Summer 2012
toonboom.com
Amplify the learning experience using animation The power of animation is a force to be reckoned with, not only in entertainment, but also in education. When empirical data are made available to justify that statement, one can only tip their hat to the educators who embrace technology for the betterment of their students. Bluffton Elementary School, located in South Carolina’s Beaufort County, deserves special mention in this regard. The school’s visionary Principal Christine Brown, alongside dedicated animation teacher Celia Miller, gave their students the opportunity to surpass themselves and they did. Using the Flip Boom family of products, students from Grades 3 to 5 created animation to demonstrate their understanding of the core curriculum. During the first year of implementation, this innovative approach translated into an increase of up to 15% in overall marks throughout the core curriculum, maintaining a much higher performance than the state level. There was also an over 40% increase in science, 36% in math, 12% in social studies and 26% in writing amongst African-American students. This spectacular achievement was recognized by the Department of Education, which granted them the 2012 Palmetto Gold Award in the Closing the Achievement Gap category, which recognizes programs that narrow the gap in achievement between historically lower and higherachieving student demographic groups. Toon Boom is a great advocate of the school’s methodology and is proud to count Bluffton as a champion in the field.
Game Camps
Working in collaboration with Ubisoft in Montreal and Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, Toon Boom is directly involved in a series of animation game camps targeted to 12 to 15 year-old children, offering them an educational adventure in game design using Toon Boom Storyboard Pro. Taking place throughout the summer in both Montreal and Savannah, the camps have received an overwhelmingly positive response.
On the Road Recognized as experts in the field of animation, members of the Toon Boom team are invited to speak to audiences throughout the world on topics relating to growing the animation industry, production pipelines and education. Recently, Joan Vogelesang was a guest speaker at the 2012 Caribbean Investment Forum, sharing her knowledge of how to develop the animation industry in the region. Joan was also present at the 2012 FMX, presenting the How to Prepare Children for a Future in Animation and the The Future of 2D Animation sessions. At MIFA, Francisco Del Cueto was part of a panel on How to Optimize Production Management. Industry events scheduled for this summer include: MIFA, Booth 2.005 in Annecy, France (June 4-9); International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), Booth 5947 in San Diego, CA, USA (June 24-27); Georgia Association for Career and Tech-
This issue’s cover courtesy of La Fabrique d’Images Toon Boom Corporate Headquarters +1 514 278 8666 5530 St. Patrick, Suite 2210 Montréal (Québec) H4E 1A8 Canada
toonboom.com
2
Toon Boom News
Printed in Canada
summer 2012
nical Education (GACTE) in Atlanta, GA, USA (July 15-18), Virginia Technology and Engineering Educators Association Conference (VTEEA), Frederick County, VA, USA (August 1-3); and SIGGRAPH, Booth 1030 in Los Angeles, CA, USA (August 7-9). Make it a point to drop by our booth to say hello!
Awards On the awards front, the Toon Boom team has been twice honoured recently for its achievements in the animation industry, as well as for its commitment to its customers.
TOON BOOM STAR This section is dedicated to Toon Boom employees. In each issue, we will introduce you to the people behind the technology and put a face to the voice you may have heard on the other end of the line.
Joan Vogelesang, Toon Boom’s President and CEO, accepting the Frost and Sullivan 2011 Global Animation Software Entrepreneurial of the Year Award from Krishna Srinivasan, Global President & Managing Partner, Frost & Sullivan.
Mr Steven Chu, Toon Boom’s COO, receiving the Distinguished Partners’ Award from Singapore’s Institute for Technical Education (ITE). Presenting the award is guest of honour, Mr Teo Chee Hean, Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister, Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs, on April 3, 2012. Presenting the Award with Mr Teo are Mr Bob Tan, Chairman, ITE and Mr Bruce Poh, CEO, ITE.
Marc-André Bouvier-Pelletier joined Toon Boom in March 2001, working in quality assurance for the then soon-to-be-released Toon Boom Studio version 1. MarcAndré performed numerous hardware compatibility tests to ensure this new product would receive the best possible reception in the field. As updates and upgrades were made available, he conducted further tests while garnering a great expertise of Toon Boom vector technology. In 2005, Marc-André embraced the professional line of products, and began playing a more active role in the field. Now dedicated to that family of products, he acts as a consultant; assisting customers with installation, pipeline optimization and production assistance. With regard to Toon Boom Storyboard Pro, Marc-André has performed several user tests on behalf of corporate accounts and manages feature requests, prioritizing them and translating them into new software functions. With the upcoming release of Harmony 10, he is currently hard at work in the testing phase, while helping define how new features are implemented in the software. He also oversees the beta testing of the new version sent to corporate accounts and writes the release notes, in which all the great feature additions and improvements are outlined. On the personal side, Marc-André is an avid four season amateur sportsman, practicing indoor climbing, biking, roller derby and snowboarding. He also enjoys renovating his house and landscaping alongside his significant other, Geneviève and her six year-old son, Vega, with whom they form a harmonious and happily-blended family.
Proud recipient of:
2011 GLOBAL ANIMATION SOFTWARE ENTREPRENEURIAL COMPANY OF THE YEAR AWARD
Emmy-Award Technology
Toon Boom News
Summer 2012
3
Technology News
Get Toon Boom Certified! Toon Boom believes life-long learning is important— from academia throughout your professional career. We support students and educators as well as professionals. Whether you need educational resources, instructor-led, self-paced, or online training, Toon Boom has you covered. As the worldwide leader in digital content and animation creation software, Toon Boom Animation is highly recognized in the animation and the film industries. By certifying their marketable skills, individuals can validate their technical ability and demonstrate recognized proficiency in digital content and animation. Toon Boom’s Certification Program opens doors to exciting careers and
lets successful candidates stand apart from their peers in a highly-competitive job market. Toon Boom Certification is an industry standard of excellence that provides reliable validation of skills and knowledge. This can lead to accelerated professional development, improved productivity, and enhanced credibility. It’s the best way to communicate your proficiency in leading products from Toon Boom. Check out the 2012 training calendar for upcoming Toon Boom Certification classes, all of which will be held in Montreal. Course prices (USD) include a one-year license of the related software, as well as the certification. Learn more about Toon Boom’s certification programs at toonboom.com/education/certification
Professional Training
Leading to Professional/Master Certification
OM CER T
IED
TOO
IF
N
BO
Harmony
Storyboard Pro 3D
Conditions: Have a working knowledge of, or experience working with, Toon Boom Harmony
Conditions: Have a working knowledge of, or experience working with, Toon Boom Storyboard Pro 3D
Capacity: 5
Capacity: 5
Price: $2,499
Price: $1,999
Dates:
Dates:
• August 27-31 • November 26-30
• August 22-24 • November 21-23
Associate Training
Leading to Associate Certification (Creative Entrepreneur Programs)
M CE
TOO Toon Boom News
IED
4
RT IF
N
O BO
summer 2012
Harmony
Storyboard Pro 3D
Conditions: Have a basic knowledge of, or experience working with, Toon Boom Harmony
Conditions: Have a basic knowledge of, or experience working with, Toon Boom Storyboard Pro 3D
Capacity: 7
Capacity: 7
Price: $2,499
Price: $1,999
Dates:
Dates:
• •
• •
August 13-17 November 12-16
August 20-22 November 19-21
Striking Speed Striking Speed with Toon Boom Harmony 10 Toon Boom Harmony 10 delivers features that will require you to fasten your seat belt!
Racing Engine Benefit from a powerful 64-bit engine, driving enhancements in speed, performance, and handling of this groundbreaking animation software.
Go Further The new engine powers the ability to go further than ever before. Take advantage of all the available memory on your system; render high definition projects and high quality images, in 2K, 4K, 8K, and more.
64 BITS Real-Time Manoeuvring See the advantages when handling the software directly; with a faster user interface, and faster interactive playback. See these improvements when working with very simple, or very complex, scenes with character rigs and deformation.
Turbo-Charged See the benefits of 64-bit when compositing and rendering special effects. Take advantage of the multi-thread technology and rendering improvements to render faster, and to render more elaborate scenes. See the difference when rendering large bitmaps, gradients, and complex backgrounds. Efficiently render very sophisticated scenes with particles, complex effects, and 2D-3D integration. Toon Boom News
Summer 2012
5
Image courtesy of the Toon Boom Multimedia and Content Creation Team
Industry Tips
Avoiding the Presentation Crash and Burn by Heather Kenyon
How did it all go so terribly? You planned. You organized. You wore your lucky socks. So, how did you suddenly find yourself sputtering along, thrown off your mojo with the person you are pitching looking at you with a questioning, “What is this person talking about? And do they need some sort of medication?” type of face!? It has happened to us all and it is awful. While I can’t say doing the below will ensure you won’t occasionally have that bad, bad pitch, it might just help. •
•
6
Control your pitch materials. This is most important. I like to design my pitch bibles so that they naturally lead me through my pitch. If I am nervous, all I have to do is look at the pretty pictures and they will lead me through my pitch. Do not hand the pitch bible to the person you are pitching as you begin. They will flip through it, read it, and it will throw you off. Plus, once they start looking – they are no longer paying attention to you. You need to control how you tell your story. Put your hands on the bible, keep it close to you, and turn the pages for the person as you speak. Use your pitch book as your guide to tell the story of your show. This should help you to avoid blanking and getting the order of information jumbled. Don’t go overboard on the caffeine. People will be focused on your hands and if you – and the person you are pitching – suddenly notice that you are shaking, it can throw you off. I’ve lived this one.
Toon Boom News
summer 2012
• •
•
•
Turn off your cell phone. It will ring, vibrate or chirp at the exact wrong time. It just will. Trust me. If you can’t do it at home easily – play that clip, say the joke, etc. – it could be trouble in the room. Don’t stress yourself out with things that might not work or require a very certain snap of the wrist. Simple is better and means less to worry about and handle. Get some sleep. Practicing until 4 am isn’t going to help. In fact, canned pitches are duds. You want spontaneity. Do you know your characters? Do you know your stories? Good. Go to bed. And finally, maybe the person you are pitching to is just REALLY listening and that’s the face they make! I was once pitching to a lady who was making such an awful face I almost asked her if I should continue. But when I wrapped up, she broke into a huge smile and said, “I like it.”
So there you go! You never know. When in doubt, just keep smiling and keep pitching.
Heather Kenyon is currently working with Kid Glove Creative, a new division of B. Wooding Media. For five years, she worked at Cartoon Network, as Senior Director of Development, Original Series, leading the development of all series for children aged 6 – 11. She is also currently Vice President of Production and Development for Citizen Skull Productions, a predominately unscripted and documentary producer.
Better Brush in Toon Boom Storyboard Pro
When the Load Texture File window opens, simply select the PSD file you made earlier and click Open.
by Mark Simon
The biggest complaint I hear from artists when they start to draw in a vector-based program is that they don’t like the line quality of vector lines. Never fear! It’s quick and easy to set up a texture brush in Storyboard Pro 2.0 that will let you draw like Michelangelo with a line you will love. The first thing you need to do is open Photoshop and make a file that is 75 pixels by 75 pixels. Fill it with black and save it as a PSD file. I was incredibly creative with my file name and called it Mark’s Brush. Oooh. [Figure 01] Next, open Storyboard Pro.
Fig. 01
Select your Brush tool, and click on the Tool Properties tab. [Figure 02]
Name your brush and set the parameters as you want. You can adjust these parameters just like any brush, as often as you like. The settings shown here are my basic settings for working on a HD storyboard file. You can Fig. 04 set the minimum (2.8 pixels on mine) and maximum (33 pixels on my sample) brush size to control your pressure sensitive Wacom pen. [Figure 04] Now, you are free to draw with a smooth, pencil-like line that will make any artist happy. Go forth and board!
Fig. 02
On the Tool Properties tab, click on the New Brush icon. Below, select the Texture Brush option and then click on the button under the word Texture. [Figure 03]
Fig. 03
Mark Simon is a 25-year entertainment industry veteran amassing nearly 3,000 production credits. He is head of story on the upcoming Hong Kong Phooey feature for Warner Bros and animation producer on Fox’s Tooth Fairy 2. Mark has landed more than 25 deals for his original concepts. He is owner of three industry companies in Orlando, FL and the author of ten popular industry texts. He also lectures around the world. Toon Boom News
Summer 2012
7
Image courtesy of the Toon Boom Multimedia and Content Creation Team
Industry Tips
Co-Writing – More Sparks, Better Balance by Donna Lisa
Writers and songwriters create their own unique worlds. This process requires hours of focused thinking, which can be gratifying, but lonely. While working in solitude, many writers become distracted and have trouble finishing projects. Those who choose to co-write avoid these pitfalls. They have company while they create, and they rarely lose focus. As a writer/songwriter who has co-written many projects, I strongly favour this approach. The process of co-writing can be very motivating. Writers who work with partners don’t encounter writer’s block. It can be exhilarating to brainstorm and develop ideas together. Meeting a deadline can be easier with a writing partner to spur you on. I have found that carefully chosen writing partners can offset my weaknesses and enhance my strengths. For one of my writing assignments, I selected Monique Gramby, a very funny writer. I had been hired to write for a children’s comedy/adventure series. I felt confident that I could create exciting adventure stories, but I brought in Monique to help me make the series funnier. Our collaboration worked. The producer loved our bible. Through working with Monique, I learned to think in a more “out of the box,” funny way and she learned more about the pacing of episodes for children. We became good friends, another benefit that co-writing can provide. Writing songs with a writing partner has a natural flow for me. In script and bible writing, the division of labour is not well defined. Both writers work on all aspects of the project. In songwriting, the creative tasks can be easily divided. In my case, I picked Ted Brancato, a very talented, clas8
Toon Boom News
summer 2012
sically-trained musician, as my co-writer. Simple, catchy melodies and fun lyrics came easily to me, but I didn’t have the musicianship to write the more unusual, exotic melodies that Ted created. Through working with him, I learned to expand my lyric writing. I created unusual rhyme patterns to fit Ted’s innovative melodies. Ted learned to keep the songs catchy and accessible. He also brought his arranging talents to the studio when we recorded our songs. This was a huge benefit for the music and for me. Although my experience with co-writing has been very positive, it hasn’t always been easy. There were bumps along the way. For me, co-writing has meant sharing a creative vision and compromising ideas. Sometimes this process has involved a bit of friction. Monique and I clashed about some of our story ideas. We decided that a change of pace was needed. We went to a NYC restaurant, ate sushi, drank Saki, and hashed out our differences. Our collaboration quickly got back on track. If you haven’t tried co-writing, I recommend that you do. Even if you see yourself as a strictly solo writer, try working with a partner just once. After that, you may want to make co-writing a consistent part of your career.
Donna Lisa’s scripts and songs have been honoured by iParenting, NAPPA, Children’s Music Web Awards and other media organizations. Her screenplay, Kheng Kheng Crocodile, is under option with Flat Rock Pictures. Her series, Bat Cat and Bitsy, is being promoted by Engine 15 Media. Donna’s CD, Toucan You Can, received twenty international awards. She is A&R Coordinator for Playful Journeys, a 2012 CD release.
Image courtesy of the Toon Boom Multimedia and Content Creation Team
Protect Your Characters, Your Art and Your Brand! by Deborah Gonzalez, Esq.
What do a panda, a mouse, and a bird have in common? Would it help if I rephrased it as Kung Fu Panda, Mickey Mouse and the Ikran flying creature from Avatar? What these iconic characters share is the claim that they were stolen – or in legal terms – had their copyrights violated. Copyright is a form of protection grounded in the U.S. Constitution and granted by law for original works of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression (US Copyright Office). It actually consists of a bundle of rights to the “author” of the work to control the reproduction, distribution, display, and ultimate use of the work created. Some key points: • It has to be in a fixed, tangible medium. Thoughts and ideas are not protected, their expression is. • Who the author is can sometimes be the point of legal contention – work for hire, employee vs. independent contractor, commissioned works – each of these adds a new dimension of complexity if a contract that spells out the exact relationship isn’t explicit, or doesn’t even exist. • Animation projects need to consider as well, the copyrights of music that they may be using to give mood and tone to the piece. Music has a series of copyrights; mechanical for the lyrics and composition, performance for the sound recording and synch licenses to synchronize the audio and visual in the project.
What can you do if you feel your copyrights of your characters and your art have been violated? • •
• • • • •
Document the incident – research for all the facts and data You need to determine if in fact it was infringement, or did you give consent for its use, or is there a fair use justification? Make sure your copyright is registered Consult an attorney – understand your rights and options Send a Cease and Desist Letter If the item is online, send a DMCA Take Down Notice Weigh the pros and cons of pursuing litigation/ arbitration
Character theft is a personal crime, not just a property crime. It takes away some of the essence of you as an artist – your creative process, your creative decisions, your creative efforts. It isn’t legal, but more importantly it isn’t right. We need to talk about this issue, spread the word when something comes up, be part of the discussion. Don’t let them steal the most important asset you have – your talent. Deborah Gonzalez, Esq. is an attorney focusing on intellectual property in the art, music, and entertainment industries. She especially enjoys her animation clients and their projects. Deborah speaks at various conferences and festivals to help educate artists about their rights. To learn more about her practice and for more resources for artist, check out her website at www.dgonzalzesq.com.
Toon Boom News
Summer 2012
9
Images courtesy of Fabrique d’Images
Case study: Fabrique d’images
Full Steam for Productions within the Toon Boom Pipeline Located in the heart of Luxembourg, Fabrique d’Images was founded in 2002 by Christine Parisse and Jean-Marie Musique. Over the years, the two have been called upon by prestigious animation studios to contribute their fieldproven expertise to everything from the scripting stage to final compositing. Concurrently, the team develops in-house projects alongside Art Director Bruno Murer, who infuses each production with his creative vision. The in-house animation studio flies under The Picture Factory banner, while Fabrique d’Images has evolved into the production arm, one that is well-equipped to develop its own projects while offering its services to out-of-house 2D and 3D productions. Some of their most recent projects include Pinocchio (90’ as a service provider to Cometa Film, Iris Productions, Walking the Dog, and 2D3D Animation), Golden Horse (90’ as a service provider to Rija Films, Vilanima, Paul Thiltges Distribution), Le Petit Avale-Lumière (1 x 10’, as a producer), Night Light Monster (1 x 6’, as a producer), Percy’s Tiger Tales (52 x 13’, as a producer, along with Skyline and Planet Nemo) as well as Zoli & Pokey (26 x 13’, as a producer, along with 2 Minutes, Cromosoma, Gulli and TV3). Created by Bruno Murer, the Zoli & Pokey series is a home-grown project that has gone through several incarnations over the years. Finally, Fabrique d’Images part10 Toon Boom News
summer 2012
nered with Paris-based 2 Minutes to fine-tune Zoli & Pokey’s aesthetic to achieve a pitch-perfect final result. The combination of flashy visuals and original storyline piqued the interest of Barcelona-based studio Cromosoma, which has since joined the production team. This European threesome has embarked upon the production
of the program using the Toon Boom pipeline to both create animation magic and unite their talented animation teams. At Fabrique d’Images, the production team is headed by Christine Parisse and Jean-Marie Musique, as Producers; Bruno Murer, as Graphic Designer; Sean McCormack as Director; and Eric Berthier as Art Director. The total staff dedicated to Zoli & Pokey numbers over 30 people. Currently, the team is in pre-production mode. There are four storyboard artists, including one lead; four designers, including one lead; three layout artists, including one lead; three compositors, including one lead, as well as one lead special effects artist. The main pack, which includes all the models, backgrounds, props and rigs, was completed during preproduction. This pack is shared with Cromosoma and 2 Minutes to ensure consistency amongst the three studios. The animation production is set to start in July 2012 at Fabrique d’Images. Knowing each studio has to deliver two episodes per week on schedule, their team will include one lead animator and 10 animators. The series will be ready for delivery by early 2013. In addition to its great look, Zoli & Pokey delivers loads of fun and laughter to a family audience. Indeed, what would you do if your dog was...your Dad?! Well, that’s exactly what happens to mild-mannered 11 year-old Zoli when his estranged, world-renowned scientist father, Michael Parrot, accidentally transforms himself into an
ordinary dog. The audience follows their weird and fantastically funny adventures as Zoli and Pokey attempt to undo a scientific experiment gone haywire, battle through first loves and vet visits, all while avoiding bullies and imposters. Zoli & Pokey is an animated sitcom with a sci-fi twist, lots of fantasy and loads of heart. Having worked within the Toon Boom pipeline for several years, Fabrique d’Images found it only natural to maximize its multiple advantages throughout the production. Zoli & Pokey is a mix of cut-out animation and traditional frame-byframe drawing. The studio uses both Toon Boom Storyboard Pro and Harmony. Laurent Paqueteau, Studio Manager, explains the hybrid production workflow; “After the script has been validated, we move right into Storyboard Pro to start our roughs. Since Storyboard Pro is so easily adaptable to whatever changes might be needed, we find it is the best way to keep the rough loose, but not to lose track of the scene, or shot numbering. Then of course, we move on to finalize the board and after the validation, we start working on the animatic, which is made in Storyboard Pro as well.” “Meanwhile, we build our characters. After the designs, turn-arounds and various poses have been validated, we then get into Harmony and start rigging them. This is one of the most important steps in production, because any bug that we may leave in the rigs will seriously hamper our production schedule. Once the rigs have been thoroughly tested and validated, we then move on to our layouts.”
Toon Boom News
Summer 2012
11
Case study: Fabrique d’images (continued)
“Then we export the final animatic from Storyboard Pro, which creates all the Harmony files automatically. Keeping all the camera moves, sound files and settings that had previously been defined during the layout phase of production becomes very straightforward. We then import all the backgrounds, props and characters and start simple posing to guide the animator’s timing.” “Once this step is done, we can then move on to animation. With the simple character designs and the many different possibilities in Harmony, the animation phase has become much more time-saving and productive.” “After the animation comes the final phase in which we use Harmony: the compositing. Here, we add the shadow layers, effects, light sources and other important passes that bring together the final image of our show. It is very convenient to access such a powerful compositing engine within the animation production tool. In case of revisions or corrections at the end of the process, we can do them in real-time. No need to go through time-consuming conversions between applications!”
12 Toon Boom News
summer 2012
The final touches of Zoli & Pokey are then added in the editing room and the sound department. Fabrique d’Images is a master at the Toon Boom pipeline, while understanding how best to take advantage of the tangible benefits it brings to the studio. They recently added Toon Boom Storyboard Pro 3D to their line-up in order to work on Percy’s Tiger Tales, a fun and educational 3D series targeted to 4 to 6 year-old children. Also, their goal is to produce Season II of Zoli & Pokey, envisioning wonderful new adventures, but also great potential for reuse of assets!
Images courtesy of Mixer
Case study: Mixer
Venturing into Animation Using Harmony Founded in 2003 in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Mixer is a production house for commercials, features and television content. In addition to offering full production in all formats via a team of award-winning directors and producers, Mixer provides film services to some of the world’s leading production companies, among them Partizan, Stink, Go Film, Bandits, Blink, Radical Media and many others. Mixer is the most highly-awarded production company in Brazil, while ranking second in the world. In the advertising industry alone, Mixer is the winner of 47 Cannes Festival Lions, in addition to numerous awards garnered at prominent festivals held in New York, Tokyo and London. Over the past nine years, Mixer has distinguished itself by its productions for advertising, television and film. Among them are the television series Julie e os Fantasmas (broadcast by Band and Nickelodeon), judged Best Series for Children and Youth by APCA; Mothern (broadcast by GNT), as well as Descolados (broadcast by MTV and Band). Mixer also produced the Discovery Chanel’s documentary series O Assassinato de Jean Charles and São Paulo Sob Ataque. Also, among Mixer’s credits are the films Besouro (Miravista, Globofilmes, Teleimage) and Corações Sujos (Downtown/Globofilmes). In 2009, Mixer embarked upon their first animation project using the Toon Boom pipeline, namely Toon Boom Storyboard Pro and Harmony. Titled Doggy Day School, this project was done in co-production with Canada’s CitéAmérique, resulting in the first animation co-production
between Brazil and Canada. Targeted towards 3 to 6 yearolds, the series spanned two seasons, resulting in a total of 52, eleven-minute episodes. In Brazil, Doggy Day School premiered on Nickelodeon Latin America, TV Cultura and TV Brazil. It also aired on four Canadian networks, namely TVO, Radio-Canada, APTN and Knowledge Network. The Doggy Day School series was created by Cathy Moss and developed by a team of producers headed by Tiago Mello and Greg Dummett. The original design is credited to Didier Loubat and Carole Roy. With an average production timeframe of 16 months per season, there were more than 60 people involved in the production, including writers, members of the artistic and animation departments, voice talent, storyboarders, musicians and sound effects crew, as well production and post-production staff. With a script written by a team of Canadians under Cathy Moss’ direction, the series encourages an outlook in which diversity not just enriches our lives, but is something to celebrate. The production also sprung from Brazilian soil. Dubbed into English, French, Spanish and Toon Boom News
Summer 2012
13
Case study: Mixer (Continued)
Portuguese, the series comes with a musical score by the Brazilian Group Palavra Cantada, featuring Sandra Peres and Paulo Tatit. As illustrated in the diagram, the production was evenly split between Canada and Brazil. Both Mixer and CitéAmérique maximized the benefits of working in a complete digital workflow to deliver the production on time and on budget. Each team depended on the other’s deliveries, so it was critical to maintain a consistent production schedule and flow. For example, the Storyboard Department depended on the writers, who sent the final scripts. And the Art Department relied on the Storyboard Department for the final boards, animatics and so on. It then fell to the Art Department to create the character design, the final backgrounds and the props that the Rigging, Scene Planning and Animation teams needed to start the animation process.
SCRIPT CANADA
VOICES ORIGINAL G RECORDIN CANADA
DESIGN EPISODIC CANADA
MUSIC BRAZIL
MASTER BRAZIL
14 Toon Boom News
AUDIOMIX CANADA
summer 2012
FOLEY & EDITING, SOUND FX CANADA
RD STORYBOA IC & ANIMAT BRAZIL
In order to produce both seasons, the following teams were put into place between Brazil and Canada: • •
• • • •
& RIGGING SCENE PLANNING BRAZIL
N
POST N PRODUCTIO BRAZIL
ANIMATIO BRAZIL
cript / Canada - a team of nine writers working S with Cathy Moss Original Voices Recording / Canada – the four main voices, plus those of all the supporting characters Storyboard and Animatic / Brazil – a team of five storyboard artists Art Department / Canada – a team of seven designers, headed by Carole Roy Rigging, Scene Planning & Animation / Brazil – a team of 24 animators Post-Production / Brazil – a team of nine people, consisting of editors, post-production producers and graphic designers • Original Music / Brazil – a team of five musicians • Editing, Foley, Sound Fx & Audiomix / Canada – a team headed by Serge Hamel at Studio Digilog
”We estimate that in the second season, we reused 65% to 70% of the assets, which enabled us to deliver the project much faster.”
“Using Toon Boom Storyboard Pro in both Brazil and Canada sped up the approval process. Revisions were executed faster, which enabled storyboarders to generate more refined animatics for the animation team,” explained Tiago Mello. “Thanks to the seamless integration between Storyboard Pro and Harmony, they could rely on accurate information to create better quality animation. As the series was developed in cut-out animation style, we have built an impressive library of assets for reuse within each season and from the first season to the second. Finally, the ability to monitor the progress of the production efficiently was another key benefit of using Harmony,” concluded Tiago Mello. As Head of Animation, Marcelo Moura added the following about his experience with Harmony: “The ability to import the animatics, combined with the seamless import of the model pack elements, enabled us to quickly build the scene setup and feed the animators. They built the library assets per character, dividing them by parts; animation cycles such as runs and actions, as well as attitudes. This library structure facilitated the reuse throughout the production. As the animators were creating new assets as needed, the library was very dynamic. We had two teams of four animators. We estimate that in the second season,
we reused 65% to 70% of the assets, which enabled us to deliver the project much faster. During Season I, the animation team created 11 minutes of final animation in two weeks. During Season II, they were able to complete an episode in six days only. This was a huge saving!” Marcelo Moura explained that for Season II, the animation team used a more recent version of Harmony, which led them to perform new rigs for the key characters. “The rigging process was fast, so it was worth doing it in order to raise even higher, the quality of the animation,” he added. As such a charming property offers great merchandising potential, Mixer has signed several deals with suppliers specializing in books, DVDs, games, toys, party supplies, school supplies and linens, covering Latin America. In addition, Mixer is working on a theatrical play slated to open in Brazil in November, 2012. Based on their first successful animation venture, Mixer decided to embark on a new animation project, titled Sítio do Picapau Amarelo, a co-production between Mixer and Globo. This eleven-minute, 26 - episode series is yet another great opportunity to set the Toon Boom pipeline in motion while showcasing Mixer’s talent and creativity. Toon Boom News
Summer 2012
15
Images courtesy of TouTenKartoon
Case study: TouTenKartoon
A Very Happy Ending for Black Comedy Created in Harmony Founded in Paris in 1995, TouTenKartoon (TTK) opened its Montreal branch in 1998, followed by another in Angoulême in 2000, then Liège in 2011. Crisscrossing the Atlantic between France and Canada, Jean-Louis Rizet, President of TTK, boasts an impressive track record of projects targeted for television and film, including My Life Me, Life on the Block and most recently, The Suicide Shop. TTK offers clients a complete range of services in digital animation, from executive production to post-production, including 2D/3D animation, ink and paint and compositing. In addition, TTK is part of the Toon Alliance, which also includes Caribara Animation, ETS, Mac Guff, Ramses 2 and Waoo. Each studio brings with it a wealth of expertise to offer a complete turnkey solution for animation production. Jean-Louis Rizet and his team are true advocates of the Toon Boom pipeline. This is why they chose to produce The Suicide Shop, an eighty-minute animated feature film, completely paperless using Toon Boom Storyboard Pro and Harmony. The Suicide Shop is also one of the first feature films to combine traditional with cut-out animation, the latter amounting to nearly 70% of the animation. The result is simply superb. With production houses Diabolo Film in France and Caramel in Canada, this co-production brings together a highly talented group of individuals: Gilles Podesta, Producer, France; André Rouleau, Producer, Canada; 16 Toon Boom News
summer 2012
Patrice Leconte, Director, France; Laurent Donnay, Studio Manager, TTK Canada; David Pelkey, Lead Animator, TTK Canada; Maxime Vallières, Lead Animator, TTK Canada; Stéphane Pogran, Studio Manager, TTK Angoulême; Pascal Herbreteau, Lead Animator, TTK Angoulême. The team at Caribara, headed by Fabien Baboz, oversaw the storyboard, art direction and model pack creation.
Based on the dark comedic novel by Jean Teulé, which sold over one million copies in his native France, The Suicide Shop is targeted to a thirteen year-old and up audience. A tale about death and happiness, the story is set in a city in which every resident is depressed, when one day a happy and hopeful child is born into a family that runs a shop specializing in suicide equipment. While the novel ends on a bad note, the opposite is true for the feature film, thanks to acclaimed director Patrice Leconte. “This is an ode to life, and animation is the right medium to bring this novel to the big screen,” says Leconte. As The Suicide Shop is a musical, Patrice Leconte sought actors who could sing as well as act, so that there would be no disruption between the dialogue and the songs. In addition, the 80-musician-strong Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra was hired to perform the music. Spanning over a three-year period, the animation production took 18 months to complete. The Montreal team included two groups of ten animators, five layout artists and three riggers, while in Angoulême, seven animators and two layout artists were hard at work. The film includes 2,000 shots, 27 sequences and 1,800 backgrounds with up to 200 layers each. “The ability to import the animatic into Harmony, as well as recover the timing and camera information is extremely efficient,” said David Pelkey. “The smooth integration between Storyboard Pro and Harmony enabled us to create the scenes automatically, which was not only a major time saver, but also eliminated timing errors that could occur when this process was done manually,” he explained. Upon receiving the animatics, the team analyzed how each character needed to be built, how many props needed to be created, what actions characters would perform throughout the movie, and how many levels were required so that they would be cut accordingly. Characters were coloured with gradients and textures, which made the animation process even more challenging. With such a high premium placed on creating a richlooking final product, Jean-Louis Rizet explained how valuable it was to work closely with Toon Boom during the production process. “The Research and Development team collaborated with our animators to develop specific
features related to the textures and gradients. This close collaboration enabled us to streamline the production process further and create even more impressive quality animation,” added Jean-Louis. “We really pushed the quality of cut-out animation to make it look like traditional,” added David Pelkey. “In order to facilitate the process, the animators took the time to set the proper number of layers to optimize the characters. Our rigs were quite complex, but the result speaks for itself. With the new Harmony Network Tree, we managed to have less layers displayed, which visually made it easier to manipulate the parts,” he continued. The Library played a critical role in this feature film production. It was structured by main characters, secondary characters, occasional characters, as well as props and backgrounds. Each category was further broken down into sequences, then scenes. “We built extensive templates for the characters’ mouth in order to have the proper shape for lip-sync. We also created action templates for the mouth, showing a happy, neutral, or sad expression. This proved to be very useful during the sound scrubbing,” stated David. “In addition to the Central Library, each animator could create a personal library to reuse the necessary assets whenever needed. They also shared these new assets with the rest of the team when it could be useful.” “As far as colouring went, we set master palettes per scene because of the costume changes between each scene. The camera was easy to use. As a former Flash animator, it was powerful to have a smooth and automatic camera capability such as Harmony’s,” enthused David Pelkey. “We could not have produced such a high quality animation with any other solution.” Rendered in 2K and with a theatrical release date set for September 26, 2012 in France, The Suicide Shop is undoubtedly a must-see movie, not only because of the great story matter, but also for its sublime artistic accomplishments. The good news is that Patrice Leconte is already developing another feature film project titled Music!, to be created in Harmony and certain to be another masterpiece. As for TTK, the team is proactively positioning itself for several feature films and television series projects. Going beyond a service provider role, TTK is no doubt a partner to consider when it comes to creating quality animation efficiently.
Toon Boom News
Summer 2012
17
ANIMATION STUDIOS
Passion is a multiple Oscar-winning independent production company with offices and animation studios in London, Paris, New York and Melbourne. They create every form of animation and live action imaginable across an unlimited range of media. Passion was founded by CEO Andrew Ruhemann. Between its various brands, including Passion Pictures, Passion Raw, Strange Beast and Passion Planet, the company represents over 60 exciting directors, from established names to emerging talent. Together, this team creates an enormous variety of work, ranging from commercials, digital films, shorts, documentary features, music videos, computer games, websites, wildlife films and live events. Passion is renowned throughout the world of animation for its ground breaking Gorillaz music videos, the product of a ten-year collaboration between the band’s founders Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn, and Passion director Pete Candeland, resulting in a multitude of award-winning films and live concerts. They are also enormously proud of The Lost Thing, a short film directed by Andrew Ruhemann and Shaun Tan, which won the Academy Award for Short Film Animation in 2011. Passion Pictures’ director Russell Brooke has directed a new, 30 second animated commercial for Kinder Chocolate, the popular children’s treat. The commercial was devised and scripted by Nick Hastings and Jon Gledstone at Krow Communications. The spot features a boy and his mother, and was designed by the award-winning artist, author and illustrator Oliver Jeffers. Jeffers’ design uses a lined background resembling graph paper, above which hand-drawn characters and text explaining the characters’ thoughts appear. Kinder Chocolate’s Invention was the first project that Passion has used Toon Boom Harmony on. “We’d been considering new 2D software for some time, and after a trial of both Toon Boom Harmony and its competitors, we decided that Toon Boom was the best fit for Passion,” states Tim King. “It’s a wonderfully flexible production tool that fits Passion’s style and workflow admirably. We still use hand-drawn artwork on paper, so the quality of scanned imagery, and Toon Boom’s ability to transform that into editable vector-based imagery that maintains the feel of the original artwork was very important to us. Kinder Chocolate’s Invention is a good example of where we needed to maintain the style of Oliver Jeffers’ character designs as closely as possible, while also working to a very tight schedule. With such a short time frame, Toon Boom’s linked, global palettes allowed us to make rapid changes to the detailed look of the characters across scenes within minutes,” explains Tim. “Passion’s workflow can involve many different forms of media, and we often mix 2D, live-action and CG. The 18 Toon Boom News
summer 2012
final compositing is done in other packages such as Nuke and Adobe After Effects, and the compositors need many separate renders of individual elements to achieve the final look. This is where Toon Boom really excelled with its node-based output structure, allowing parallel rendering of image sequences from one scene simultaneously. Previously, we would have made a separate X-sheet/scene for each element, and would have had to render each on in turn. The amount of time saved in not having to do that allowed more time to be spent on the final composite,” concludes Tim.
Images courtesy of Passion
Passion Chooses Harmony for Kinder Commercial
Mutant (Attack of the Killer Mutant Chickens), a short film written and directed by Nayeem Mahbub. Murgi Keno Mutant has already been shown at over 34 film festivals internationally and has won six awards. In 2011, they animated two Meena cartoons, which were produced by UNICEF. Drawn by hand, Murgi Keno Mutant and the Meena cartoons was created using Toon Boom Harmony. “Our goal is to produce animation at a cost which will be affordable for TV channels in Bangladesh; we are no longer focused on selling animation services abroad,” says Zahin Hasan.
Situated in Virginia in the greater Washington, DC metro area, Studio Kinate is a women-owned animation studio, one that operates as a complete virtual studio. Relying on up to ten animators at a time, depending on their projects’ scope, Charlotte Rinderknecht and Randi Cohen Coblenz maintain a roster of animators, all of whom are comfortable working remotely using Toon Boom Story-
board Pro and Harmony floating licenses. This innovative approach enables the duo to keep the overhead costs low, while delivering animation of the highest quality. With Rusty Mills as their Senior VP of Animation and Director, they actively promote the studio’s services to nearby government agencies, hence creating mostly institutional animated content. Recent projects include a training animation program for the US Navy, as well as a legal project involving technical animation. As advocates of classical animation, they have set up a server which facilitates a file exchange amongst animators, all of whom are appointed a specific task within the production process. “Each one generates a QuickTime file for approval. Once it is approved, they upload compressed Harmony files on the server for the next animator to continue the process,” explains Rusty Mills. “All the animation is done using Harmony, from drawing, up to final compositing. I truly appreciate its compatibility with third party applications, enabling us to smoothly import assets and combine them with vector art,” says Rusty.
Image courtesy of Studio Kinate
Image courtesy of Toon Bangla
Toon Bangla was formed in August 2007. For the studio’s first two years of existence, it was positioned as a service provider for hand-drawn 2D animation services. “We found, however, that we were only being offered very low-budget projects which did not even allow us to break even. Eventually, we realized that it would be difficult to get better paid animation work until we had built a reputation by producing animated shorts and showing them in festivals abroad,” explains Zahin Hasan, Managing Director at Toon Bangla. The studio spent most of 2009, 2010 and part of 2011 developing and animating Murgi Keno
Toon Boom News
Summer 2012
19
Image courtesy of Steve Harpster
Freelancers
Working for fourteen years as a professional illustrator, Steve Harpster has illustrated over one hundred books for kids. He recently started a publishing company called Harptoons and launched a new website with content for kids. Using Toon Boom Storyboard and Animate, Steve creates animations aimed at promoting his new books; Drawing Monsters With Letters, Drawing Sea Animals With Numbers and Drawing Really Cute Baby Animals With Lowercase Letters. ”I create videos that teach kids how to draw, and also I try to inspire them to want to create and draw on their own. My hope is that they make the connection that a simple little drawing can become an animated short,” states Steve. “I owned Toon Boom Animate first and was creating short animations for a while, but I was always going back and changing things...I would add a scene, or change the dialogue. Sometimes I only had a rough idea in my head regarding what the movie was about and as I was creating it, I would come up with new ideas. Once I bought Toon Boom Storyboard, I was nailing down my story ideas and planning the shots and scenes so much that I was getting most things right on the first try. The time I saved with Storyboard allowed me to spend more time on the animation,” concludes Steve.
Image courtesy of Héctor Bayona
www.frogfeetproductions.com
Image courtesy of Bryce Hallett
www.harptoons.com
Bryce Hallett has been an independent animator since 1999. He is a graduate of the Graphic Communications Program at Canadore College in North Bay, Ontario and the Classical Animation Program at Sheridan College in 20 Toon Boom News
summer 2012
Oakville, Ontario. He has also studied film and television production at Humber College in Toronto, as well as acting, writing, and improv at various institutions such as the Second City Toronto, Theatresports Toronto, The Gateway Theatre Guild, the University of Toronto and the Poor Alex Theatre. Using Toon Boom Animate Pro, Bryce typically creates traditional hand-drawn animation. “It’s what I’m known for and it’s what I enjoy most. Although, I also use a lot of cut-out type animation and libraries for certain projects. This one, Hunger Count 2011, is pretty much all hand-drawn in Animate Pro, with some photos of paper bags imported for the backgrounds,” explains Bryce. “It’s much, much faster for me to animate directly in Animate Pro with a Cintiq and see my animation roughs moving immediately. Also, the ability to clean up and colour in an efficient manner, and to be able to send these files to another friend online, who may also be working on the project, is really helpful,” enthuses Bryce.
Born in Mexico City, Héctor Bayona has been working in design, illustration and animation for over 10 years. Right now, he offers his services to clients such as L’Oréal and Avon, among others. His work has been exhibited by different art institutions and right now, Héctor is seeking opportunities to produce innovative, creative and fun animation. “There are many things that I’m able to do with Animate Pro. For hand-drawn animation, or tweening, it works really well. I can choose to use peg layers and make cool camera movements, options that were missing for me in other software…Animation is more about technique and planning. But if you want to make your life easier and produce faster without compromising quality, Toon Boom is the way to go,” explains Hector. www.hectorbayona.com
“Coming up with an original concept that is fresh and entertaining is extremely challenging in this business,” says Erick Tran. “However, with the advancement of digital technology, content creators have the power to reach creative goals much more quickly. My mission is to use my skills to create shows that have a positive message and celebrate the diversity of cultures from around the world, and with Toon Boom software I can achieve that goal.” Erick Tran’s concept would consume his heart, soul and mind for almost three years; he wanted to bring a message of hope to others and celebrate the spirit of achieving the American Dream. With an Emmy award-winning team of artists and producers by his side, the vision became a reality, and Urban Reggie was born. Urban Reggie is a webisode series about two brothers, Reggie and Pepe, who are determined to do whatever it takes to fulfill their dream of making their mark in show business. Reggie is the overzealous brother, while Pepe is just along for the ride – except for when it comes to being Reggie’s biggest supporter. The comedy revolves around their journey of starting from the ground up in an unfamiliar society, jumping from job to job - just barely making it - to find that one golden opportunity that will finally get them in the door. For more than fifteen years, Tran has been a lead artist for The Simpsons. His responsibilities have included serving as animator, story artist, assistant director, merchandising and product designer, video game consultant, and supervisor on the The Simpsons Movie. He also created designs for The Simpsons ride at Universal Studios in Hollywood and Orlando, Florida. Additionally, he has produced work for Superbowl Coke commercials and the commercial for the 2010 Nike World Cup. “While we were producing The Simpsons Movie, we had to come up with a digital pipeline to create our story reels. We had rewrites on a daily basis, so we did the best with what we had at the time to meet our deadlines. But once we were introduced to Toon Boom products, it changed everything! The studio went through a digital transformation, which makes production smoother and faster.” Tran is the son of immigrant parents; his mother from Guatemala, and his father a Vietnamese refugee. His life was never easy, but his family believed that with hard work they would be able to build a better future. He loved art as a child, and by the time he was a teenager, animation had become his greatest fascination.
Tran recalls a high school substitute teacher who said something that gave him the direction he needed; “Always go with your talents. If you do, you will always be better at what you do than the people around you.” He took that advice to heart and chose to find a way to make it happen. Through a string of events during his senior year in high school, at the young age of 17, Tran was able to get a summer job as a character layout artist. That job evolved into a lengthy career with The Simpsons that has changed his life. “The funny thing is, once I knew I wanted to get into the animation industry, I applied at Cal Arts and Art Center, two of the most prestigious art schools near Los Angeles. I was rejected by both of them, because they said my portfolio wasn’t strong enough. When I applied at Film Roman, they asked how long it took me to create my portfolio. They were impressed at how I was able to produce my portfolio in such a short amount of time with no training. They hired me because they saw potential in me.”
Image courtesy of Erick Tran
A Success Story of Determination and Talent
Tran wants to share his story of hope with kids around the world and demonstrate that no matter who you are or where you come from, anything is possible. Urban Reggie is his vehicle to reach the next generation of kids. “When I wanted to experiment with animation back in my day, we didn’t have anything like what Toon Boom has to offer now. I think it’s great that they have created a whole line-up of animation software for all age groups. Animation is such a magical medium and I am excited to be part of something big like the Simpsons. I’m now applying all my skills and effort to launch Urban Reggie to the web, so keep an eye out ‘cause it’s coming!” Urban Reggie is currently produced by Ideal Media Entertainment, LLC, which was founded by Erick Tran in 2004. They use Storyboard Pro and Animate Pro to produce their animation line-up. www.urbanreggie.com www.imestudios.com www.ericktranart.blogspot.com Toon Boom News
Summer 2012
21
Image courtesy of South Junior High School
Education
Located in a city known for its popular theme parks, sports teams, and sunny weather, South Junior High School is one of Anaheim, California’s hidden gems. Accommodating approximately 1,500 students, South is home to the Eagles. Of this diverse population, thirty talented and enthusiastic young animators participate in a Digital Animation course offered at the school, using Flip Boom All-Star. “Digital Animation is a class for any student, with or without an art background. In this course, the students are learning the principles of animation, while extending their knowledge of the core concepts,” says Carol Shaw, Digital Animation teacher. The students combine their skills in art with their individual creativity to develop crosscurricular themed animated short films. From animated Haiku poems, to morphing various shapes into other objects, to making characters talk and move, the students have grasped animation basics through this easy-to-use program. Alex Palomino, an 8th grade student states, “The Flip Boom program is a lot easier to use than I thought. This program and class is fun! I feel challenged and I’ve learned that I am more creative than I thought!”
Based in Hyderabad, India, EVASCA has introduced a visual arts and animation program to their curriculum. This program is integrated into their regular syllabi, from Grades 1 through 10, with each grade receiving one period per day of instruction. “When we introduced this program, a few pupils’ parents had queries and fears about it, thinking that their kid’s regular studies would be disturbed and that they may get carried away with this. However, their doubts quickly vanished. To date, we observed that the knowledge retention ratio in children has increased to a great extent and the course has helped them in their academics. Above all, they understood the activity that they performed, just because they did it themselves. So we feel the program at EVASCA, in association with Toon Boom, will be of great help to the student body,” explains Durgaprasad Varma, CEO of EVASCA. “School faculty reported that students were excited to be familiarizing themselves with the software, as well as the creative process of animating. The pedagogical materials for all programs, ranging from Flip Boom to Toon Boom Studio, were given to each student, enabling them to learn the basics of each software. EVASCA’s teachers and administration first discuss potential cross curricular topics, while the students research and gather the required information, prepare the storyboard and finally, use the Toon Boom software to produce the final product,” adds Durgaprasad Varma.
Celebrating Autism Awareness using Animation In February, RethinkingAutism.com’s Dana Commandatore approached Dani Bowman about creating an animation of her life story in celebration of Autism Awareness month in April. The PSA was to showcase the positive aspects of autism and the special skills of people with autism. Dani and Dana quickly came up with a script and Dani decided to involve three others with autism on the project, as well: twenty-two year old New York artist Justin Canha for storyboards, character design, and animation assistance; twelve year
22 Toon Boom News
summer 2012
old New York singer and musician Talina Toscano for the sound track; and LA-based actress Tammy Klein for voiceover production and tagline voiceover. The PSA quickly came together and Justin’s family flew to Los Angeles during Dani’s Spring Break to complete the PSA, which was premiered at the Deutsch Ad Agency LA on April 20th, at the Golden Goody Awards (like an Oscar for social good), during a special Goody Awards Ceremony that took place on Friday, April 20, 2012. Find Rethinking Autism PSA by Dani Bowman on Toon Boom’s Youtube channel at: http://www.youtube.com/user/ToonBoomAnimation
Image courtesy of Woodbury University
Growing Talent for the Marketplace Woodbury University is located in Burbank, California, in the heart of the entertainment industry. Nearby studios include Disney, DreamWorks, Warner Bros., Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, and Film Roman. Founded in 1884, Woodbury serves the Los Angeles professional communities, providing accredited graduate and undergraduate degrees in media, design, architecture and business. Woodbury’s Department of Animation offers a fouryear Bachelor of Fine Arts. As part of the School of Media, Culture & Design, animation students attend interdisciplinary courses with students from Filmmaking, Game Art & Design, and Media Technology, with an eye towards creating a more real-world learning experience. Courses in the animation program focus on storytelling as the foundation of quality animation media. In the first two years, skills-based courses lay the groundwork for a variety of production techniques, including traditional hand-drawn animation, computer graphics, and stop motion animation. Students hone their skills through the production of personal projects in their junior and senior years. Professional practices include building a portfolio, completing an internship at a nearby studio, and learning collaboration and leadership skills. All of their animation faculty members have substantial professional experience; many are currently working in the industry. “Adding Toon Boom software to our tool kit has been of great benefit to the students. We first introduced Toon Boom Storyboard Pro in our storyboard class. Edward Rosas, who works at Film Roman and teaches in our program, includes Storyboard Pro in his curriculum.
Students complete a storyboard and animatic, learning the paperless pipeline. Last year, our juniors learned Animate Pro as part of their collaborative animation project. This year, as seniors, they went on to use Animate Pro in the production of their capstone projects. As part of their compositing class, students integrated hand animation and computer graphics software with Animate Pro to complete their senior films,” explains Dori Littell-Herrick, Chair, Department of Animation at Woodbury University. Senior Christine Willson, who served as an artist on the Sheep Film, has this recommendation to students: “Since our film was traditionally animated, Toon Boom really helped with the compositing and colouring processes. We did our junior film in Toon Boom. We were new to the program at the time, so we used it to composite and put in basic colours. Now that we know how to use the node tree and various other features, this year we are able to do even more. My advice to next year’s seniors: if you are planning on animating traditionally, I’d definitely recommend using this program.” “We look forward to integrating Toon Boom software into more of our courses,” says Dori Littell-Herrick. “Moving towards a complete paperless pipeline, we are planning to add the puppet style animation to the current traditional animation style. Also, one of our alumni from 2004, Ross Blocher, is Training Project Manager at Disney Studios, where they are developing a paperless pipeline based on Harmony. “We are currently developing postgraduate training opportunities for industry professionals, including our alumni. We’ll share more about that in the future,” teases Littell-Herrick. Toon Boom News
Summer 2012
23
Paperless storytelling Recognized as the most innovative software, Toon Boom Storyboard Pro 3D speeds up pre-production and offers limitless visual possibilities combining 2D, 3D and mixed media.
From the idea to the reel Based on Emmy award-winning technology, the Toon Boom Harmony Solution includes superior vector technology, real-time animation, a powerful compositing engine, 2D-3D integration capabilities, all set in a multi-plane environment.
Track from anywhere
Toon Boom Manager is the perfect production tracking system that combines everything required for monitoring daily activities, production pace and communication between members of the team.
Artwork courtesy of Imira Entertainment.
Embrace the Toon Boom Workflow