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Have an idea, but don’t know where to begin? Take a step in the right direction with this installment of the Workout Series, Project Development in Toon Boom Studio.

Full of examples and tips, this Workout can be used as a workflow guide for your animation projects in Toon Boom Studio. It will help you organize yourself for multiple types of projects and to effectively use the tools in Toon Boom Studio to save the most time. Learn what questions you need to ask in order to take the mystery out of the animation process, and let you focus on creating your animated masterpiece.

In this workout you will improve your understanding of the use of drawing and animating techniques by drawing a flower, first in a rough form and then cleaning it. When this is done, you will animate it so it sways from side to side.

You will then learn how to import and animate template elements, reusing the animation created previously to finally create a movie. The Animating Workout is split into two components, the first one showing step by step how to use the drawing tools as well as animating, and the second shows how to add elements and create a movie.

In this workout exercise, you will learn the fundamentals of cut-out style animation. You’ll discover step by step how to go from a rough sketch, to a fully painted character all ready for rigging.

You’ll discover step by step how to go from a rough sketch to a fully painted character, all ready for rigging. The Cut-out Character Design Workout is split into four parts: the first part shows how to set up your workspace for cut-out tasks, the second involves creating a sketch palette and getting used to sketching in the software, as well as drawing your character in different poses; the third focuses on building the cut-out character, adding elements and creating the cleaned-up cut-out components as you go; and the fourth covers creating a new palette and saving different styles as well as painting your character. We are sure you will enjoy working with us as we lead you to a new level of proficiency with the Toon Boom Animation Workout Series.

Start your treasure hunt with Toon Boom Pirate: Get Rigged! The Cut-out Character Rigging Workout features our own Pirate character ready to take you on an adventure and show you how he can be rigged for cut-out animation.

The Cut-out Character Rigging Workout completes the Cut-Out Character Design Workout and provides you with advanced techniques to create cut-out style animation. These techniques can be applied to any character movement you want to create in a cut-out animation project, resulting in faster animation creation and an expanded library of animated elements for reuse.

In the Cut-out Character Rigging Workout, you first set up all the display and animation preferences necessary. Once this is done, you take the Pirate character developed by our animator and are guided through the process of rigging where you attach all of the cartoon character’s components to pegs. You then set the pivot points and establish a hierarchy to simplify the cut out animation.

Continue the treasure hunt with Toon Boom’s Pirate character and take him for a walk on Pirate’s Bay! Learn how to create a smooth and perfect walk cycle with the Two-Legged Walk Cycle Workout exercise.

In the Two-Legged Walk Cycle Workout, we supply you with our latest template character, Otto the Pirate. Find out how to set up a scene and set your preferences to get you started. Discover how to use Toon Boom software as your assistant in creating inbetweens. Take advantage of onion skinning, learn the importance of constant and non-constant segments and explore the value of cell swapping. After this workout you’ll be proficient in two-legged walk cycles

Learn how to animate a four-legged walk cycle for animals and other characters with this Workout.

By completing this exciting and challenging workout, you will learn how to create a four-legged walk cycle using our latest template character, Clyde the Donkey. This workout will let you discover the importance of observing how animals move and how you can identify the anatomical structure and poise of your subject. You will also find out how to set up keyframes and adjust them, how to position the character’s feet, sync it with a pan background and generate inbetweens between key poses to make the final animation flow smoothly. Lastly, you will learn to cycle the animation and pan the background.

• Lesson   1:  Introduction to Animation and Animating Basic Shapes
• Shapes Overview of the history and development of animation, as well as instruction on drawing and deforming basic shapes.
• Activity: Drawing and Manipulating Basic Shapes
• Lesson   2:  Timing
• Introduction to the importance of timing in animation, including how manipulating exposure time can change the time and feel of an animation.

• Activity 1: Experiment with Space = Time
• Activity 2: Drawing the Pendulum
• Lesson   3:  Squash and Stretch ("The Bouncing Ball")
• An introduction to a basic animation technique.
• Activity: Drawing a Bouncing Basketball and Bowling Ball
• Lesson   4:  Anticipation, Drag and Overlapping Action
• Students look at how to make their animations think before they act.
• Activity: Drawing a Bouncing Ball with a Tail
• Lesson   5:  Character Construction Sheet
• Basics of character construction and break-down.
• Activity: Drawing a Character Construction Sheet
• Lesson   6:  Animating a Jumping Character
• Getting a character to jump deals with all of the concepts already covered and will get your students warmed up for more complicated animation tasks.
• Activity: Making Your Character Jump
• Lesson   7:  Animating a Walk Cycle
• In this lesson, your students will try and make their characters walk.
• Activity: Making Your Character Walk
• Lesson   8:  Basic Multiplaning/ Sceneplanning
• This lesson takes students into the basics of sceneplanning and multiplanning, which has evolved from huge camera stands and complicated lighting, into a simple process in digital animation, producing interesting visual effects.
• Activity: Moving Your Character in 3D Space
• Lesson   9:  The Take
• This lesson takes another look at acting in animation, as your students will start to think about how they can convince their viewers that their characters have a personality.
• Activity: Draw a "Take" Shot
• Lesson 10:  Visual Break-Down and Lip Sync
• Lip syncing is a difficult art to master, but we will review the basics of breaking-down sentences here, as well as lip assignment. This labor-intensive process is facilitated by features in Toon Boom Studio.
• Activity: Break-Down and Lip Sync
• Lesson 11:  Storyboard and Staging
• This lesson describes how to set up and plan shots and scenes in a storyboard.
• Activity: Storyboard Your Dream Scene