Does Anybody Know Of A...

[Spindulik]

Does anybody know of a software package that can create cartoons?

Lately, it seems as though there are more cartoons created by computers. I am not talking about the 3D rendering programs like MAYA or 3dMAX. Regular 2D animated cartoons. If you have seen "Mr. Hell" on one of the ShowTime channels, then you know what I am asking.

A normal cartoon like the Power Puff Girls, or SpongBob Square Pants, are created by hand onto cells. There are 25 frames (or cells) per second for a normal film, and that is a lot. Easily end up in the tens of thousands of cells. Then they photographed onto 16mm film one frame at a time. Very time consuming and costly, especially for one person who wants to try it or experiment with it.

Basically, the computer generated cartoons look just like (or almost like) real hand painted cells. Cartoon clips can be created in the fraction of the time with a computer, at the fraction of the cost. And creative people (and artist talented people) who have great ideas for cartoons, who couldn't do it merely because of the tremendous overhead, can now do it.

Surely there has got to some software like that around, somewhere.

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P.S.
(Not like the anime cartoons, I can easily create those without special software).

[NotoriousBIC]

(Shockwave) Flash? Probably not exactly what you mean, but still you can make it as cartoony as you like.

I used to have an (very) old animation program called 'Disney Animation Studio'. You could paint cell by cell and use a primitive smoothing algorythm to fill in frames.

Perhaps you mean something like Flipbook *LINK*?

[Spindulik]

Hey, that flipbook is very cool! Thanks!

-Shockwave is not exactly waht I have in mind.

But I am still curious what software is used for 'Mr. Hell".

[uNz[i]]

I've seen the Mr Hell show...

It was created with Macromedia Flash... you can tell by the style of the art and the animation.

Another similar (but lesser) app is "Swish"... both apps are on Kazaa... and info on google...

Edit: typo