Animators have more options for hand-drawn software than ever before, a fact that is reflected daily in the projects we feature on the site. For example, the short Junkyard was produced with TVPaint, the TV series Sarah and Duck was made with CelAction2D, and Disney’s new Mickey Mouse shorts are animated in ToonBoom Harmony. Of course, there’s the ubiquitous Adobe Flash which is still the most widely used 2D animation tool, though its influence has been waning in recent years.
Part of the reason that Flash has been losing marketshare in the U.S. and Canada is due to ToonBoom’s Animate line of software, which is considered by many to be an affordable alternative with better workflow and a superior set of tools for vector-based 2D animation. The company recently announced the pre-launch of Animate 3 and Animate Pro 3, which adds some much desired features like the ability to taper pencil vector lines, draw with textures and output in 64-bit high-resolution. Many of these features were previously available only in ToonBoom’s much higher priced Harmony software.
Here are some of the new features announced by ToonBoom:
Toon Boom Animate 3 highlights:
- True Pencil: Animate 3 gives you the ability to draw with True Pencil, a pencil line with variable thickness that supports pressure sensitivity. Draw clean lines with the pencil and have the ability to modify the lines easily. You can apply the style across hundreds of drawings. Incorporate texture on your lines for cool effects.
Texture Brushes: Animate allows you to draw with texture brushes using the Brush tool. Take advantage of this to do rough drawings just like you would on paper, simulating that pencil-on-paper feeling.
Tool Presets Toolbar: When creating paperless animation, you often want to save frequently used brushes or pencils so you can quickly go back to those preferences. Using the new Tool Presets toolbar, you can save presets for any tool, remembering the properties of that tool.
Toon Boom Animate Pro 3 highlights:
- Bone Deform: Animate Pro 3 now comes with Bone-style Deform! Bring your cut-out characters to the next level by adding deformers to bend drawings around bones and articulations. Apply deform to vector drawings, textures, or imported bitmaps.
True Pencil: Animate Pro 3 gives you the ability to draw with True Pencil, a pencil line with variable thickness that supports pressure sensitivity. Draw clean lines with the pencil and have the ability to modify the lines easily. Incorporate texture on your lines for cool effects.
Tool Presets Toolbar: When working in cut-out animation, you often want to save standard brush or pencil settings for different areas of your character rig. Using the new Tool Presets toolbar, you can save presets for any tool, remembering the properties of that tool.
Both products are now supercharged on a 64-bit core. This gives you the freedom to use more of the computer’s resources, and output high-resolution files for a professional-quality production. In addition, they both support standard two-finger Touch Gestures for zooming, rotating, and scaling of the canvas, when using a tablet. Finally, they both benefit from interface enhancements designed to simplify workflow and streamline the animation process.
Pricing and Availability: During this time-limited pre-launch period, you can buy Toon Boom Animate 3 for $599 US and Toon Boom Animate Pro 3 for $999 US – a saving of $100 US. Customers will receive a version 2 license which will be replaced by version 3 upon release. Customers owning previous versions of Animate and Animate Pro may upgrade on release day only.
To learn more and pre-order the software, visit ToonBoom’s website.
Pre-school animation appears to have something of a stigma in the United States. Cartoons targeted at children aged 6-11, such as SpongeBob SquarePants, My Little Pony Friendship is Magic and Adventure Time, have picked up adult followings of varying sizes; however, there seems to be an assumption that anything aimed at the 5-and-under crowd will be too simplistic and didactic to interest older viewers.
In Britain, things are slightly different. Most animated television series made in the UK today are aimed at the preschool audience, but often cater to any adult viewers who appreciate gentle whimsy. In this way they can be seen as continuing the tradition of Bagpuss, The Clangers and Noggin the Nog, children’s series which were not intended specifically for the preschool demographic but now find themselves pigeonholed into that area when they are rerun – and yet still maintain fond adult followings.
Sarah and Duck, a recent CBeebies series created by Sarah Gomes Harris and Tim O’Sullivan of Karrot Entertainment, has plenty of charm and is sure to net itself a number of adult admirers. Its appeal for older viewers lies not in any winking asides above the heads of the target audience, but in its way of evoking the more fondly-remembered aspects of our childhoods.
The series follows the exploits of a seven-year-old girl and her pet duck. The third central character is the narrator, who serves as the only true adult presence as he interacts with the characters, giving them advice but never intruding into their world. The storylines deal with simple subjects, such as visiting a shop, building a kite or drinking honey and lemon while poorly, in a way that gently pushes tidbits of information at the audience. Older viewers will be taken back to how, during early childhood, even the most mundane activities can be a fascinating journey of discovery.
This is reflected in the colourful and sometimes strange world which Sarah and Duck inhabit. When they leave their house, a line of talking onions in the garden bids them farewell. They often bump into an elderly woman, well-meaning but somewhat absent-minded, much to the annoyance of her short-tempered talking bag.
There are shades of Tim Burton in Sarah’s quirky, wide-eyed design; meanwhile, the fact that so many inanimate objects are prone to sprouting faces and talking suggests Fleischer Studios. The series is not self-consciously creepy or surreal, however, and merely reflects just how odd the world of childhood imagination can be.
Although the visual style is simple, the characters are injected with genuine vitality. They are not bundles of stock poses and expressions, but instead react to their surroundings in a well-observed and believable manner—such as when heroine develops a slumped posture, dawdling gait and half-closed eyes in the episode “Sarah Gets a Cold”.
As an example of engaging character animation created with a minimalist visual style on a television budget, and a cartoon for pre-school children which does not talk down to its audience, Sarah and Duck is right on target.
Sarah and Duck was developed, designed, written and animated entirely in-house at London-based Karrot Animation.The show is animated in CelAction2D. Visit the Sarah and Duck Facebook page for more details.
CREDITS
Director: Tim O’Sullivan
Writer: Sarah Gomes Harris
Producer: Jamie Badminton
Animation director: Tim Fehrenbach
Lead animators: Alistair Park, Rachel Thorn
Storyboard: Tony Clarke
Art Direction: Annes Stevens, Rebecca Whiteman
