Flip Boom All Star Review - Kids Animation Software
Peppa pig
The Toon Boom company is well recognised in professional animation circles since the creator of some of the best and a lot traditionally used 2d animation applications available today. Their Harmony strategy is used at illustrious companies like Walt Disney Studios (ever heard of them?) and Nickelodeon, in addition to countless independent freelancers and professionals worldwide.
finger family
However, these programs are notoriously expensive with a learning curve that would tax a NASA employee (well, maybe not A lot of work), they are often seen as an "elite" tool, that is away from most folk, especially young children.
Exactly what can you do if you prefer a top quality animation software for your child that's accessible, inexpensive and quick to make good results?
Well, Toon Boom has answered this by releasing their Flip Boom All Star program. It claims to provide good quality animation tools at a child's learning level and then for under the cost of your average game.
Does it try this? Let's learn in this review...
Main Options that come with The application
As a parent, the greatest issue you've got is how quickly your son or daughter will be able to make use of the software. After all, a high learning curve requiring extensive manuals and sophisticated menus is really a surefire method to kill any creative spark and have the program gathering dust around the hard disk.
Thankfully, Toon Boom have done an admirable job of simplifying the interface and which makes it fun for children. All of the buttons are image based and have little tool tips that appear whenever you hover a button on them.
The system is according to their top end software, but is a lot more child-friendly and not cluttered at all. This is a great bonus because it makes it easier for the child to maneuver to the more difficult softwares down the road if they wish as they'll have a great grounding here.
The drawing tools are fantastic and enable for varying line thickness, which can add an additional quality to the work., and allows your child to accomplish traditional drawn animation, or focus on top of photos or any other images they've imported.
(While it is best to use a stylus and drawing tablet there's no need... a normal mouse is okay.)
There is also a chance to import sounds and music files to incorporate right to their cartoons within the program, letting them do some simple talking characters or lip sync.
Exporting their job is real easy too, and they can do it in many different formats like Quicktime, Flash, and AVI, along with direct uploads to Facebook and YouTube to tell friends.
Can not Obtain that Creative Feeling?
When they are having a slow day, your youngster can use among the templates that come with this program, and demonstrate to them samples of so what can be achieved.
Additionally there is a much-publicised Auto-Animate tool which basically needs a character you've created and adds various moves (translate, rotate, spin, twist, squash, etc.) which you designate. Just click the button and it can it.
While this is a pretty neat tool to determine quick results, those results can be quite hard to control and a little arbitrary. I can tell a kid losing interest with that tool pretty quickly... far more fun to make your own personal stuff.
Negatives
The biggest negative I found using the software was at mobile phone, because it requires a web connection to be able to register and open the software. It might be quicker to just have a serial code, since some people don't also have a web connection in your own home when installing.
I'd also choose to see more templates coming with all the software as standard. It's always to get affordable to get a little library of ideas when creating a cartoon or animation project.