Toonboom & Retas: What's the difference?

[Germania9]

What's the difference between ToonBoom & Retas? Care to elaborate?

[rupertpiston]

I don't know nuttin' about Retas (other than the name) but I've been a Toon Boom user for about a year and have gotten pretty into it.

Toon Boom is a vector based program that can output Quicktime Video or Flash .swf. It uses layers and vector tools very similar to Flash, but it also has a camera element, which can be zoomed (dynamic camera) or moved around (on pegs). You can peg groups of objects together for movement easier than in Flash. You can also use bitmap elements as backgrounds or as other objects. It has a voice analyzer that can map lip synch to an animation channel created by the user. In all, using it is like setting up a little world of paper dolls and 2D scenery, then moving a camera around it, always at a 90 degree angle to the 2D plane. It can be a bit technical at times, but it's pretty easy to learn if you have a slightly technical mind.

I suspect Retas may be a bitmap based program, but again, I know nuttin'.