Toonz

Toonz

Developer(s)	Digital Video S.p.a.
Initial release	1993 (1993)
Stable release	Toonz 7.0
Development status	Active
Written in	C++ (Qt)
Operating system	OS X, Microsoft Windows
Platform	x86, x86-64
Type	2D animation software
License	Open Source (BSD license) / Proprietary
Website	www.toonz.com

Toonz is a 2D animation software developed and marketed by Digital Video S.p.A. Digital Video also developed programs like StoryPlanner, a set of tools focused on the creation of storyboards with graphical and textual information; Linetest, a 2D animation software for pencil animation tests; and The-TAB, a 2D animation software used to create animation for the Web and Broadcast. Toonz is used by many studios worldwide including Studio Ghibli and Rough Draft Studios.

Company overview

Digital Video was founded in 1981 in Rome (Italy) and has focused on its present mission since 1993. Its focus is to develop multi-platform graphics applications for the professional market and its primary activity is the development of Toonz, an application for the cartoon animation industry. Toonz has licensed well over 3000 seats to animation and video companies. The Digital Video products are used to produce hours of animation per day for film, television and multimedia. Digital Video is headquartered in Rome, Italy, and has an additional office in Naples.

Development

First release: Toonz 3.0

Developed in 1993 for the IRIX operating system, Toonz was created and registered as trademark.  An exclusive distribution agreement was signed with Softimage, which distributed Creative Toonz. One year later, the product was used in a large scale production such as Balto, at Amblimation/Universal Pictures in London (produced by Steven Spielberg).

Other major releases

Toonz 4.0

After the Softimage’s takeover by Microsoft, Toonz is re-engineered to reach optimal performances in Windows environment, according to Microsoft requests, to sell the product with the brand Microsoft Toonz. Toonz 4.0 provided more powerful tools compared to Toonz 3.0 and an extremely intuitive user interface for traditional cell animators working in the film, video, interactive games and new media industries. Softimage Toonz 4.0 offered greatly enhanced key features such as a new pencil test module, Palette Editor, Xsheet, Ink and Paint module, and flip module, and allowed users to further customize the software by adding separate modules for scanning and rendering.

Toonz 5.0

Toonz 5.0 Harlequin was designed to meet the evolution of creative and technical standards in animation by loyally supporting its traditional approach based on raster drawings. It also introduced vector drawings support to allow users to step into paperless animation. Toonz 5.0 Harlequin brought a brand new user-friendly environment, where animators can either scan hand-made drawings and draw vector drawings from scratch directly into Toonz and animate them. Toonz 5.0 is the first Toonz release compatible with both Windows and Mac OS X.

Toonz 6.0 Harlequin and Bravo

Toonz 6.0 was released in two versions: Toonz Harlequin for traditional and paperless animation workflow and Toonz Bravo for the paperless animation. Toonz Harlequin was realized on the base of a strict collaboration with Studio Ghibli, the studio that produces the films of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata among others. While Bravo allows the user to create only paperless animations, Harlequin can scan hand-made drawings, giving the user the possibility to digitize traditional drawings. Like Toonz 5.0, the 6.0 edition is compatible with both Windows and Mac OS X.

Toonz 6.4 ML

As per Toonz 6.3, the 6.4 edition is available in two versions: Toonz 6.4 Bravo! for the paperless animation only and Toonz Harlequin for the traditional and paperless animation process and it introduces new or improved features to the world of Toonz. The Cleanup Module has been widely improved: now you can check the process in the before and after processing preview area, and remove spots and marks from the scanned drawings by using a specific option. You can also use the Morphological Antialias technique at the end of the Cleanup Process using the associated parameter to set the intensity. Another new feature is the scanning in Black&White mode in order to save time and hard disk space. You can also choose the output format for the scanned images. Also, the camera DPI parameter is now editable both in the Camera and in the Cleanup Settings and a completely new algorithm for the Raster-to-Vector Converter traces the outline of your drawings while adjusting few parameters in order to achieve high quality results even starting from mid-resolution images. Other new features are the Interactive Color Editing or the Smart FX Schematic Editing, while the already wide range of Output Settings and the Preview Window has been improved.

Toonz 7.0

As per Toonz 6.4, the 7.0 edition is available in two versions: Toonz 7.0 Bravo! for the paperless animation only and Toonz Harlequin for the traditional and paperless animation process and it introduces new or improved features to the world of Toonz. l A new tool introduces in Toonz the possibility to create a complete animation sequence using a single drawing. Building specific meshes and skeletons structures gives the users the way to make stretching and bending deformations with no need for drawing each pose. Another new powerful feature of Toonz Harlequin is the ECMAScripts support. Using the Run script command and the Script Console window it is possible to run scripts to automatically perform different tasks. A group of new effects joins the already consistent list of effects available in Toonz. Adding new functionalities as the erasing of small dirt and scratches, or creating symmetrically designed backgrounds, or generating a raylit effect using the colours of the source image. Moreover, some Layer Blending FXs supports now multiple sources, in this way it becomes easier reordering the levels of a scene one on top the other or apply an effect to multiple levels. Using the z value of the scene elements and the Camera Shift parameter this Render option creates two render sequences (right and left) that can be composited for building a 3D stereoscopic sequence. Other new features are the Merge TLV levels and the Message Center pane.

Open sourcing

On March 19, 2016 it was announced that Toonz will be released as Free and open source software in a week. The source code of "OpenToonz" was released under BSD license to a GitHub repository on March 26, 2016. Digital Video will also continue to develop and market a Toonz Premium version at a very competitive price for those companies willing to invest in the customization of Toonz for their projects.

Realizations

Filmography

• Princess Mononoke (Mononoke-hime)
• My Neighbors the Yamadas (Hōhokekyo Tonari no Yamada-kun)
• Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi)
• Howl's Moving Castle (Hauru no Ugoku Shiro)
• Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (Gake no Ue no Ponyo)
• Arrietty (Kari-gurashi no Arietti)

• Balto
• Nick at Nite "Logobelly" IDs (1997-1999)
• Anastasia
• Futurama
• The Maxx
• Aida of the Trees
• Asterix in America—The sequence of the sea storm was completely done with Toonz
• Steven Universe

Games

The animations of many popular games such as Psygnosis's Discworld 2 and Monolith's Claw were made with Toonz.

External links

• Official website
• Opentoonz on GitHub
• Official Opentoonz Users Forum
• Index of Official Opentoonz Users Forum
• The youtube channel of Toonz and the-TAB