Grant Hiestand

I started using flipbook back in 2003 while working on The Wild Thornberrys movie.  It wasn’t long before I realized I had to have a copy for myself at home, so I sprang for the Pro version.  Since then, I’ve been using the heck out of it.  Old school 2D animators will like the fact that the x-sheet looks pretty much the way we’re used to seeing it.  With the ability to add sound, shadows, tones and camera moves it really is an animation studio in a box.

Recently I completed a freelance job from my apartment in Milwaukee for a company based out of LA.  The completed scenes were uploaded to the client’s FTP site, where the director could review the work and make changes if necessary.  One character required a whole new color scheme after it had already been painted.  It took just a few minutes to change the color palette and completely ‘repaint’ the scene.  When I got stuck at one point, Kent made good on his word and gave me the tech support I needed to finish the job.  Thanks to DigiCel, I was able to take the project from rough drawings to completed AVI, all from the comfort of my home.