Documentation

Getting to know TVPaint Animation

TVPaint Animation is a program compiled for graphic design and 2D animation. This program is intended for drawing and animation enthusiasts. With its bitmap approach, its goal is to cover the main needs of the artist. It offers a complete range of high-performance tools, the parameters of which may be set, whether for the layman or the professional artist and yet still offers the creative feeling provided by pen and paper.

TVPaint Animation is a home studio.

Based on TVPaint technology, which is renowned worldwide since its success on the Amiga in 1991 and constantly upgraded for ever better performance, TVPaint Animation adapts to all production diagrams, whether traditional, fully digital or hybrid.

Designed to work in all resolutions, it will delight all drawing enthusiasts thanks to its tools which offer limitless possibilities. Your creations are only restricted by the boundaries of your imagination !

Typographic conventions

In order to simplify understanding of the techniques described, this user guide uses the following typographic conventions :

- Reference : the names of buttons, tabs, windows, tools, options,... are written in orange, between brackets.
- Italics : the names of menus, commands (all elements referring to one of the objects present in the program) are written in italics.
- [key] : designates a keyboard shortcuts.
- [key1+key2] : designates a key combination. Keep the first key pressed and then press the second key.
- left click / right click (LMB, RMB) : these shortcuts refer to a click on the left or right mouse button.

As you are advancing in this manual, you will encounter the following symbols:

TipA symbol representing a light bulb indicates tips and hints for using the program.
RemarkA symbol representing a warning sign emphasises information that requires particular attention and indicates an important comment.
ReminderThe reminder symbol characterises any information already explained elsewhere in the manual.
Pro onlyAll the features with this symbol imply that they are available only in TVPaint Animation Professional Edition.

Credits

- The Lilly, John and Bob projects (lessons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9 and 19) were created by Tévy Dubray.
- The car (lessons 2 and 20) was drawn by Nicolas Geley.
- The first paper (lesson 2) comes from Power Box Animator created by Benoit St-Moulin.
- The character used for the Transform tool (lesson 2) was drawn by Chad Essley.
- The image used for the Warp tool (lesson 2) was drawn by Tévy Dubray.
- The elephant (lesson 3) was drawn and animated by Raymond Gourrier.
- The Running-Kid (lessons 4, 7, 9, 14, 15, 17) was drawn by Alain Charrier and animated by Raymond Gourrier.
- The Sun talk project (lesson 6) was created by Chad Essley.
- In lesson 7 the mouse was drawn by David Nethery.
- The background used in the examples chapter of lesson 7 was drawn by Tévy Dubray.
- Storyboards in lesson 8 were created by Elodie Moog and Sidonie Vidal.
- The cow in the library showed in lesson 11 was drawn by Sidonie Vidal.

- The Palette project (lessons 12, 13) was drawn by Tévy Dubray.
- The butterfly (lessons 12, 13) and the beach with the young woman (lesson 18) were drawn and animated by Olivier Michon.
- The fennec (lessons 13), the cow with the cats (lesson 13) and the buildings in the steets were drawn by Pauline Bertrand.
- The snake (lesson 13) was drawn by Pauline Bertrand
- The rabbit (lesson 13) was drawn by Sidonie Vidal.
- The character used for the Scan Cleaner Color (lesson 13) was drawn by Pauline Bertrand.
- The skull (lesson 13) and the Multiplane camera projects (lesson 15) were created by Peter Wassink.
- The Shaker project (lesson 13) was created by David Nethery.
- The particle presets (lesson 16) were invented by Manuel Zander.

- The red planet, the tree, the prehistoric, the house, the flowers paintings, the color picker, the photos and various diagrams were created by Fabrice Debarge.
- The original idea of the Sketch Panel comes from Dave Cockburn.
- Icons in TVPaint Animation 11 have been created by Jérôme Lorin.
- All other images (screenshots, panels, ...) are protected by copyright of TVPaint Développement.

- We would also like to thank David Nethery and Danas for their contributions to this documentation.

Download the example projects

The aforementioned projects are used throughout this documentation to illustrate TVPaint Animation’s features.

They can be downloaded here.

Using them as you go through the lessons will allow you to apply what you’ll be learning, thus making the reading experience a bit more practical and fun!

Offline documentation

An offline version of this documentation is available for download here.