In this oh-so-festive time of year what kind of blogger would I be without doing something for Thanksgiving? This article will show you how to create your own cartoon turkey with Toon Boom. If you don’t feel like making your own turkey drawing, you should feel free to download the free Toon Boom template here.

Note that this template will be drawn with Toon Boom 4.0, so if you’ve recently upgraded to 4.5 some of these screenshots may not look identical to your version of Toon Boom.

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The automated lip syncing capabilities of Toon Boom Studio are both useful and impressive. However, no matter how well it translates your sound files there’s always some part of the lip sync that will need to be adjusted manually. The automated lip sync is simply not sophisticated enough to capture every nuance of speech. This lip sync tutorial will lay the foundation for you to do manage this process manually.

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For some time now Toon Boom animators have been crying out for a proper blur effect to add to their arsenal. If similar vector-based applications like Flash can manage to create bitmapped blur effects certainly Toon Boom can emulate that success?

Toon Boom Studio 4 sought to bridge this missing feature with a feathering tool. Unfortunately, the limitations of this new tool were quickly uncovered.

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In honor of Episode 3 being released on cable this week (as if I needed a reason), let’s spend some time using Toon Boom Studio to recreate some of the most interesting special effects from the Star Wars saga. Of course, you can’t talk about Star Wars special effects without starting with the lightsaber.

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I know what you’re thinking. Why would I want to know how to make an animated gif? Didn’t that stop being cool in 1998? Absolutely. However, when used properly an animated gif can be a useful and entertaining tool in your Toon Boom arsenal. In addition, animated gifs are actually recognized by Google and Yahoo. Links inside SWF files continue to elude the search engines.

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This development entry will show the process of creating a scene, and its evolution from sketch into full blown animation. The scene I’m detailing is when Sparky turns quickly to face Meat, and then rushes towards him.

The first step has been shown before, creating the storyboard:

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Recently I’ve been approached from a couple of different directions about the difficulty of staying motivated. Peter asked a question about this in the comments for Make Your Own Cartoon.

Creating an animation is not a minor task, as I’m sure you’re aware. There are many steps involved, and finishing any of them is an accomplishment in its own right. The problem is the lack of public acknowledgment. That may be the coolest storyboard ever but in the end, even after the animation is completed, who will see it? Unless you’re a part of a team it’s just you and your great storyboards.

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