Toon Boom News June 2006

Emmy-Award Technology

www.toonboom.com

June 2006

NEW Toon Boom Storyboard

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The whirlwind pace continues at Toon Boom with the team deployed all over the planet providing training,meeting customers, speaking at conferences and attending tradeshows. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

MIPTV in Cannes was a huge success with Toonz Animation India, Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics andCosgrove Hall signing up to standardize on Toon Boom Harmony. The team then attended Cartoons on the Bay inPositano from April 5 to 9, sponsoring the Pitch me! Italia competition. Following this, the team ventured to theAssociation Québécoise des utilisateurs de l’ordinateur au primaire-secondaire (AQUOPS) in Quebec City fromApril 11 to 13, and to the National Association of Broadcasters tradeshow in Las Vegas from April 24 to 27. TheToon Boom team is also extensively involved in encouraging the introduction of Indian schools to Canadian ones toexplore joint programs, transfer skills and develop the curriculum._____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In India, Joan Vogelesang was a guest speaker at the Animation Symposium at Arena Animation Academy in bothKolkata and Mumbai and at the 24 fps Animation Awards. She addressed the State of the Animation Industry andthe Role of India at the Animation Symposiums where attendance exceeded 630 people! During 24fps, she was award-ed the Movers’n’Shakers Award in recognition of her valuable contribution, support and unique initiatives towardsthe expansion and promotion of the Indian animation and media industry worldwide. She also attended the HangzhouAnimation Event in China, during which Scott Dyer, Executive Vice President, Production and Development at Nelvanagave an excellent conference on The Origin of Animation Originality and the Exploitation of Property Chain. It wasalso a great opportunity to introduce Nelvana to the leading Chinese animation studios. Then, the team headed out tothe Shenzhen Animation Event on May 19 and to the Animating with Toon Boom workshop in Stockholm on May 31. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

MIFA 2006 will be a lively event this year as Toon Boom will participate in a general public presentation of ToonBoom Studio on June 6 at 6:30 pm at Annecy-le-Vieux Maison de la Jeunesse et de la Culture. The team will beshowcasing Toon Boom’s software solutions at booth 2.03 at MIFA from June 7 to 10, while giving AnimationWorkshops at the Imperial Palace, Salon Ravel A, fifth floor, on June 7 and 8 from 9 am to 5 pm, in collaborationwith Rhinoceros Formation. The detailed schedule will be available at Toon Boom’s booth or online at www.toonboom.com/company/news/events.php#mifa._____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After MIFA, the team is gearing up for the National Educational Computing Conference in San Diego from July5 to 9; for Siggraph 2006 (Booth 1201) in Boston from August 1 to 3, 2006; and for the Ottawa InternationalAnimation Festival from September 20 to 24, 2006. Make sure to come by and see us!

2 toonboom news / june 2006

Toon Boom Animation Inc. announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Pegs’n Co., a privately helddeveloper of 2D bitmap animation technology. With this strategic market consolidation, Toon Boom Animation willdeliver greater animation solutions and reinforce its growth strategy in the media, and entertainment and education-al arenas. “Toon Boom’s software solutions are recognized as the market leading technology in the animation indus-try and the integration of Pegs’ technology in Toon Boom’s portfolio will enable the company to continue deliveringquality, efficiency and reliability to the animation community — for all animation styles, formats and users,” said JoanVogelesang, President and Chief Executive Officer at Toon Boom. Pegs’n Co.‘s product line comprises all Pegs’ mod-ules including scan, pixel painting, vector editor, exposure, FX and camera editing, sound processing and export tovarious output formats. Pegs will be integrated in Toon Boom’s current offerings and its user base will be supportedby the Toon Boom Paris office. A press conference will be held at Booth 2.03 on Wednesday, June 7 at 11:30 am topresent the new solutions and address all media inquiries.

Developed in conjunction withexpert storyboard artists, ToonBoom Storyboard speeds upproduction planning and ena-bles studios to reach newheights with increased produc-tion integration. Its advancedfeatures make it the tool ofchoice to create an entirelydigital storyboard.

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Toon Boom Storyboard provides a:• Flexible layer-based panel display with motion

camera capabilities • Complete set of drawing tools, including pressure-

sensitive brush tool when using a digital graphic tablet and pen

• Customizable caption fields to insert fully searchable textual content, such as scene descriptions and comments

• Advanced timeline to control timing and automaticallygenerate an animatic with sound tracks and transitionsbetween shots

• Real-time animatic creation with dynamic camera moves• Extensive export capabilities, including printing, image

sequences, and Harmony/Opus, EDL, SWF andQuickTime file formatting

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Ideal for storyboard artists• Work faster with drawing layers and

intuitive vector drawing tools• Create better animatics in less time• Accelerate the review and approval process

Essential for directors and producers• Enjoy complete pipeline integration• Review, update and reorder digital panels instantly• Leverage the reuse of assets by accessing storyboard

drawings from other panels, its library of existing drawingand sounds, and the library of other storyboard projects

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A must for visual storytellers• Draw, animate and edit in one powerful package• Develop multilayer panels with constant

reference to script• Access advanced tools and ready-made templates

to storyboard quickly• Preview story composition in real-time synced

with sound tracks _________________________________________________________

The power of digital storyboardingToon BoomStoryboard’seasy-to-use inter-face offers anelegant tradition-al panel windowlayout or an overview window layout that fits into your con-tent creation process. The Storyboard interface is easilynavigable using just a graphic tablet pen.

Now available as an Early Access Program to all animationstudios using Toon Boom Harmony and Opus. The com-mercial release meets the needs of all production types —whether 2D animation, 3D animation or live-action — and isscheduled for release at SIGGRAPH 2006.

toonboom news / june 2006 3

Toon Boom Storyboard is the leading storyboarding system for visual storytelling, perfectly suited to tradi-tional and paperless methods. Truly completing the production pipeline, Storyboard helps you take an ideaand translate it into a visual story that will become a complete program, whether animated or live-action.

4 toonboom news / april 2006

TRICKS & TIPSHow to create transitions in Toon Boom StudioA transition is a way to gradually move fromone scene to another. We usually use transi-tions to indicate a change of location or to givea rhythm to the action. Even though there areno actual transition tools in Toon Boom Studio,there are lots of easy ways to create transitionsbetween your scenes. Users can simply use adrawing or an image on a peg or using eitherthe Clipping effect or the Color Transformeffect. Check out the complete article atwww.toonboom.com/products/eLearning/arti-cles/transitions0506.php.

SPONSORSHIPToon Boom Animation is proud to support excellence in art, technology as well asin sports. In view of the upcoming Games of the XXIX Olympiad – Beijing 2008,Toon Boom has decided to sponsor Mark Heese, a multiple medal winner in beachvolleyball. Mark has been one of Canada’s premier beach volleyball players for overa decade. With his partner, John Child, he has accomplished many firsts for Cana-dian beach volleyball. He brought home Canada’s first ever medal in volleyball atthe inaugural beach volleyball Olympic event in Atlanta in 1996. He won Canada’sfirst FIVB International World Tour gold medal in Berlin 1996, and has won silvermedals at two of the last three FIVB World Tour events hosted in Canada since 2000.As a beach volleyball pioneer in Canada, Mark has committed himself to being anambassador for the sport whenever possible. He visits schools and camps on a regu-lar basis spreading the values of the Olympic spirit and healthy living. He regularlyreceives media requests and makes it a priority to promote the sport, his team andhis corporate partners. Check out Mark’s page at www.toonboom.com/markheese.

Each title of the WorkoutSeries lays out the objectives,provides users with the toolsand material necessary andguides them through eachexercise, while allowing themplenty of freedom to experi-ment and add their own per-

sonal touch to the final result. Once they have completedthe program they will be able to apply the skill set to theirown projects. As a bonus, each animator involved in theseries provides useful Animator’s Tips. The first AnimatingWorkout title is split into two components. The first one

shows step by step how to use the drawing tools as well asanimating, and the second shows how to add elements andcreate a movie. The Animating Workout sells at $24.99 USand is available at the Toon Boom online store. The nexttitle is already in the works and will teach the fundamentalsof cut-out style animation, showing step by step how to gofrom a rough sketch, to a fully painted character, ready forcut-out animation. The Workout Series is designed to workwith Toon Boom Studio or Toon Boom Solo, users musthave one of these two products installed on their computer.This is not designed to work with Toon Boom StudioExpress. Check out all the eLearning tools Toon Boomoffers online at www.toonboom.com/products/eLearning/.

Software instructor Marie-Ève Chartrandjoined Toon Boom in 2005. She providestraining on all Toon Boom products atcustomer studios as well as at theMontreal head office. Prior to joining thecompany, Marie-Ève worked for severalanimation studios, including Pascal BlaisProductions and Manga Latina, as an ani-

mator, ink and painter and compositor. Her experience inanimation production contributes greatly to her trainingassignments, giving her a unique perspective on customerneeds and creative challenges. Marie-Ève travels extensive-ly throughout the world but makes sure to spend qualitytime with her sweetheart, Eric Raglione, who, from time totime, jumps into a plane and shares the experience with her.

TOON BOOM STAR In each issue, we will intro-duce you to the people behind the technology andput a face to the voice you may have spoken to.

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Get fit with Toon Boom Animation Workout SeriesTouching on all aspects of animation creation, the Toon Boom Animation Workout Series is a dedicated pro-gram of exercises designed to help users develop the techniques and skills necessary to get the most outof the Toon Boom product family.

Founded in 2004, the Answer Studio was created byleading and experienced Japanese animators who hadproduced several popular animated features. With thegrowing number of small independent studios in Japan,Answer Studio positions itself as a one-stop studio and isreleasing its first original series, Flag, in co-production withAniplex. Made using Opus, Flag is a documentary styleanimation featuring a young female photographer whocovers a civil war in a small Asian nation. The story is nar-rated through the photos she takes. Opus’ features con-tributed greatly to establish the animation style and atmos-phere of this project. “We put a lot of effort trying to findthe best way to show photos, as we definitely wanted toavoid showing them just as held animation. The biggestchallenge was to visualize the reality of ‘shade and light’ ofbattlefield photos. The director’s goal was to do some-thing beyond existent Japanese animation style. After lotsof trial and error, we found a way to blur the shadows ofthe character. As Opus enables us to naturally blur all theshadows as a mask, we could quite easily visualize realisticshadows. We can’t get this effect by using Japanese ani-mation software. If we try, most of the work has to be donein post-production, which is time-consuming and costly.Also, as we seek realistic images, there are subtle colorchanges all over. The ability to play the color palettes andcamera moves in real time really helps the team and direc-tors working on this project,” shared Miki Kusama ofAnswer Studio.

Cosgrove Hall, the presti-gious Manchester basedanimation studio, has adop-ted Toon Boom Harmony.Dedicated to creating newand innovative work withthe most advanced tech-nology available in the market, Cosgrove Hallplans to maximize the pipeline integration ToonBoom Harmony offers while keeping all the pro-duction in the United Kingdom. “While Cos-grove Hall celebrates its 30th Anniversary, weplan to give the industry an idea of what is nextfor Europe’s largest animation studio. Adopting

Toon Boom Harmony is a critical step in our strategy”shared Anthony Utley, Managing Director at CosgroveHall. Recently Cosgrove Hall has been more widely knownfor their prestigious work for hire, including most of theUK’s top rating children shows such as Little Robots, Fifiand the Flowertots and Postman Pat, however a recentmajor management restructure and fresh and targetedoutlook to program development has ensured the studiosare experiencing massively renewed international interestin co pros, development and production ideas.____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Toonz AnimationIndia, South Asia'sleading animationstudio, has becomethe largest ToonBoom Harmonyinstallation in India.Preparing for theproduction of sev-

eral in-house projects, Toonz is planning to exploreHarmony’s wide array of capabilities to create tradition-al and cut-out animation in a fully integrated produc-tion pipeline. “To further our level of efficiency andbring our quality standards even higher, we decided toinstall Toon Boom Harmony throughout our studio”shared P. Jayakumar, Chief Executive Officer at ToonzAnimation India. Toonz Animation India Pvt. Ltd., amajor provider of animation to top US and Europeanproducers, is South Asia’s most admired animation stu-dio. Founded in 1999, Toonz’s client list includes thebiggest names in media and entertainment: Marvel,Hallmark, Paramount, and Cartoon Network. TheAnimation Magazine has heralded the company as oneof the top ten multimedia studios in the world. Thesprawling, 18,000 sq ft state-of-the-art studio is basedin the electronic city of Technopark, Trivandrum. Thefacility is staffed with top creative professionals fromacross the world, including Philippines, Singapore,Canada, USA and India.


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SustainLane Animation Studio was created in January2006 to catapult a new online media company into thefuture of art and entertainment information broadcasting.SustainLane connects families and urban communitiesfrom around the world to an influential online informationsource that is working to improve the health and lifestylesof every individual. Its development came about whenSustainLane’s visionary CEO, James Daniel Elsen invitedaspiring animation filmmaker, Byron Cloudwalker to theirheadquarters located in the heart of downtown SanFrancisco. The rest, as they say, is history. SustainLane’screative team is currently developing an engaging fan-tasy series using ToonBoom’s state-of-the-art Solo soft-ware. And though the artists are required to align theirwork with company themes, they are free to developtheir own stories in a work atmosphere that resembles ahybrid between a dotcom and miniature Pixar. “Needlessto say, working at SustainLane is a blast from the past aswell as a peek into the future, ”Byron stated. True to SanFrancisco’s admirable reputation as a melting pot,SustainLane’s diverse team of artists hails from placesas far away as Russia and France. They are delightedto be part of the SustainLane family inside a buildingthat has withstood the test of time, and a communitythat artists affectionately refer to as the “New Holly-wood” of animation. You can view their current works atwww.SustainLane.com. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

At the last NAB 2006, Johnny D. Minick discovered Soloduring a demo at Toon Boom’s booth. “I knew then that itwas exactly what I had been searching for. I am the seniorpastor of River Of Life in Smyrna, Tennessee, and I findmyself constantly searching for new ways to involve mycongregation in exploring and developing their talents

and skills. Of course, our primary objective is to use every-thing we do to promote the Gospel and encourage theChristian lifestyle,” shared Pastor Minick. His emphasis hasrecently been on helping teenagers to find a place of min-istry in the church. Many of the young people in his churchhave artistic and creative gifts and talents. “I believe thatSolo can be used to develop the talent of our teenagersand fulfill the mission of our church by promoting theGospel. It is my vision that we can produce programmingfor our children’s department as well as create short fea-tures as visual aids to our adult Bible lessons. Many thanksfor this creative tool!” he added.____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Blue Tsunami Studios provides audio and video pro-duction services to independent musical artists with anemphasis on the electronic musician. “Toon Boom Solo isperfect for my production of Sub-level 03's music videoproject as it provides a complete, end-to-end productionsolution,” shared John Williams. Touch of Pink is the titlesong of Sub-level 03's latest release, the music group heis part of, and from its inception they discussed an ani-mated video. Once they settled on a concept, theybegan to look for tools to produce the video. “We con-sidered traditional methods like stop action or flip booksas I was unaware of a computer software tool to com-pletely produce a 2D animated project, be within ourbudget, and easy to learn and use — that is until I down-load the demo of Solo. Myself and Lennox are consum-mate do-it-yourself musicians/recording artists/videoproducers with a full arsenal of audio and video produc-tion tools. Toon Boom Solo is the perfect addition to oursoftware toolkit and I'm sure Touch of Pink will not be thelast animated video we produce,” added John.

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Based in Rio de Janeiro, Carlos Eduardo Alves Ramírez is aborn illustrator. In 2004, he opened his own studio, PICTUSarte interativa, where he and his team create content for dig-ital media, including CD-ROMs and DVDs. ”I used to createall my digital animations using Macromedia Flash, and I likedit a lot. However, I felt I needed more flexibility while lookingfor an application that would follow the traditional methodsof creating animation. Certain tasks were tedious and long todo traditionally, such as inking and painting, and creatinginbetweens. I can now do them 80% faster in Toon BoomStudio. Another advantage that I enjoy is the ability to rotatethe work area to better position my hand on the drawing. InFlash, this is impossible. The camera moves, which wouldrequire several tedious steps in Flash, can be done with justone attachment of a peg in Toon Boom Studio, enabling meto move the camera in any way that I want. ”Carlos and histeam are currently brainstorming for the creation of threeadditional animations (probably an animated short, an ani-mated feature and a 5-minute TV series).____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Presentek is in its 20th year,founded in 1987. Presentekprovides professional commu-nications services primarily tocorporate clients in the areasof Product Marketing, WebSites, Electronic MarketingCollateral, and Sales Tools & Product Demos. Presentek hasa long history of using Flash animation to deliver compellingproduct information. In 2004, Presentek expanded its flashoffering to include 2D character animation with the objectiveof offering its clients something different, lighter and morefun, but still designed to inform and entertain. This is whenthey added Toon Boom Studio to their toolkit which they putto use for the Ricoh Corp. Software Support site project.“After I established a workflow and gained some experienceand familiarity with the program, animating became relative-ly quick and easy…and those are two words you’ll rarely everhear an animator use to describe the process! The instantgratification of seeing my drawings move and watching mycharacters come to life – without the pain of drawing eachframe traditionally – really made me a fan of Toon BoomStudio,” shared Laura Giorgi, animator at Presentek. Checktheir web site at www.presentekstudios.com

Atlantic Video is a full-servicebroadcast development and pro-duction management companyheadquartered in Washington,D.C. The post production divisionof Atlantic Video is responsible for the graphics and anima-tion of the series Pendemonium for Discovery Education.Pendemonium is an educational series that teaches gram-mar to students through the adventures of four “pentastic”heroes battling an evil marker trying to take over the world.The project, currently in its second season, is developedentirely using Toon Boom Studio. “We selected Toon BoomStudio due to its essential mixture of animation functions notavailable in any other software package. The ability to lip-sync,work with a Z-axis, efficiently manage assets, and output toboth web and broadcast formats make it an ideal animationsoftware package,” said David Pascual, Director of Anima-tion at Atlantic Video. Using Toon Boom Studio, we complet-ed over four hours of animation for the series in the last year.____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Rolf Eichenberger from ICO interactive communication(http://ico.ch) is part of a dynamic network which predomi-nantly provides DVD and CD-ROM authoring as well asFlash, CSS and Typo3 for internet solutions. A few weeksago, Burkard & Partner Werbeagentur AG, an advertisingagency in Zurich, asked Rolf if he could do the animation ofa cartoon-style ad made from drawings by their illustratorMatthias Lutz. Until then, he mainly used Flash for this kindof work but the incredible camera function, the lip-synchtool and the possibility to easily publish the final result todifferent formats such as internet, television and cinemamade Toon Boom Studio his first choice. "Due to my long-time experience with Macromedia Director, Flash and simi-lar software I got familiar with the workflow of Toon BoomStudio really fast. Congratulations to the Toon Boom team,keep your great work continuing," enthused Rolf.____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Rob Campbell is a high school multimedia teacher and pro-prietor of Cartoon Thunder, a web site with cartoons aimedat the Harley riding crowd and their kids. On a couple ofproductions, GroundHog Day and Ripped Off, the RedLight Reindeer, using the lip-synch utility really sped up pro-duction and let him get the pieces out without much effort.”Using the library lets me have long term consistency andcontrol over the look of my characters, which inspires me toget the look right.” Since then, Rob has learned moreabout what he can do to make them better without muchmore time commitment—again, the library is key. ”I’mthrilled to have given it a trya few years ago. I expectmore users to find how coolToon Boom Studio is for ani-mation and see the benefitsto switching over.”

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“The thing I am most proud of is . . . with the help of thepublic we were able to discover a serious need, come upwith solution, and execute it with Toon Boom Studio actingas our life preserver. We didn’t start out with the thought ofproducing a children’s cartoon, it just happened!” statedDaniel R. Johnson, President and Chief Executive Officer atMotion Picture Services / Toon Studios. For the past sev-enteen years, Motion Picture Services (MPS) has becomewell-known in the broadcast and cable industry for highquality production. The company started out producingfilm ads, and animated logo elements for theaters acrossthe United States and Canada. MPS has done work forclients such as KIA Motors of America, U.S. Xpress,International Dairy Queen, The Weather Channel and manyothers. Toon Studios was formed in an effort to explore thepossibility of incorporating 2D animation in projects for thecompany’s growing list of clients.

The New Horizon: A couple of years ago, State andFederal fire officials approached Daniel with a problem.They asked him if he knew what the number one cause ofdeath in the U.S. was for children under the age of 12. “Oh,I did like everyone else and guessed car crashes, suffoca-tion, and then I threw in what I knew would be the winninganswer, poisoning. Boy was I wrong. The correct answer is

house fires,” sharedDaniel. They told himsomething drastic hadto be done in order toeducate young chil-dren as nothing newhad been produced inthe past ten years toaddress this problem.“So we as a company

set out on a mission to volunteer our time to develop aseries of cartoons, to not only address the needs of firesafety for children but to produce and distribute a seriesthat would address issues such as child safety on the inter-net, childhood obesity, abduction, food allergies for chil-dren, and much more. I remembered this little program wehad bought called Toon Boom Studio. We had playedaround with it a little. So it was time for us to roll up our shirtsleeves and get busy.”

The Production Process Begins: “Time was our biggestenemy. I remember hearing the news on the radio on myway into work, a house fire claims the lives of two small chil-dren. For us, it literally became a race against the clock tofinish this cartoon. Toon Boom Studio ended up being ourlittle engine . . . that could!” Firefighter Frank started outas a simple children’s story, then was re-written as a screen-play, and finally turned into a manuscript for a children’sbook. In the early stages of creation, they began story-boarding each scene. Fire officials were so impressed when

they would see little bits and pieces of a screen test, theyleaned on Toon Studio a little to meet the deadline ofNational Fire Safety Week. The team found itself acting outthe scenes, rather than storyboarding them. “No offense,but we didn’t want our cartoon to look like . . . a cartoon.We wanted it to look like a cross between a storybookand a cartoon. After all, our audience was pre-school tokindergarten.”

They consulted with a lot of professionals as to the colorpalette and style to which young children would respond.To achieve the look and feel they were going for, JohnnyStockman, their head of animation, used colored pencils tocolor in the backgrounds. They were extremely mindful ofadults having to watch the cartoon over and over with theirchildren, so when they watched the dailies, they insertedgags into the video that adults would appreciate.

“Before we started the cartoon, I knew only one firefight-er. When production began I knew hundreds of them. Theseyoung men and women are incredibly giving and dedicatedindividuals.” The characters were developed, and voice tal-ent was brought in to record the voice tracks for each char-acter. Each character was hand drawn on paper (yes, paper),and the image was then either traced or scanned into thecomputer. The images were then imported into Toon BoomStudio and manipulated over the backgrounds. They produ-ced a pencil test of each scene and then dissected it in meet-ings until they got the desired result. They would often testthese scenes with children and note their reactions. “ToonBoom Studio was like a dream come true. If we needed tobring in an additional artist, they would have no problem

learning how to use ToonBoom Studio quickly.”

“Toon Boom Studio’sfeatures allowed us todress up the cartoon andmake it more interestingby holding the attentionof such a young audience.Let’s face it, fire safety


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rules by themselves canappear boring; use ofmovement and gradientshelp to keep the viewertotally immersed in thestory. We experienced atremendous productivitygain by using Toon BoomStudio. The ease of use

allowed artists to get up and running quickly, and beingable to draw directly into the program allowed us to keepthe hand drawn style we wanted so desperately to pre-serve. Prior to using Toon Boom Studio, we would haveused an arsenal of programs such as Adobe Illustrator toAdobe After Effects. What previously took two to threedays to produce with the other programs, takes only a dayin Toon Boom Studio. This makes us much more productive

and eliminates the problem of keeping up with all the partsand pieces generated by the other programs. When you’vegot a real deadline to meet and have a program that out-performs your expectations, it’s considered a winner in ourproduction house. Our staff give Toon Boom Studio 5 stars!”

“We picked Baltimore, MD home to the FirehouseExpo as the site to debut the cartoon. When you’re stand-ing behind a group of firefighters on an escalator, listen-ing to them buzz about Firefighter Frank . . . you knowyou’ve got something!” Two years later, Daniel is proud toannounce the release of the first thirty minute cartoon inthe series, called Firefighter Frank. "That's not all. Thecartoon is currently being used by fire departments acrossAmerica as a teaching aid, and wait until you hear theheartwarming e-mails and letters that are coming into myoffice from educators who are using this wonderful car-toon in the classrooms.”

Barbara-Anne Krampfert is a teacher at St. Dunstan Ele-mentary in Mississauga, Ontario. Six years ago, she beganworking with students during her lunch hours on develop-ing animation skills as an extracurricular club. Studentsfrom grades 5 to 8 are picked for their drawing, comput-er and presentation skills. Students hone these skills in theAnimation Club and go on to compete at the school,board and provincial levels.

Three years ago, Skills Ontario mandated the use ofnew software – Toon Boom Studio. Her students had wonJunior and Intermediate gold at the Dufferin-Peel CatholicDistrict School Board (DPCDS Board) level and had tolearn to use this new software in two weeks. “I purchasedtwo copies of the software and it was very easy to install onour Mac computers. Students found it easy to use and couldbegin drawing and coloring without having to create framesfor their animated items. The quick rendering time is agreat Toon Boom Studio feature, especially for studentswho want quick results. Other features of the softwarewhich my students find effective and time efficient are theassigned keyboard shortcut commands which are adapt-able to both Mac and PC. The tools are very easy to mani-pulate and the ability to grab an object and paste it intoother scenes is fantastic. You can also save characters orobjects to your library. My students have created a varietyof short mini movies. This year, the Board challenge was tocreate a mini movie of the Passion of Christ,” shares Barbara-Anne. The students have had success ever since theybegan using Toon Boom Studio with the following wins:

* * * * *2004 DPCDSB Junior & Intermediate – Gold2004 Skills Ontario Junior – Gold & Intermediate - Silver2005 DPCDSB Junior & Intermediate– Gold2005 Skills Ontario Junior – Silver2006 DPCDSB Junior – Gold & Intermediate – Silver

“In keeping with the Ministry of Education’s goal todevelop students’ media skills, Toon Boom Studio is a veryquick hands-on tool applicable to any subject, in particulargeography, science, health and religion. One student usedthe software to create an impressive health assignment ongood eating and exercising habits, which was presented tothe class. Another created a short piece for science.”

“Presently, only a few secondary schools offerCharacter Animation in our school region as a subject oras an extracurricular activity. It is not until students reachthe post secondary level that this opportunity is availableagain. With the Skills Ontario Competition, more schools

are becoming aware of and using Toon Boom Studio. Myhope is that more school boards will begin to use ToonBoom Studio as a choice in their standard suite of soft-ware, allowing students to develop their creative skills thatwill foster future technology careers,” concluded Barbara-Anne. For more information regarding Ontario SkillsCompetitions and Workshops for both elementary andsecondary schools check out www.skillsontario.com.

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This drawing was done by a grade 5 student.

Elementary students + Toon Boom Studio = Success


Based in Antigua, Guatemala, RAD Productions is a smallindependent animation studio providing projects tailoredto any budget. RAD is a fresh young company with asense of fun about their work. They can develop projectsfor any scale, from Web animation to television and film,in either Spanish or English. RAD was founded four yearsago by Richard Dunmore and Xochitl Gazol, forming theperfect combination of Richard’s knowledge of systemsand technology and Xoch’s artistic creativity. RAD wasformed in a beautiful seven-room Colonial house with roofterrace gardens situated on luscious colorful grounds. It isan ideal haven in which to develop their ideas.

Richard Dunmore is a New Zealander living in Guatemala.His background was in project management involving tech-nical infrastructure in the telecom industry. Xochitl Gazol isfrom Nicaragua and studied graphic design in college. Shebegan designing Web sites and is now RAD’s director andlead animator. They created animation for zero-budgetindependent short films in Guatemala. The team spent 2004writing and producing a cartoon pilot for Latin Americantelevision. They are now involved in developing other ani-mation and film projects. They started designing simpleHTML Web sites for their clients —mostly foreign businessowners. They were introduced to animation as they designedincreasing complex Web sites using the technique.Guatemala is a developing country in Central America com-posed of an ethnically diverse population. Recently the civilwar came to an end, bringing with it an environment ofsocial dislocation and loss. The effect of this breakdown onthe juvenile population is a lack of information about civil,judicial and state guarantees.

Concerned by repeated abuses of Guatemalan children’srights, loss of identity and social discrimination, RADdecided to create an animated series, focusing on viewersfrom 6 to 12 years old, where they can discuss children’srights in an attractive and simple language. The projecthad to be easily understandable and show the differentfaces that constitute Guatemalan identity and community.The sacred book of the Mayans, the Popol Vuh tells thestory of two young brothers who combat evil forces. RADcreated a story based on the book, about indigenoustwins, Luna and Hunapu, who fight against evil. The seriesis called El Viaje de Hunapu. Hunapu is separated from hisparents and sister at a very young age. He travels aroundGuatemala searching for his sister, so together they can

reunite with their parents. On his trip, he meets other kidslike himself with children’s rights issues. He then helps themunderstand their rights and even attain them with hismagical powers.

Considering the importance of this topic and the pur-pose it serves for the juvenile population, institutions likeSave the Children Norway and Soros Foundation Guatemaladecided to support the project. Save the Children Norwayhelps with the research component of the series develop-ment and Soros Foundation Guatemala provides a smalleconomic contribution that helps to run the production.National channels have also expressed their interest in broad-casting the series as a part of their regular programming.RAD is still at an early stage of the project and the anima-tion department has not yet started the full production.They are getting familiar with Toon Boom Studio to maximizethe use of the software. At this point, they are completingdesigns of the characters and importing them directly intoToon Boom Studio for painting and rigging of the cutout.

“From our short experience, we have eliminated Photo-shop from our pipeline, and are scanning drawings directlyinto Toon Boom Studio for painting,” comments AlejoCrisostomo, General Director for El Viaje de Hunapu. “Welove the Twain import that vectorizes all of my drawn linescombined with the smooth tool, this has given me greatresults and saved me lots of time. The color palette fea-tures are great too! It enables us to change the tint andalpha of entire palettes styles, from day to night with just acouple of clicks. Also the color management enables us toupdate all color changes just by changing the swatch. I amvery pleased with the Flatten and Optimize commandsalso. The painting process has definitely speeded up by200% and will probably start getting faster once we over-come our learning curve.”

“On the animation side, I really like the automated lipsync. The directors asked if Spanish was going to be aproblem and the testing has yielded excellent results. Thisis a huge potential savings in the animators’ time. On a pre-vious project, we had a dedicated lip sync animator, on hisbest day, before being driven mad by the repetition, hecould complete 20 seconds in a day. I have saved 100 daysof work without having started. Already we are converted andplan to use ToonBoom’s familyof softwarefor all ouranimationprojects,”concludedAlejo.

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The Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics (MAAC)joined hands with Toon Boom Animation in May 2006 tolaunch courses in 2D animation in four major cities in India(Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore) based on the cur-riculum designed by Toon Boom and the faculty trainedspecialists from Canada. "In the past few markets, I haveseen tremendous interest in 2D/CGI work and, looking atthe in-roads Toon Boom Animation has had in the majorstudios around the world, we feel that it is the right time forMaya Academy of Advanced Cinematics to introduce ToonBoom in its curriculum,” shared Rajesh Turakhia, ChiefExecutive Officer at MAAC. Maya Academy of AdvancedCinematics is the academic wing of Maya EntertainmentLtd.(MEL), a premier 3D Animation and Visual Effects housebased in Mumbai, India and promoted by internationallyrenowned producer-director Mr. Ketan Mehta and acclai-med film actress Ms. Deepa Sahi. MAAC provides educa-tion in 3D animation, visual effects and post-productiontechniques duly supported by live projects, seminars byindustry professionals and innovative workshops. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Located in the heart of Paris, France, and close to thelargest animation studios, Rhinocéros Formation posi-tions itself as a specialized training center of images inmotion. Totally focusing on the creative professionals’ needs,this three-year old training center offers new training pro-grams designed for cartoon animators in exclusive partner-ship with Toon Boom. Based on Harmony, this trainingwhich is the first of its kind in France, can be organized forindividuals or groups, on a case by case basis, at Rhino-céros or on site, anywhere in France. The training fees canbe 100% funded thanks to the special agreements madebetween Rhinocéros and the AFDAS (Caisse de Finance-ment des Formations des Intermittents du Spectacle). Thisis a great opportunity to get trained on the most advanceddigital animation technology at a very low cost. More infor-mation can be found at www.rhinoceros-formation.com.____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The RITS School of Animation in Brussels offers anextensive course in all aspects of professional animation,which takes four or five years to complete. Graphic design,storyboarding, 2D, 3D computer and puppet/plasticine ani-mation are all taught by active professionals. The first twoyears initiate the students in all these fields, while they canspecialize themselves from the third year on. During thefourth year (and sometimes fifth) they are offered theopportunity to create an animated short of their own.Harmony will be used to finalize 2D cartoon animation aswell as for cut-out and multimedia techniques.____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

ICARI adopted Toon Boom Solo for its one-year trainingprogram in cartoon animation. At first, students learn howto create animation traditionally then learn the digital tech-niques before starting their year-end project. “It is the bestof two worlds, the transition to digital is very natural as the

Toon Boom Solo interface is very user-friendly to anyonefamiliar with the traditional methods,” stated MichelMurray, director at ICARI. “The students are excited whenthey realize what they can create thanks to the software,”he added. Founded in 1993, in the heart of Montreal, ICARIis a private school totally dedicated to providing profes-sional training in animation and image high-tech. Accre-dited by the Quebec Ministry of Education, Leisure andSport, ICARI provides specialized training that leads direct-ly to the work marketplace. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

College of the Redwoods is a community college inNorthern California, between the towns of Eureka andFortuna. The Digital Media program has recently addednew courses in 2D and 3D animation. “After a comprehen-sive software comparison, Toon Boom Studio was selectedfor its superior hand-drawn to vector conversion, along withthe phonetic analysis for dialogue and mouth shapesynchronization”, shared Clyde Johnson, Digital MediaProfessor. Students begin by using animation light boxesand pencil test equipment for traditional animation, learn-ing fundamental skills in line control and movement. This isfollowed by learning a process for traditional to digital con-version. To compliment a solid sequence of animationcourses, new courses in game programming, game art andof course, game animation will be a direction for many ofthe 2D and 3D animation students. Toon Boom Studio willbe used in the Animation Principles and Cartoon Animationclasses. Check the Digital Media website at http://isweb.redwoods.edu/dm to see examples of student work andfind out more about the classes.____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ngee Ann Polytechnic, School of InfoCommTechnology is Singapore’s premier institute for IT educa-tion. Established by the government in 1982 as the Centrefor Computer Studies, it offers Diploma in Multimedia andAnimation with specialization in 3D Animation, InteractiveMedia and Game Development. The Diploma is a three-year program covering classical animation principles andtechniques as foundation before progressing to a series of3D animation modules. Toon Boom Studio and drawingtablet are introduced in the second year second animationmodule to enable students focus more on their creativityand for the purpose of enriching their learning experiencein animation production. While doing a one-year long proj-ect in the third year, students will form into a project team,develop a concept, and work collaboratively in a simulatedproduction pipeline. For students who are aspiring to be2D animators, this workplace learning environment @ TheMAC – The Multimedia & Animation Centre within theSchool, using Toon Boom as a productivity tool will givethem a rich simulated working experience before theystep into the real world. For more information, please visitour website at www.ict.np.edu.sg/mma (broadbandaccess required).


In March 2006, the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Televisionannounced the winners of the 26th Annual Genie Awards,celebrating excellence in Canadian cinema. Congratulationsto Chris Hinton who won the Best Animated Short Awardwith his seven-minute cNote project. He is a multi-award-winning animator who has worked for the National FilmBoard, the CBC and several commercial animation studios.He is also heading the Animation Department at ConcordiaUniversity in Montreal. cNote is an assembly of digitized ele-ments arranged to contemporary classical musical. The musicwas created expressly for this short, as a creative counter-weight for Hinton to work against and with. In this animatedpas de deux, Hinton and Montreal-based composer MichaelOesterle leap back and forth between picture and sound;building, tearing down, and rebuilding until the film existsonly as an integrated and unified “one.” Chris Hinton usedToon Boom Studio V3 as his primary animating tool. He alsoused Photoshop and Painter to alter the vector line and giveit its very special look.____________________________________________________

At Vancouver Film School, the Classical Animation stu-dents learn the entire animation process from developinga concept, to delivering a finished product. Just as in a stu-dio, they learn to transform ideas into stories by workingcreatively with writers, directors, producers, actors, andsound designers. In addition to studying the cornerstonesof animation, they work with the latest technologies suchas Toon Boom Harmony. Students have production meet-ings during which the instructor sits as a technical consult-ant and makes recommendations right at the storyboardstage to make sure the production starts on the right foot.By the end of the year these technical and creative skillsare applied to their original short films that they may besubmitting to animation festivals. Toon Boom is proud toannounce that five animated shorts made by VancouverFilm School students have been screened during the latestLEO AWARDS Film Festival and two were nominated in

the Student production category, namely: Strictly Cavy byElisabeth Lenning and The Heart Collector by MichaelFallik. Congratulations!____________________________________________________

At the latest ‘Pitch Me! Italia’ Competition duringCartoons on the Bay 2006, Francesco Filippi pitched his showRusty Red to a world-class panel of judges, including GuidoManuli, a famous Animation Director, MichaelaHaberlander from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern,Germany and Annita Romanelli from RAIfiction. The plot, which takes inspirationfrom the history of German Navy in WorldWar I, is a about a grandfather whotells his grandson, Federico, aboutthe legend of Captain Red. The cap-tain was aware hero who saved hun-dreds of soldiers by opposing the eviladmiral Kommel’s orders. Federicofears that with school starting, hisfavorite tale will soon be revealed as alie; but he then discovers that not onlyis the story true, his grandfather hidesa great secret. As a Toon Boom Studioprize winner, Francesco Filippi shared:“I am very grateful to Toon Boom forthis award. We have really struggledwith our current applications and it willbe great to get an opportunity towork with a tool designed specificallyfor 2D animation.” Due to this boost ofconfidence, Francesco Filippi is takinghis project to MIFA 2006 where he willbe showing his completed pilot, hopingto gain a co-producer and raise thefinance to go into production.Information about the project isavailable at www.studiomistral.com.

toonboom news / june 2006

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Toon Boom News June 2006

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