Thank goodness for Final Cut Pro.

I’ve had some ups and downs with my animation software, Toon Boom. Unfortunately, some of those downs included compiling all of the animation scenes together and fixing the speeds of certain frames. Once the camera work on the animation was set in place, it was difficult to adjust and change certain frames without causing the camera to bug out.

This may seem weird to any other filmmaker who is reading this post. The camera is known for being a tool to record footage, it is not something that is manipulated within the editing. Well, animation is a little different. In order to save time and create more fluid animation, programs have “cameras” as a tool option. This allows for the user to pan, tilt, and zoom the camera in and out. The camera also moves very smoothly, so human error is not accounted for.

Though I find this tool to be extremely useful and essential, especially since my film was designed to replicate a long shot with no cuts (only graphic matches), the camera did not always function as I had hoped. Sometimes the pans were too fast, zooms too slow, etc. So, third party editing software became a necessity.

Final Cut Pro was a program I had mainly used in order to clean up my mistakes. Though I was a Final Cut rookie, my friend and classmate Zoe Milenkovic helped me along the way to compile, edit, and improve my piece. We were able to extend, certain frames and slow down a few others, making the animation a lot more fluid. This is also the program I added the audio in, both the music and the voice over. This program was extremely useful for adding opening titles and credits. Toon Boom did not have as many text options as Final Cut, which was a breeze to utilize.

Though Toon Boom was pretty great to animate on, it definitely wasn’t something I could recommend for editing.