Software for creating cutscenes?

James-- · Sat 15/11/2008 18:01:08

I've been doing background and character art for a while, so I'm quite comfortable with that. But now I want to move on to making fully animated cutscenes.

The style I'm trying to create is similar to Curse of Monkey Island's, so also similar to a lot of cartoons you see on TV I suppose.

Does anyone have any recommendations of programs which help with any stage of the process? Thanks.

TerranRich · Sat 15/11/2008 18:52:42

I found this program -- http://www.artie.com/ -- but I remember another similar program for vector-style cartoon animation. Then again, it may have been that program.

Miez · Sat 15/11/2008 22:03:37

Why not simply use Flash?

James-- · Sat 15/11/2008 23:15:19

TerranRich - Thanks for the suggestion, are you sure that's the right link though? It seems to be more about a team of animators than animation software

Miez - Good idea

I'm not sure why you say "Why not simply use Flash" - it never occurred to me as an obvious solution :p. The program I use for drawing at the moment gives a very different style to drawings produced with Flash, but I'll have a go at importing my art and making use of the keyframe/motion etc. features.

Any more suggestiosn are still welcome

Eggie · Sat 15/11/2008 23:59:36

I've heard Toonboom does better with importing and/or vectorising bitmaps than flash. I don't know, I haven't used Toonboom much.
I know the studio who did Mucha Lucha did a ranty blog post about how much better it was than flash... is it a recommendation.

Anyway, I definitely prefer flash's drawing tools, but if you're not using the animation software for the drawing then bliuiyt ghdgh gvgFAZjvs ZAHHJAGVAVZhaghxhsxhsghjsg

GarageGothic · Sun 16/11/2008 00:26:30

If you wish to obtain your software through legal means, even the student version of Toon Boom Studio is quite pricy. Another commercial alternative to look into could be Anime Studio which is more reasonably priced. I've heard quite good things about this one.

auriond · Sun 16/11/2008 01:35:12

Two freeware 2D animation tools that I know of are CreaToon and Synfig. You might find it easier to use Flash for similar results, though.

Trent R · Sun 16/11/2008 20:34:12

Flash (and the rest of the Adobe Suite) does have the 30 day trial, which is excellent for programs of such high caliber.

~Trent

James-- · Mon 17/11/2008 17:24:36

Thanks for all the suggestions

. I had a look at Toon Boom Studio and it looks incredible :o It's a shame about the price tag, but maybe it's not completely out of my reach. If it is though, I'll take a look at some of the cheaper alternatives.

Mr Flibble · Mon 24/11/2008 14:05:33

Are there any raster based animation packages? All this vector business hurts me.

You see, I do animation traditionally and then scan it. So I suppose what I'd ideally need is some program which could emulate the function of a camera in filming animation, ie. support for layers, and most crucially, inputting all the frames from drawings without messing about with vectors or nodes or anything.
EDIT:

Answered
my
own
Question.

yarooze · Tue 02/12/2008 06:24:55

Quote from: Mr Flibble on Mon 24/11/2008 14:05:33
Are there any raster based animation packages? All this vector business hurts me.
Answered
my
own
Question.

they are also very expensive (except FlipBook maybe). :'(

TVPaint (or Mirage) are brilliant! You can try them for free. 30 days each.

You can also try this stuff. It is mint. The price is also OK. But it can be complicated to use it, since there is no english version.
http://www.portalgraphics.net/ja/products/frt/