Snow storm animation
- At February 03, 2019
- By Adam
- In animation
0
Here’s a sample of a snow storm animation I’ve put together in Toon Boom Harmony. I’m using particle effects so it’s all composited in the software. It’s a simple scene and there is A LOT you can do with the node library and effects modules. There’s many I’d like to explore to their full potential…see what they can do! Toon Boom is crying out for a special effects and compositing book or guide (hint hint watch this space). For now, enjoy the snow gif. It’s funny creating these when it is ACTUALLY snowing outside 😛
New year, new animation course
It’s finally out into the wild…my brand new online course Animation in Toon Boom Harmony 16 is open for sign ups!
Many, many hours of planning, research and preparation have gone into this, so I hope it’s useful to lots of people. It will be run through my online training business, Toon Boom Trainer and takes place over 5 weeks, part time.
It’s packed with all the great features of the previous courses: HD video lessons, easy-to-follow exercises, handy worksheets, 7 day a week support and our one-to-one, live tutorials. And the killer feature? A FREE copy of Toon Boom Harmony Premium for every participant!
Here’s a short video explaining all, filmed and edited by yours truly whilst trying to keep warm in this chilly English winter! If anyone is looking to improve their character animation skills whilst learning this fantastic software package, or even just want to read more (full curriculum on the website), head to toonboomtrainer.com
Toon Boom Camp London
- At July 04, 2018
- By Adam
- In animation, Training
- 0
Last weekend I was down in London for another sunny few days of Toon Boom’s Career Camps series. It’s two days of seminars and workshops on all aspects of the software, allowing those who are interested to get some hands-on experience before making the switch.
I was there taking the cut-out animation sessions (the same as I did in Dublin). We had a big group! And it was warm. Very warm. So hats off to all those who attended and managed to keep their concentration instead of running to the nearest lido 🙂
It’s always really inspiring to go to these events. The talks by Adam Shaw of Blue Zoo and Will Studd of Aardman were a huge motivator, giving a solid grounding to why everyone was there (in the long run!) Personally I’m excited to get back into training development again and working on more animation projects in the near future, especially in Toon Boom!
London on the rise
London has some really brilliant plans for Toon Boom Harmony and it’s integration into the studios down there. That, along with the great work going on in Bristol is helping bring the ‘long form production king’ to the South! Let us not forget the mighty Manchester, with its very own Brown Bag Films where I used to work. Those guys have been doing amazing stuff with Harmony since 2015. I think they were the first U.K studio to adopt the software on such a large scale. When I joined they were around 40 people there, now they’re heading towards 140…immense! So with all these places gradually expanding and increasing their knowledge level and talent pool, I have high hopes for a ‘platinum age’ of animation in the U.K. And yes, all these inverted commas are me trying to coin phrases before they’re a thing! Maybe one day I’ll be noted as the first to use the phrase in some publication. Oh the fame!
Toon Boom Shortcuts Cheat Sheet
Oh and for those who took my class and would like my personal Harmony shortcuts sheet, you can download the PDF here: https://www.toonboomtrainer.com/resources/shortcuts.pdf
Catch me on a Toon Boom webinar
- At June 06, 2018
- By Adam
- In Training
- 0
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
- At June 05, 2018
- By Adam
- In Training
- 0
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
- At July 09, 2017
- By Adam
- In Training
- 0
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.
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!