Toonz

Toonz
Company type	Software application
Industry	Animation software
Founded	1993
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Dwango (overseer of OpenToonz), Digital Video S.p.A. (developer of Toonz Premium)
Products	Toonz, OpenToonz, Toonz Premium

Toonz is a software application designed for 2D animation. The core version, overseen by Dwango, is distributed as OpenToonz, an open-source platform.^[1] Meanwhile, Digital Video S.p.A. develops and sells a professional-grade edition called Toonz Premium, tailored for studios and individual professionals.^[2] Prominent animation studios such as Studio Ghibli^[3] and Rough Draft Studios^[4] have employed Toonz in their projects.

Toonz 3.0

Initially created in 1993 for the IRIX operating system, Toonz was branded and exclusively distributed by Softimage under the name Creative Toonz. It found early adoption in the animation industry, notably used in productions like Amblimation's Balto.

Toonz 4.0

After Softimage was acquired by Microsoft, Toonz was adapted for the Windows platform and marketed as Microsoft Toonz. This version introduced features aimed at traditional cel animators, including a Pencil Test module, Palette Editor, Xsheet, Ink and Paint, Flip modules, alongside modular scanning and rendering functionalities.

Toonz 5.0

With Toonz 5.0 Harlequin, vector graphics support was added to complement raster graphics, facilitating a shift towards paperless animation workflows. This release extended compatibility to both Windows and Mac OS X operating systems.

Toonz 6.0 Harlequin and Bravo

The 6.0 iteration appeared as Toonz Harlequin, developed in collaboration with Studio Ghibli, supporting both scanned traditional animation and paperless techniques; concurrently, Toonz Bravo was launched focusing exclusively on paperless animation processes.

Toonz 6.3 ML

Version 6.3 ML ("multi-language") incorporated support for multiple languages and introduced features such as raster-to-vector conversion, palette styling, and improved rendering options. Toonz Bravo 6.3 ML offered animation libraries, linked palettes with intelligent color models, numerically controlled transformations, dependencies among pegbars, cameras, and tables; advanced visual effects through a 2D particle engine; and batch rendering capabilities via render farms. Meanwhile, Toonz Harlequin 6.3 ML enabled users to scan, colorize, and refine hand-drawn artwork directly within the software.

Toonz 6.4 ML

Released as both Toonz Harlequin and Toonz 6.4 Bravo!, version 6.4 brought improvements to the Cleanup module and preview functions, introduced a Black & White scanning mode, editable DPI settings, an enhanced Raster-to-Vector Converter algorithm, Interactive Color Editing features, and Smart FX Schematic Editing.

Toonz 7.0

The seventh major release incorporated mesh deformation using bones, ECMAScript automation capabilities, new visual effects, drawing cleanup tools, symmetric background options, as well as support for 3D stereoscopic rendering.

Open-sourcing

On March 19, 2016, Toonz was made available as OpenToonz, a free open-source software licensed under BSD terms; its source code was published on GitHub on March 26, 2016. Digital Video continues to develop and market the commercial Toonz Premium edition. Additionally, the OpenToonz codebase has been branched into projects such as Tahoma2D—which prioritizes ease of use—and a customized version created for the Morevna Project.

Film and Television

Princess Mononoke
My Neighbors the Yamadas
Spirited Away
Howl's Moving Castle
Ponyo
Arrietty
Mary and the Witch's Flower (created with OpenToonz)
The Boy and the Heron (created with OpenToonz)
Balto
Logobelly
Anastasia
Futurama
SpongeBob SquarePants
The Maxx
Titan A.E.
Aida of the Trees
Asterix Conquers America
Steven Universe
Batman Ninja (produced using OpenToonz)
Promare (produced using OpenToonz)
Belle (2021 film) (produced using OpenToonz)

Video Games

Discworld 2
Claw

External links

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