How to create Cracking the Code like Animations?

Beyond just the life changing guitar techniques, one thing that I really appreciate about the Cracking the Code videos is the watchability and quality of the video production. The animations are really great! Wondering if Troy or others can give insights into what software is used to create the cartoon animations of the guitar players being discussed. It’s way better than generic animations like Toonly for example.

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Hey @ekillian01 welcome to the forum!

I joined the team recently and am not directly involved in the animations - I asked Troy and Adam for more info.

In the meantime you may be able to find some useful info in these two “behind the scenes” videos

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Hey @ekillian01, thanks for the animation love!

So @Troy, @Brendan, and I have all teamed up to make these animations, primarily using Apple Motion for 99% of what we do. We’ve occasionally had to dabble in programs like Photoshop, and we use Final Cut X to compile the final videos, and we occasionally use Final Cut for simple animations.

Motion is an interesting program in that it’s geared more towards “motion graphics” than “animations.” Meaning we aren’t drawing frame-by-frame moving and morphing objects, so much as we are manipulating these flat shapes and images in a 3D space. This leads to some limitations, but with enough creativity we can get some really professional looking “animations” that can convey some complicated concepts visually without outsourcing to Pixar.

Honestly, these projects are some of my favorites that I get to do for Cracking the Code. Troy is obviously a very creative thinker, so each project tends to have some new idea that requires a puzzle to be solved. And given the fact that being a big nerd is one barriers of entry for working at Cracking the Code, I love a good puzzle.

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Thank you @Adam for the answer! I really appreciate that.

I use Final Cut Pro already and have Motion from when I purchased Apple’s Pro Apps bundle, but have yet to get into it. Good to know that I at least have the tools already. When I dive into it, hopefully I will find it to be as fun (and not just frustrating) as you do :smile:

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