"OpenToonz" - Free Software for 2D Animation

OpenToonz Software

2D animation can be done in a variety of different software packages.  One interesting option is the "OpenToonz" Software, free software for the production of 2D animation.

Based on the software "Toonz", developed by Digital Video S.p.A. in Italy,  OpenToonz has been customized by Studio Ghibli, and used for the creation of its films for many years.  Dwango has launched the OpenToonz project in cooperation with Digital Video and Studio Ghibli. 

"Adobe Next Live" at Tate Modern - AI & Creativity

"Technology Evangelist" Emily Bisset  at Adobe Next Live

At today's "Adobe Next Live" event at London's Tate Modern, software giant Adobe have been presenting their insights into changing technology and how educators and creatives can take advantage of the big changes currently facing the creative industries.  

"Technology Evangelist" Emily Bisset gave the keynote speech exploring how creatives can learn from and embrace the change.  She was followed by Laura Jordan-Bambach,

founder and CCO of the creative agency "Uncharted".  

Should Animators Learn Blender, Maya, or Both?

Should Animators Learn Blender, Maya, or Both? If you’re just starting out in animation, one of the first big questions is: Which software should I learn? For most students, that means choosing between Autodesk Maya and Blender. Both are powerful, both are widely used, and both have strengths — but the right choice depends on your goals.

Open Broadcaster Software (OBS)

What is the best free screen recording software? For Mac users, Quick Time offers a simple and free solution. 

Another excellent option is the Open Broadcaster Software (OBS), which is free and highly effective. OBS is easy to install and free to use, for Windows and Mac devices.

Adobe Premiere Pro - Basics for Animators

At some point every animator needs to learn the basics of video editing.  Premiere Pro, made by Adobe,  comes bundled as part of the Adobe Creative Suite.

Animators need Adobe Premiere mainly to cut (and re-cut) their demo reels and - of course - to make short film projects.

Premiere is also needed to create movie files from a batch render of images. Let's say you are lighting and rendering your scene with Arnold, the ray tracer that is currently bundled with Maya. Arnold will not render out a movie file (such as a avi or mov) directly; instead, you must render still images in a sequence.  To turn those still images into a movie file, you need Premiere (or some other editing software). Here is how to do it.

Blender -v- Maya: Which is Best?

Which is better: Blender or Maya? It's a question we often get asked here at Animation Apprentice, and the answer depends on what you need to do.

Both software packages are very good, and both can be used to create excellent 3D animation. But there are some important differences which students should be aware of.

Timothy Stam Talks Houdini Tomorrow Night

For all our students and recent graduates in the London area, why not come along tomorrow night to Escape Studios for one of their free "Evening with.." events. Tomorrow night features a talk by Tim Stam, Houdini Expert at Goodbye Kansas productions in London.

Animation with Houdini is a growing part of the business, and we strongly recommend that anyone interested in animation should come along.

What is the Best Free Editing Software?

Editing - how it used to be

What is the Best Free Editing Software? Animators need to understand editing, even if only to be competent enough to assemble a demo reel.

The most commonly used editing software these days is Adobe Premiere, part of the Adobe Suite of software and now available through the cloud at reasonable subscription rates.

But if you are on a tight budget and you need a very low cost option, there are a number of free alternatives.

DJV View - Frame by Frame Playback

Animators need to be able to play back their shots frame by frame, in order to analyse what needs fixing. One very useful (free, and open source) tool for previewing image sequences is Djv. You can find Djv at http://djv.sourceforge.net/. Djv Djv runs on all the major platforms and is easy to use, though it has one big drawback - no audio.  

RIP Mental Ray

Mental Ray 3D Render

NVidia, makers of the once-ubiquitous ray tracer Mental Ray, have announced in a press release that it is to be discontinued.

Mental Ray used to come bundled free with Autodesk Maya and, until recently, have released a version of their software which is free for student use.

Maya 2018 Transform Manipulator Problem

Maya 2018, like all new recent releases from Autodesk, can be a bit buggy.

Many students downloading this latest release of the 20-year old software package have experienced a problem selecting the Transform Manipulator on their character rig, meaning (in plain English) that you can't move your characters around.

Fortunately the solution is a simple one. So, how do we fix it?

Free Storyboard Software - Storyboarder

We're liking this new free Storyboard Software from developers WonderUnit.

Titled simply "Storyboarder", it works on both a Mac and a PC and is free to download.

Toonz 2D Software Pipeline Free From Today!

Toonz, The animation software used by legendary Studio Ghibli (The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Spirited Away) is set to become open source today. Which is to say, in plain English: free.

The new free software will be called OpenToonz, and will allow animators all over the world to make 2D animation at no charge.

This represents a big new democratisation of the medium of animation. Now, any animator can download Toonz, watch the software demo (see below) and start animating.

Of course, Autodesk has long allowed students to learn its 3D software, Maya, for free. But now, 2D animators are getting a big helping hand. Essentially, Toonz now represents a free pipeline for a short film, feature film or TV series.

Backburner - The Poor Man's Render Farm

Render by Gilles Tran - Wikimedia Commons 

Rendering, as my old tutor at Escape Studios used to say, "is where everything starts to go wrong". Here at Animation Apprentice we encourage our students to present finished, polished work for their demo reels, properly lit, textured and rendered out. But this poses problems - render times can be long and, as deadlines loom, any technical failure can be fatal to a timely submission.  So, in the absence of a high-end render farm, how do students render their work on time? The answer is Backburner - the poor man's render farm.

Maya 2015 Bugs - Problems and Solutions

Last year Autodesk released Maya 2015, free for students and universities, and another leap forward in what has become the leading software for the animation industry around the world.  However, like many new releases, it is not without its bugs and glitches. Here are some of the main bugs, and some possible solutions.

Five Steps to Write a Great Story

Titles to Love Me Love Me Love Me by Richard Williams

How do you write a great story? You can't make a great film without one, and yet one of the most common mistakes made by rookie film-makers is to start making the film before the story is figured out.

In fact, it's not just novices who fall into this trap - Hollywood does it all the time. But with a little forethought and planning, you can start off your project with a great story. After all, story is the most important part of any film. As Pixar's John Lasseter put, "the three most important ingredients in a Pixar film are: 1. Story, 2. Story, and 3. Story". So, how do you make sure you get it right?

What kit do you need to get started at Animation Apprentice?

Start with a laptop

What sort of software and hardware do you need to study with Animation Apprentice? The answer is, less than you might think. Of course, you will need a laptop capable of running Autodesk Maya, but most of the software you need is completely free. Below is a (not very long) checklist of stuff to get you started.

Pixar offers Renderman free for students!

Pixar's Renderman, arguably the leading industry software for rendering high quality animation images, is soon to be released free to students on a non-commercial basis. Register now to get your free copy! Pixar's RenderMan is used throughout the CGI industry for the creation of stunning visual effects.