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Toonz Goes Open Source

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Re: Toonz Goes Open Source

#3

Post by 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), 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). 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...). The Mac version is PPC only, but the Windows version works flawlessly in WINE on Mac and Linux.

Re: Toonz Goes Open Source

#4

Post by alexvoda »

fractallyte wrote: post #3

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 ), which uses bones and inverse kinematics to produce quality animations quickly and easily. Then there was…

Is there a Windows version of the LivingCels plugin available for download? Also does the Mac version work through Rosetta?

Re: Toonz Goes Open Source

#5

Post by gammaflow »

fractallyte wrote: post #3

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 ), which uses bones and inverse kinematics to produce quality animations quickly and easily. Then there was…

> 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), 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

Re: Toonz Goes Open Source

#8

Post by 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!

Re: Toonz Goes Open Source

#9

Post by chipsy »

fractallyte wrote: post #3

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 ), which uses bones and inverse kinematics to produce quality animations quickly and easily. Then there was…

In a lot of ways, FBF animation has never been disrupted so much as just temporarily displaced by other techniques for reasons of efficiency. The animator still has to make good design decisions up front so that the figure construction works and objects move in a perceptually believable way. Everything else - whether it's rotoscoping or tweening or something else - assists, but doesn't aim to truly emulate the thought process that a traditional animator uses, so you get different results that are often more mechanically precise but less interesting to watch.

Re: Toonz Goes Open Source

#10

Post by Grue3 »

gammaflow wrote: post #5
fractallyte wrote: post #3

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 ), which uses bones and inverse kinematics to produce quality animations quickly and easily. Then there was…

> 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 ), 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 + To…

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.
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