Adam, take a look at just one of the posts on the Official Toon Boom Animate forum (there are more like this). You will see that there is a market out there, for frustrated users who wish to learn.
http://www.toonboom.com/support/forums/animate/index.php?board=15;action=display;threadid=1565&start=0Here is a post that of mine from the board:
Thanks for the support in this, my friends.
Lilly, as you can see, I am not alone in feeling that the training is inadequate/ rushed/ missing steps/ missing details.
Bare in mind, these are the users who have registered on the forums and bothered to state their views. There are countless other users that I know, who have just given up due to the lack of decent training, gone back to Flash (even though it is horrible for animation compared to animate) and they've not bothered saying a word on these forums - they are not registered. They go back to Flash because there are many tutorials and books out there to support their learning.
Many of us are hobbiests and freelance animators, so we don't have the ability to be taught the program directly by a master Animate user. I really feel horrible saying this and mean no offence by it, but the examples from Cartoon Smart are also very weak and lack quality - still not cut out animation tutorials from him either.
My suggestion (again): Please get your training team working on better training, that is more in-depth, doesn't skip steps. Create a series for cut-out (Flash style) animation that shows background design, drawing, colouring the model, rigging and animating him.. and by him, please use a human with a neck, head, separate body, hands, legs, feet etc. Limpa is not a good example to learn from.
The sort of animation examples I would like to see in the the training are things such as "Ruby Gloom" or "Grossology" ** which are both created in Toon Boom Digital Pro, which should be possible to achieve with Animate pro.
Toon Boom has nothing to lose by doing this and I believe the user base and popularity of the products will increase exponentially due to improved training materials that you make available. Many of your current and new users will be very grateful.. we'll probably even put you on our Christmas card list!
** "Grossology" is an animation created with Toon Boom software, using cut-out puppets. I would like to see examples like this:
Also agree with you nabz. I think the ballerina should have been used throughout the training including lip sync, (Limpa is useless as is the big-jawed bloke), I wouldn't mind if she even jumped on that skateboard..
That's what I found annoying as well.. create one model and PLEASE STICK TO IT throughout the whole kick-start video!
Here is my experience.. and my logic:
As a complete newbie user, I launch the Kick-Start guide and rather than have a series to follow or lessons that are actually linked, we start with drawing a ballerina (which I may add looked very nice) and see the line and brush tool - very nice, but then when it comes to colouring/ painting, we're suddenly shown a Barney Rubble look-a-like character.. WHAT THE?? Where is the ballerina we were drawing in the earlier chapter?
OK, so now we've coloured in our Barney Rubble look-a-like.. can we cut him up or create symbols out of him? What.. NO? Instead, we're shown a skatboard that has nothing to do with the earlier model..
[Hand drawn animation is not related to my issue, so I will leave that topic]
It comes time to design a cut out puppet for animation and rather than show the ballerina, we're shown the useless stumpy Limpa - a model that I would never want to draw and cannot learn from as he does not have a human body or jonts. I will NEVER understand why this was even done, because the ballerina is a COMPLETE cut-out puppet and she even has a full turn around created, which can be seen in the example file (she is drawn in all angles - front, three quarter, side and back).
OK, so we've made a cut-out puppet, we've made symbols out of his parts and stored him in the library. Great.. can we animate him now please? What? NO? Instead, we go back to the ballerina, who has magically been coloured in, is completely cut-out, rigged/ boned and ready to go.. why were we not shown how ANY of this was done? Where are the parts that show how she was coloured in, cut-out and symbols made from her?
OK, so now the ballerina is a complete cut-out puppet, ready to animate.. can we see her talk? NO? Instead we're shown another model that has nothing to do with the earlier ones.
Do we get to see any of these models actually walk, jump, interact with any props, how about a scene with a background and the character in the foreground? Nothing.
Don't even get me started on the "Cut-out and Network" chapter.. I thought I was learning rocket science, it was so rushed and missing steps
I don't see what good could come from confusing new users like this!
Please don't be offended by my words. I am just a very frustrated user, who has been VERY loyal and tried hard (for months) to learn Toon Boom Animate Pro. I am just very frustrated and on the verge of giving up, due to the lack of decent training materials.
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