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M
mibellegroup
Participant
December 21, 2016
Question

Coming from Toon Boom, my suggestions for Animate CC

  • December 21, 2016
  • 1 reply
  • 1889 views

Hi there!

I started out using Adobe Flash back in the day and loved it. Then a few years back i switched to Toon Boom Harmony and liked that a lot as well but always kinda missed the ease of use of Flash. But there's no denial to some quite remarkable advantages that Toon Boom has over Animate CC. Since the rebranding, i've gotten back into Animate CC and like some of the improvements that were made and the renewed focus on Animators.

Still, i thought i'd share some suggestions, what Adobe could further improve down the line:

- Pressure Sensitivity for the Pencil Tool for easier line coloring (maybe introduce a property for the selection tool to limit selection only to pencil or brush lines)

- Further improvements to the brush tool. It's gotten better but is still quite a bit off the competition. One simple solution for cleaner lines would be the Clip Studio Paint approach of just offsetting the line from the cursor with a lag while drawing. Another example would be this little Mac application: http://hejstylus.com/

- A real way of making Multiplan Camera Trackings with a 3D workspace.

- Being able to see and edit the Timelines of nested Symbols in the main Timeline for Editing without going into nested stuff constantly.

- Make selection groups with an individual pivot point would make a lot of things already easier like grouping all the layers for the head into one group.

- Being able to parent Layers.

- Workflow to tagged Swatches could be much improved.

Allright, that's just my two cents Keep up the good work!

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1 reply

_keyframer
Community Expert
_keyframerCommunity Expert
Community Expert
December 21, 2016

Welcome back!

Yes indeed, Toon Boom products are great - but as you've noticed, Animate CC is improving on its own.

Love your list of suggestions! My comments below:

- Pressure Sensitivity for the Pencil Tool for easier line coloring (maybe introduce a property for the selection tool to limit selection only to pencil or brush lines)

There's a new brush that allows you to create custom strokes that solves this. Check it out.

- Further improvements to the brush tool. It's gotten better but is still quite a bit off the competition. One simple solution for cleaner lines would be the Clip Studio Paint approach of just offsetting the line from the cursor with a lag while drawing. Another example would be this little Mac application: http://hejstylus.com/

Pretty neat idea!

- A real way of making Multiplan Camera Trackings with a 3D workspace.

Not sure if Animate will see a true 3D workspace (like 3D layers in After Effects or Harmony) but stay tuned for possibly seeing more imporvements to the existing Camera feature.

- Being able to see and edit the Timelines of nested Symbols in the main Timeline for Editing without going into nested stuff constantly.

Not sure your vision here. I'm intrigued though. So you want a way to see and edit a nested timeline from a parent timeline? That would be confusing no?

- Make selection groups with an individual pivot point would make a lot of things already easier like grouping all the layers for the head into one group.

I understand what you are asking but this can be achieved by nesting say the head symbol of a character and having all of it's related symbols inside of one symbol. On its parent timeline you can set the pivot point to be down by the neck area. I use the method all the time. I do lip syncing and expressions all inside this head symbol and on its parent timeline I do all the main body poses.

- Being able to parent Layers.

I've thought about this as well. This is how Harmony does it right? This would be cool for say the Bone tool and having IK "under the hood" so to speak. But, it would possibly break the cornerstone of Animate CC; it's timeline as it has existed forever.

- Workflow to tagged Swatches could be much improved.

Agreed.

Animator and content creator for Animate CC
M
mibellegroupAuthor
Participant
December 21, 2016

Let me in return specify some of the things:

- Pressure Sensitivity for the Pencil Tool for easier line coloring (maybe introduce a property for the selection tool to limit selection only to pencil or brush lines)

There's a new brush that allows you to create custom strokes that solves this. Check it out.

I guess you're referring to the new Vector Brush, right? I just don't like the preview of it, which basically just Shows you dots or weird lines while you draw and you only see the finished Thing when you release the pen. I also got the Problem, that Animate CC starts lagging considerably (check out this gif on Twitter where i demonstrated it: https://twitter.com/JoelMayerProds/status/811319050072715268)

Otherwise i'm sure it would be a great solution but as it is now, it Kind of isn't quite there yet.

- Being able to see and edit the Timelines of nested Symbols in the main Timeline for Editing without going into nested stuff constantly.

Not sure your vision here. I'm intrigued though. So you want a way to see and edit a nested timeline from a parent timeline? That would be confusing no?

The Thing i like about a Software like Toon Boom is that i basically can animate a whole Scene on one timeline and never have to go into nested symbols or anything and make sure, that my graphic synchronizes correctly with the main Timing by counting Frames or other weird methods. One way to do it would be something like a drop down i on the layer that holds your main Symbol, lets say, figure. Then you get all the sub-symbols in that like arms, legs, head, etc. then you can press another arrow to see the elements of the head like mouth, eyes, etc. The nested symbols are one of the most confusing things for me coming back to Animate after years of Absence and make changes a lot more of a hassle than with Toon Boom to be completely honest with you. At least for me.

- Make selection groups with an individual pivot point would make a lot of things already easier like grouping all the layers for the head into one group.

I understand what you are asking but this can be achieved by nesting say the head symbol of a character and having all of it's related symbols inside of one symbol. On its parent timeline you can set the pivot point to be down by the neck area. I use the method all the time. I do lip syncing and expressions all inside this head symbol and on its parent timeline I do all the main body poses.

I understand, but again, i think it would be much more intuitive when you can animate your character inside your main character Symbol and don't have to Switch into the head layer to adjust your mouth additionally. At least in my own humble opinion

- Being able to parent Layers.

I've thought about this as well. This is how Harmony does it right? This would be cool for say the Bone tool and having IK "under the hood" so to speak. But, it would possibly break the cornerstone of Animate CC; it's timeline as it has existed forever.

Yes, Harmony works with parenting and it really makes so much more sense because for example, when i parent the leg layers to the Body layer, whenever i move the Body, the legs will follow accordingly and i don't have to move a hundred layers seperately and then rebuild the character basically. Harmony gives you both Options so i think that could be possible in Animate as well, without breaking any cornerstones, which a lot of users have gotten used to already

Thanks for answering again and cheers!

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