Learn 2D Animation w/ Toon Boom & Create Your Own Cartoons!

Explore Toon Boom's left-side tools: select, brush, pencil, text, paint bucket, line, rectangle, ellipse, polyline, dropper, pivots, morphing, onion skin, and transform.

Explore the tool properties window in the tumtum animate interface to adjust settings for the select, marquee, lasso, brush, pencil, and text tools, keeping tool properties accessible at all times.

Learn how to use the camera view (not the stage) to frame scenes, pan and zoom, and apply a camera mask and safe area to control what viewers see.

Learn to animate with Toon Boom using the timeline and xsheet, adjusting frame-based exposure, playhead navigation, and outpoints—mastering their combined use across projects.

Master the library window to store drawings and create symbols, using drawing substitution to preview variations and dragging items from the timeline to the library for symbol creation.

Discover how a color palette connects brush, pencil, stroke, and fill colors to animation identifiers in Toon Boom. Update a color name or value and watch the animation automatically refresh.

Organize an animation workspace with windows and toolbars, including the camera view, drawing view, timeline, color sheet, and library, and learn to customize a workspace via the file menu.

Set up shortcut preferences to match Adobe Flash shortcuts for this course, then test by selecting frame 20 and pressing 5 to extend exposure, with more shortcuts covered later.

Set the 'focus on mouse enter' preference to automatically highlight the camera and timeline views, enabling quick copy-paste and item rearrangement in Toon Boom, saving time.

Turn on anti-aliasing in the vector program to smooth lines, matching other vector tools like Illustrator or Flash. Enable OpenGL in preferences and confirm to apply.

Customize your Toon Boom workspace by duplicating the default, renaming it 'Tony cut out', arranging color, properties, library, timeline, and camera view, then save and switch back.

Master color palette management in Toon Boom: create multiple palettes per document, import images to sample colors, and update colors dynamically for consistent sketches.

Master the brush tool by adjusting size, smoothing, and pressure variance to create thick and thin lines; save custom brushes as presets and switch between brushes on the fly.

Master the pencil tool in Toon Boom to create thick and thin lines with pressure, compare it to the brush, and refine strokes using the contour editor and pencil editor.

Learn to clean up lines in Toon Boom using smoothing tools—brush, pencil strokes, and the smooth editor—with option shift s or adjusting the smoother strength for precise correction.

Master the paint bucket to fill gaps, create invisible lines with stroke, and color multiple frames at once in Toon Boom, using marquee, ink, and apply to multiple drawings.

Learn how to switch from camera view to drawing view in Toon Boom, enable light table and onion skin, and edit and redraw layers and frames for 2D animation.

Use the select and cutter tools to clean up drawings by moving shapes, adjusting pivot points, and removing overlapping lines with a lasso and mouse gesture for a polished look.

Explore the contour editor to adjust paths and anchor points on drawing objects. Manipulate direction handles, delete points with backspace, and press D to reveal anchor points for precise refinements.

Explore onion skin in Toon Boom Studio, compare it to a light box, sketch and clean up frames, adjust onion skin with brackets, and manage per-layer visibility for traditional animation.

Master drawing substitutions in Toon Boom to create blinking and frame swaps by drawing extra frames, using onion skin, and extending exposure for efficient animation.

Master drawing layer workflow in Toon Boom by creating, renaming, and managing multiple layers with visibility, locking, and onion skin, plus introducing camera, masking, peg, and color card layers.

Master timeline shortcut keys to speed up animation, including extending exposure with 5, navigating frames with bracket keys, and zooming and rotating the canvas with keyboard shortcuts.

Enable animate mode, use the transform tool to set keyframes, and match eyebrow movement to blinking, then insert and adjust frames and view motion paths.

Set and adjust pivot points in Toon Boom to control rotation across drawings, using draw pivot and advanced animation tools to keep pivots consistent during drawing substitutions.

Master the transform tool to rotate, skew, and scale with a pivot point for layers or animations, and use the animate button, plus shift to preserve proportions and adjust pivots.

Animate the z axis in Toon Boom to move parts forward or backward across layers, using the camera view, transform tool, and keyframes.

Explore motion versus stop motion keyframes in Toon Boom, learning to toggle automatic interpolation, set stop motion frames, and control brows, eyes, and nose with precise keyframe placement.

Illustrate rough sketching workflow in toon boom: create character palettes, block in blue rough lines, refine with cleanup, and group, scale, and rotate elements for cohesive line work.

Ink the head by creating dedicated layers for eyes, nose, mouth, and hair, use invisible guide lines, and apply strokes and fills to build a rig-ready character for animation.

Rig the eyes by creating an eye symbol to blink and look around, animate eyelids across three frames, and arrange whites, lids, and eyeballs with proper layering.

Set pivot points for every head layer from the neck to the eyes and mouth to enable believable rotations, and place pins before parenting to support future phoneme mouth shapes.

Set up a parenting hierarchy and adjust the z-axis so the nose sits in front of the eyes, then parent head parts under the head and neck for cohesive movement.

Plan the body with rough sketching for a 2D rigged character, using layers, the transform tool, and interchangeable arms to support limited animation.

Ink the body layers in Toon Boom by adding an arm layer and shaping lines with contour editor and pencil editor to achieve consistent thick and thin lines.

Explore two arm rigging methods in Toon Boom: a solid arm with drawing substitutions and a hinged upper arm and lower arm, using rotate to set pivots.

Split the leg into thigh, calf, and foot, draw missing pieces, and rig the leg. Set pivot points and establish a thigh, calf, foot hierarchy with B shortcuts.

Duplicate the arm and thigh, naming front and back to keep changes isolated. Add a body peg and set the pivot near the belly button for flexible rotation.

Learn to save a character as a template by refining layer hierarchy and z-axis positioning, hiding seams, and inserting a keyframe after a final check.

Learn to build a walk cycle in Toon Boom by setting stop-motion keyframes, manipulating leg rigs, rotating feet, and using onion skin to preview frame-by-frame.

Animate the arms to mirror leg motion using the transform tool and onion skin, then adjust keyframes and remove extra frames to create a smooth looping walk.

Create a walk cycle by cleaning up the animation, attaching it to a peg, and duplicating frames to loop across the timeline while keeping the ground and feet aligned.

Import your hand-drawn images and vectorize them in the program. Adjust black and white or color vectorization with auto apply, refine lines, and scale while preserving transparency.

Enable library access and import Illustrator or SWF files via File > Import, preserving multi-layer artwork and colors as separate assets; drag templates into the scene and use color palette.

Learn to import Photoshop files into the animation workflow by organizing layers into folders, importing as layered images, and using file-name based layers for accurate foreground and background placement.

Import movies into Toon Boom Animate for rotoscoping or mixing live action with animation, including soundtrack. The footage converts to images on a named layer and supports scrubbing for timing.