I’m in a polling mood. And although Justin and I have already decided on the next Character Pack, I’d like to see how well I know my audience….. View This Poll customer surveys Also we’d love some suggestions too. Comment away.  Read More →

I just found out that Toon Boom is having a 1-day sale. Animate for $299.99 instead of $699.99 ! Sha-Shing! Check it out!  Read More →

Justin Cook has just finished the first of many Toon Boom Animate Character Pack Templates !  This Office Bods collection includes:  Roy , Hobby , Arthur , Dana and Lincoln .  All of which are fully rigged up and ready to be animated. These are perfect for quick or lengthy animations, Flash games, iPhone or Android apps, banner ads, and more!  And since they are royalty free , you can use them in your personal or commercial projects. Check... 

Okay, here they come. The first (I’ve read) of many inevitable articles to come about dudes or dudettes making serious coin off Android apps. Check it out , and shed a quiet tear that this isn’t an article about YOU. I know I did, which is why I’m gonna move onto something less sad, but also very sad… I just read about this cabbie in NY that got knifed. He lived, and I know there’s far worse crimes that go unmentioned... 

Many CartoonSmart students are familiar with Adam Smithmada’s work because I’ve used images of his paintings in many tutorials, and now he’s got a ton of signed prints for sale on Etsy . And they are only $30!  Of course, no one needs to know you only paid 30 for these beauties. Most art prints of this quality sell for $100 on …  Read More →

Well here’s a really cool idea for a site which specializes in cool ideas for other sites. Check it out… Area 51, Stack Exchange . So someone proposes an idea for a site, and then other people commit to using it. When a proposed site reaches 100% Commitment (I’m not sure how many people that is) it goes into the Beta stage, where the site actually gets a temp domain and people start contributing real topics. Also there’s... 

Gutsy and bloody. And has a shamefully low view count (371) at the time of this posting. If Jet Blue hires back Steven Slater, this is probably how they’ll be using him… Nice work, Matthew!  Read More →

Our super-friends over at GoMedia have put together a great 30 minute tutorial on their 18th vector package. Have a looksie… Also I’m a big fan of their Vector Packs. They are very useful in a pinch. Or when you can’t draw at all =)  Read More →

So in the final part of this tutorial , I mentioned I was working on a version of the project where the CPU actually attacks the player. If you want to see how its coming, here’s a preview. I’ve probably only got another 300 hours to go… =) Oops, I just noticed the CPU doesn’t do much attacking in this vid, but the level is set to easy right now. When its set to hard, its pretty brutal to keep up  Read More →

Here’s pretty sweet Flash piece someone just showed me. Takes a while to load, but its worth a look. Actually I just checked the size, its only 2.2MB, so I’m wondering if their server is a little slow to deliver. Or maybe my connection is slow. Or time itself is slowing. Anyway, good work…  Read More →

Welp, Disney is getting sued for tracking people apparently…. Walt Disney’s internet subsidiary and several of its partners have been sued for allegedly using cookies based on Adobe’s Flash Player to track highly personal information about their users, many of whom were minors. I know almost nothing about this other than those words above, but my BS thermometer is in the red. Wait, maybe I’ll research more…. The... 

I just compiled some weekly stats on my Werewolf iPad app with some interesting results. I switched it from being a $1 app to being free about a week ago. The game has an in-app purchase to unlock extra features in the game. Here’s the free week and week prior… Free (last week) Installs =  3100 In-App Purchase of $2.99 = 18 Total sales = $53.82 Not Free (week prior) $1 Purchases = 17 In-App Purchase of $1.99 = 7 Total sales = $30.93... 

Because some good samaritan asked, here’s demos of our Caricatures tutorial and iPhone Mapkit Tutorial… Toon Boom Animate Caricatures Demo (stream in HD on Vimeo) Toon Boom Animate Caricatures Demo (zip file download) iPhone Mapkit Demo Tutorial (stream in HD on Vimeo) iPhone Mapkit Demo Tutorial (zip file download) Enjoy! Also if anyone wants to suggest a free demo I add to the site, scratch your hobo marking on my mailbox below... 

The two Justin’s have new lessons available! I dusted off my mic and taught a new  iPhone/iPad tutorial covering the MapKit and how to overlay images on top of it which will move relative to the map as it updates. Which is basically the “secret sauce” in the Zombie Air Strike app I released a few months back. Next up, Justin “The Cook” Cook offers up a meaty 4 hour lesson on  Caricatures . These were all illustrated... 

Sometimes (like all the time) I forget to actually post some useful code on this blog. Well I was just pondering the epic usefulness of these relatively new Gestures Recognizers you can use in your iPhone or iPad apps, so here’s some code for ya ( sample files ) or you can read the meat of it below. Use it and you’ll have a… UITapGestureRecognizer (detect taps, either with one or more fingers, and one or more taps) UISwipeGestureRecognizer...