Toonz as used by Studio Ghibli is now open source!

[Herbert123]

Toonz as used by Studio Ghibli is now open source!

https://opentoonz.github.io/e/index.html

Today Toonz Ghibli version enters the open source arena. Download it for free, and enjoy production-proven 2d animation tools used in every Ghibli feature since Princess Mononoke and by the creators of Futurama.

I have been playing around with it for a couple of hours, and it is quite impressive for a 31mb download:
- x-sheet based timeline
- curves
- keyframe based tweening for transformations, graph editor
- paricle systems
- node-based Compositing and FX
- tracking
- vector based drawing tools
- Bones and IK based animation 2d vector-based animation
- automatic colour fill tools
- scanning tools and cleanup
- 2.5d/3d camera view
- team tools and revisioning tools
...and more!

I also tested the SVG output from Photoline for use in OpenToonz, and it works without a hitch.

Word of warning to the uninitiated: This is some serious in-depth 2d animation software. And it is definitely NOT for everyone - it is too much of a "work (war) horse" for that. I suggest anyone interested in using OpenToonz will need knowledge about classical 2d animation production workflows before you even open the application.

But it is absolutely AMAZING this is now open sourced. I have been looking for more traditional animation software with X-sheet functionality - THIS IS IT!

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Blurb:

Toonz was first released in 1993 and has gone on to become a powerful tool for 2D animation. Besides Studio Ghibli's more recent works -- first used on 1999's Princess Mononoke -- it's also been used to produce the likes of Futurama, Asterix, and even video games such as Discworld 2. It's flexible too, able to work with old-school hand drawn animation or entirely digital productions. OpenToonz has the potential to expand the relatively insular creative world of animation, making a professional-level suite available to amateur or independent animators and bigger, established studios alike.
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"It is a great honour for us to be able to release OpenToonz as open source software," said Dwango chairman Nobuo Kawakami. "We'd like to express our deepest appreciation to Digital Video and Studio Ghibli for their help and support. We hope the high-quality software that meets the demands of animation professionals will contribute to revitalising the animation industry. Dwango will also utilize OpenToonz in order to present its research and development results."

The move could have big implications for Japan's anime and gaming sectors. Dwango is a major player in the country's entertainment world -- it owns game developer Spike Chunsoft, streaming video site NicoNico Douga, and merged with media giant Kadokawa in 2014 giving it influence on dozens of smaller animation houses.

While OpenToonz will be available to the masses, Digital Video will continue to develop its own Toonz Premium software fork, aimed at professionals and sold "at a very competitive price". It will also offer implementation and training in the kit.

"The contract with Dwango, which offers the Toonz open source platform to the animation community, has enabled Digital Video to realize one of its strategies: to make of Toonz a world standard for 2D animation," said Claudio Mattei, managing director at Digital Video. "This deal will also be the starting point of a new exciting plan to endorse the Open Source business model, by supporting training and customising Toonz for the old and new users. We are proud to share this path with Dwango and with Studio Ghibli, the renowned Toonz user since 1995."

[Herbert123]

Quick update: the new public release is available. This fixes many bugs and restores important missing features which were missing in the first release. The Mac version is now actually usable!

If you are in the market for a quality 2d animation application, look no further. I wish Photoline would have nodes in some way too for compositing!

Get it here:
https://github.com/opentoonz/opentoonz/releases

[Herbert123]

By the way, even for those not interested in animation OpenTOonz might be of interest: the cleanup tools for drawings are excellent, and it offers great vector conversion of images as well. The result can be saved as SVG.