Toon Boom Animation 02

£250 or 2 monthly payments of £125

Advanced Animation

Teaching you the more advanced concepts of character animation and how to apply them within Toon Boom Harmony. Great for those who know the basics or are transferring skills to gain work or build a demo reel.

This is an instant access course, but please allow 48 hours for your software code being sent through. Now includes one-to-one tutorials! Email to book at a time to suit you.

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Course Content

Have a browse through the weekly overview if you'd like to know specifically what we cover during the course.

Week 1 - Powerful Posing

In week 1 we get to grips with our new rig, along with how to operate its Master Controllers and other functions. We’ll talk about economical storytelling and the power of the pose, as well as some handy tips on improving your arcs and other useful technical tips.

Week 2 - Wonderful Walk Cycles

Week 2 moves onto applying our new skills into a walk cycle. This is not just any walk cycle though! We aim for a higher level of performance and accuracy, with top foot tracking tips, offsetting magic and the all-important templating skills for good measure. We also touch on masking and scaling characters correctly within a scene, just how they’d want you to do it in an animation studio!

Week 3 - Lip Sync Workshop

In week 3 we take a deep dive into the world of lip sync. As with all things on this course, the aim is to advance past the basics and look at brilliant performance with clear, entertaining communication. We are introduced to a new rig and talk about the theory behind good lip sync posing, how to tackle ‘quick’ dialogue, utilising eye direction, auto lip syncing, adding mouth shapes, mouth charts and custom drawn frames for when you need to break out of a rig structure.

Week 4 - Major Project (Part 1)

Week 4 and 5 combine into one mega project, where we apply all we’ve learnt and produce a showreel-style piece, with a few new concepts to push your understanding. In this week, we focus on scene set up and how we import elements, set up our workspace and get ready for animating. We learn how to pose with props, check our ideas and generally get our little story ready for the next phase.

Week 5 - Major Project (Part 2)

The final week and the chance to really polish your performance! Whilst you’re animating away, you’ll be able to watch some videos on technical concepts around background, mid-ground and foreground arrangement, quickly animating shadows and building custom elements to help get your scene over the line. We also cover how to create simple special effects to make your animation shine, and everything you’ll need to export your masterpiece. Finally, there is a short section on going beyond this course, to help with your continued improvement as a character animator.

What's included?

✔️ 5 weeks online training (lifetime access)
✔️ 2 x one-to-one tutorials when you need them
✔️ Online support and responsive troubleshooting
✔️ 40 day license of Toon Boom Harmony Premium
✔️ Personalised feedback on your submitted projects
✔️ Exclusive access to our Discord community
✔️ Work files to download and keep
✔️ Certificate upon completion

Course tutor

Adam Oliver

Manchester, U.K.

With over 16 years of professional experience in the animation industry, Adam was also the UK's first certified Toon Boom expert. He's worked in TV and film, both as a hand-drawn and cut-out animator, as well as teaching in higher education and as an artist-in-residence. He started the Academy in 2017 and since then has trained thousands of creative folk how to rig and animate in Toon Boom Harmony.

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Frequently asked questions

What kind of animation does the course focus on?

Toon Boom Harmony is a 2D animation package and so this course focuses on the popular 2D cut-out style. It is one of the most sought after skills to gain employment in an animation studio right now. This course does not teach the process of pure hand-drawn animation nor is a primer to animation as an art form.

Do I need to already know how to use Toon Boom Harmony?

Designed for those with some basic experience in Toon Boom Harmony. We spend less time in this course teaching what buttons to push and more on the techniques required for fantastic character performance. This is a perfect follow-on to our Level 1 course.

If feel you could animate a simple cut-out rig (setting keyframes, posing the character, using deformers, and so on) then you should be fine to take this course. Please get in touch if you'd like help deciding (click the lower right chat button to send me a message).

What will I learn on this course?

The main aim over the 5 weeks is to really enhance your character animation skills within Toon Boom Harmony. You’ll work with professional-grade rigs to build work that could potentially go on a showreel, aswell as sharpen your animation production knowledge (and how to be a great studio animator!) in the process. This course is more hands-off technically and instead heavily focused on your own practical projects with my professional feedback, like that you might receive in a studio.

How long does the course run for?

This course runs for 5 weeks from the start date.

Can I still watch the videos when the course is finished?

Although the live part of the course is 5 weeks long (the part where you'll receive personalised feedback and be able to book tutorials), you'll have access to the course videos and files for 1 year. This gives you plenty of time to study the software and come back to the library of videos for a quick review, if needed.

What times do I have to be available? Is my timezone a problem?

The whole course has been designed to be as flexible as possible, so everyone can take part, no matter where in the world you live.

The curriculum can be studied whenever you wish, as it's pre-recorded and you can send your work for review at any time.

Is the software included?

Yes! Each student will receive a 40 day license for the latest version of Toon Boom Harmony Premium. This will cover the length of the course and then some, to give you time to finish off those projects!

How much free time do I need to take part?

We suggest a minimum of 5 hours a week, although this really depends on your experience.

The longer you have, the more you can practice. Ideally setting aside half a day and an evening or two will give you lots of time each week to build your rig without time pressure.

You can also progress faster through certain parts of the course, if you have a chunk of free time. We've had former students complete a 5 week course in 2 weeks when they've studied full time! So again, it's very much flexible to your personal situation.

How do I receive feedback on my course work?

As you progress through the course, you'll have a gradually evolving rig that you may want feedback on.

You'll be given specific instructions on how to send this over to me, and in return I'll give you personalised feedback. This can either be via a recorded video where I go through your rig on-screen, or with drawn over screenshots and notes.