-weekly show about animation. All episodes: www.scribblekibble.com/episode...
~~~

[@liljonnyJ420]

who needs flash or toon boom when you have powerpoint!

[@abirrakshit130]

haha ... you got it ... 😆😆😆 ..... it was my first animation software ... I animated a smiley there 🤣🤣🤣

[@milenatabosa6977]

i'm so god damm happy to know it was not only me... XD

[@qu3646]

Hell yeah!

[@toastcart8211]

Bruh, use paper!

[@liljonnyJ420]

@@toastcart8211 I'm too broke for that I only use the schools PowerPoint

[@Zedrinbot]

It took me about 1 month to transition from Flash to Toon Boom, and when I say that I mean literally working minimum 3-6 hours a day with practicing with it. It was a grueling process. I had made a similar video like this at that time and my sentiment was largely similar. While I ultimately switched, I don't like how the universal recommendation was "TB is superior in every way to flash!" because it DEFINITELY IS NOT. It worked great for me, but I don't wanna say that'll be the case for everyone. With how much I knew in Flash and the number of plugins I had, I prefer Toon Boom only slightly to it, enough to make a difference, but still. (And I went for the Premium version.) I still plan to use Flash for animatic / drafting work here on out. (My recent project kinda told me that TB is too rigid for boarding.) My biggest descriptor of them both: Flash is more 'immediate.' You can move components and items and frames around as much as you want. Flash works awesome if you can trust yourself to keep organized and you can rearrange stuff as needed. Toon Boom is more 'preserved.' Drawings get saved so you can repurpose them at any time. Color pallets can be redone whenever you want. The flipside is a drawing layer will ALWAYS be just for those drawings. You can't move stuff between layers. But, the advantage of this is stuff won't spontaneously break, and the library can be made incredibly powerful, implementing canned animations into just small components of a rig. (Plus, having a Z-axis and spline deformers are very very useful, as is parenting to replace nesting.) Flash handles loops 100x better than Toon Boom, and you don't realize how much you miss those until you don't have them anymore. TB they have to all be copy-pasted repeatedly. And honestly TB sets up kinda a catch-22 with itself. IMO it's only worth it to switch at the highest levels, with the node view and deformers, but if you NEED that kind of power, you're probably so acclimated to flash that switching is most difficult. Also, just some workarounds to a few cons you mentioned (not perfect, but workable): For Toon Boom, you mentioned updating rigs can be a hassle--while you can't have separate document tabs open, you can have multiple copies of TB running, with different docs. You can drag and drop between them if you need. Otherwise, reloading from the library is about identical to moving stuff between documents in Flash. Just documents take a little longer to open in TB. And some tricks to go between AE and Toon Boom is to instead export layers via png sequences, rather than .mov exports. Setting the write node to PNG4 gives you transparency, and disabled layers won't show up. While not infinitely scalable, size changes shouldn't be drastic since it by default exports to 1080p. For scenes, you can get something comparable to Flash if you make use of copies of the 'display' and 'write' nodes, allowing you to render multiple scenes simultaneously, even, while switching displays flips between them. You do have to set it up yourself, but it's an option.

[@Minkerdoodle01]

Its actually not true that you have to copy-paste loops in TB. There is a create cycle option, and you type in how many cycles you want. Toonboom can also export SWFs which work well in After Effects! I've done projects that way.

[@newrockerofficial294]

Appreciate the in-depth look at both, as a newcomer to animation, what would you suggest?

[@Zedrinbot]

@@newrockerofficial294 Flash probably, it's way more accessible and immediate, as I mentioned. TB also has lower tier versions that aren't as wildly expensive. It also depends on what you want to learn going forward / what you think will be useful for your goals industry-wise.

[@newrockerofficial294]

@@Zedrinbot thank you for the reply. I plan on getting an I7 Surface Pro 7 for the animating, i know it all takes a lot of work so whichever program i go with, will be the one i stay with for quite a long time as I'll need to put all my energy into it. So subscription prices ATM are irrelevant, but after hard work and learning the program I'll want the best results. So that begs the question, is Toon Boom or Adobe right for me? My art style may differ over time, and my story telling will consist of medium to short comedy sketches i think up. Edit: I plan on doing this as a full time hobby with the ambition that KZbin takes me further oneday.

[@osamabinladen2075]

you can create a symbol now haha

[@CrownePrince]

There are other 2D animation programs, but the big debate is usually Flash vs Toon Boom. TVPaint and CaCANi are two I'd like to try.

[@crystaltrees4013]

please do, i'd very much like a video where you share your thoughts on both programs!

[@bettyvoltaire4345]

Sorry to barge in, but I have heard some really good things about TV Paint. I think that was the program that pajakinthebox used to animate spirit chaser. Heck if I know.

[@ABArtworks]

You know you could also try Clip Studio Paint. They’ve recently added it to iPad and it offers animation tools asides from being a comic/illustration app. I’ve heard plenty of reviewers mention the animation point but personally I’d like to hear it from your perspective. You get 6months for free to all pro features btw when you get Clip Studio on iPad but I’m not sure if they give the same offer for desktop. All things to consider I suppose as far as other programs may be involved

[@cathairkerrigan3652]

While TVPaint far outshines CACANi in terms of program polish and how much you can do in terms of different art and brush styles, CACANi certainly takes the cake when it comes to efficient and consistent animation and coloring. However I'd say when it comes to the overall process of animation, TVPaint wins out as CACANi seems to have been designed to cater more towards the final animated product (final line art, in-betweens, and coloring) and has practically neglected the rough stages of producing the animation (it has a sketch layer, but honestly it isn't that great). I haven't had much practice within TVPaint so I can't comment much on it, but if you are planning on animating with CACANi, I'd advise drawing your keys in another program (I like to use photoshop) and then import it to CACANi for the in-betweens and so on. Hopefully, you'll get the chance to try out CACANi at some point and like it enough to make a video about it as it is a very underappreciated yet powerful animation tool (that I keep trying to convince people to try).

[@gaiafroschke51]

Crowne Prince Please do lucky day forever crowne prince, it’s really good and it’s made in flash yet done well

[@PastysBakery]

Why is this even a debate? Scratch beats them all.

[@sonicmeerkat]

you mean go animate right?

[@jakemcconnell1018]

Pasty's Bakery ha

[@fyxfrominferno9194]

no, Powerpoint is obviously the best

[@Copperflash]

Um, no. Plotagon always will be the best.

[@zukio6088]

Guys LPS and phone camera is for actual pros

[@Mayyde]

I've been using Flash CS6 for the past like, 5-6 years. I've totally given up on puppet animation because of the limitations at this point. I'd say if you're into simple hand-drawn animated things and got a quick drawing arm, Flash is good enough for some home projects and having fun with practice/animating stuff. If you're going into the animation industry, then learning ToonBoom is pretty much a requirement for some studios out there. It's good knowledge under the belt.

[@bettyvoltaire4345]

That's good info to know... What abot other variations flash though?

[@Mayyde]

I've not used Adobe Animate that much, but it's essentially the same software with a better brush. I stick to Flash CS6 because it's what I know best and I could get things done pretty quickly in it.

[@aheiiv]

Mayde, I am a pirate, and I'm using non legal copy of flash, if that's how it's calls. If you're using registered copy of Flash CS6, then how do you pay for it, and is it even worth it?

[@bettyvoltaire4345]

@Mayde- Cool. I want to get a new tablet and worry about what programs are gonna work.

[@bettyvoltaire4345]

Ok ;) Hey, I clicked on your channel icon... And I have to say I love your animation style. I hope I can do animations as good as yours one day ^.^

[@crystaltrees4013]

flash does everything right except for art and i can't understand why.

[@CrownePrince]

Historically it was heavily programming based for making websites. Since they renamed it "Animate" the drawing tools have improved a lot, but they're still weak compared to pretty much any art application...

[@Chicken008]

The drawing tool is the main reason I changed from Flash to Toon Boom. I love drawing in Photoshop and hoped Flash was the same, it`s not, Flash was making me hate drawing anything.

[@LucasSaturn]

I'll give my two cents, seeming as I moved from Flash to Toon Boom a few years ago. 1 - Expensive. I'm not going to argue this point, but if you are a student, this point is moot. The student version is so much cheaper, and you get all the nicer features. If you aren't a student, this point still applies, but just note that students get a discount (so do Flash users, but it's not as drastic). 2 - Although Harmony doesn't work well with other software, it doesn't need to. The node view is absolutely a god send, and although After Effects is a little more powerful, if you are an individual animator, you probably won't need the entire After Effects power (and the node view will suit you fine). 3 - Multiple scenes. Keep in mind that Flash becomes more unstable, the more scenes that you have. So, although you lose the ability to work on large projects in a single file, it at least has a good reason for doing so. Additionally, there are free software packages to allow you to merge video, so it's not too much of a biggie. Finally, Harmony allows you to have multiple documents open at once, so if it's that much of an issue, just open multiple at once. 4 - Long puppet updates. Eh, sort of. I personally change my puppet pieces the easy way, by going into the drawing specifically, and then changing it through there. Or, turn it into a symbol and change it throughout the timeline. There are other ways, so this point is sort of misleading. 5 - Big file sizes. This one is true, but keep in mind every time you turn to the render view, it creates a cache. Most of the big file sizes is just that, in my experience. This point is absolutely true, though. 6 - Poor documentation. Okay, again, this one is true. I created a few videos on Harmony, since it was lacking the documentation for me to use. Thus, I wanted to share my experiences. There's also a few other benefits that you didn't mention. The stability of Harmony. The customisability of Harmony. Effects being nicer, and not being limited to a symbol. The animation process being streamlined, and how some features aren't workarounds (unlike Flash). The drawing and scene modes. The isolation of elements to work on them. The list goes on, to make animation nicer. Harmony does have it's flaws, but they are either tradeoffs, or features purposely. Flash frustrated me so much when I used it. It doesn't do anything perfectly, but does a lot of things... somewhat decently. Flash could be great, but it has many flaws that just shouldn't exist, or exist because they are afraid of removing backwards compatibility.

[@Zedrinbot]

On stability, I used flash since 2011, and actually learned how to identify when a stability issue was going to happen. I was able to prevent most crashes by being alert to the signs. After using Harmony for 1 year, if you're privy to what causes crashes in Flash, both TB and Flash are equally stable. Harmony crashes just as frequently as Flash used to for me (and that's to say, every now and then, not often, though it'd be the unpredictable crashes.) That said, Harmony's never corrupted a project file for me, and Harmony doesn't have any behavior that leads up to a crash (e.g. lines drawing in completely random locations). And all that considered the only reason flash didn't crash often for me was because I was able to catch it in the act. The way I see it, now that I solely use Harmony, Flash is faster to get started in a project, Harmony is more thorough.

[@saru1410]

thank you :D

[@Makaruu]

I remember I first started out in flash (after moving from the dreaded mspaint) and I thought it was a blessing, after working in it for many years I realized it had a lot of flaws which for my work flow, was quite painful to work around. Eventually I moved to toon boom when harmony was first making its appearance and I tried it out! Within a month I found myself loving the program intensely and I am very glad I switched! When I was in my first year of uni I found out they mostly used TVpaint, which I can see a lot of benefits for but for my personal kind of style of animation harmony was the one! The thing I like about harmony the most is that it has both vector and bitmap options, I enjoy roughing my keys in bitmap and then doing my cleanups in vector! And unlike flash vector I feel it's less glitchy and you have a lot more control over your lines, however one thing that really sold it was that when you rendered your vector animation layers, it would convert them to bitmap and have a very nice quality look! Flash and it's vector often has a very particular look which is quite crisp and sharp and personally I don't really dig it too much so this was a great feature for me! Basically from what I learnt at my years at uni is that personally I find harmony best for very clean lines and animation, TVpaint was very good for more rough lines and styles which is a style preference. Flash has it's own perks and as someone who doesn't use puppets much I can't compare those features to harmony but I feel that they're a lot simpler and easier to work with since a lot of beginners don't understand things like nodes yet! ohmygod this ended up being so long im sorry and wow if you read it all then hi there

[@jonf9989]

Toonboom is better by far. I've been using Animate CC(flash CS3 when i started) for over 13 years. and then later on (2011) the company wanted us to use Toonboom for a TV series. At first, we were kinda skeptical about it, for us, that time Flash was the best digital animation tool. But later on after spending a month with it. we noticed the workflow is a lot faster and easier. the transition from flash to toonboom was easy, the knowledge on flash is transferrable. Toonboom was built from the groundup for animation while flash was mainly for building website and games & Animation was just a potential addons. For the Deformation tools on Toonboom was a killer, the only downside is the price. 100 bucks a month is a hefty compare to AnimateCC.

[@finessence808]

Do i still have to close each scenes and open new to work between scenes? I'm interested in the product but I'm not sure. How's the latest version been for you?

[@jonf9989]

@@finessence808 If you open a new scene it will open in a new window.

[@LukeTheDukeYT]

I use Adobe Animate for the easiness of the workflow. True, Toon Boom is better by far, but only if you’re working for a company. Adobe Animate is more suitable for people who are starting out, or who like shorter learning curves. Toon Boom has a lot to offer, but that means more time to learn.

[@lavrise116]

And here's me, animating in Krita XD

[@inifinidev3101]

Do u know how to keep the frame rate from dropping and making my audio sound like doodoo

[@KoalifyMan]

Thank you so much for giving the pros and cons on Toon Boom! I think this would be a great video to show my cousin and see if he's willing to give it a shot because I told him about Toon Boom a while back, but I wasn't sure if this software would meet his expectation.

[@mewnmowse]

This was probably the most well-presented and informative comparison video I think I've ever seen. You must be good at writing essays!

[@OblivionFalls]

Flash and After Effects are more than enough for me. For my most recent project, I even found a way to emulate the style of Cuphead by using After Effects to roughen up my clean vector lines. In fact, I wonder if anyone (besides Petey) will even be able to tell that it was animated in Flash to begin with? I guess I'll find out when it's released on DAGames tomorrow :p Anyways, good video!

[@AGreenSquidKid]

OblivionFall WOW! I just came from that video!!! Like literally one video ago! You animated it?

[@OblivionFalls]

Yeah! That was me, lol

[@AGreenSquidKid]

OblivionFall THATS SOO COOOL tell Will I said hi lol

[@josuelugosarchive1864]

OblivionFall ah its you

[@Mickey377]

Would love to know your method for roughening up your vector line art!

[@matthewdh123]

Thank you so much for this wonderful video!

[@IbisFernandez]

The color picker in flash also works anywhere outside of the program just press and hold your mouse button down on the field color chip holder and drag it over any item on the desktop and it’ll suck up to color when you let go of the button it’s actually very easy

[@Keylimecreations]

Thanks for lining up the pros and cons! I use TVPaint, but I've been interested in learning the differences between it and ToonBoom, so this helps in my mental comparison chart!

[@dan_vs_himself]

Thanks! This was really helpful and exactly what I needed.

[@emilianoesteban249]

Excellent tutorial, thank you very much!

Harmony ftw. It takes practice but once you know how it works. It's a breeze. Just like learning anything

[@mazeofpines]

In relation to TB and AE exports, instead of exporting movs of each individual layer, you can paste a write node under each element you want to export as its own layer, and in the write node settings, you can set a folder path and file type (png4 for a png seq with alpha is recommended) . To render everything, you just need to click "render write nodes" and it renders all your stuff separately to different paths (or wherever you directed it) at once. Much easier than rendering .movs of everything each time, and a png sequence will usually have more reliable quality and compressed video files. Hope this helps

[@pipersqueaks]

You should make a scribble kibble about The Amazing World of Gumball, and how the creators made 2d characters in a 3d environment.

[@IbisFernandez]

The color picker and flash works everywhere else outside of flash as well you just have to know how to use it. Press and hold the mouse button on the color chip and drag it to the color you want to grab and then when you let go of the mouse button and the color gets brought into the software even if the color was outside of flash

[@violinsunrise2699]

My brain hurts... tbh I didn’t understood anything. I´ve just animated using procreate (not an animating prgram) doing pictures, and puting them togeter as a gif online.

[@Lordy-Lord]

Ok, I use gify.

[@somik5]

real pro

[@wolfxela3863]

Yeah boiii,gonna start animating:)

[@jamesmcjimsey3497]

You keep inspiring me to watch these things! 😍😍😍😍

[@jacquestrabbold200]

I used to animate long time ago when flash were macromedia....because of my work I needed to start animating again after years, but much more mature, I started straight with toonboom....and I got tell you, there is tools that I still miss, but there are a lot of tools which I love way more and I got reallyyy really used to toonboom short cuts and the node view that does miracles...

[@TheOneWhoAnimates]

Tv paint is arguably the best animation software if u want to produce amazing frame by frame animation. But at the same time it is very time consuming. But when i start drawing those frames. I feel like i am drawing on a paper. Though the animation takes more time to make in tv paint than jn animate/flash. Tv paint makes us fall in love with the process of animating. So if u really want to dive into animation. I recommend tv paint. Currently i am making a animated music video with it. And i am loving it.

[@kirin1230]

I would love tv paint, too bad it's so expensive (and rightfully so because it's amazing and the creators deserve a decent paycheque for their efforts)

[@4yana286]

i tried tv paint, its not really for me though. right now i use toonboom harmony for animation and then colour the frames from toonboom in clip studio paint

[@LukeTheDukeYT]

I want to get an android device so I can use Tvpaint for free.

[@colibri224]

If I'm gonna wait a little before testing Toon Boom... Thanks for the advises !

[@mountstneonstudios]

Great video! I am curious about the whole AE and Harmony compatibility thing. In Animate or Clip Studio Paint, I just export my scenes as image sequences and drop them into After Effects. I use AE to comp the BGs and Animation layers together as well as some light color grading and audio compositing for my final output. I will be using ToonBoom as well, and now I am a bit worried about executing these simple things when it comes to Harmony. Gonna check your other vids for the info, but if you don't have one yet, I'd absolutely love to see one! All the best, and happy 2024!

[@Wolfnimations]

So when you make drawings on a timetime in Toonboom, it adds numbers to those drawings. With every frame you can choose the drawing you want to be on that frame. A problem i found with this is that when you copy and paste frames it keeps the drawing number from before, so if you edit that frame it edits the drawing from the original frame you took it from aswell. You can prevent this by right click> duplicate drawing. or doing paste special and selecting an option to paste it as it's own drawing. This can be quite frustrating. Another thing to note is that it's better to animate with deformers if you want to achieve a shape tween like effect. (don't even try to work with shape tweens in Animate/Flash, it's hell.) You can add deformer bones or enveloppes (shapes with points that you can manipulate) because those work with the auto keyframes. If you try and work with the ToonBoom shape tween (morph) it takes a bit more time to get everything the way you want it, but it should still work. I've tried morph a few times and it does give better results than the shape tween in Animate. (it usually doesn't go all over the place with morphing through itself) The timeline system in Animate is easier to work with for me, because i can copy and paste frames and edit then without editing the original frame. I also think selections and selecting things in Animate works better than toonboom. Toonboom does have better 3D compatibility than Animate. So in the end it's whatever you would prefer working with. But if i had to choose, i would choose TVPaint.

[@CrownePrince]

TVPaint is on my list to learn if I can get enough funding through Patreon.

[@Wolfnimations]

I like TVPaint in the way that everything is thought through very well for 2D frame by frame drawn animation. You have the base timeline where you start up. you can start animating a scene right away, but if you want to use multiple scenes you don't have to struggle with doing everything on the same timeline. If you go into the project tab you can add more different scenes that you can open by double clicking them. The scenes will appear as panels. All the different brushes are very fun to draw with, but not all are as useful for animation. A problem you can come across is that transforming things, like move rotate and perspective (and warp) is different than in animate or toonboom. The panning tool is a seperate thing and works by just dragging what you have selected. The transform tool gives you more freedom with also resizing and rotating, but you have to press enter every time for the transformation you made to apply. The perspective tool works the same way and makes you able to manipulate the corner points of the selection, but no rotation option there. Also note that the effects are applied to the frames directly and usually should be applied last. Since if you apply effects it redraws every frame and makes frames that would have an exposure of 2 be 2 separate frames with an exposure of 1. There are (almost) no vector options, everything needs to be hand drawn. However there is a line tool that allows you to add lines in a pen tool like way, but after you can't edit the lines anymore. There is also the new warp tool in TVPaint 11 that is very fun to play around with, but that's more of a puppet tool kind of thing and it's more used for small adjustments for a single frame. But for the rest i think most things in TVPaint are pretty intuitive to understand.

[@drag7593]

Another program I'd think you'd like to investigate for the future is Krita. It's a free program with both Drawing and animating setups in the same program. I know I've done some amazing work with it, but I was wondering how a pro in the field I'm going into would feel about it.

[@jer9grant]

The lion from Scratch21! Cool vid, Crowne :) Personally, I'm sticking with Adobe Animate because $$$ also I've bought this wonderful class from someone you may know (*COUGHCOUGHBUYCROWNE'SCLASSCOUGH* Thanks :)

[@CrownePrince]

I think I may know that person!

[@trustfeathers2710]

I think i also know them

[@inkbetweens6920]

I use harmony in studio. Flash is still the most cost-effective animation software but the perks of harmony for how I use it make it hard to go back. Toon boom can do muti separate renders at once, but you have to make sure you have each scene set up for it. There are some java scripts you can run that help with that. For larger productions, the harmony database is such a time saver, but it is super not for small projects.

[@ExclamationMedia-eb5cz]

Great video! There’s a couple things I’d like to add. An important part of making this decision is who your clients will be! If you’re animating for fun, that’s one thing - but if you are a freelancer or plan on trying to land a studio job, look at the studios you want to work for and see what they’re using. As a freelancer, I can almost guarantee you’re going to need Creative Cloud anyway... so you can assume you’re already paying $50/month for that and the real question is, do you want to pay an *additional* amount for Toon Boom. I get just enough Toon Boom projects in a year to make it financially viable to maintain licenses for Storyboard Pro and Harmony Premium. As far as Animate vs. Harmony, I prefer Harmony. I find it a pleasure to use, whereas Animate gives me a lot more frustration - especially with drawing. I think when you understand Harmony well, the potential time savings are huge - and that’s huge since animation is so time consuming. One of my favorite Harmony features that didn’t get mentioned here is the ability to export from Storyboard Pro directly to Toon Boom Harmony project files. It’ll bring over your audio, your camera moves, and all your art completely automatically! It’s a huge time savings versus setting up individual files, importing audio and animatic clips, etc. One thing that Animate does SOOOO much better than Toon Boom (SBP or Harmony) is cycles. It can be really frustrating, especially in SBP where adding secondary motion to a cycle is a giant headache. In Animate, it’s a piece of cake.

[@cloncast]

Lol thank you for starting with the cons of ToonBoom. I already have CC and your first two cons of ToonBoom convinced me to stick with Adobe. I'm still a beginner so why waste my time with ToonBoom right now

[@gdzeek]

thats a relief, I bought a student version of adobe suite before they went to subscription so im learning on that

[@NoiecityHacking]

TB is superior for an important reason, it works better in ambient light thanks to the nodes. Well, superior is a relative word, it will depend on what kind of work you want to do.

[@mibdev]

I'll definitely use Flash (I've never animated before) simply because of After Effects. Already having Creative Cloud is a big plus, but all the extra software is well worth it, even if you don't care about Animate(/Flash). Also the Expression system (from Aftereffects, but probably also in Animate) is amazing. (Especially with some JavaScript magic)

[@djsanimations3601]

I use Adobe After Effects for Motion Graphics. Making logos jump to music, making backgrounds dim and glow to music. Making Audio Waveforms and Spectrums move to music.

[@kikosquirrel4967]

l Still Prefer The Program "Adobe Animate"

[@crusadinalldaylong5591]

Kiko Squirrel goanimate XD

[@kikosquirrel4967]

crusadin' all day long ! That Sucks! ... Just Kidding! 😏 l Love That Program, too

[@GoingToAFuneral]

I would agree in some ways

[@sweetiecola4096]

I wish I could afford it...

[@nonemuwolf7571]

Adobe Animate = Flash

[@NikiPaprika]

this is a really fair video, although i do have one criticism with the first con you bring up: while toon boom is expensive, you have the option of a one time payment. it's a huge lump sum, sure, but it means you will own a permanent license for it. if you're planning on using toon boom for years to come, it will be worth it more than a perpetual subscription based system where you don't even own the programs like with CC. overall though, these are decent points! i prefer toon boom myself, but i can see the arguments for animate too!

[@psychoon]

If you pay a one time licence for tb you still need to pay support every year otherwise you're gonna have to pay for every update

[@RealmSprinter]

I've been a user of ToonBoom since day 1 back in 2012 and i have to say that there are going to be difficulties when your coming from Flash/Animate :'DD Like you said, Flash/Animate and ToonBoom are VERY different from each other, so I can't imagine the headache you'd get from trying to re-learn everything. Unless you're required to use the other(in this case, ToonBoom), I wouldn't really recommend doing that but I would say that it IS an excellent animating program that can really do a lot and that it's worth trying out if you can spare the time. Since their both different from each other, I'd also consider it really handy to know how to use both(you might be working with different studios who use different programs, etc), but I don't really see it as a "must-do" if it's not necessary.

[@vanman6901]

Actually if you're using After Effects with Toonboom, you can use Write Nodes to Render each piece of Animation all at once instead of one at a time. Write Nodes is great for multi-pass rendering.

[@SkyAlbaharu]

I prefer toon boom because I'm nore used to it, but all of this is true. I don't know if someone said it before, but at least you can open several harmony scenes actually!! Just like "in separate" open programs, but it can be done

[@joaocardoletto]

Don't forget the bitmap brushes, that make harmony almost as good as tv paint for traditional animation.

[@saltcrucifix]

also to any students out there, you are eligible for the adobe cloud student discount if you are in any form of school! Doesn’t matter what type, as long as you can provide you’re in some form of education you will be able to get the whole adobe suite for $30 a month and have access to every program adobe has. I want to try out toonboom, but due to the price of adobe suite with the discount and the access to the programs I’d rather just stick with adobe ^^

[@CrownePrince]

I think the student discount for Toon Boom is $6 a month. Pretty much everything you can get a student discount for, so it didn't even cross my mind to mention it. ^^;

[@saltcrucifix]

Crowne Prince ohh I see! Well I thought it would be good to mention since it’s what I use and greatly cuts the price of my subscription but I had no idea toonboom had one too... well maybe I gotta go check that out too >>

[@kero02ya]

Crowne Prince damn, is that for the 15 dollar version? i'd so take that deal but the 15 dollar a month version is extremely watered down for my taste

[@Minkerdoodle01]

I get toonboom for free with my student email. full version.

[@Sappysappster]

I love these types of animation software based videos. They're so informative and helpful :]! Also I was wondering, have you ever heard about Cacani? It's an animation software that I never heard talked about even though it's hyped itself and has been associated with big names (That internet explorer anime girl animation on KZbin, Jojos Bizarre Adventures, e.t.c)

[@CrownePrince]

I've known about CaCANi for a while. It's on the wishlist of "want to try" behind TVPaint.

[@Sappysappster]

Oh I see! I thought that it was something left to be forgotten by people, lol

[@cathairkerrigan3652]

Nice to see others giving CACANi the love it deserves as I never see it mentioned anywhere.

[@centurionfox3827]

Which one is perfect for a first timer animator

[@CrownePrince]

Unless you can get a student discount or you're already an experienced artist, I would probably start with something free, like Krita, FireAlpaca, or OpenToonz.

[@centurionfox3827]

Crowne Prince thank you for tips and tricks

[@rollingart23]

Flipaclip

[@T--xo2uq]

Paper

[@cathairkerrigan3652]

Krita, decent drawing program with basic but good animation features. Probably better starting with something simple to learn the fundamentals of animation before moving on to something with more advanced features.

[@Volkami]

Hey I got a question! So I have been using toon boom essentials 14 for about a year now and I know how to use it and everything but I do agree with much of the flaws. Of course, I am not a professional and would it be better if I switched to Adobe?

[@mariogamer2102]

If you're going to do a Toon Boom Harmony tutorial can you start with Essentials. As far as I've heard, it sounds kind of confusing. I'm currently attempting a big project so i want to do everything right. Thanks Also you rock Crowne.

[@danieljuno810]

Thank u for this

[@ENDIEKID]

I love it when the tittle of a video answers the quesstion it's prompted, but the only other reason to watch the said video is to hear the reasons for that given answer. Thanks again Ms.......Mr.................*sucks teeth*......Prince, for another informative video.

[@OpticSpectrum]

Nice comparison I'd say. 😉 Can I just ask though, for #3, can't you just encapsulate the scene's layers into folders? And if there's camera movement, just set the keyframe of that to default whenever a scene ends? Basically, every scene is on one project encapsulated in folders and when a scene ends, the camera defaults its position, as if it's a brand new project file. Let me know what you think. 🤔

[@davidfitcher2953]

Very informative, I was almost buying Toonboom

[@elainechen5033]

Thank you for your explanation! I'm recently searching info about Toon Boom and saw there's Toon Boom Harmony and Toon Boom Storyboard, which one are you talking about in this video? And do you know what's the difference between them? Thank you so much ☺️

[@dreameaterarts2946]

I also love your videos! All of them! CX

[@2coolbrosand1coolsis]

very helpful!

[@AngelEye5101]

So I’m about ready to actually start animating with a program rather than just using clip studio paint. I just do simple 2D animations but I wanted to know which animation program is best to move up on.

[@RCSXDV]

I just KNOW Toon Boom is gonna be worth it for me. I've used flashed since May 2018 and I REALLY wanna switch to Toon Boom REAL soon. Including when I start my future web series someday.

[@revotiva]

nice video, and what do u think about Blender Grease Pencil?

[@brittanyrobinson]

I've been animating with adobe animate for quite some time. I wanna give toon boom a chance one day☺

[@mickodooku6058]

Can you check out the darkest dungeon cutscenes? They're similar to the Crypt of the Necrodancer but utilize "stick puppet animation" a bit more. Either way it's worth at least viewing in private.

[@AllGlassEmpty]

Man, glad I started with toom boom in first place

[@reddishguyinactive4387]

but will it be hard?

[@kaciekk]

Well I've been using Toon Boom for years so... I have Studio and not Harmony, so I paid for it once and don't have to pay for it ever again, I can have it on 2 different computers. I've also never learned how to use scenes, so I got a 3+ minute project on one scene.

[@kakao-katze]

I'm getting a computer soon, and really want an animation program, so I want to know which is better

[@KAVIIX]

How about Tvpaint? I've thinking if I change tvpaint to toon boom

[@DrawnByDragonfly]

I'm planning to use clip studio paint for animation soon. Should I?

[@JezzyCrazyTV]

it got better

[@razzberry8504]

I can't afford anything ;v;🔫

[@hottopiccowboy]

RazzBerry I just use firealpaca

[@ingridovalle7426]

Use Firealpaca. Of course it's not the best program to use (because it's free), but it gets the work done.

[@heh6177]

I would recommend OpenToonz, though it’s a different interface from a timeline. The official version is only 64-bit, but there is a 32-bit available from a different developer. It takes awhile to get used to but it’s worth it in the end. It’s free too!

[@TheWrightDesign1]

Opentoonz ^^

[@ELMTree-le7nq]

If you have a phone you can use flipaclip

[@subsbyaweekchallenge]

I switched to animate from pencil 2d, so I thought animate was complicated. But I think I will need a stronger computer before getting toon boom

[@almuradyh]

you just saved me from making a huge mistake, thank you

[@JazLyte]

THANK YOU FOR THIS. I'm a Flash lifer who's been using it since I was a single digit child and had an opportunity to buy Harmony at a discount through work (Still fuckin expensive as hell), but honestly I'm just gonna stick to what I know. Knowing that it doesn't do anything better than AE and doesn't work with it well is honestly a dealbreaker for me, I've long made peace with Flash's drawing. Video much appreciated.

[@Neilhammond64]

I prefer Toonboom over Animate since it's more user friendly for drawers like myself. Only problem I find with it is that when I'm zoomed in, I can't scroll around the canvas meaning I have to constantly zoom in and out at different points. That wouldn't be a problem except I use my surface and like drawing while it's on my knee. So I'm constantly taking off reattaching the keyboard to use the trackpad since when I use the 1 and 2 keys on the touch pad or with a usb keyboard I bought from big lots, it always goes back to that point. So when I perfect a character's jawline but aren't satisfied with his hair, I have to reattach the trackpad. This isn't too much of an inconvenience since it only takes up a few seconds of my time but I'd like to know if there is a way.

[@berrymix3521]

May a tutorial for animation on Fire Alpaca or Krita be made for animators that want to stray away from spending money to animate?

[@danielb.6643]

for complaints about toon boom's huge file sizes, a WD blue 1 TB hard drive only costs 50 dollars.

[@devildukitzu]

I have Flash animator 8 and Toonboom Studio 5. Only real thing I ever use Toonboom for is Flash 8 doesn't export well for AVI or MOV if I want to post it to youtube. So I transfer the SWF file to toonboom and make it a MOV. I have been working with flash for so long I can't get use to toonboom despite the fact I had the program on my Comp since 2010

[@fizzycolalizzie]

"Pencil", other times called "Pencil2D", is something that I came across when looking for free animation programs last year. If you can help it, don't go for this, guys. It's glitchy and unreliable, in my experience. If it works fine for you that's awesome but I had MANY incidents using Pencil where it would mysteriously drop drawings from totally different files into the middle of my animations, on the same drawing layer, making them extremely difficult to just erase. It was also very finicky about when it would or would not allow you to use sound in your animations in a functional way. Some of my files with sound got corrupted the moment I closed them and I could never open them again. Some just didn't play the sound correctly to begin with. There are other free animation programs out there, I'm sure, and I'm sure others in this comments section have already pointed them out. Don't waste your time with Pencil.

[@juangato3610]

I just started with toon boom

[@Ryeven]

I've been animating with toonboom since about october, its quite a good program. But there are some things in flash that I kinda miss.

[@allen3106]

if you want to make interactive animations,animate cc is your choice but if yu want to make it in studios,toon boom maybe your choice

[@HorribleHomeVideo]

thank you for making me realize i am not missing out by not having toon boom

[@bianian8]

Hands down, Flipnote Hatena was the best animation software I've ever touched

[@Trips_Toons]

I Knew You'd Make A Vid About This! You Commented On That Tracer & McCree BTS Video!

[@trishirtstv]

Hi...would be nice a Scribble Kibble about Moho / Anime Studio... Have you ever tried this program? Seems to bee another nice software and have the pro that you pay for it only once and not monthly...

[@ShadowCatzz]

I was thinking about switching to toon boom but after watching this video I changed my mind

[@Mickey377]

@Crowne Prince can you make a Moho video? perhaps comparing it to Toon Boom and Flash?

[@RodieOsc]

I have toon boom. Trust me to learn that shit is a headache. specially the node View! I am trying to switch to animate but the cutter tool and the invisible stroke lines is what beats me

[@DIPSHITDOGGY]

off topic but i started out on toon boom and tried to move over to flash, so if any flash users could help me understand what the brush tool is even for then id be super grateful because everytime i use it all i get is horrid jagged lines and its... not ok lmao thanks!!

[@victorbillvyse]

God like powers with the nodes lol.... I see animate is coming with a note system soon, praying its true

[@SilverShinepony]

well, toon boom has a life license one time payment flash doesnt, and yeah u cant do after fx really well with TB, but do you really need that in most animation styles, plus TB has a loooot of 3rd part, pluggins and FX as well including particle simulation and 3d integration. Oh and you can set the shortcuts to adobe standarts and custimize it. Theres a reason its the industry standart😁

[@mako3503]

I've just used Paint Tool SAI and Movie Maker for years xD and it's comfortable for me :D

[@masonsmith6763]

I'd say my only problem with this video was you spoke about puppets a lot. But as a frame by frame animation hobbyist it is still quite difficult to see the better option here.

[@kitchakat5259]

This is really interesting thank you for sharing, in my opinion I like tvpaint for 2D animation because it has a traditional animation feel to it and it's really easy to use

[@asiaaurora1305]

I am looking for an animation program with the basic aspects, (Timeline, tweening and sound mostly) but I don't have the kind of money for ToonBoom or Adobe. I am currently using FireAlpaca, but lip-sync and timing are very difficult to get right. (Also I can't find a good editor for my videos either... so if you know any free/ cheap ones, that would be really helpful! [I use windows])

[@makushiftu]

I don't know much about these programs, but perhaps Krita for animation and Shotcut for video editing?

[@asiaaurora1305]

I looked into them, and they looked perfect! I'll try them out. Thank you! :D

[@canine8284]

*using moho of all things* *weeps silently*

[@ParkerJPark]

Hi Crowne!

[@chellastation]

I thought about Toon Boom Harmony for a while, and I did call the customer service (which they were super nice) number to get a better understanding how the program works. However, if I go with the monthly plan, I will be paying $10 more just to animate and I don't want to just animate. I see the benefit of Toon Boom, but it's too much money for so little.

[@DennisTamayo]

My Con for Adobe Animate is puppet rigging.

[@2coolbrosand1coolsis]

if i may ask, what is a small list of animated movies that amateur animators should watch?