Toon Boom Animation

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Toon Boom Animation Inc.
Type Private ltd
Industry Software
Founded 1994
Headquarters Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Products animation and storyboarding software
Website toonboom.com

Toon Boom Animation Inc. is a Canadian software company that specializes in animation production software. Founded in 1994 and based in Montreal, Quebec, Toon Boom develops animation and storyboarding software for film, television, web animation, games, mobile devices, and training applications. In 2005, Toon Boom was awarded a Primetime Emmy in Engineering.

Contents

[edit] Overview

Toon Boom's client base ranges from professional studios to individual animators and colleges. Prestigious customers include: Walt Disney Animation Studios and Walt Disney Television Animation, Nelvana, Warner Bros. Animation, Walking the Dog, Mercury Filmworks, China Central Television, Toonz India Ltd, W!LDBRAIN, eMation, Rough Draft Korea, Alphanim, 2d3D Animations, Cromosoma and Enarmonia.

The live action/animated film, Space Jam, the Disney film Hercules and the Danish film Jungledyret Hugo 2: den store filmheit were the first films to use Toon Boom software.

In 2006, the IT Federation of Quebec (FIQ) awarded the company an OCTAS 2006 award in the Multimedia – Educational and Cultural Sector category for Toon Boom Studio 3.0. In 2007, the FIQ awarded Toon Boom an OCTAS award in the Best Technology Innovation category for Toon Boom Storyboard Pro. In 2008, Flip Boom was awarded the Parents' Choice Gold Award. In 2009, Flip Boom was granted the Editor's Choice by the Children Technology Review. In 2010, Flip Boom All-Star was granted a Parents’ Choice Silver Award.

[edit] Products

  • Toon Boom Studio - This Toon Boom software is aimed at home users and individuals rather than professional animation studios.
  • Toon Boom Animate (formerly Animo) - This Toon Boom software is aimed at professional animators, boutique studios, students and educators. It contains some of the features in Toon Boom Digital Pro, but is set at a consumer price. It also has a free Personal Learning Edition.
  • Toon Boom Animate Pro (formerly Toon Boom Digital Pro formerly Toon Boom Solo) - This Toon Boom software is aimed at animation studios and freelancers, described as "the most complete animation software for professionals, offering award winning state-of-the-art content creation, animation and compositing toolsets".
  • Toon Boom Opus (formerly USAnimation) [1] - This Toon Boom software is commonly used in the traditional film/TV animation industry. This software contains all the tools required to handle traditional animation workflows from scanning to compositing and 2D/3D integration. Its centralized database system allows the sharing of assets between scenes and enables the workload to be shared efficiently across a studio or even between studios. As of April 2008, Toon Boom Opus has been discontinued.
  • Toon Boom Harmony (formerly Toon Boom Symphony) - Like Opus, this software is based on a centralized database system and is used in the Film and TV animation industry. It contains all the Opus features and has additional tools that can be used for cut-out animation style. These tools include the transform tool, morphing, inverse kinematics and the "glue" effect. Harmony can also be used as a paperless animation solution, drawing animation directly into the software, using a Wacom tablet.
  • Toon Boom Pencil Check Pro - A line testing software.
  • Toon Boom Storyboard - This software is used to create storyboards that can be printed.
  • Toon Boom Storyboard Pro - Like Storyboard, this software is used to create storyboards. In addition to the Storyboard features, the Pro version has tools to create animatics and can be integrated into a pipeline using Opus, Harmony or Digital Pro. You can export to the leading NLE as well. Release 1.5 of Storyboard Pro is now compatible with Final Draft (using Tagger to export XML script) as well as with the Automatic Duck plug-in for importing AAF file into Final Cut Pro.
  • Flip Boom Cartoon (formerly Flip Boom Classic) - Part of Toon Boom Kids division, this is an entry level animation software made to learn animation principles (draw, add frames, playback)
  • Flip Boom All-Star - Part of Toon Boom Kids division, this is an animation software for teens designed to enable them to communicate using animation (import digital images, MP3 files and upload directly to YouTube, Facebook and iTunes)
  • Flipboom Lite FREE - This is the first app developed by Toon Boom for the iPad.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] DisneyToon Studios

[edit] Walt Disney Animation Studios

[edit] Nickelodeon Movies

[edit] Warner Bros. Animation

[edit] Universal Animation Studios

[edit] 20th Century Fox Animation

[edit] DreamWorks Animation

[edit] Others

[edit] TV series

[edit] International presence

The Toon Boom community comes from 85 countries. Working extensively in Asia and more particularly in India, China, Korea and The Philippines, Toon Boom is also developing new geographies in the Caribbean and Africa especially in Egypt and South Africa.

[edit] eLearning material

Several video tutorials developed by Toon Boom are available to learn Toon Boom Studio, Storyboard Pro and Animate. Toon Boom publishes on its web site monthly tips that make users more proficient with the different tools. In addition, several power users have developed their content to help the community develop higher quality animation. Examples can be found in the Cartooning in Toon Boom Wiki at toonboomcartooning.wetpaint.com and at ToonBoomTutorials.com. Additional tutorials can be found at Toon Boom EF Tutorial!. Another series of video tutorials are developed by Adam Phillips on YouTube Adam Phillips' Animate Tutorials and by CartoonSmart on Vimeo CartoonSmart Video Tutorials on Animate.

Tips and tricks, animation charts and FX templates are also developed on a monthly basis, and teaching aids are available to educators. Students and educators have now a dedicated section in the Toon Boom Forums.

[edit] Acquisitions

In 1996, Toon Boom purchased the software development business of USAnimation studio. Its animation production services were initially to be merged into CST Entertainment according to a premature press release from CST. That merger never transacted, and USAnimation's studio changed its name to VirtualMagic Animation in 1996 and operated independently. Toon Boom has been continuing the development of the USAnimation software, formerly known as Toon Boom Opus, it is now called Toon Boom Harmony.

In 2006, Toon Boom acquired French company Pegs's'Co[2], developer of the 2D bitmap animation software called Pegs. Since the acquisition, the software has not been updated and cannot be purchased anymore (it has been replaced by Toon Boom Harmony).

In 2009, Toon Boom acquired English company Cambridge Animation System, developer of Animo.[3]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ (Aug. 6, 1996). "Toon Boom Technologies enters merger transaction with USAnimation Inc" [Business Wire]. Retrieved March 17, 2008.
  2. ^ (Jun. 6, 2006). "Toon Boom Animation acquires Pegs’n Co’s" [Studio Daily]. Retrieved January 7, 2009.
  3. ^ (January 8, 2009)."Toon Boom Acquires Cambridge Animation" [AWN]. Retrieved January 28, 2009.

[edit] External links

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