Toon Boom User Stories
Combining different animation techniques |
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Toon Boom Studio saves me a lot of time and work because I can reuse elements, import assets, colorize several layers at the same time, lip sync with a voice track, copy - paste and edit easily … All with the same software.
Pierre Guex
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| Name: |
Pierre Guex |
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| Occupation: |
Graphic Artist |
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| Location: |
Caracas - Venezuela |
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| Biography: |
Pierre Guex was born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1975. After finishing High School at the French college he studied illustration at the Caracas
Design Institute. Then Pierre started working in Graphic Arts, especially with large format printing. He is actually running his own company PGX
PROJECT in which he is still doing large format printing and other works related to design such as graphic design, multimedia developing and
even some web. But what he really likes is animation! And especially 2D animation. His first contact with animation was the introduction of
a film called Dialogue de Sourds in which he had to animate a big part of Venezuelan history in only 3 minutes. This was quite a challenge
to him, and at the time Pierre only had Flash to do it. The results weren’t too professional, but it had a great acceptance, Pierre had a lot
of fun doing it and it made him realize how much I liked animation.
Then Pierre started looking for software more specifically designed for 2D animation and this is how he gets to know Toon Boom.
Nowadays Pierre is studying animation on his own, not only the use of software, but also the principles of traditional animation to
enhance his skills and turn his company project more into the animation world.
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Company
PGX PROJECT
What are your most important accomplishments?
My short film “Our new climate”
History with Toon Boom Studio
When I first knew about Toon Boom Studio, I downloaded the trial version, then I realized it was exactly what I was looking for: a software specially created for 2D animation applied to new technologies.
Do you create your animations using Toon Boom Studio only?
I use Toon Boom Studio to do all the clips of my animation then I edit in Flash. I feel comfortable editing in Flash because every clip of my animation is placed in separate layers that makes it easy to move and I keep my animation without any changes.
Why did you choose to combine these products?
They are both vector based and work well together.
Please describe your workflow
It all begins with a paper and a pencil, to create the characters and storyboard. Once this is done I redraw them directly on the computer with a Wacom tablet.
First, I draw a sketch of my character in a layer then, depending on the movement it´s going to do, I create the elements for the cut-out animation or simply draw frame-by-frame with the exposure sheet.
This is where the clean-up starts; at this point I separate elements in several layers that will allow me to have independent behaviours for each one such as blinking eyes, mouth shapes and different poses.
The next step is to create the pegs to define the character’s movements and also the camera’s views and movements.
When I am totally satisfied with the animation, I start applying colors to every element.
What kind of animation do you create?
I like to create funny animations with my own style
What are your top five favorite features in Toon Boom Studio?
The use of cells, the peg hierarchy, the camera movements, the scene planning and the rotation table.
What Toon Boom Studio features allow you to distinguish your animation productions?
The combination of several powerful tools like pegs, cells, camera movements lip sync, allows me to create rich movements in animation as well as a very sharp image that gives a professional look to my productions.
Did you experience any productivity gains in using Toon Boom Studio?
Absolutely! Toon Boom Studio saves me a lot of time and work because I can reuse elements, import assets, colorize several layers at the same time, lip sync with a voice track, copy - paste and edit easily … All with the same software.
Are you more efficient today compared to your production toolset used previously?
Yes, with Toon Boom Studio I can do more with less effort and better result.
Is it possible to get the same results with other digital animation software?
I really never tried another animation software because Toon Boom Studio matches my needs.
How do you feel about Toon Boom Studio?
I feel very comfortable with Toon Boom Studio because I believe it’s a software conceived by animators for animators.
Other applications can contribute in many aspects to enrich the animation (Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Flash) but Toon Boom Studio on its own gives great results.
Equipment used
Macbook Pro and Intous 3 Wacom tablet.
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