
Toonz Goes Open Source - doppp
http://www.toonzpremium.com/#!news/aawrs
======
fractallyte
Toonz is one of the massive 'enterprise' animation software suites, and it
used to have a price to match.

But frame-by-frame cel animation - which involves weeks, months, years of
tedious drawing - has been comprehensively disrupted by upstarts like Anime
Studio ([http://my.smithmicro.com/anime-studio-
pro.html](http://my.smithmicro.com/anime-studio-pro.html)), which uses bones
and inverse kinematics to produce quality animations quickly and easily.

Then there was Creature House's legendary LivingCels - the animation version
of Expression
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creature_House_Expression](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creature_House_Expression)).
Imagine something as capable as Adobe Illustrator, but with a more intuitive
interface and simpler workflow; then imagine using it to create complex
animations using natural media brushes. That was a big development in 2002
(some predicted it could displace Flash), until Microsoft acquired the
company, had no idea what to do next, and thus quietly killed a revolutionary
product.

Aside: the original Creature House version of Expression is still available as
a download from Microsoft ([http://www.microsoft.com/en-
gb/download/details.aspx?id=3124...](http://www.microsoft.com/en-
gb/download/details.aspx?id=31249)). The Mac version is PPC only, but the
Windows version works flawlessly in WINE on Mac and Linux.

~~~
gammaflow
> But frame-by-frame cel animation - which involves weeks, months, years of
> tedious drawing - has been comprehensively disrupted by upstarts like Anime
> Studio ([http://my.smithmicro.com/anime-studio-
> pro.html](http://my.smithmicro.com/anime-studio-pro.html)), which uses bones
> and inverse kinematics to produce quality animations quickly and easily.

I'd hardly say Anime Studio disrupted anything

It's more like 3D suites replaced high end FBF animation, and Flash + Toon
Boom replaced low end FBF animation

~~~
Grue3
In Japan, hand-drawn animation is still king. They use a lot of specialized
software to cut the costs though. Then there are Korean studios which produce
relatively cheap hand-drawn animation for both Japan and the West.

------
doall
Kawakami has been deeply concerned about the declining Japanese animation
industry. Since he has been involved with Studio Ghibli and Studio Khara he
knows the industry quite well. Also as CTO of Dwango he knows quite well about
technology and the open sourcing stuff could be done only by him.

Bravo Kawakami!

~~~
coolandsmartrr
Sounds like you're from Japan?

FYI for readers here, Dwango has been leading efforts to revitalise Japanese
Anime, including Anime Mahon-Ichi, a series of animated shorts produced with a
creative focus in lieu of commercial viability.

~~~
joshguthrie
I think you meant Nihon Animator Mihon-ichi:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Animator_Expo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Animator_Expo)

------
jonnybravo
How difficult would be for a beginner to start using it for hobby?

~~~
AnkhMorporkian
I had the opportunity to mess around with Toonz a few years ago. It's actually
fairly easy to use, you could be productive in a few days with it. However,
the problem is that frame-by-frame animation is _incredibly_ time consuming.
I'm not saying that to dissuade you from pursuing it, but just don't go in
thinking you'll be able to animate an episode of Futurama in a month.

~~~
michaelbuddy
the video on the tunes sight has bones in it. so it doesn't use keyframes?

------
ingenieros
Here's a bit more info: [http://www.cartoonbrew.com/tech/toonz-software-used-
studio-g...](http://www.cartoonbrew.com/tech/toonz-software-used-studio-
ghibli-futurama-made-free-open-source-138111.html)

~~~
asymmetric
I couldn't find infos on that anime anywhere, mind sharing a link?

~~~
ingenieros
Are you referring to the one in that image right next to Futurama? That one is
called The Wind Rises and here's the trailer
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imtdgdGOB6Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imtdgdGOB6Q)

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alexvoda
I'm curious how this (OpenToonz) will differ from Toonz Harlequin and Toonz
Bravo. Also, curious what will happen to Toonz LineTest and to Story Planner.

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plcancel
Unimportant but confounding - They have one of the oddest logos I have ever
seen. What is it? Please help.

~~~
snarfy
Cartoon dragon face?

~~~
alexvoda
It's the outline of a cartoon wolf. The same wolf in this boxart:
[http://www.toonz.com/htm/products/prod63B.htm](http://www.toonz.com/htm/products/prod63B.htm)

------
lioeters
Good info, thank you for the post. Like others, I'm eagerly waiting for the
release to try it out.

From the screenshots, it looked to be Windows-based. I wonder if they support
other platforms. Curious about language, build steps... Well, we'll see next
Friday!

~~~
PeCaN
Toonz dates back quite far, so it's probably C++ relatively deeply tied to
Windows APIs.

~~~
SXX
Many years ago it's had Linux and IRIX versions (Toonz 4.6):
[http://www.toonz.com/htm/products/46productline/prodtoonzreq...](http://www.toonz.com/htm/products/46productline/prodtoonzreq.htm)

So there is chance it's might be still fairly cross-platform.

~~~
unsignedint
Looks like they are using Qt, and there are already some efforts [0][1] trying
to compile it under Linux.

I haven't played around with it deeply, but it seems to run on WINE just fine,
too.

[0]:
[https://github.com/opentoonz/opentoonz/issues/34](https://github.com/opentoonz/opentoonz/issues/34)

[1]:
[https://github.com/opentoonz/opentoonz/pull/51](https://github.com/opentoonz/opentoonz/pull/51)

------
jianshen
Anyone here in the animation industry used this before? Looking forward to
March 26th!

------
amelius
I wonder whether deep learning techniques have been applied to cartoon
drawing.

Unfortunately, when I search for "deep learning" and "cartoons", I only find
cartoons about deep learning :/

~~~
gcr
I'm not aware of anything serious, but there's some work in using Generative
Adversarial Networks to generate anime profile pictures. Scroll down here:
[https://github.com/mattya/chainer-DCGAN](https://github.com/mattya/chainer-
DCGAN)

There's also some success in teaching recurrent neural networks to draw
numbers or generate handwriting.

But all of these (even the anime profile shots) are very structured.
"Creativity" is still a long, long ways away.

------
nopedotjpg
open source collaborative animu on github when?

