The learning curve isn't so bad because it's no more complicated than the big three adobe design apps. I've been trying the trial version of Toon Boom and it is pretty impressive. Toon Boom have an article on their website about Ghibli hiring animators, but that doesn't necessarily suggest Studio Ghibli has ever used Toon Boom. Sounds like a good idea but using crappy crayons will not help to get nice results and then probably discourage them to continue.Įarly Futurama episodes were apparently animated with OpenToonz, and Studio Ghibli seems to use it according to Google. One could think that if they like drawing, start with this and give them better ones later.

It's a bit like giving cheap crappy crayons to kids for them to draw. On the other side, using the best option available from start might be more helpful in the long run, so if you can handle harmony's cost, it's probably a better option. Especially if you're a graphic designer, you might already be familiar with it too.

If you're going to only draw a few cartoon reaction frames, maybe you could give it a try first in Animate or Photoshop. But in most cases, Harmony is more suited for that. On cut-out (rigged) animation, Adobe After Effects has some advantages, especially for the integration with Illustrator and vector artworks (you probably already use it). Harmony is actually more powerful than Adobe's Animate or Photoshop for hand drawn or cut-out 2D animation.

Ipad toon boom