Toon Boom has just announced the upcoming release of Animate 2, a powerful software package that rivals Flash. The second iteration of the software includes full SWF export, better velocity controls and a type tool. The pre-launch price is $549.99, and if you buy now, they’ll give you the first version to use until its’ successor arrives. Here’s some of my favorite Toon Boom animation from recent months:
Um Lugar Comum (A Common Place) from São Paulo-based studio Split Filmes
One of the things that stood out for me when I first learned my way around Toon Boom Animate was the color palette. It’s got intelligent color management that allows you to pair a color with an object – the equivalent of saying pants=blue. Down the road, if you want to change those pants to green, and on multiple drawings, it’s as easy as shifting that color — once. While Flash obviously has its advantages too, it faulters in this regard, as you can see in this video below:
The Toon Boom folks, who recently released Animate and Animate Pro, have announced a new tour around the US. There will be discussions of the state of the animation industry, networking and then a software demonstration. The team will also offer $399.99 vouchers for Animate to anyone attending. The tour hits Ohio, New York, Illinois, Florida, Colorado, California (SF), Washington and Oregon – and more details can be found on the tour website.
I just spotted an interesting item on Richard Galvan’s blog. Galvan is the product manager for Adobe Flash, and he brings our attention to a software update for CS4. Some of the issues they addressed with this update include things that have effected my workflow, and I suspect yours too. The Adobe site states that this fix…
….addresses stability and performance issues related to large animation files, such as timeline scrubbing and looping and nested movie clips, as well as text handling.
I first learned about this issue over at Chris Georgenes’s blog, and I suspect it’s one of the main reasons this fix got underway in the first place. +10 points for Chris.
Late last year, I was invited to host a series of launch parties for Toon Boom’s new Animate software. Well, the partying hasn’t stopped, and tonight in Mexico City you can learn more about the software at a party hosted by Eddie Mort and Lili Chin, the creators of ¡Mucha Lucha!. Details are below and visit the official world tour website to get info about upcoming parties in Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo and Rome.
MEXICO CITY
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
6 pm – 9 pm
Museo Mexicano del Diseño (MUMEDI)
Francisco I. Madero 74, Colonia Centro Historico
Mexico D.F.
Also, check out Eddie’s walk-through of some multi-plane animation:
Toon Boom has just announced the upcoming release of Animate 2, a powerful software package that rivals Flash. The second iteration of the software includes full SWF export, better velocity controls and a type tool. The pre-launch price is $549.99, and if you buy now, they’ll give you the first version to use until its’ successor arrives. Here’s some of my favorite Toon Boom animation from recent months:
The Toon Boom folks, who recently released 
I just spotted an interesting item on 
