Going digital

I managed to layer up some of my separate elements of animation today in a line test of the real thing. Need to fiddle around with the saturation and exposure I think to get the tone I want for the background but I can do that easily in Final Cut Pro X.
Tech-wise I used Dragonframe to capture the hand-drawn elements of animation and for the pixilation of the background waves (made using layers of coloured tracing paper). After avoiding Dragonframe for ages because I was too scared to leave the comfort of iStopmotion, it's actually a lot easier to use and more professional. For one thing, the cameras link up with the live view so lining up shots is ten times easier and quicker than using iStop. I then adjusted the exposure and colour in Final Cut on my characters before importing to Adobe After Effects to blend out the white paper background, using the 'Darken' Blending Option. All quite simplistic but I don't want to go too heavy on the effects, I think it's nicer to keep it simple for this animation, and  best to take it slow with After Effects as I'm still really new to it! So far I'm happy though. It's going as planned... I hope I haven't spoke too soon!