Toonboom Harmony is Back on 10 Oct 2023

Animation by Daniella Cirinello

Our 2D Animation part-time online evening class in Toonboom Harmony returns to Escape Studios on 10 October 2023.

Learn the fundamentals of 2D animation over 10 weeks, one evening a week using Toonboom Harmony, one of the leading software packages for the creation of 2D animation.

2D Animation at Escape Studios

To see our latest 2D Animation reel, watch the video below:

2D Animation Revival

Birds Connect Our World by Lilian Fu

2D Animation is experiencing a big comeback, with many 2D productions being animated in the UK. 

In particular, Blue Zoo, Aardman Animation, Passion Pictures and others all use Toonboom Harmony as their principal 2D animation platform.

Flexible Software
Toonboom Harmony is a very flexible software package, that allows the user to combined 2D rigged puppet-style animation with the ability to add hand-draw elements in the traditional way. 

Animation Basics

Birds Connect Our World by Lilian Fu

The course covers the basics of locomotion and mechanics in animation, and also 2D rigging, and aims to get students familiar with the software, to enable them to apply for the many studios in the UK and overseas that are embracing this software package.  

No prior knowledge of the software is required.

Online Evening Class

Bear animated in Harmony by Alex Fox

Animation with Toonboom Harmony is an online class. Students will attend an evening class one night a week, and will be set projects to do in-class, as well as project work to do between classes.  You will also have the opportunity to develop your portfolio or demo reel.

Jobs for 2D Animators
2D Animation is experiencing a big revival, with many productions  being animated right here in London. Blue Zoo in particular has been recruiting junior animators with Harmony experience.  We also have had invaluable support from London's Karrot Animation, who have provided us with character rigs for use in the course.

Course outline

Toonboom Harmony Class at Escape Studios

Week 1 - User interface & setup
Week 2 - Animation basics – the Bouncing Ball
Week 3 - Rigging basics 1
Week 4 - Rigging basics 2
Week 5 - Locomotion cycles
Week 6 - Advanced locomotion
Week 7 - Final project – planning
Week 8 - Develop final project
Week 9 - Submit final project
(industry brief)
Week 10 - Demo Reel

Where and When
10 October 2023
Mode of study: Part time
Programme duration: 10 weeks

Official page

To sign up, follow this link. 

Free Toonboom Harmony License and Online resources

Harmony animation by Marina Drakos 

In the meantime, check out some of the online Harmony resources available here.  Toonboom have released a free home version of their software for student use, initially for 30 days.

Birds Connect Our World
Finally, to see what kind of animation can be done in Harmony, watch the short film "Birds Connect Our World" created by Escapee Lilian Fu, who took our evening class last year.






Toonboom Harmony Resources at Escape Studios

Cat by Sirisha Mutty

We also have a growing range of online resources for our students at our Vimeo channel and elsewhere

• Toonboom Harmony Tutorials at Vimeo
• Getting started with Toonboom Harmony with Plamen Ananiev
• ToonBoom Harmony Walkthrough - Free Tutorial
• Toonboom Harmony Visit to Escape Studios

The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects. To find out more about our new BA/MArt, now recruiting for September 2024, follow this link.   To apply, visit the offical page here.