![]() ![]() OpenToonz is battle tested in production environments including the infamous Studio Ghibli (Princess Mononoke, Howl’s Moving Castle, etc.) and Rough Draft Studio (Futurama, etc.). The animation floodgates just opened.OpenToonz is a free and open source animation software that has been in existence under a number of different names for almost 30 years. That’s especially why we view OpenToonz, a free professional-grade 2D animation software, as a complete and total gamechanger for the animation industry moving forward. However, many of the young artists in these regions do not have the resources to invest in proprietary software. The widespread availability of hardware is allowing animation production to expand in parts of the world that traditionally have not been major animation producers (South and Central America, Africa, the Middle East). The announcement of OpenToonz comes at a time when animation is experiencing the biggest boom period in its history. ![]() ![]() While there will no doubt be a learning curve for artists who are used to industry standards like Flash and Toonboom, Toonz is also more than capable of handling major productions, and the long-term benefits of switching to open source could prove attractive for many studios. Toonz is not exactly a well known name, even among industry pros, but the list of major companies and projects that have used it before (as well as Ghibli’s ringing endorsement) should be enough to convince many artists to give it a try. “This deal will be also the starting point of a new exciting plan to endorse the open source business model, by supporting training and customizing Toonz for the old and new users.” to make of Toonz a world standard for 2D animation,” said Claudio Mattei, managing director of Digital Video. “The contract with Dwango, which offers the Toonz open source platform to the animation community, has enabled Digital Video to realize one of its strategies, i.e. A premium version will continue to be sold at a “very competitive price” for companies who wish to invest in the customization of Toonz for major projects. It was originally available only for high-end SGI workstations, and for a period of time was part of Microsoft’s Softimage arm, which later became Autodesk.ĭigital Video will continue to develop and market Toonz software, and will offer installation, configuration, training, support and customization services to studios. The software boasts an extensive history, dating back to 1993, and has been used on the production of many Hollywood features and TV series including Fox’s Anastasia, Amblimation’s Balto, and MTV’s The Maxx, as well as popular computer games like Psygnosis’s Discworld 2. However, Toonz is not exclusive to Ghibli and is used by plenty of other studios, including Rough Draft, which produced Matt Groening’s Futurama with it, and Folimage, which used it for its recent feature, Phantom Boy. ![]() Atsushi Okui, executive imaging director at Studio Ghibli, explained that they initially chose Toonz back in 1995 “in order to continue producing theater-quality animation without additional stress,” and a desire for software that had “the ability to combine the hand-drawn animation with the digitally painted ones seamlessly.” ![]()
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