Catch me on a Toon Boom webinar

Symbols to peg Toon Boom webinar with Adam Oliver

On Thursday 7th June (tomorrow!) I’ll be talking live hosted by Toon Boom. The topic is ‘Symbols to Pegs: the differences of animating in Toon Boom Harmony’ so as you can imagine, there’s a strong focus on the crossover from other animation software. It’ll be 1 hour of animation GOLD (I may be overselling it there, but it’ll at least be a chance to get your questions answered!)

If you’d like to watch, you can sign up on Toon Boom’s website or catch the whole thing on YouTube afterwards.

Toon Boom Dublin Career Camp

Dublin canal Career Camp

Recently I was in wonderful Dublin for Toon Boom’s new initiative, their Career Camps. These weekend sessions are aimed at helping animators and studios cross over into the software, with several useful lectures and workshops to dive into. Best of all, they’re FREE!

I was there to talk and teach the cut-out animation sessions. I have to say, the crowd was very nice (even when my laptop decided it didn’t want to play with the projector for a little while). It’s so inspiring to be around passionate creatives who are still hungry to learn. It reminds me how you have to keep learning and evolving otherwise the paralysis of choice seems to creep in and pin you down with power of artistic insecurities..!

There was some gorgeous weather whilst we were there (unfortunately we were inside!) so here’s a snap from the canal in the south side of the city.

I’ll be at the Toon Boom London Career Camp on 30th June – 1st July 2018. If you’re interested, you can sign up for FREE here.

Toon Boom Training

Toon Boom Trainer

Hey everyone! Exciting news…I’ve been working away on a business idea, Toon Boom Trainer and I recently launched the website.

Funnily enough, the website is called ToonBoomTrainer.com. We get animators up to speed in the 2D animation software, Toon Boom Harmony. But we’re not just another online course. I’ll act as your personal tutor, with a weekly review chat, 7-day support and great source files to work from. I’ve replicated the studio mentorship environment and applied it to this course, so you’ll get the absolute best advice along the way.

Certified by Toon Boom

It’s perfectly suited to those who don’t want to spend days trawling YouTube for answers, or stumble through the more complex aspects of the program using tedious PDFs. Learning new software is an amazing investment and Toon Boom Harmony is dominating the animation industry right now. If you’re an animator already, four weeks of training will allow you to apply for Harmony-specific studio positions.

The Summer School is really just to test the water and covers a lot of ground, hence the intensive term! After this though, I’ll be focusing on specifics, so there will be rigging, animation, design and workflow courses. It’s worth mentioning that all the course is ‘intensive’, you can complete it part-time. This means you can keep your bill paying job and learn something new. To allow for those areas you might want to study further, we’ve got ‘stretch tasks’ which will enhance your understanding. Our current start date is set to July 31st, but we’re flexible and may run two batches of classes due to subscription levels.

If you’re interested in Toon Boom Trainer and would like to know more or have some feedback for me, please do get in touch!

Take part in the worldwide Sketchcrawl

Ever taken part in a Sketchcrawl? This is the original sketch meetup by Enrico Casarosa of Pixar fame. It’s like a pub crawl, but with drawing instead of beer (well, the beer is not the main focus, at least!) It’s a great way to meet fellow sketchers and see a place with fresh eyes.

There’s an event 29th July 2017, [edit: the event has been and gone, but check the Sketchcrawl forum for future events!]  http://www.sketchcrawl.com/forum

Old sketchcrawl pictures

You can tell I was new to watercolours when I did these…the paper crinkled like a Floridian pensioner

Added frivolities: I did my own one-man band sketchcrawl (so keen, so sad) back in 2004. I was a student then and just out around my hometown, Nottingham. Here are a few pictures from the day. Was a lot of fun as a little project, and interesting for me to see how I’ve developed. The sample pages below show I was still wrestling with construction and my ‘cartoony’ tendencies! That’s what you get growing up reading The Beano 🙂 See my new sketchbook work here.

My current hometown, Manchester is a great place to draw. There’s all the industrial charm of Deansgate locks, modern developments popping up all over the city and not forgetting the easy hipster pace of Ancoats. The tram is the lazy option, as places like Cornbrook will give you amazing views of the changing skyline, like the super expansion of Salford. Then you just hop back on and off you go! Easy peasy.

I still remember the things I drew that day (full disclosure, these sketches are pretty pants, but it’s good for nostalgia!) A sketch is worth a BAZILLION words my friends. Happy sketching y’all!

Trooping the colour

It’s the Queen’s birthday today and therefore the trooping of the colour takes place down in London. As a British citizen it’s my duty to dress in ceremonial attire and gallop around the streets on horseback, tooting a trumpet.

As I don’t have a horse and it’s awfully warm outside, I sketched the TV instead. I’m not a devout fan of the Royal family (spare me, Ma’am) but I do find the idea of a Royal family in a modern world pretty fascinating.

After recent events whereby the whole country feels like it’s going down the drain, it’s welcome distraction to watch something of order and control, even if we are paying for it. Respect to Liz for the minute’s silence. Still seems to have more wits about her than our wonderful prime minister.

I did this sketch in Mischief, a nice little drawing app for Windows and Mac. It’s got a mind-boggling ‘infinite canvas’ where you can just zoom and zoom and zoom. Try it! It’s AMAZING and could mean great things to storytelling.

It was a warm one! This chap had rather rosy cheeks.

Copyright © Adam Oliver 2025.