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MAKE YOUR PRODUCTIONS FLY with Toon Boom’s Animation Software Solutions
April 2006
Image courtesy of Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment
Toon Boom’s leading animation software solution Opus, has significantly contributed to the feature film production of Curious George.
ANIMATION SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS THAT MAKE YOUR PRODUCTIONS FLY Toon Boom roared into 2006 by attending Nasscom’s Animation India 2006 event in Mumbai on January 13, and the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE) conference and exhibition in Las Vegas, from January 24 to 28. Keeping up the pace we then went to the KidScreen Summit in New York, from February 8 to 10, and Tech Forum San Diego and the American Association of School Administrators Conference, running concurrently from February 23 to 25. This was quickly followed by FRAMES in Mumbai, from March 22 to 24, and the Tokyo International Anime Fair, on March 23 and 24. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Keeping this pace on track the Toon Boom team will be attending MIPTV in Cannes, from April 3 to 7, Booth C1.05; NAB in Las Vegas, from April 24 to 27, Booth C10512; and MIFA in Annecy, from June 7 to 9, Booth 2.03. Jump on board! We’ll be delighted to meet you at one of the events! At the same time, the team conducted road shows in Brazil, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, China, Korea and Taiwan. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
In Brazil, the Toon Boom team provided training seminars to 39 independent animators in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The seminars were extremely successful, with all of the participants becoming certified for Toon Boom Solo and most of them purchasing the software. Organized with the assistance of the Brazilian Animators Association, the courses were held at 2DLab in Rio de Janeiro and two technical colleges, ESPM also in Rio de Janeiro and SENAC in São Paulo. Both of the colleges trained at least one of their teachers, who will transfer their knowledge to create a Toon Boom environment amongst new graduates. Considering the Brazilian community’s enthusiastic response, Toon Boom has played an active role in the Co-producing with Canada trade mission at the end of March and organized additional workshops for 150 Brazilian producers. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
In Singapore, the team organized workshops and on-site meetings with the private and education sectors, in conjunction with the Canadian Trade Commissioners Service and the Singapore Media Development Authority. Toon Boom is extremely grateful for their endeavors and thanks them for making this trip such a success. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment
Toon Boom is proud to spotlight the theatrical release of Curious George in February 2006. Toon Boom’s leading animation software solution Opus, has significantly contributed to the feature film production of this globally known character. Produced by Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment, the feature offers an all-new adventure based upon the beloved tales of George, the inquisitive little guy with an insatiable taste for action. “For more than 65 years, this little monkey has captured the hearts and minds of so many people of all ages and we are very proud that Toon Boom has been involved in the making of this fantastic 2D feature for the big screen,” shared Joan Vogelesang, President and Chief Executive Officer at Toon Boom. Toon Boom recommends that all animation lovers go see this movie! 2
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TECHNOLOGY NEWS Toon Boom Studio Now Supports Intel in Macs On March 15, Toon Boom Animation Inc. announced the release of Toon Boom Studio V3 for Apple’s new generation of Macs, featuring Intel processors. Powered by the most advanced Intel chip, the new Macs will run Toon Boom Studio at peak performance. To help customers easily identify that the software runs on both Intel and PowerPC-based Mac computers a Universal logo will be displayed on Toon Boom Studio packaging and Web pages. “Toon Boom is totally committed to the Mac community and has made a priority to port Toon Boom Studio to Apple’s universal binaries. As the first
in a series of Toon Boom applications optimized for the new CPU, Toon Boom Studio offers great performance to create digital and cut-out animations for TV, HDTV, video, the Web, PDAs and the iPod. We look forward to seeing what professional animators, hobbyists and schools will be creating with this latest release,” shared Joan Vogelesang, President and Chief Executive Officer at Toon Boom. The Toon Boom Studio V3 Universal Binary release is ready to ship and can be purchased at www.toonboom.com. All current Toon Boom Studio V3 Mac customers are entitled to download this latest version at no charge. The next Toon Boom application available for Apple’s new Intel processors will be Toon Boom Studio Express V3, ready to ship on April 14, 2006.
Podcast Your Animation ! Now you can easily save your animation for podcasting using Toon Boom’s products. Podcasting is an emerging technology that allows you to show media content on your iPod, including news, TV shows, and, of course, animations powered by Toon Boom.
What better way to showcase your animated content anywhere you go and reach an audience of millions. Use this lightweight device to share your heavyweight Toon Boom animations with your friends and family.
You can use these settings directly in Toon Boom’s products to export your animation. If you don’t know what the above information means, don’t worry, iTunes will convert it for you. Simply follow these instructions:
It’s easy: Learn how to create podcast-ready animation, viewable on your iPod.
1. Export your animation from one of Toon Boom‘s products as a QuickTime file. Using the H.264 is recommended but not required. This codec is available in Toon Boom‘s products after installing the free QuickTime Player 7. 2. Open iTunes (6.0.2.3 or higher). 3. Click the file menu and select Add a File to Library. 4. Browse to the location where you saved your animation and select it to open it. 5. In iTunes, in the left panel select Videos (you should see your animation in the right panel). 6. Right-click on your animation and select Convert Selection for iPod. iTunes will duplicate your animation video with the proper settings for podcasting.
It’s fast: Learn how to podcast your animation on the Internet, via a Web feed, using either RSS or Atom syndication standard formats. You’ll need:
§ One of Toon Boom’s animation software solutions § Apple iTunes 6.0.2.23 or higher § An iPod for portable playback or Web server space for
podcasting Here is how to export your Toon Boom project to make it podcast-ready. This is the supported iPod video format as described on Apple website: H.264 video File formats: M4V, MP4 and MOV Video: Up to 768 Kbps, 320 x 240 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 1.3 Audio: AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 KHz, stereo audio MPEG-4 video File formats: M4V, MP4 and MOV Video: Up to 2.5 Mbps, 480 x 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile Audio: AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 KHz, stereo audio
You now have a M4V (MPEG-4 Video) file ready for podcasting. Drag your converted animation to your iPod in iTunes to transfer your animation to your iPod. You will use this new video file for podcasting later in this article. To play back your animation, on your iPod, select Video, then Films and the name of your video. Enjoy!
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Image courtesy of 2DLab
HARMONY NEWS
2DLab is an animation studio in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Over the past three years, the studio has won the Liv Ullmann Peace Award and First Prize in the Animated Television Production category at the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival as well as several other awards. 2DLab is currently developing its first animated series, in co-production with a Canadian producer. They have just certified all their staff in Toon Boom Harmony. “We are currently stress testing the product and are very excited with the results. Our initial assessment is that Harmony is very wellsuited to our specific style of animation and we expect to have a 15-20% boost in productivity without loosing the highly emotional style of animation that has become our trademark,” shared Andre Koogan Breitman, executive producer at 2DLab. “We are always looking for new challenges and new co-production partners. We work exclusively with 2D animation.” 2DLab is part of the Delta Publishing Group, a group of four publishing houses that over the last 75 years, has published more than 4,000 titles that are currently in print, focusing on college-level textbooks and reference works, including the World Book and Larousse encyclopedias. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Image courtesy of Enarmonia
Established in Turin in 1999, Enarmonia is one of the main service companies in European animation. It plays an active role in every stage of animation, realizing character and back-
ground design, storyboarding, layout, digital and traditional background, high quality traditional animation, 2D and 3D digital animation, 2D/3D integration, compositing and special effects. Enarmonia is the first European company that has achieved the Quality Management System Certification UNI EN ISO 9001:2000 in the animation field. Enarmonia has worked with Lanterna Magica on Gino the Chicken, and also on Neve e Gliz, a series developed for the Turin Winter Olympics. Both of the 52 one-minute episode series were produced using Toon Boom’s software. Employing a permanent staff of internal artists the studio is about to start a new digital production called Uffa, che Pazienza using Toon Boom Harmony. This series of 52 five-minute episodes will be a combination of cut-out and traditional style to be co-produced with RAI/Motus and a German partner. Enarmonia is also developing a digital animation program at Instituto Europeano de Design where Toon Boom Harmony will be part of the curriculum. “We have decided to buy Harmony because we wanted to develop the digital animation in our studio and we think that Harmony is the software which corresponds perfectly to the needs of our animators,” shared Federica Maggio, Managing Director at Enarmonia. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Have you ever seen a sweet and charming story with lovable characters? What about a colorful and one-of-a-kind movie? Have you ever worked on a production you would be proud to show children all over the world, bringing fun and joy to everyone? These are the reasons why Neomis Animation is so proud to have been the only European studio that contributed to the making of Curious George. Neomis Animation thanks Universal Cartoon Studios for this unforgettable experience and salutes the Toon Boom Opus crew for their kind support. Neomis Animation has been in action for two years, located right in the heart of Paris, France. Their team of artists emerges from the Walt Disney Feature Animation France crew, which contributed to ten feature films, including The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Emperor’s New Groove and Tarzan. Neomis Animation is a young studio, passionate about animation— their talented and experienced crew speaks for itself! ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The best part of the AMC Theatres’ Soar cinema commercial is that you believe it is a real trailer for an actual feature film because it was done by feature directors Elliot M. Bour and Saul Blinkoff who worked on such films as Disney’s Lion King and Aladdin. The two are represented by New York’s Curious Pictures. Having just completed a substantial sequence of the Saul & Elliot-directed and Disneyproduced Kronk’s New Groove. Saul & Elliot / Curious Pictures approached Yowza Animation to produce the animation through final composite. Yowza Animation was established in Toronto, Canada in 1996 by Claude Chiasson and specializes in high quality feature films, television series and commercials. Roger Chiasson, renowned ani4
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Image courtesy of Curious Pictures and Yowza Animation Image courtesy of Label-Anim
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After 12 years as founder and manager of Animage, a subsidiary of the AB Group, Thibaut Chatel decided to open his own animation studio, Label-Anim, in 2003. Early 2005, Guillaume Galliot, who was previously in charge of the audiovisual division at Groupe Dargaud, joined the team as executive producer. Since then, the studio has produced several animated series and has started the production of Kung-Foot, a new 26-episode 26-minute series for TF1, using Toon Boom Opus. “Toon Boom Opus is a very wellknown and established animation software. As we work with Hosem Animation Studio in China, we wanted to be fully compatible with them so the time was right to adopt Opus. Also, we plan to take advantage of its wide array of powerful features, among them the lip sync which we find quite interesting,” shared Stéphane Gaultier.
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Since 2003, Firehorse Films has been producing bro’Town, New Zealand’s first prime-time adult animation—an unashamedly suburban, non-PC satire. Joined by the Naked Samoans (Oscar Kightley, David Fane, Shimpal Lelisi and Mario Gaoa) and by animation director Maka Makatoa and designer Ant Sang, the show’s producer, Elizabeth Mitchell, has experienced great success with the series. The labor-intensive 2D animation style means that a team of about 150 people, both at Firehorse and at their satellite studio in India, are needed for each episode. Each bro’Town show has between 16,000 and 24,000 drawings and takes around six months to complete. bro’Town uses Toon Boom Opus to make the show and this year has increased its digital capacity. “Toon Boom was instrumental in hooking Firehorse up with their Indian partners DQ Studios. For Series 3, we are hoping to work with new Australian studio TUI Studios, again with the help of Toon Boom and its Australian dealer Adimex,” shared Elizabeth. bro’Town is screening on Foxtel’s comedy channel in Australia, on Air New Zealand’s Inflight service, on Fiji TV and will soon air on Cartoon Network Latin America.
Image courtesy of Firehorse Films
mation director and Claude where both involved heavily in preproduction and final production of the spot. Yowza traditionally animated Soar and used Opus for ink, paint and composite. Sonya Carey was in charge of the digital division using internal toolsets. Sonya was able to produce a high quality final product, in a rather short period of time complete with computer-generated special effects. “The scan and ink-and-paint are so user-friendly that it was easy to bring in support staff at the last minute and have them trained fairly quickly. There were some camera moves that were rather specific, so, with the use of the scene graphs, it was really easy to control the camera and the artwork to give the illusion of flight. Instead of having to create specific motion by moving objects or the camera frame by frame, Opus allows you to make fantastic camera moves with only two or three key frames. These are important features when you are short on time.”
San Mao Joins the Army is a new media cartoon drama produced by the Institute of China Traditional Opera Academy, which was awarded the second prize at the fifth National Children’s Drama exhibition. Professor Yu Shaofei shared: “It utilizes the fictitious techniques of expression that perfectly combines the animation and real people. During the creation process of this drama, we decided to use Toon Boom Harmony to create the animated portion of this new media drama project completely paperless. Some sceneries included 3D technology as well, resulting in a more powerful presence and enhanced story on stage thanks to the visual reality technique.”
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Image courtesy of Institute of China Traditional Opera Academy
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Image courtesy of Sophia Hilton Foundation
SOLO NEWS in their classes so the students can learn the new trends and technologies. The studio is also developing local TV series and feature animation projects using Toon Boom software. “Coming from a traditional animation background using Oxberrys and cels not too long ago, it is just amazing what Solo can do to increase production values and speed production time,” shared Haroldo Guimaraes Neto, president at HGN Productions. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Angel Magic, a multimedia agency in Thailand, in partnership with Kanya Animation, started its first international animation project, called The Tiger Heart. This small 2D studio began using Toon Boom Studio for TV commercials and all other new public and private sector media projects. As 3D animation production is getting more popular in Thailand, Angel Magic is one of the four studios who still produce traditional animation. “As a professional animation studio with great experience, we decided to become an animation tutor using Toon Boom products. We set up a small class in our studio to educate young people to create their own short animation projects. We find that Toon Boom’s products are excellent for teaching the new generation the best animation technology,” shared Vethit Thongchantr, Managing Director at Angel Magic. The Tiger Heart is an action fantasy story that blends exotic Thai design with a world famous sport: Thai Boxing. It is about four different characters of four races (animal, robotic, spiritual and human) fighting for the heart of the tiger. “The project shows the unlimited 2D animation ability of Toon Boom Studio to rotate the camera view around the character as 3D does.” Angel Magic has recently added Toon Boom Solo to its toolkit to benefit from its more advanced capabilities in its upcoming project.
The Sophia Hilton Foundation of Canada is animating a fifty-two episode story series, in collaboration with the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute. The entire project is being executed using Toon Boom’s Solo software package. The Ponnivela epic depicts the many challenges faced by a 16th century agricultural family from South India over a period of three generations. It is hoped that the animated version of this legend can be used to inspire South Indian village artists and provide them with new techniques and ideas for the communication of traditional story content. It will also be used in schools and universities. The project designers are striving to remain faithful to the folk art and folk music of this particular cultural region. All one hundred plus characters are being built and rigged using cut-out animation techniques and Indian “folk art” stylistics. The lead animator comments: “This is EXCELLENT software! I have had extensive experience with Maya and switching over to Solo’s 2D platform has been a delight. The design and staging capabilities of Solo meet the expectations of a 3D animator very well. I especially like the ability to move the camera in so many ways, including ‘flying’ through the layers of a scene,” shared Ravichandran, Lead Animator, Legend of Ponnivela Project. HGN Productions has been in the animation business for sixteen years and started producing Disney series (Goof Troop and Aladdin) in Brazil back in 1990. During that time, they started their animation training program to increase and speed up production for the series. They have trained a lot of animators the traditional way and now they are adopting Toon Boom Solo 6
toonboom news / april 2006
Image courtesy of Angel Magic and Kanya Animation
Image courtesy of HGN Productions
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Image courtesy of Matt Dell
TOON BOOM STUDIO NEWS As featured in our November 2005 eNewsletter, the Youth Digital Media and Arts CyberSchool announced its newest course: Creating and Animating Video Game Characters (VGD103). This course teaches how to create and animate video game characters using Toon Boom Studio. Characters are then imported into Clickteam’s Multimedia Fusion video game design software. Since then, the online course has been adopted by several schools and learning centers throughout the United States. Filmed at the Julian Charter School in San Diego, California, the CyberSchool has produced a special video promoting girls and technology as well as how video game design can be implemented in core curriculum as early as the Grade 3 right up to high school. This video also shows how to apply animation and gaming to a school assignment, such as marine biology. Check out the video posted at http://www.thelcg.com/yd macs_video_game_design_in_education.wmv. This is edutainment at its best!
Image courtesy of Rum Runners
On September 23, 2005, Brad Paisley launched his headlining Brad Paisley Time Well Wasted tour, featuring Sara Evans and special guest Sugarland, with sellout performances in major cities across the United States, including Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Brad has been playing music since he was eight years old and got into animation only later on. For his previous album, Mud on the Tires, Brad played an instrumental piece with the band, and his first cartoon running behind them on the big screens was a big hit. In the current album, Time Well Wasted, they have another four-minute fast instrumental piece for which he developed a new cartoon. He created a cartoon version of himself and uses this character interactively with the crowd. “I love Toon Boom Studio. I can honestly say that it is enhancing my career in many ways. I travel a lot and with almost all my traveling time on planes or by bus, I spend it animating, creating new content for the show. To promote my next single, I am planning to email radio programmers a personalized animated message that will include a cartoon version of themselves. I know them all personally so it will be a more creative way to promote my new song and have them play it on the radio,” shared Brad.
Rum Runners’ buxom adult cartoon star Brickhouse Betty is one of the most popular characters on the Web. Her ensemble cast has developed its own cult following which includes Santa, the Easter Bunny, J.D. the Jungle Dude, the infamous Grandpa Slappy and many other odd yet endearing characters. Betty’s recent short Stormy Bangs Betty!, which co-stars adult icon Stormy Daniels, was featured on Wicked Pictures’ DVD Camp Cuddly Pines Powertool Massacre which won the 2006 AVN Award for Best DVD Extras. She can now be seen in Flash, on iPod, PSP, DVD and on mobile phones. “The cartoons begin as traditional animation drawings and are then imported into Toon Boom Studio and prepared for animation. Rum Runners uses Toon Boom exclusively for this conversion because of its incredible ability to maintain the integrity of the original illustration while allowing tweaks that can simulate the inking process. In a small studio, that’s a lifesaver. Without Toon Boom, Betty and cast just wouldn’t look the same,” shared Sven from Rum Runners Studios.
Image courtesy of Rum Runners
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WITH 53 years of experience in the animation industry, Ralph Bakshi has an impressive track record. This famous animation director, animator, cartoonist and writer worked on a remarkable number of features, TV series and specials–all based on hand-drawn animation. Ralph Bakshi was born in 1938. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and went to the High School of Industrial Arts, now called the High School of Art and Design. After graduation, armed with a cartooning diploma, he went to work at Terrytoons animation studio in New Rochelle, where he started as a cel painter. He quickly became an animator, working on major characters like Mighty Mouse, Heckle and Jeckle, Deputy Dawg. Ralph became the director on these shows at 25; he was appointed creative director of the studio by CBS when he created and wrote The Mighty Heroes. Ralph accepted the position of producer and director of Paramount Cartoon Studios, which had been the old Max Fleischer Studio, in 1967. There he did four theatricals: Marvin Digs, Mini Squirts, Super Basher and Bop, and The Fiendish Five. He hired Mort Drucker, Wally Wood, Jack Davis, Joe Kubert, Jim Steranko, Gray Morrow and Roy Krenkel. After founding his own studio, Steve Krantz Productions asked him to take over direction and production of Rocket Robin Hood, and then, the Spider-Man series. In the ‘70s, Ralph moved into animated features with Fritz the Cat, which he wrote and directed in 1971. He created, wrote, and directed Heavy Traffic, released in 1973. In the same year, he established Bakshi Productions, Inc. There he enjoyed working with key names from the history of animation: Jim Tyer, Virgil Ross, Irv Spence, John Sparey, Manny Perez, Bob Carlson, Jonny Vita, and Ed Barge. He created, wrote and directed Coonskin (Street Fight) with producer Al Ruddy (The Godfather, The Longest Yard), released in 1975. Wizards was created, written, directed and produced by Ralph and released in 1977. He next directed the 1978 version of Lord of the Rings, using the rotoscoping technique. At this point, he started painting seriously, preparing
for a show at the Ulrica Cantor Gallery in Los Angeles. Hey Good Looking was also created, written and directed and released by Ralph in 1980. American Pop was written, directed and produced for release in 1981; then Fire and Ice was created, directed, and co-produced in 1983 with world-renowned fantasy illustrator Frank Frazetta. Two years later, Ralph did a live-action and animated video for the Rolling Stones called The Harlem Shuffle. The next year, he began Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures for the 1987 and 1988 TV seasons with John Kricfalusi who went on to do Ren and Stimpy. In the summer of 1987, Ralph had another solo art show at the Philip Dash Gallery in New York City, then his first liveaction short, This Ain’t Be-bop, debuted on PBS American Playhouse, which he wrote and directed. It starred Harvey Keitel, and was a look at the values of the Beat generation. Tattertown, a Christmas Special, was done at the same time. The Butter Battle Book special was done with Ted Geisel (Dr. Seuss) in 1989. Cool World, a mix of live-action and animation, featuring Brad Pitt and Kim Basinger, was directed by Ralph and released by Paramount in 1991. Ralph wrote and directed, the live-action TV movie The Cool and The Crazy, starring Alicia Silverstone and Jared Leto, which filmed in Los Angeles in 1994 for Showtime. In 1997, he created the animated science fiction detective HBO series, Spicy City. In 1998, his fine art was showcased once again at the Nardin Gallery in New York City. His next shows were at Animazing Gallery in Soho in the spring of 2000 and 2001. Ralph has created controversy with all of his films, and continued to break new ground in his art form. He has helped the public look at animation in a new way by creating worlds that are familiar, yet strange and powerful. He pioneered the design of animation with adult themes, by using political commentary and satire. The Museum of Images courtesy of Ralph Bakshi
Images courtesy of Ralph Bakshi
STUDIO CASE STUDY
Modern Art in New York has added his films to their collection and most recently his cult classics Fire and Ice and Wizards were released on DVD. He wrote the screenplay and began work on a new feature film, Last Days of Coney Island. Ralph Bakshi and his son Eddie Bakshi are Toon Boom Studio power users. “I have traditionally worked with handdrawn animation but have shifted into assembling all of the work on the computer using Toon Boom Studio. I work on my projects with my son Eddie who has used both Continuing on page 12
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toonboom news / april 2006
SOLO CASE STUDY
Images courtesy of Patrick Bradley
Patrick Bradley is a Media Producer at The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. He is currently animating twelve shorts for an exhibition on evolution set to open in March 2006. Completing this project will mark the end of a tremendous personal and professional journey. “I was forced to find a balance between creating fun, entertaining cartoons and the accurate educational tools that the curators required. And the deadlines were extremely tight. My production process changed dramatically from beginning to end, culminating—thankfully—in the use of Toon Boom Solo.” “When I accepted the Media Producer position, my background in animation was limited. I focused on film and printmaking at the Maryland Institute of Art, but I was always drawn to the medium because I relished in the creative control it allows. I had made a couple of my own animations in Flash, but felt my style was pushing the program to do something it wasn’t meant to.” But when the exhibition team decided that animation was the best way to illustrate key complex themes, he seized the opportunity. “I was given free reign to make complex subject matter like fossilization, the cause of ice ages, and natural selection fun.” “The size and time constraints of this project made it impossible concentrate on my animation style, but the more I animated, the more I discovered and studied the styles I like. For instance, I am still in awe of some of the classic Disney films. Dumbo’s pink elephants, and Alice in Wonderland are ‘animated’ in every sense of the word. The absurdity of the movement and exaggeration of form is fantastic. That is why I love to see pencil tests. I feel that many of today’s films are too clean and stiff; as if life has been sucked out of them. One exception however is The Triplets of Belleville. The drawing in that film blows me away because it has the look of something unmistakably hand drawn, but clean enough that the hand drawn nuances aren’t distracting.” But initially, many of these stylistic concerns weren’t as important as his production process, which was painstaking and arduous. At the time, he was animating the only way he knew how, to fully utilize his illustration talent. “The first shorts were a combination of hand-drawn and paperless layers that I created in Toon Boom Studio. Each layer of animation was exported separately as a QuickTime file then brought into After Effects to add depth and appeal with blurs, glows and shadows. The finished scenes were then edited in Final Cut Pro. Then when the animations were basically complete, my brother Chris Bradley, who is an accomplished musician
and sound recording artist, was hired to create custom soundtracks for each piece. It’s the greatest feeling to see your drawing come to life with movement. The second greatest thing is seeing your animations with a custom soundtrack like the ones Chris makes. So I was happy with the quality of the finished animations but the deadline was looming! And the development team was six weeks behind schedule in delivering scripts for the next projects. The Museum couldn’t afford to outsource any of the remaining work, so I was forced to streamline my process. Luckily, at this time, Toon Boom came out with Solo. The final three animations were done in Solo using a Wacom tablet monitor. I drew all of the characters on the screen, directly into Solo which eliminated the step of scanning hand-drawn sketches into Toon Boom Studio.” “I instantly noticed a difference in the quality of the rendered line art between Solo and Studio. In Solo, the lines are softer and more natural looking. I credit the program for opening my eyes to the creative possibilities of 2D animation and would recommend it to any serious animator looking to take their work to the next level.”
“I did all of the effects in Solo, eliminating endless exporting for After Effects. This especially saves time in a project like mine, where curators, developers and managers request countless, minor modifications. Also, Solo creates separate ink and painting, which saves time and allows for maximum flexibility. Because I didn’t have an extra minute to spare, I drew in the key frames for each scene, colored them, then moved on to the next scene. When all of the scenes’ key frames were complete, I drew in as many in-betweens as time would allow. This is something you can’t do in a lot of programs, including Toon Boom Studio, because intricate line work is obscured by color on the auto light table. Solo allowed me to create higher quality animation in about half the time than I had originally scheduled.” Now that all 12 animations are complete, Pat looks forward to spending some of his spare time on his featurette: The Mutation Agent. “It’s a 30 minute story that calls for complex, visual effects and will give me an opportunity to explore the emotions and motivations of my character through movement. The shear magnitude of a project like this would not be possible without Solo. With its capability of creating textured lines, quickly clean up rough lines and a number of other great features, it allows me to emulate the hand drawn lines that I admire in the classics and have come to expect in my own”. The first scenes from the Mutation Agent as well as many works done for the Field Museum can be viewed at www.patbradley.net. toonboom news / april 2006
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SCHOOLS ON BOARD
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Based in Auckland, New Zealand, the South Seas Film and Television School offers industry-focused training in animation, film, television and on-screen acting. The Diploma in Animation Production is a two-year program covering traditional, 2D and 3D training. Students on the 2006 Animation Production course will be completing work 10
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experience on the popular and successful TV3 network animation series bro’Town as part of their intensive industry training program. The South Seas course curriculum is of international standard and is accredited by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority and registered by the NZ Ministry of Education. Students from a wide range of countries including Indonesia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Thailand, England, USA, France, Germany, etc have graduated from Image courtesy of South Seas Film and Television School
Back in 2004, Animaster and Algonquin College signed an agreement that would allow Animaster to deliver Algonquin’s new third year program in India at Animaster’s numerous training facilities. Animaster has training centers in Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai. Here is a quote right from the Animaster web site: “A recent study conducted by Andersen Consulting states that the Indian animation industry currently pegged at $550 million is slated to clock a growth rate of 30% annually in the next three years. In that same timeframe, India would receive more than $2 billion worth animation business, according to the study. If you are a technology savvy artist looking for an exciting working life then this is good news. Meanwhile, Nasscom estimates the current global animation market to be worth around $45 bn and expects it to jump to between $50 bn and $70 bn by next year. It also states that India could use 300,000 professionals in content development and animation by 2008, up from 27,000 three years ago. Poised for growth in India, multimedia’s usage has expanded not only in the field of animation but also in films, television, gaming, music, internet, digital products and services.” As Paul West, Co-coordinator, Animation Program, at Algonquin, mentioned, “India is at the infancy stage of their animation industry and at the edge of the Indian animation boom. There is nothing but good news ahead for the industry in India. Now it is up to the training facilities to educate the new students with the proper programs so that students are able to apply for careers in animation and not just rush them through the programs into short lived jobs. Which is why Animaster is the first to get onboard with offering a Canadian credentials to allow the students the best opportunities available.” Neil Hunter, Co-coordinator of the Animation Program, and Paul West were in India for two weeks to train the trainers from the different centers and evaluate the students of the Algonquin/Animaster three year ADA program. They delivered both an overview and detailed lectures of their ideology for teaching and their methodology that continues to make Algonquin students graduate with industry ready skills. “Since the seminar focus was on the future of animation it was very easy for us to promote Toon Boom technologies, which includes of course Harmony,” added Paul West. This seminar was extremely successful with over 600 people attending, including representatives from leading animation studios and government.
the New Zealand school. South Seas graduates have worked in international films and television programs including King Kong, Lord of the Rings, Last Samurai, Whale Rider, Hercules, and Once Were Warriors. Established in 1992, South Seas Film and Television School has grown into New Zealand’s leading film, television and new media industry training provider with over 650 graduates establishing promising careers in the industry. Erica Lack, Tutor in Animation Production speaks enthusiastically about Toon Boom: “We use Toon Boom Studio V3 as a compositing software for 2D animation as it is simple to understand and operate with high quality results for both students, tutor and the industry.” ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
ITE College Central in Singapore offers three creative media courses in Digital Animation, Digital Media Design, and Product Design. These programs equip the students with the latest methods, processes and essential skills in animation production and the courses have a strong emphasis on drawing and design techniques integrated with creative production using digital technology. Their ITE students have been using Toon Boom Studio in their Storyboarding and 2D Animation module. “Toon Boom Studio has really empowered our students with an animation software tool that is easy to learn so that we are able to focus on developing the creative contents - the story and character design,” shared Yeo Sock Tin, Director at School of Info-Comm Technology (ITE College Central).
Image courtesy of G. Evans
Image courtesy of M. Reeve
Image courtesy of A. Fenwick
Staffordshire University in the United Kingdom is installing Harmony at Easter where they will integrate this into the current expansion in 2D practice across the curriculum. “This move is largely due to major success with Toon Boom Studio over the last two years,” shares Tony Smith, Award Leader Animation. Examples of this are: > > > > >
Adam Fenwick’s I am a De-sexed Pussy Cat, which was sponsored by British Council film Catalogue in 2005. > > > > >
Mark Reeve used Toon Boom Studio for his short Two Shoes, which was a finalist in this year’s BBC New Talent awards for New Animator. > > > > >
Gary Evans film Bobble and Scarf was published recently in Digit magazine UK after receiving an award at The Wolverhampton based FLIP Animation Festival. > > > > >
So now they look forward to integrating Harmony into their curriculum and expanding on these successes at a higher level of production output. Harmony will feature highly on their new set of Awards starting in September 2006. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Image courtesy of TESDA
The Philippines-based Technical Education Development and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) is set to implement its first software development and animation training curricula at two new IT training centers this month. Codeveloped by TESDA with the Philippine Software Industry Assoc. (PSIA) and the Animation Council of the Philippines Inc. (ACPI), the curricula will focus on basic to intermediate learners as part of TESDA’s human resource capacity building for the growing Philippine software development and animation industries. The two new training centers were built as part of a $5 million Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) program to help build Philippine human resources. The first KOICA-funded training center is in Quezon City, the second in Bulacan. “The Animation
Council sits in the Governing Board of the training center and animation is the flagship project on the facility. We have to mention and even highlight the software like Toon Boom Harmony for 2D animation and Maya for 3D animation are among the software that will be used in the training of incoming trainees. We target to start the training in April 2006,” shares Marlyn Montano, President of the Animation Council of the Philippines. TESDA will be offering both modular and long-term courses in both 2D and 3D animation. The courses in animation will be headed and supervised by industry practitioners. The Animation Council had formed a group of “industry experts” to teach and train students in the training facility. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Southbank Institute, Brisbane Australia, has been a leading education Institute in the field of Multimedia since 1996. Southbank Institute was one of the first education faculties to start the Diploma of Multimedia in Queensland. Since 1999, Southbank Institute has produced a number of students who have had their skills recognized in the National AIMIA Awards (Australian Interactive Multimedia Industry Association). Again this year, Southbank students have been short-listed for the national award which will be held in early March. The latest developments in the department include the start of Diploma courses in Games and the latest program, the Diploma of Screen. The Diploma of Screen has a strong focus on digital animation and video production. Southbank is excited to add Toon Boom Studio to the Diploma of Screen’s curriculum. It’s hoped that this will strengthen the education experience for our students and improve the quality of animation which is produced. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The University of San Carlos College of Architecture and Fine Arts will be offering a short course on 2D Cartoon Animation using Toon Boom Studio V3. The college offers academic programs in B.S. Architecture, B.S. Landscape Architecture, Bachelor of Fine Arts, majors in Interior Design, Advertising, and Painting. It is one of the colleges of the University of San Carlos, one of the major universities in the Philippines, which has four campuses within Cebu City. The College of Architecture and Fine Arts is housed in a brandnew building, which sits on top of one of the hills overlooking the Talamban Campus. The scenic view and the fresh mountain air are very conducive to creative activity and study. Toon Boom Studio will start the Department of Fine Arts’ development of a four-year bachelor course in animation within the next couple of years. “The Toon Boom animation program will be held at the Architecture Computer Center, which has two 30-seat computer training laboratories and an architectural service bureau, now fully-equipped to handle training programs in animation and computer graphics. Having Toon Boom Studio is a very positive addition to its software arsenal,” shared Ionone Bangcas, Creative Director for the college’s Video Post Production Facility. toonboom news / april 2006
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can add or delete elements, the ability to cut and paste sections of the exposure sheet and the gradient color tool. Also the ability to import wav files, to manipulate volume in the sound editor and to use the function editor to manipulate camera moves. “Toon Boom Studio allows quality control on a level I’ve never had through its instant visualization of all of the areas that we need to see and assess. With that, our productivity has increased tremendously. I would estimate an 80% productivity gain! “I feel Toon Boom Studio has freed all cartoonists to make any film they want to make at an affordable price. This is more important in my opinion than Walt Disney being born,” shared Ralph.
Photoshop and some peripheral sound programs in conjunction with Toon Boom Studio”. “Eddie began some coloring and refining of artwork in Photoshop then gradually moved over to doing this in Toon Boom Studio. The crossover was relatively painless. The programs worked well together.” Ralph explains how his workflow is laid out for his projects. “I set up the picture in a traditional manner then Eddie uses Toon Boom Studio to do everything else. My animator Doug Compton also uses Toon Boom Studio to assemble and send pencil tests and animatics. Toon Boom Studio essentially becomes the studio. We all appreciate Toon Boom Studio’s ability to quickly preview the animation, the ease with which you
TOON BOOM STAR In each issue, we will introduce you to the people behind the technology and put a face to the voice you may have spoken to. ping a network of value-added resellers in key geographical areas. His frequent customer visits and thorough participation at trade shows has made him very knowledgeable of animation production processes, proactive in connecting Toon Boom customers to each other, and proficient with the state of the global animation industry. On the personal front, François and Catherine, his spouse, are the proud parents of 3-year-old Rémi, and 8-month-old twin brothers Thomas and Hugo. This young and happy family is certainly very animated!
François Lalonde has recently been promoted to Senior Director of Sales, covering Western Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and India. During his seven years at Toon Boom, François has been involved in the successful business development and implementation of Toon Boom’s software products and services throughout his territory, showing great commitment during pre-sale and post-sale services, and ensuring the highest level of customer satisfaction. François has directly managed key accounts in addition to develo-
LATEST REVIEWS
All reviews are available at http://www.toonboom.com/com pany/news/reviews.php
toonboom news / april 2006
CONGRATULATIONS Image courtesy of RonToon
Published on February 12, 2006 on Flashmagazine.com: “Let’s face it—in terms of animation, Flash is rather simplistic. What do you do when your animation skills surpass the capabilities of Flash? Toon Boom Animation may have the solution for you. “This is a truly great piece of software that runs circles around Flash when it comes to animation. It’s not really revolutionary (compared to Flash) but the workflow in Toon Boom Studio is much better suited for animators and the Scene Planner and Lip Sync are great timesavers. If you’re an animator looking for a better tool, Toon Boom Studio is well worth checking out. In terms of animation tools, this is by far the best Flash replacement we’ve seen.” .................................................................................... Maccompanion.com published another review on February 7 by Robert Pritchett, giving a five-star rating to Toon Boom Studio V3!
We would like to congratulate Ron Fleischer for getting noticed in so many animation festivals, with his animated short Lemmings. The production of Lemmings was featured in the September 2005 issue of Toon Boom News and was entirely done on Toon Boom Opus. After winning the Chicago Award at the 41st Chicago International Film Festival and being a finalist for Best Animated Short at the Reno Film Festival, the popular short just won for Best Animated Short at the Dam Short Film Festival. It has also been invited to three other festivals, the Omaha Film Festival at the end of March, and the Sacramento Film Festival and the Red Stick Animation Festival in April.