Joshua Pinker is a 2D animation artist who has worked on over 15 animated series, including projects for Adult Swim, Disney Jr., and Netflix. He released a book in 2019 intended to help demystify the animation industry, called Your Animated Journey, and is a Toon Boom ambassador.
He has also recently launched a new YouTube channel aimed at beginning animators, called “Let’s Get Animated.” The channel aims to provide simple animation tutorials for beginning artists to follow, using Toon Boom Harmony software and a Wacom One 13 Touch display tablet. In the below video, he walks viewers through the process of using deformers in Toon Boom Harmony, an essential skill for many animation projects.
The above video covers:
- Creating simple shapes using Wacom touch features in Toon Boom Harmony
- Creating a Spline Deformer to create noodle-shaped bends
- Animating the Spline Deformer on the timeline
- How to create an Envelope Deformer to bend the outline of the shape
- Animating the Envelope Deformer on the timeline
- How to use Drawing Substitutions to have access to both deformers for the same object
- How to move multiple deformer points at once for the Envelope Deformer
- How to change the deformer’s pivot point of rotation
- Organizing the node view and getting things set up for the creation of a stick figure character rig
- Simple rigging to connect all parts of the stick figure
- Adding deformers to the body parts of the stick figure
- Learning how to make the stick figure’s full body move and stay connected to the bend of one deformer through the use of “Kinematic Output”
- Using a simple animation of the stick figure to show off the use of the deformers in the body
- Concluding tips and advice on how to properly pose the stick figure character for animation
About the artist
Joshua Pinker is a 2D animation artist working in the animation industry since 2014. He has worked on over 15 animated series, including projects for Adult Swim, Disney Jr., and Netflix. In 2019, he self published a book titled “Your Animated Journey,” which is a self-help guide for artists looking to work in the animation industry. In 2022 he was chosen to be a Toon Boom ambassador. Currently, he is working as a supervisor on a new upcoming Nickelodeon series. When he’s not on the computer, you can find him playing videos games, traveling, playing sports, or hanging out with his two cats.
Check out his website, or follow him on Instagram or LinkedIn.
