One argument for the "death of 2D" is the high production cost involved. While I don't believe that it's necessarily any more expensive to do 2D than it is to do good 3D, there is a software program called TweenMaker that boasts being able to significantly reduce the time it takes to create high quality 2D animation (none of that stiff cut out stuff).
You can get a free copy of the student version at:
What do you think? Could this help bring back 2D animation? Or at least make it easier / cheaper for the independant animator?
I dunno; the inbetweened examples look kinda floaty and squishy to me - the same problem 3D has if you let the computer do too much of the inbetweening.
Is there a Mac version? I'd like to try it...
James :cool:
[QUOTE=mdsmith]One argument for the "death of 2D" is the high production cost involved.
Don't forget that animation is an art form and that many people animate because they love mark making and the magic of giving life to a line. I love to make films because I love to draw an I love making an audience react. Hand drawn 2 D animation will never die in the same way painting will never die out.
I downloaded the trial and will give it a shot next weekend - however, looking at the animation featured in the gallery, the program seems to work best with subtle, closesly inbetweened acting scenes. Not that this is a "bad" thing but I estimate problems with more widely spaced action scenes.
yeah, the "how dare you" example was already starting to look pretty bad (especially since the original animation looked very good!)
but it worked very well for the others
apples : oranges ::
Yes, the problem is that even slight volume changes get "correctly" inbetweened, meaning the whole animation looks like an ever-moving lava lamp blob. Not many chances for "creative cheating", plotting of arcs or the introduction of new line elements. The program can't really "think" three-dimensionally like a real clean-up artist can. I suppose the whole thing is handy for doing ruff timing tests, just to get a first idea of fluidity.
Old topic, but I just want to point out that here in 2022 none of the studios doing hand-drawn animation are using "TweenMaker". I can't think of any independents using it either. (maybe someone, somewhere, is using it ?)
So I think the answer is: No, TweenMaker did not "save" 2D Animation.
Also, hand drawn animation didn't need "saving". Hand drawn animation has continued to be produced ever since that idiotic "2D is dead" idea was floating around on the interneet circa 2003 . In the present day , hand drawn animation is enjoying a revival. There is a lot of good, high-quality hand drawn animation being done today. While almost all of it is being drawn on Cintiq tablets in programs like Harmony and TVPaint , it's pretty much the same traditional process of hand drawing each frame. There is some use of digital manipulation/interpolation of frames , but for the most part computer generated auto "tweening" is still the fever dream of techy types who don't like drawing.