Disney's Meander software

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Elodie
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Re: Disney's Meander software

Post by Elodie »

Yeah, I know, but still : it's quite frustrating :roll:
I've been also told they use the software for pre-production, including design researches (characters, colour boards, etc...).

But I understand that policy : after all, you don't build a whole empire by telling everyone what are the secrets making your success. :)
VGmaster9
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Re: Disney's Meander software

Post by VGmaster9 »

This should be an interesting alternative to Meander. It's called Helios, which is used by the animation group Duo Cartoonist. It's done using Toon Boom Harmony.

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slowtiger
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Re: Disney's Meander software

Post by slowtiger »

It's not so much about trade secrets (after all, there are not so many in this field), it's about Disney's marketing strategy. Talking about a certain production technique was always part of their marketing, that's why you'll find nicely illustrated articles about the multiplane camera in old issues of Popular Mechanics, or about the sound crew, or, of course, about the animators in nearly any existing publication short from Fishing Weekly. Other studios did the same, especially the Fleischers. And today every CGI feature has its accompanying How To with at least some passages containing their breakthrough hairstyle animation software or Twinkling Sword FX. But they need to dumb it down and streamline the narration for the general audience (or so they think), so they take great care to mention only 1 technique per article, and exclude more obscure parts of the workflow like preproduction design.
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Glenn Whelan
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Re: Disney's Meander software

Post by Glenn Whelan »

Man, Helios could be the 2D animation's future. I like that good old-fashioned traditional look.
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Re: Disney's Meander software

Post by schwarzgrau »

The stills look impressing, but in motion it looks kinda uncanny to me.
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NathanOtano
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Re: Disney's Meander software

Post by NathanOtano »

schwarzgrau wrote: 07 Sep 2017, 16:56 The stills look impressing, but in motion it looks kinda uncanny to me.
I think it's because some keys are really weird, it's a matter of pose design and animation I think. But I like the tool hehe
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o0Ampy0o
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Re: Disney's Meander software

Post by o0Ampy0o »

The motion just needs to be PoA'd, as in needing the principles of animation applied. In other posts online (Youtube) Duo Cartoonist mention adding the principles at some stage in the process. The available demos are just peeks not intended to represent the full scope of capabilities.
To generate this character, there is a set of artistic work (Design, puppet calibration, acting and the 12 principles of animation) and then there is the monkey work (Tweening and repositioning the morsels ONE BY ONE from pose to pose). It is just smarter to shave from what can be automated and apply the energy and skill on the artistic aspect, it will make for better cartoons. If this puppet in action matches a hand drawn result, it is the logical way to go.
Unfortunate choice in name. While looking for anything I could find on this software I saw that there are already two programs going by the name Helios. One is a screen recorder for Unity the other is a document management plug-in for CAD systems.
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VGmaster9
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Re: Disney's Meander software

Post by VGmaster9 »

Kept forgetting to show this animation test for Helios.

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Re: Disney's Meander software

Post by VGmaster9 »

So it appears that the new version of Toon Boom has a feature that's just like the tool mentioned above.

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