Toon Boom Releases Studio 5

Posted on July 1, 2009 by toonboom

Montreal (June 25, 2009) –  Toon Boom Animation Inc. today announced the release of Toon Boom Studio 5, completely rebranded and now positioned as the multi-technique animation software for learning and creating animation. With its new stop-motion animation capability, Studio 5 is the best tool for becoming familiar with the main styles of animation, including stop-motion, traditional, digital, cut-out and rotoscoping or combining them for greater creativity. In addition, its simplified user interface makes it ideal for hobbyists, educators and students, to discover the various methods of animation creation and unleash their creative potential.

In addition to traditional and paperless animation capabilities, Studio 5 enables you to:

  • Create stop-motion animation using your favourite characters
    • Speed things up with Time-lapse Imagery
    • Live View/Image Capture lets you see images exactly as they will appear in your movie
    • Change your backgrounds using Chroma Key Screens (Green and Blue Screens)
    • Position and align elements perfectly using Onion Skinning
    • Use Rotoscoping to take advantage of actual imagery to better position your characters
    • Improved Image Playback Optimization increases speed
    • Annotation Layers for feedback
    • Easily export your animation directly to YouTube or Facebook
    • Import Flip Boom Classic and Animation-ish projects to bring them to the next level
    • Enhanced colourful User Interface

“We are proud of this latest release as it testifies to Toon Boom’s commitment to deliver easy-to-use applications that inspire, develop and stimulate creativity. Knowing how educators and hobbyists have used Toon Boom Studio over the years, we are confident version 5 will fire up their love for animation even more,” shared Joan Vogelesang, President and Chief Executive Officer at Toon Boom.

Revamped Education and Community sections

In order to facilitate the access to information on its web site, Toon Boom has revamped its Education and Community sections. On one hand, the Education section makes it easier for students, faculty members and schools to find and purchase the products they are looking for. On the other, the Community section conveniently points out the various free services Toon Boom provides, including Job Connections, Forums, the Professional Blog, Expert Corner, Festival Watch and Showcase.

New Curriculum for Educators

The new curriculum is divided in two, each part designed to meet the needs of different educators:

  • Art Curriculum – Created for the arts program to support educators teaching basic animation courses.  It covers the complete set of animation techniques available in Studio.
  • Cross-discipline Curriculum – Designed for teachers of traditional subjects such as Science, Languages or Geography.  It allows students to use selected animation applications to learn traditional topics in an exciting and motivational new way.

Each curriculum is designed to be easy to follow and includes a variety of sample material.

The curriculum is included free with lab-packs or site license orders.

Pricing and Availability

Toon Boom Studio for MAC OS X on G5 and Intel® based systems, and for Microsoft® Windows® XP, Windows Vista® and Tablet PC (32 bits) platforms is ready to ship now from the Toon Boom Store at http://www.toonboom.com/buy/onlinestore/customer. Buy Toon Boom Studio 5 now at the special launch price of $349.99 US, instead of $399.99, valid until July 8, 2009. Customers who purchased Toon Boom Studio as of May 1, 2009, will receive a version 5 key by email. Their Studio 5 license key will be automatically registered enabling them to download the software at their convenience.

Information about Toon Boom Studio 5 is now available online at www.toonboom.com/products/toonBoomStudio/

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Toon Boom Releases Animate Pro

Posted on May 26, 2009 by toonboom

Montreal (May 22, 2009) – Toon Boom Animation Inc. today announced the release of Toon Boom Animate Pro, the high-performance animation software for professionals. Toon Boom Animate Pro is the most complete professional animation software for serious animators, offering award winning state-of-the-art content creation, animation and compositing toolset for any animation style within a single all-in-one desktop application.

“At Toon Boom, when it comes to building a strong and tightly-knit animation community, we believe in giving more for less. This is why today we are releasing   the most advanced animation software for professional animators at an incredibly low price. In addition this gives professional animators the opportunity to join the global Toon Boom community,” shared Joan Vogelesang, President and Chief Executive Officer at Toon Boom.

Here is what Adam Phillips, has to say about Animate Pro: “Animate Pro.. How can such a serious beast be so much fun?  I’m finding it’s as addictive as any game, so for me the only difficult part is getting to bed at a reasonable hour. With my background in traditional pencil & paper animation, the appeal of Animate Pro lies not only in the comfort of the traditional tools but also in the time-saving aspects of the UI and the brutal  power of the camera, 3D elements and vast library of effects modules. When the results speak so clearly, the choice isn’t a difficult one.” Adam Phillips is the publisher of Bitey Castle (www.bitey.com), creator of the Brackenwood series and has close to 12 million views on Newgrounds.

Feature Highlights

Toon Boom Animate Pro combines state-of-the-art vector technology, real-time animation tools and nodal compositing to simplify the conception of complex effects. With its easy-to-use interface, non-destructive and resolution independent workflow, featuring a new and unique 3D space environment Animate Pro delivers incredible power at an economical price.

Explore true digital animation

Toon Boom Animate Pro enables you to create tradigital and bitmap animation as well as combining both styles. You can access advanced lip-sync and cell swapping tools to give an extra edge to your content creation process.

Keep traditional art alive

Animate Pro masters traditional art thanks to advanced clean, ink and paint tools as well as an Xsheet with drawing capabilities to simulate a paper exposure sheet. Animate Pro supports Pencil Check Pro to preserve the line test exposure sheet.

Artistic style unleashed

With Toon Boom Animate Pro, you can develop any project without having to compromise quality. Refine your artwork style using multiple brush tools, textures and gradients to get a unique look and feel.

Beyond multi-plane camera

Animate Pro delivers full control on all 3 axes. Move, scale and rotate any of your elements to create amazing 3D scenery with real-time playback. Access a powerful Graph editor and apply subtle acceleration with ease motion control.

Animation’s holy grail

Easily perform frame tweening using the timeline; expose your drawing using the Xsheet; quickly create key poses with inverse kinematics; create in-betweens automatically with the Morphing tool and even let Animate Pro detect the audio phonemes for you.

Animate faster

Symbols and pegs work in unison. Keyframing in cut-out and tradigital animation is a breeze. Easily fine tune your animation to get the result you have imagined.

Sparkling effects and compositing

Toon Boom Animate Pro compositing takes place at any time during the production cycle. Manipulate the effect network to apply any combination of effects on elements in real-time. Over 50 special effects, ranging from blurs to colour correction and deformation.

Enjoy an adaptable user interface

Whether you want to create artwork, set up your action or add special effects, customize your workspace as you need. Each tool comes with a contextual interface that will let you set your preferences in a click.

Smooth pipeline and workflow integration

Toon Boom Animate Pro can import leading file formats, including MOV, SWF, PSD, AI and PDF, as well as export to video in MOV and FLV. In addition, Animate Pro comes with full scripting capabilities and command line tools. Add Storyboard Pro to integrate the pre-production stages seamlessly into your existing pipeline.

Included kick-start program

Toon Boom Animate Pro comes with more than four hours of video training and ready-to-use templates for a smooth learning experience. Dedicated support programs combined with a practical user forum are additional resources for timely assistance, all handled by the Toon Boom animation experts.

More for Less Tour

To promote the Animate family line of products, Toon Boom will be touring North America, starting with a powerful presentation at Flash on Tap, in Boston on May 28-30, 2009; then on to Colombus, OH, on June 10, 2009; New York, NY, on June 16, 2009, Chicago, IL, on June 17, 2009; Orlando, FL, on June 18, 2009; Denver, CO,  on June 23, 2009; San Francisco, CA, on July 13, 2009; Seattle, WA, on July 20, 2009; and Portland, OR, on July 21, 2009. All events will be from 7 pm to 9 pm, in their respective time zones. For a complete listing of events and to RSVP, please go to
http://toonboom.makeswebsites.com/
, select your city and register.

Pricing and Availability

Toon Boom Animate Pro for MAC OS X on Intel® based systems and for Microsoft® Windows® XP and Windows Vista® platforms is ready to ship now with availability through the Toon Boom Store at http://www.toonboom.com/buy/onlinestore/customer. Considering the overwhelmingly positive response received from the field and the great success Animate has garnered since its launch in November 2008, Toon Boom Animate Pro will be released at $1,999.99 US, a saving of $1,000 off the original listed price.

All customers who took advantage of the pre-order campaign which started on March 30, 2009, will receive their Product Code electronically along with instructions on how to install and activate the product.

Toon Boom Animate Pro comes with a Personal Learning Edition and over three hours of video training that will get any new user up and animating quickly.

For more detailed information, please visit http://www.toonboom.com/products/animatepro/

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Toon Boom Acquires Cambridge Animation

Posted on January 8, 2009 by toonboom

Montreal (January 8, 2009) – Toon Boom Animation Inc. today announced it has closed a definitive agreement with Cambridge Animation Systems, to acquire all of the Intellectual Property of Cambridge and the Animo product line. This acquisition furthers Toon Boom’s market consolidation strategy in the global animation industry and reinforces its leadership in the media, entertainment and educational arenas.

“We welcome Animo customers to Toon Boom,” said Joan Vogelesang, President and Chief Executive Officer at Toon Boom. “Toon Boom caters to the needs of the animation community at large and will continue to remain on the leading edge of technology, efficiency and creative freedom. As a proponent of digital pipelines, media convergence and 2D/3D integration, this acquisition is expected to accelerate Toon Boom’s objective in
delivering powerful animation solutions,” concluded Joan Vogelesang.

With Cambridge Animation Systems’ presence in Europe and Asia, Toon Boom continues to strengthen its leading market position as the primary technology partner for animation projects globally. “Toon Boom was the natural partner to pass on the torch and see the global animation industry benefit from this market and technology consolidation,” stated Cormac Slevin, at Cambridge.

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