Do you need to own a 3D package to use all of Harmony's features?
You need to have a 3D package to create the model in. You do not need to have a 3D package on the computer in order to manipulate the object once it has been imported into Harmony. You an animate in a file, you can animate the 3D object However you do once again need to have a rendering application on the computer to render with once it comes time to render. So we can work through Maya, 3delight, and Pixie for Renderman.
This means that you can take advantage of setting up your complex lighting and shading in your 3D file, and we will make use of that information when it comes time to do the rendering. It's a very powerful model for creating seamless 2D-3D integration.
So the Studio bones are the same as Anime Studio, can you explain if and how the other Harmony deformer features you mention are better than Anime Studio's system?
I can't say for sure what Anime Studio bones will do, but just to explain a little bit better what curve deformers do. Curve deformers are defined not by articulations with bones between them (i.e. defined by a rotation) but instead defined by a curve with bezier handles on control points. This is much more useful for dealing with scenarios like, say, a cat wagging its tail. Or a body that's bending.
So that's a discount on the $3500 price mentioned earlier in the thread? Is a 60% discount possible like you have on Animate Pro sometimes? What's the upgrade cost from Animate Pro?
I never mentioned a price of $3500. I can't confirm or deny that price - I'm afraid that the only place that you can get more info about pricing is from
sales@toonboom.com. I can say, however, that whatever the price is, the sales team is always willing to set up payment plans and the such for those who have difficulty with the price. Sometimes they also bundle in some standalone licenses for freelancers in with studio deals, so sometimes the studio itself will provide a license of Harmony for the project. It depends on the studio.
Are there other TB forums on the net where users hang out? I don't mean to be funny, but compared to this place, the TB forums are a bit quiet.
I can only maintain the Toon Boom user forums on our website. I try to poke around in other threads when people let me know about them, but I only keep a close eye on
http://www.toonboom.com/support/forums/animate/
I'll have to take a closer look at point animation. From your description it sounds like something I could do with deformation, so for example if I need to animate the hair, I can put a few deformers on the hair and wiggle the hair around. Or if I need to make the skirt bounce, I can put a deformer on the skirt and bounce it.
Regarding whether any of these features are coming to Animate Pro, the answer is that we haven't decided which ones, if any, will make it into that product. We have to factor in the cost of development when we decide at what price to sell a product. If any of these features do make it into Animate Pro, they will be a scaled-down version.
About a demo, there's a demo video of the new features available on the Harmony website. You can see it playing in the TV at the top of:
http://beta.toonboom.com/professionals/harmony/features
Also, on the Toon Boom YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ToonBoomAni ... ZkhDtyfFEo
If you want a one-on-one demo, feel free to contact
sales@toonboom.com and they'll be happy to set up a remote demo with one of our demo artists.
~Lilly
