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Mark Diaz at 2danimation101.com presents us with his latest course “Learning Animation in Cartoon Animator 4”. The course is for anyone who may have already seen Cartoon Animator 4, bought it, then thought, “Hey! What do I do with it now?” Or, it could just as easily be for someone who has downloaded the evaluation version of Cartoon Animator 4 from the Reallusion website and wants to quickly find out what this software does and how easily it can do it. The course is applicable to novices and experienced animators equally. It covers just about every aspect of the software you need to know to get you up and running with creating your own animations.

In the Introduction to the course, you are taken through the aims, as well as being introduced to two bonus courses which you also get as a free added extra. These are “Good Timing Animation in Cartoon Animator 4” and “Save Time in Face Animation with Cartoon Animator 4 Pipeline.” For the purpose of this review though, we will just be sticking with the main course, “Learning Animation in Cartoon Animator 4”.

The course is broken down into 32 short lectures which are covered by the headings, “Introduction”, “Fast Animation”, “Design and Prepare PSD Characters”, “Character Animation”, Facial Animation”, “Extra Tips”, and “Your Next Animation”. Each lecture is less than 10 minutes (apart from one), and are therefore easily absorbed at your own pace.

I really like the way Mark gives each lecture, using his own unique and entertaining approach to the subject. There is nothing dull, boring, or uninspiring here. It is highly noticed throughout the course that this software takes away the need to have a foundation degree in animation just to get a character to walk, and the delivery of the lectures don’t leave you baffled and feeling as though you lack knowledge in animation. This is, of course, not a course in animation itself and therefore does not cover what most professionals would consider absolute essentials to learn in theory before even getting to the design stage of animation. The great thing about the software you are learning here is that Cartoon Animator 4 has a lot of that theory built-in; if you want a character to walk, tell it to, and Mark shows you how. Along the way, he also includes some great tips and tricks, as you will see when you get to the part where he uses a beach ball (not a real one, of course!!!).

There are project files included in the course so you don’t have to worry about creating your own characters, props and backgrounds. Unless you want to that is.

If you haven’t yet bought Cartoon Animator 4, then lecture 03 on “Versions, Addons and Bonus Pack” is a must-watch, and explains why you really should buy the Pipeline version of Cartoon Animator 4. This can be a costly mistake if you buy the Pro version and later want to upgrade.

I’ve taken a number of 2dAnimation101 courses and they compare very favorably with Udemy or other online course providers. There are tutorials available on YouTube at zero cost, but I find they never really have the structure of a paid course. Cartoon Animator also has its own tutorials on the Reallusion website, but if they lack in one area, like with their iClone software, their tutorials often turn out to be advertorials and to follow along properly you have to buy extras from their software store. Nothing like that here. 2DAnimation101 deliver what they promise and teach you how to use the software in as little amount of time as possible whilst instructing using a teaching method that sticks.

Excellent! Comprehensive, engaging, easy to follow course.

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