Animate to Harmony: The Independent Animator's Guide to Toon Boom 1st Edition

Pros:I am so appreciative of this book. I have waited quite a while for this to be made available. I have owned Toonboom Harmony for a year now and for the most part I have had to rely on the application User Guide and video tutorials. But this book has more of a personal feel to it. He goes over practical things that an artist would use everyday. The book is not high on tech speak which is good. Just teaching you how to work the application.If you ever visit the author's site he is very humorous and the book is no different. Just a relaxing read where you are getting things done. I enjoy specialized books such as this that teach me how to become more efficient with my software. Teaching you techniques where the application functions become just another extension of yourself. Very natural.Cons:Unfortunately before the release of this book Harmony moved from 10.3 to 11 which has more features. But the base knowledge to get one going is still very prevalent.The next Con is the 3D capability. I simply CANNOT find solid tutorial material on the hybrid functionality of 2D/3D in Harmony. The manual and video tutorials provided by the company are very sterile. Not interesting at all. I had hoped to find that in this book, but no. The hybrid functionality seems to be highly sought after and Harmony is one of the few apps on the market that offers that feature. But, you cannot find anyone that is an expert that teaches it.Other than those issues this book is more than work purchasing. Such a needed source for Toonboom customers.

Best introduction to Toonboom Pro for me. I was terrified switching from Studio to Pro and had no idea where all my beloved features went to, or how to activate the new features that interested me in Pro. I do not feel this went into enough details on the effects ToonBoom Pro has to offer using the Network, or how to set up riggings beyond the simple overall body(would have loved to learn about setting up a face rig and storing library templates for different facial pieces, but maybe next book ;) ). On the other hand though, I really loved this book. I would suggest it for anyone who is just getting animate, pro, or harmony from an upgrade or switching from flash or tvpaint to toonboom. It is an excellent resource,a monster when it comes to how much tips and tricks is crammed in, and holds you by the hand with wit and humor, guiding the path for first starters to teach Toonboom features fast. This book is not a complete "how to" for animation unfortunately. There are many theories still missing from it, and more indepth rigging like the rigging for more complex features, filters, and for many other special effects. I can understand though why it wouldn't be in this book(it is already a big book already). Though, If another book were to come out for these topics in Toonboom, I would buy it in a heart beat.

Most importantly, this is a book you WILL use. Ok, at first, honestly I was a bit disappointed when I got this book--I didn't get it. My expectation was a juicier version of the software manual because let's face it Toon Boom's manuals are a dry read. But as I started animating in Harmony, I kept grabbing the book. This book is not a manual, rather the author takes a pragmatic approach to teaching the software by walking you step by step through various projects. Want to get comfortable with the drawing tools? Ok, let's do an illustration project. Want to know more about the particle Fx modules? Ok, let's tweak the settings in one of the modules to get the effect we want. To sum it all up, you learn by doing but it's also a valuable reference as well.

Aunque las últimas versiones de Harmony han cambiado algunas cosas (En Harmony 14 Advanced, por ejemplo, ya no se puede usar la cámara 3D ni los Inverse Kinematics), el conocimiento que se puede adquirir de este libro es invaluable para poder aprender a usar el programa. Incluso muchos tutoriales en video, o los pocos cursos en línea que hay, se quedan cortos en comparación con el nivel de información que provee este manual.Even though the last versions of Harmony have changed a lot of stuff (There is no 3D camera or IK in Harmony 14 Advanced, for instance) the knowledge you can still get from this book is invaluable. It's even more useful than video tutorials or the few courses you can get online.

Seriously had searched up and down for tutorials on youtube and the net for toon boom... they were all very hard to follow and jumped over steps. This book helps you step by step to learn how to use the software. If you are trying to learn to animate without any help, this is seriously mandatory to have in my opinion.

This is the only book you need to study Toon Boom. I'm only in the second chapter and i'm satisfied with the purchase. Def a 10 out of 10

While this book was definitely really amazing and probably a super helpful tool when it was first released back in 2014-2015 harmony has changed massively in the last like nine years some stuff still holds up and I think that’s still pretty useful, I got my copy used so it’s only like 30 bucks and I probably will read through it where it’s still good I think with stuff like short keys and stuff could be helpful or just like general animation stuff that’s timeless. But when it comes to things like how to do rig a character it’s majorly a date using the old IK system, which is basically completely obsolete and really confusing to someone who is used to modern toon boom. And if I had to be honest, I don’t think I’d recommend this to people learning Toon boom. Other than that the books well-made just not really. That useful now.

This book was a much needed reference. I needed it about 2 years ago but I'm still finding so much that I didn't know. Adam has done a fantastic job! It is so refreshing to have material put together like this from a battle-hardened pro! Keep up the great work man!