Skip navigation
alen5alen
alen5alen Calculating status...
Currently Being Moderated

Illustrator or Flash or Toon boom or.......

Jul 31, 2012 4:14 AM

Hi everybody!

 

I am a newbie in digital illustration and animation. I believe my question has been asked million times before, but I ask it because I don know what to do anymore.

 

Could someone advice me on what software would be the best for making some illustrations (that could be used for children books and similar) and also for using this illustrations step further to make some simple cut out or frame to frame animations/cartoons. 

 

Another thing- can Toon boom (studio or animate or some other version) be used for illustration, maybe instead of Adobe illustrator?  Is it posssible that Adobe Flash, Illustrator and After Effects at some basic level do the same thing as Toon Boom ? Are the differences felt mostly bey professionals who do some hi-polished animations or illustrations?

 

For the last 7 days I have been reading numerous articles and reviews but I am still confused and beginning to be half crazy.

 

Thank you all in advance --

1443 Views   5 Replies   Latest reply: metalbagabon, Jan 26, 2013 7:02 AM
 
Replies
  • _chluaid
    Currently Being Moderated
    1. _chluaid,
    Aug 3, 2012 8:59 AM   in reply to alen5alen
    Report

    I was a Flash animator for a decade before switching to Toon Boom. Flash and Adobe were kind to me but there came a time when the things I wanted to do in animation outgrew Flash, which doesn't look like ever improving for animators.

     

    While Flash has its merits, if you're serious about vector illustration and animation I strongly recommend Toon Boom. There are free intro tutorials for Toon Boom on my site: bitey.com. Also check out the work portfolio section for examples, and good luck with whatever you decide!

     

    Adam

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • alen5alen
    Currently Being Moderated
    2. alen5alen,
    Aug 4, 2012 2:08 AM   in reply to _chluaid
    Report

    Thanks for the  tutorials, I went through them yesterday.

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • lanstrad
    Currently Being Moderated
    3. lanstrad,
    Jan 10, 2013 1:20 PM   in reply to alen5alen
    Report

    Just curious what you did and why... I'm going through the same decision (newbie too in this field...)

     

    Been looking and readig about Toon Boom Studio (don't want to pay for Animate...), and my Adobe rig (Production Premium CS4 on Windows 8 and CS6 on Mac.

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • alen5alen
    Currently Being Moderated
    4. alen5alen,
    Jan 13, 2013 11:59 AM   in reply to lanstrad
    Report

    I have tried TB animate for few weeks and it was a pretty frustrating expirience.The main problem was that the official tutorial on the TB website is just too long and damn too complicated. I came to that conclusion after watching more than 70% of them..They could have explained most of the basics in 15 minutes. As far I can tell, TB is nice software, it has lots of specialised things that are aimed for using in commercial animation where lots of people are involved in production. 

     

    The thing is that for doing some simple animation most programs will do just fine. I have come to conclusion that for my occasional amateur animation the best thing I can do is to develop a good Idea that can be animated even with stickmen and still be good. If you dont aim at being animating pro and work in some studio or something similar, i suggest you dont waste too much time with drilling through some complicated programs and tutorials and instead use some simplest tools and have fun in making something. 

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • metalbagabon
    Currently Being Moderated
    5. metalbagabon,
    Jan 26, 2013 7:02 AM   in reply to alen5alen
    Report

    Toon Boon Studio can be used to replace Illustrator and Flash, Images have mutiple layers, and shapes can be stacked for a number of visual effects, the only thing is that for complex scenes with Animation most of the work has to be done in Toon Boom Studio, cutting shapes to make new shapes and combining is super easy in Toon Boom Studio, just click and drag mostly, one of the coolest features is using gradients with an alpha option to make Glows and Blurs, and if you use a Pen and Tablet you can use the tapering effect of drawing with an Ink Brush like real life, great for character illustration, not to mention the onion skin drawing tools, and if you like import to After Effects for even more options

     
    |
    Mark as:
Actions

More Like This

  • Retrieving data ...

Bookmarked By (0)

Answers + Points = Status

  • 10 points awarded for Correct Answers
  • 5 points awarded for Helpful Answers
  • 10,000+ points
  • 1,001-10,000 points
  • 501-1,000 points
  • 5-500 points