reference materialIntegrating 3D elements into Toon Boom Studio

Spring 2006ss

by Thomas Beard


 

This tutorial is for using 3D environments created in Lightwave in Toon Boom Studio, a 2D animation software.  A trial version of Toon Boom Studio can be downloaded at http://www.toonboom.com/products/toonBoomStudio/ .

 

The first thing to do is create the environment in Lightwave.  It is a good idea to also create a simplified version of your character or other 2D elements for scale and placement.  Then render two versions of the environment, one with the characters and one without.  Save these image files.

In Toon Boom, make sure you are in drawing view.  On the Exposure Sheet, click on Image Element Icon.  It first appears as the far right layer, but it will need to be moved to the far left to be the background.
Rightclick on the layer and select Import Images.  Import the image file you rendered which includes the characters. 
Make sure the lightbulb is selected so that you can view all layers.
Using the characters as a guide for scale and placement, draw the 2D elements.
When you are done with that, replace the background with the image file you rendered without the characters.  You now have 2D elements in a 3D environment.  For an animated 3D background, simply render a series of images and import them into Toon Boom the same way.

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