TESTING 2D ANIMATING SOFTWARES 💻

 This post is to show my personal progression with 2D animation softwares. I tested Flipaclip, procreate, photoshop , after effects and Toon Boom Harmony.

FLIPACLIP - 4.6 stars rating on IOS 

I practiced on the professional version of the software using an Ipad.

This simple application has basic animating tools like layers, a range of brush and pencil sizes, lasso, paint bucket and Text. It can also control the number of frames per second and it creates an onion skin while animating. Although it is very responsive, it has limited layers and it didn't provide brushes that I needed. 

fig 1.  village

PROCREATE - 4.5 star rating on IOS

This application is rumoured to be the best software for drawing on iPad. It has a wide range of brushes that can be easily manipulated and effects. The animating tools are similar with Flipaclip. The amount of layers limited and is dependent on the size of the canvas, therefore the application cannot stand a long scene. 

fig 2 body stretch ( Flora)

PHOTOSHOP AND AFTER EFFECTS

These are both Adobe softwares.

Similar to procreate, photoshop has a wide range of brushes and textures, the application can stand larger files than previous softwares discussed but it has the same basic animation tools with the previously discussed softwares. 

I created test by drawing and rendering on photoshop, then exporting the files to after effects to composite and refine the motion.

This method is really time consuming and it created stiff movement when trying to make alterations

TOON BOOM HARMONY

Toon boom Harmony became my most preferred software to animate on, mainly because it is used widely in industry examples of popular animations are Danger mouse, Archer and Simpsons. The application contains a vast library of animation tools suitable for all types of 2D animation. 

The software allows me to create long scenes and stores the different attributes in a folder. My most preferred tool, which isn’t in the other applications is the nodes view. It helps me organise components in scenes and alter them without making changes to the surrounding. There is a wide range of brushes and the colour palette is created in a way that you can make major changes at once. Lastly there are various shortcuts that help with time management.

Conclusion

Experimenting on these softwares has helped me realise how to use them best.

Toon boom is used to animate. Photoshop and procreate is used to create backgrounds and concept art. After effects would be used for final compositing