Flash CS4 vs. Toon Boom Animate: Character Animation Comparison: Part 1

A comparison of Flash CS4 and Toon Boom Animate in regards to character animation, specifically dealing with character rigging, inverse kinematics, z-depth, and swapping artwork of characters in a bones hierarchy. Also discussed is the animate-able Camera in Animate.

Uploaded by http://www.cartoonsmart.com

Find out more about Animate at http://tinyurl.com/toonboomanimate

Category:

Education

Tags:

• toon boom animate
• Flash CS4
• character rigging
• z-depth
• Inverse kinematics

[tubeNyou82]

There is a way in Flash CS4 to swap your symbols while using the Bone tool. You have to deal with symbols inside of symbols. I'm not gonna explain it further but it can be done. It also takes a while to animate simple movements and actions :(

CS6 is coming out soon, maybe they've made some changes...

[cartoonsmartlessons]

@tubeNyou82 Yeah it can be done with As3 too, but neither solution is good workflow for an animator. We shouldn't be coming up with tedious workarounds to bend the program to our needs. I love Flash for everything but animation. And I've played the waiting game over the past 5 or 6 versions where each time we say "maybe the next version will be the one". Its getting worse, really, if this IK is something they think works... Toon Boom Animate is the animator friendly version of Flash.

[cartoonsmartlessons]

@Orpheus!!! This is a comparison of the INVERSE KINEMATICS in Flash CS4 and Animate. This is NOT a comparison between all types of animation in Flash. I would NEVER use the IK in Flash CS4 to regularly do animation. But the IK in Flash CS4 is a new feature, and one that is touted for character animators.

Using IK in Flash CS4, you MUST...

1. Use MovieClips.

2. Have everything on one layer (actually everything is put on one layer for you during the bone rigging)

3. No swapping with IK

[cartoonsmartlessons]

@ invaderzim, the video is referring to objects on an IK chain (using the bone tool) You don't even get an option to choose between Shape or Motion when symbols are chained up. I've been using Flash since 1999. I'm guessing thats the same decade you were born, so don't question my authori-TAY!

=)

[cartoonsmartlessons]

uhhhhh (shuddering) at the thought of classic shape tweens. They are far from working fine. Its a gamble using those. Even just shape tweening a square, your top right corner vector point, might randomly jump to the bottom left.  I've rarely found good uses for the classic shape tweens.

Shape tweens with IK though are much better. I do have some free lessons on that in the Free section on CartoonSmart. The vector points stay locked in closer to their corresponding bone joints.

[FlowerPowerGuy]

OMG I am now buying toomboom just imagine how much easier lip sinking will be.

[makiney13]

hi, the only question i`ve got is, in flashcs4, you can draw an arm, i mean, a fully arm and then applie the tool bone, and i find that quite good, is there anything like that in the toon boom?, i dont want to read "well, by far you have to draw evertything separately to get a better animation", sorry if my question looks to anoying or "bitchy" hehe, just want to know if there is the same principle in toon boom

[k4ba]

toon boom =p obviusly, only an asshole would say flash

[Simstyle12]

this is random but i don't think in lil bil they use cut out animation too lol. i might look that up .

[ChimeraProd]

Have you upgraded to Animate 2 yet? Do you think the new features justify a 300$ Upgrade? I'm still using 7.6, think thats still pretty good?

[daynee3]

IN Flash u can turn the drawing into a Graphic and do the same thing as substitution

[lescomicmaker]

ok in the flash example it looks like the drawing is just one drawing with the bone tool being used but in the toon boom example the body arm and hand are all on different layers and are symbols of their own.