During my stay with Giant Ant (06/2022 - 02/2023), I helped upskill our senior animators in Toon Boom Harmony - the studio's tool of the trade is usually Adobe Animate. Both are competitive animation software, but Harmony has the advantage of being able to feel like animating on paper. We wanted to use this fully in upcoming personal and commercial projects.
When our animators were fully up to speed, we were commissioned by Nike on a spot for the Singapore marathon! Check it out here ⟶
1: Tutorials for Toon Boom Harmony
On Google Drive, I created a series of tutorials on Harmony's default workspace, its node view, textured bitmap & vector brushes, and the cutter tool. The tutorials have been uploaded extra-small so it's not as easy to distribute online since it was commissioned by Giant Ant, but most of this information is also available through Toon Boom's tutorials. The aim of this exercise was to find what might be the most useful to our pipeline (,:
2: Let's Push It !
In parallel, our team also wanted to see just how much Harmony could do. Referencing a couple of paintings from our ACD, I animated them using a combination of bitmap and vector brushes from Harmony.
Animating Rafael Mayani's paintings (Associative Creative Director @ Giant Ant)
left: bitmap | right: vector
left: bitmap | right: vector
Each animation was hand-inbetweened with sweaty hands clasping a cold brew in a Starbucks in Tokyo
top: bitmap | bottom: vector
top: bitmap | bottom: vector
Original paintings on @rmayani's instagram for reference:
3: Welcome to the Team
Lastly, when the industry was in full-swing, we had three new animators (myself included) join Giant Ant as a part of their growth initiative. During this time, we were able to provide 24-7 animation support because we were from three different parts of the globe! To celebrate this, we each created a little piece of a fun spot for the studio. Matcha mojito anyone?
Of course, I used Toon Boom Harmony... I have a bias.
left: my part | right: with everyone!
left: my part | right: with everyone!