Moho Forum

For someone who has never done any animation at all would you recommend Anime Pro or Toon Boom. I only want to buy one program first to learn but want the 3D pan feature thus Anime Pro. Which program has the fastest learning curve. I don't have years to learn! Thanks.

Anime Studio has a demo version to try out. You should be able to get a feel for it that way although some features are missing.

I don't know anything about Toon Boom. I expect you would get the same response on THEIR forum as well. Huge fans of AS on THIS forum aren't likely to tell you to buy Toon Boom (it is twice the price if not more. Don't know for sure). I would assume that Toon Boom fans aren't going to tell you to buy AS either.

You may want to find a "generic" animation forum to get... more... "objective" opinions.

I don't have years to learn!

Nothing is quick and easy. Both applications are going to require some practice. There are no shortcuts. Whichever program you choose will "disappoint" if you expect instantaneous expertise. I do know that this forum is quite good at helping people out.

-vern

In ToonBoom you can do both raster frame by frame animation, and vector animation with bones. I chose Anime Studio for it's vector morph technology. ToonBoom really can't do vector morph even tho it's advertised on their site. It's basically the same shapetweening stuff that Flash does, which is HORRIBLE. But Anime Studio isn't really set up to do frame by frame, so there is a trade off. I don't really care too much about price. I will spend the extra money for quality, but Anime Studio Pro is cheaper.

I own both. ToonBoom 3.5 and AS pro, or Moho 5.4.

Toonboom has pegs to to move vector objects.

AS has bones, more versatile.

Toonboom has more photoshop drawing tools that converts into vector.

AS has vector drawing tools. Point by point. Takes awhile to get use to.

Toonboom has a 3D environment with a real z axis.

AS has a 3D envirnment that "fakes" (for lack of a better word) Z.

AS can 'fake' 3d. Look through the forums for the head turns. You can't do the same thing with ToonBoom.


AS once learned is one of the fastest 2D animating programs. Faster than Flash,, Toonboom or any other 2d program.

Dale

I've got both too. Toonboom is aimed at a traditional view of animation - frame-by-frame, exposure sheets etc. In my view the best feature of Toonboom is the "3d camera" approach to movies -- really does give you the option of cimematic camera moves through an environment. I think it is too much to call it a genuine 3D environment -- it fakes 3D, just like AS.

The best feature of AS (if I had to pick one with a gun to my head) is bones. If you are more interested in animating characters' movements, choosing AS is a no-brainer.

On the other hand, you may be interested in exclusively exporting to Flash. Toonboom is aimed squarely at that market, while with AS I get the impression that this was tagged on afterwards. You can produce .swf files with AS, but some features cannot be exported into Flash animations (this is probably more to do with drawbacks in Flash, to be fair).

Both programs have lots of other features. The only surefire way of choosing is to try them out -- they both have trial versions.

Before I got into computer animation, I used to do fine art painting as hobby. I love to draw and paint. I also love using the computer. But I could never draw or paint using the computer alone. The process was long and tedious, with lots of mistakes. So, I never used the computer of any kind of artwork.

A friend told me about ASP (called MOHO back then) and its vector drawing system. I found that I could draw my ideas right into the computer without the use of a scanner! I only use a pencil now for storyboarding.

Cost is immaterial if you love the program you select. Time is everything. How long will take to learn and how fast will it take to produce results. I selected ASP.

Good luck in what ever you choose.
FCSnow

Actually, I think most folks here have missed a key statement you made -- "I've never done any animation at all".

That says it all -- no question that AS is the way to go. Obviously money is a factor to you or you'd buy them both, and spending $600 (miminum) on Toon Boom is a bit silly when you've never done any animation before. TB is designed for cell by cell animation, and if you can draw that well you'd already be doing animation.

AS can do animation even if you have no talent (like myself). After using AS for only a week or two I was able to create a nifty 2D Christmas animation for my grandkids that they played over and over again (and these are sophisticated kids who watch all the current kid's animated shows -- they get bored easily and would not have watched something amateurish). Truly, it looked as professional as some of these shows on Cartoon Network and (let me remind you) I have no talent.

AS is the cheapest, easiest way for a newbee to get into 2D animation I can think of and there is no way that anyone on the TB forums can make that claim.

I use both as well and one thing I have come to realize is you really need to plan your animation out in ASP. There really isn't anything like Straight-ahead animation as you need to build your characters. Winging it can be extremely frustrating. I like to mix traditional animation with cut-paper style animation and it can't he done efficiently in ASP. I often ruff-out a scene by hand and then use my character assets to "cleanup". Really depends on how you want to work. If you are just getting started in animation, I strongly recommend you learn the basic fundamentals of animation first and foremost. Apps are just another tool. Good luck

I agree with mkelley - AS is the way to go for anybody who hasn't done any animation before.

Like others, I've got both packages and would agree that TB is more geared towards traditional animation whereas AS allows you to get started fairly quickly (although I'd also agree with plenty of up-front planning as you get more serious).

But for me the real winners are the drawing tools and functionality in AS. Since I'm not that wonderful at drawing (and never really mastered the art of using a graphics tablet) the ability to take a primitive shape and change it by adding points and dragging the shape around is really brilliant.

Don't forget, of course, this forum. It's pretty lively and a great source of advice and resources - always good when you're starting out. And you get a good response whether you're a complete novice or more advanced.

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who took the time to respond to my question. Seems ASP is the way to go for a newbie after playing around with both programs. Thanks, Mike.

nanticokerailroad wrote:Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who took the time to respond to my question. Seems ASP is the way to go for a newbie after playing around with both programs. Thanks, Mike.

Hi,

if you are interested: I still want to sell my AS Pro:

viewtopic.php?t=9919

Marco

Sorry, I'm not a speller!

Anime Pro VS ToonBoom
These thoughts may or may not be true, but they are my feelings at this point in my choice to use Anime Pro over ToonBoom. I have read through this thread, so now, if any of these assumptions are not correct I would like to be corrected. I am a Newbee

Why I selected Anime Pro over ToonBoom...

1) Good for "newbe" animators! Those owning both software seemed to suggest that it was better for begining animaters, like me.

2) Easier to learn to use. In trying both of them out Anime Pro seemed easier to use even though the menus and screens looked cleaner in ToonBoom. I felt the tutorials got me doing more, sooner than ToonBoom's did. This made me feel that I could achieve my goals faster. I recognised that there were some very advanced features in ToonBoom that I might someday want , I still felt that completing this project in a timely manner was more important.

3) Tweensies VS Page by Page animations. It appeared I could do "Tweensies", in between animations, automaticly using bones and vector morphing in Anime VS ToonBoom which appearied to be more Traditional Page by Page animiation.

4) Easer implementation of existing characters. I needed to use exsiting characters, art, which seemed to be easier to bring in and create an animated character out of than it did in ToonBoom.

5) Price, Animi Pro was 1/2 the price of ToonBoom. As price was important for my budget, it was not the deciding factor.

This all may not be true for someone already familure with traditional animation. See:
http://www.contentparadise.com/forums/s ... php?t=8068

Terry

I've only ever used Moho/AS.

Never used ToonBoom, but I found out recently it was used to make THE SIMPSONS movie.

I think it's geared (ToonBoom) towards a more traditional view of animation. I love AS because the whole program's, like, 10MB, and I know it.

I'm sure if I understood ToonBoom, I'd also dig it.

But another thing I love about AS: I made a whole episode of Happy Land in one file, which was about 6MB including all the characters, backgrounds and animation data. I drew everything in the animation in AS in vector, so that's great that I don't need raster files, which could push the file up to, like, 50MB or something.

I'll admit: AS's tools can be extremely frustrating to figure out at first. Hair-pullingly frustrating. But, like learning a new language, once you get the knack for it, it makes sense.

I'd like to try a ToonBoom demo. One day when I'm on a fast connection I might check it out, but really, Anime Studio meets all my needs, and I've learned to plan around it's features and capabilities. It helps if you can plan ahead from the get-go, how you're going to incorporate your work into Anime Studio.

I also agree that you can't just 'wing it' in AS. You'll come pipe. However, once you've planned what you want to do, seeing it all come together is pretty sweet

For now it suffices me just fine, even if its approach to some things are unique and perhaps unorthodox. I like it.

I've been looking at Toonboom as well as Anime studio for quite sometime . And I observed that if you got the skill, you can achieve more realistic and more fluid movement easily in Anime Studio than with toon boom.

I you want a brief video introduction of Toon Boom you can check out the first three chapters for FREE at:

http://www.vtc.com/products/Toon-Boom-Studio-3.5.htm

I'm surprised no one has produced one for Anime Studio yet. But than again that is what I said about Lightwave and now they have three!