Company type | Subsidiary |
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Industry | Software |
Founded | 1994 |
Headquarters | , |
Products | Animation and Storyboarding software |
Parent |
|
Website | toonboom |
Toon Boom Animation Inc., also known as Toon Boom, is a Canadian animation studio founded in 1994 and based in Ottawa, Ontario. It specializes in the development and production of animation and storyboarding software for film, television, the World Wide Web, video games, mobile devices, training and education.
Its software like Toon Boom Harmony is used in many countries. It was awarded the Primetime Engineering Emmy Awards in 2005 and 2012. [1] [2]
In 1996, Toon Boom purchased the software development business of USAnimation Studio. Its animation production services were to be merged into CST Entertainment according to a premature press release from CST. That merge never took place, and USAnimation's studio changed its name to VirtualMagic Animation in 1996 and operated independently. [3] Toon Boom Animation continued the development of USAnimation software, which became Toon Boom Opus. It has since become Toon Boom Harmony.
Founding president and chief executive officer Jacques Bilodeau left the company in May 2003, and the company's board of directors appointed chief operating officer Joan Vogelesang to take his place. [4] In 2004, Corus Entertainment, owner of Canadian animation studio Nelvana, acquired a 50% stake in the company. [5]
In 2006, Toon Boom acquired French company Pegs'n Co, [6] developer of the 2D bitmap animation software Pegs. Since the acquisition, the software has not been updated and can no longer be purchased.
In 2009, Toon Boom acquired the British company Cambridge Animation Systems, developer of Animo. [7] Since the acquisition, the software has not been updated and can no longer be purchased.
In 2012, Corus acquired the remaining 50% stake of Toon Boom it did not already own, giving it full ownership. [5] Chief Executive Officer and President Joan Vogelesang stepped down in September 2014 after over 16 years at Toon Boom, and Paul Gardner was appointed as interim CEO. [8]
On March 9, 2016, Toon Boom acquired all the related IP for the TACTIC Studio product, an asset management, production tracking and review tool from Toronto-based Southpaw Technology and planned to re-launch the product as Toon Boom Producer. [9] On June 13, 2017, Toon Boom re-branded and launched Producer. [10]
On July 13, 2023, Corus announced that it would sell Toon Boom to International Media Company (IMC), a portfolio of private equity firm TPG Inc., for US$111 million (CA$147.5 million). Corus stated that the sale would be used to cover debt and "advance our strategic plan and priorities". [11]
This section contains content that is written like an advertisement .(November 2011) |
Developer(s) | Toon Boom Animation Inc. |
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Stable release | June 29, 2020 [12] |
Written in | C++ (Qt), Qt Script, JavaScript, Python |
Operating system | Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux |
Platform | x64 |
Available in | English, Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese [13] |
Type | 2D animation software |
License | Proprietary, Trialware |
Website | www |
Harmony contains the tools required to handle cutout (puppet), paperless frame-by-frame, and traditional animation workflows from scanning to composing and 2D/3D integration. Its toolset includes pencil lines with textures, deformation tools, morphing, inverse kinematics, particles, built-in compositor, 3D camera, and 2D-3D integration. Users can draw animation directly into the software, using a graphics tablet.
This software provides additional capabilities for teams of animators using Harmony who want to share files and manage assets from a central database that is located on a server. Its centralized database system allows the sharing of assets between scenes and enables the workload to be shared across a studio or between studios. It also includes production controls for managing rendering jobs and coordinating batch scanning of paper drawings. Harmony Server is available as an add-on for users of Harmony Advanced and Harmony Premium.
This software is used in pre-production to create storyboards for a wide variety of project types including 2D and 3D animation, stop motion, and live action productions. Storyboard Pro contains all the tools required to create storyboards and animatics. Its toolset includes vector and bitmap drawing tools, pencils and textured brushes, a built-in camera, audio tools, a timeline for timing control, and a 3D toolset to integrate imported 3D models.
Producer is a web-based production tracking and digital asset management tool.
A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic, or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, in the form it is known today, was developed at Walt Disney Productions during the early 1930s, after several years of similar processes being in use at Walt Disney and other animation studios.
Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that provides software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and has offices worldwide. Its U.S. offices are located in the states of California, Oregon, Colorado, Texas, Michigan, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Its Canada offices are located in the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta.
Traditional animation is an animation technique in which each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation in film, until the end of the 20th century, when there was a shift to computer animation in the industry, specifically 3D computer animation.
The Computer Animation Production System (CAPS) was a proprietary collection of software, scanning camera systems, servers, networked computer workstations, and custom desks developed by The Walt Disney Company and Pixar in the late 1980s. Although outmoded by the mid-2000s, it succeeded in reducing labor costs for ink and paint and post-production processes of traditionally animated feature films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS). It also provided an entirely new palette of digital tools to the animation filmmakers.
Adobe Flash animation is an animation that is created with the Adobe Animate platform or similar animation software and often distributed in the SWF file format. The term Adobe Flash animation refers to both the file format and the medium in which the animation is produced. Adobe Flash animation has enjoyed mainstream popularity since the mid-2000s, with many Adobe Flash-animated television series, television commercials, and award-winning online shorts being produced since then.
Zachary Thomas Moncrief is an American artist, producer, director, and writer in the animation industry. He's currently a co-executive producer on Netflix's pre-school series Ghee Happy. His titles have included supervising producer, writer, supervising director, storyboard artist, designer, and songwriter. In 2009, an episode from Phineas and Ferb, which he directed entitled "The Monster of Phineas-n-Ferbenstein", received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in the category for Outstanding Special Class Short-format Animated Programs.
VirtualMagic Animation, Inc. was an American traditional animation studio and software development company based out of Los Angeles, California. The studio produced animation for television series and commercials, and provided ink and paint services to animated TV series such as The Ren and Stimpy Show and The Simpsons and films such as We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story. Its software division was best known for developing USAnimation, a high-end software package designed to facilitate the traditional animation process using digital technologies.
TupiTube is a free and open-source 2D animation software developed and maintained by the Colombian startup, Mae Floresta. It is available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Android under the terms of the GNU GPL-2.0 or later license.
Previsualization is the visualizing of scenes or sequences in a movie before filming. It is a concept used in other creative arts, including animation, performing arts, video game design, and still photography. Previsualization typically describes techniques like storyboarding, which uses hand-drawn or digitally-assisted sketches to plan or conceptualize movie scenes.
Clip Studio Paint, informally known in Japan as Kurisuta (クリスタ), is a family of software applications developed by Japanese graphics software company Celsys. It is used for the digital creation of comics, general illustration, and 2D animation. The software is available in versions for macOS, Windows, iOS, iPadOS, Android, and ChromeOS.
Moho is a proprietary vector-based 2D animation application distributed by Lost Marble LLC. It has two distinct packages: Moho Pro and Moho Debut. Moho Debut is similar to the pro version, but with restricted features.
Softimage|3D is a discontinued high-end 3D graphics application developed by Softimage, Co., which was used predominantly in the film, broadcasting, gaming, and advertising industries for the production of 3D animation. It was superseded by Softimage XSI in 2000.
Filipino animation, also known as Pinoy animation, is a body of original cultural and artistic works and styles applied to conventional Filipino storytelling, combined with talent and the appropriate application of classic animation principles, methods, and techniques, which recognizes their relationship with Filipino culture, comics, and films. It also delves into relying on traditional and common Filipino "sense of going about things" or manner of coping with Filipino life and environment.
Toonz is a 2D animation software program. The base application is currently managed by Dwango as open-source software under the name OpenToonz. An extended commercial variant for professional individuals and studios, Toonz Premium, is being developed and marketed by Digital Video S.p.A. Toonz has been used by studios such as Studio Ghibli and Rough Draft Studios.
Guardians of the Lost Code is a 2010 animated adventure film, created by Ricardo González Duprat, distributed by Videocine.
Cambridge Animation Systems was a British software company that developed a traditional animation software package called Animo and is now part of Canadian company Toon Boom Technologies. It was based in Cambridge, England, hence the name. Established in 1990, it created the Animo software in 1992 after acquiring Compose in Color, which was developed by Oliver Unter-ecker. Animo was used for several animated feature films, shorts, and television series, and it powered the UK animation industry until the 2000s as it was used by studios like King Rollo Films, Telemagination, and Cosgrove Hall Films, but it was also used by studios in other countries, most notably Warner Bros. Feature Animation, DreamWorks, and Nelvana. In total, Animo was used by over 300 studios worldwide.
Pegs'n Co was a French software company that developed a traditional animation software package called Pegs, and is now part of Canadian company Toon Boom Animation. It was based in Paris, France. Pegs was used for several animated feature films, shorts, and television series, and it powered the French animation industry until the 2000s as it was used by studios like Millimages, Alphanim, and Animage, but it was also used by studios in other countries, most notably Saerom Animation, CineGroupe, and Mike Young Productions. In total, Pegs was used by over 100 studios worldwide.
Adam Phillips, also known by his online alias Chluaid, is an Australian filmmaker, animator, and former freelancer. He is best known for his animation work, consisting of flash animation compositions published on his website, Bitey Castle, and on the flash portal Newgrounds. His animation work on the latter has over 16 million views, making him one of the most-viewed artists on the site. Phillips created the fantasy animation shorts series, Brackenwood, the first of which was posted on Newgrounds in March 2004.
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