Today in addition to the new tiered buying model for Harmony, Toonboom released Harmony 12 which looks to have some pretty cool features, such as more bitmap brush options,  faster rendering times and a new Light Shading feature allowing you to auto add shadows from various perspectives. Below is a video walk through highlighting the newest features.
You can find out more about Toonboom Harmony at Toonboom’s website.
Big news today in the world of animation as Toonboom has just released a new subscription model for both their Harmony suite AND their very popular Storyboard Pro software to reflect the new Cloud business model like Adobe and Autodesk have done in the last two years.
Now you can pay annually, monthly, or buy a perpetual license which is more or less buying it outright without a subscription.
For Harmony, $15 a month will get you the Essentials version which seems to be fairly robust except for the one Art layer limit and no 3d capabilities. The Advanced version gets you a number of other features including four Art layers as well as the ability to see 3d models placed in a scene by a Premium version but not access or edit them. Premium of course has all the bells and whistles that full blown Harmony has.
To see a list of different features of the various versions of Harmony available head over the the Toonboom site for more info.
Word is Toonboom will be phasing out Toonboom Studio and Toonboom Animate in October of this year.
As for Storyboard Pro, you now have the option to do a subscription which will cost you $38 per month. This in and of itself is a huge boon for storyboard artists seeking to use the software since the standalone version will set you back $950 and most freelancers can’t afford that cost easily.
To see more about Toonboom’s new Storyboard Pro pricing head over to their site.
Now if we could just get Wacom to do a Cloud model! 😉
Storyboards from the film Spartacus
FlavorWire has a cool post up showing storyboard examples of 15 classic movies such as Spartacus (above), Taxi Driver, Star Wars, Jaws and many others.
From the Site:
Hitchcock was one of the first studio directors to rely heavily on storyboards in production of his films. He would map out his distinctive set pieces using storyboards — those cool drawings that show exactly what will be in the frame, and any movements the camera might make — and would then create them on set, often shot for shot. Hitchock wasn’t the first to do it, but he was an enthusiastic and consistent early adopter, and the filmmakers who followed with an eye for sharp camerawork (from Scorsese and Spielberg to the Coens and Nolan) frequently do the same. With storyboards on our mind lately thanks to their use in both the opening sequence and the climax of Argo, we decided to put together a gallery of some of our favorite storyboards from iconic movies. (Special thanks to the folks behind the “Drawing Board†column of the DGA Quarterly, where we found several of the storyboards to follow.)
You can read the entire post and see the storyboards here.
On Sunday April 12… International Rescue are back! The major new children’s series – a co-production between ITV Studios and Pukeko Pictures in association with the world-famous Weta Workshop (The Hobbit) – sees brothers Scott, Virgil, John, Gordon and Alan Tracy return to pull off amazing feats of heroism. When duty calls, Thunderbirds are GO on GO! TV.
Want to learn Storyboard Pro and storyboarding in general for free?
I’ll be teaching along with Pete Michels the next three weekends starting next weekend at the Union in Burbank.
Saturday 4/11 – Toonboom Storyboard Pro Intro (Grand Tour) – 1 day – At the Animation Guild location
Saturday 4/18 – Toonboom Storyboard Pro Foundation – 2 days (1 of 2) – At LAAFA location in Van Nuys
Sunday 4/19 – Toonboom Storyboard Pro Foundation – 2 days (2 of 2) – At LAAFA location
Saturday 4/25 – Toonboom Storyboard Pro Advanced – 2 days (1 of 2) – At the Animation Guild location
Saturday 4/26 – Toonboom Storyboard Pro Advanced – 2 days (1 of 2) – At the Animation Guild location
We are providing the equipment for the students (up to 12 students): Macbook pros with the latest version of the software and 22†Cintiq tablets for all.
Anyone interested in registering can email registration@eido-ed.com and provide the following information:
* Name
* local affiliation
* class name they’re interested in (one class per email, please)
* the members guess as to if they would be CSATTF eligible. (“I don’t know” is an acceptable answer)
