Toon Boom Harmony 12

Toon Growth Harmony Edition 12, though generally seemingly overwhelming in its complexity, is very possibly the most beneficial and many beneficial 2d animation program out there right now. Given the considerable character rigging features and flexible consequences modules, Toon Increase finds itself very well forward of animation programs like Adobe Just after Results and Flash. Whether or not you’re planning on animating particular assignments or working in a bigger studio pipeline, Harmony is created to provide just about every perform a second animator will at any time need when developing top quality content.
Irrespective of several compact glitches involved with rendering complex character rigs, This system is remarkably stable. For a freelance animator, I have found Harmony to generally be one of the most useful tool conceivable. Anyone who normally takes the time to delve into its features will see that Toon Boom Harmony Model 12 is an excellent tool for accomplishing high quality animation competently.

Harmony sets itself in addition to other well-known animation courses with its character rigging techniques. Building an very easily animatable cartoon character in Just after Results and Flash has normally been somewhat disappointing, given that the interface and parenting techniques tend to be more made for movie editing than true 2d character animation.


With Harmony, the Node program will make linking appendages and retaining them in the proper order a breeze. Acquiring an actively editable visual map of the character and scene presents an animator the chance to Regulate each facet of their rig. By linking drawing levels with composites and pegs, you'll be able to immediately find yourself constructing character rigs that rival the complexity of three-dimensional rigs.

node dependent animation rigging in Harmony 12
Node-centered rigging offers remarkable versatility

Once the character is created with simple pegs that assist with Corporation, the quantity of means one can cleverly manipulate People pegs is essentially limitless. I locate new means of utilizing even The best components of the rigging method daily, and the more I get in the software, the greater Command I have in excess of my animations In general.
bone morphing in Toon Boom Harmony 12Bone instruments in the opposite competing animation softwares generally manage to bring about some odd artifacting and distortion, primary a lot of animators like myself to simply stick in the simple regular animation functions of Individuals packages. Which has a nicely-made character rig in Harmony having said that, adding morphable bones to the assorted appendages is as simple as a few button clicks, and the outcome are nearly always of the next high quality.
Not merely are these bone instruments practical in making steady motion of character options, they themselves are as animatable as each other Portion of the rig. This can make it straightforward to make character morphs more intriguing in excess of the class of the animation, maintaining the movements desirable and novel.

Like Along with the peg units, I find myself continually obtaining new means of utilizing the morph capabilities to animate aspects of each characters and backgrounds. Sure, obtaining a great deal of character morphing on display screen is likely to make rendering acquire a substantial amount of time, but it really’s really not all that bad contemplating the stream of information the program is translating for every frame. With all the time you’ll preserve in animation perform by using the morph equipment to control drawing layers, you gained’t thoughts waiting around somewhat for a longer time to your motion pictures to render.
The Formerly pointed out equipment on your own will be adequate to contemplate Toon Increase Harmony your best option for Skilled and aspiring 2d animators, however it also offers an in-depth collection of effects modules which can choose a personality rig to the subsequent stage.

No matter if you’re employing colour overrides and cutters to generate pupils that remain constrained inside of an eyeball or shadow results to make realistic lights in the scene, you’ll locate the process for applying the modules effortless to comprehend visually and conceptually.

Results modules in Harmony v12
Effects modules in Harmony twelve

By supplying animators the opportunity to implement blurs, sound, along with a myriad of other effects and filters for their animations, Harmony delivers a toolset with which one particular can easily make an or else plain animation visually remarkable.


Regretably, the moment results modules are applied, movie renders get started to essentially sluggish to some crawl. This long render time is very terrible when an outcomes module is affecting a drawing layer that already incorporates advanced morph animations. Even with having to hold out so very long for a top quality render, it’s nevertheless impressive just exactly how much just one has available to them when utilizing Harmony’s consequences.
I like to recommend including effects and digicam moves on the extremely close of your respective animation method, as you’ll if not end up wasting significant quantities of time waiting to examine with your animations.

All these good character making functions would be meaningless with no drawings on their own, And fortunately Harmony twelve has just about all the things you’d at any time require to develop them. You can find all of the conventional drawing equipment you’d come to be expecting using a application like Flash, with what I uncover to become a far better format that lends alone to productive animation.

The brushes are totally customizable, brush and pencil strokes are quickly manipulatable, and I obtain generating consistent linework is less of a challenge than it's in Flash. I are actually notably pleased with the colour system and the benefit with which I can now edit shades individually, As well as in organized palettes. The opportunity to add textures is a useful gizmo also.
If you favor going the greater conventional route, it’s an easy button press to usher in scanned drawings. Bringing in a number of frames is as simple as it really is in any other software, and each drawing is completely editable as a component around the phase. I do Nearly all of my drawing in Toon Increase at this point, as I have found it's got virtually each individual Instrument I would like to make illustrated things.
Now, I happen to be specially positive in my overview of Toon Growth Harmony Edition twelve, as I have found it to get the best Remedy For each and every certainly one of my animation initiatives. That said, Toon Increase will not be going to be for everybody, and it unquestionably isn’t excellent.

It’s not a very cheap solution, and some time required to turn into adept at its toolset is a certain amount of an obstacle. Even though the structure is completely editable along with the applications are effortlessly modified to 1’s liking, lots of will find the visual element of the node layout check out being a horribly daunting picture and usually takes some having used to. I uncover it to generally be very beneficial, but when you don’t plan on animating anything at all additional complex than a simple cut out character, you might want to keep on with Flash or Following Results.

The latest Variation is extremely stable, nonetheless it does have some odd glitches that have to have reloading a save for continuing work on a undertaking. From time to time the timeline perspective gets laggy as well as the node look at receives weirdly gradual, but it’s not really tough to reset This system.
There are actually some odd visual glitches that have cropped up when manipulating a lot more intricate character rigs, but All those Visible problems don’t seem to ever truly manifest in a complete render. These challenges haven't been a huge detriment to me personally, but I could see them turning into a nuisance to somebody that needs an easier working experience in creating animated content, and hopefully they will be ironed out in the following release.

Total, Toon Increase Harmony twelve has actually been the most beneficial application I’ve ever used to make 2d animation at a quick and Skilled tempo. It truly is an insanely deep Device that Qualified animators in studio configurations can certainly use to churn out excellent tv and have animation.

I'd personally also choose to Take note that my interactions with the corporation and aid staff have been absolutely nothing but good, especially when in comparison to the customer service elements of many of its competitors.

Buying Toon Boom Harmony has accelerated my animation speed and thus made me more able to fulfill my deadlines. This newfound velocity with which I am able to animate has freed me up for making regardless of what form of animation I select. In case you’re an animator who would like to make use of a system especially made for your area, a plan that meets each individual have to have and elegance alternative you might have, I are not able to a lot more very suggest Toon Boom Harmony 12.