toonboom.com

Summer 2012
toonboom.com
Amplify the learning
experience using
animation
The power of animation is a force to be reckoned with,
not only in entertainment, but also in education. When
empirical data are made available to justify that statement,
one can only tip their hat to the educators who embrace
technology for the betterment of their students.
Bluffton Elementary School,
located in South Carolina’s Beaufort
County, deserves special mention
in this regard. The school’s visionary
Principal Christine Brown, alongside dedicated animation teacher
Celia Miller, gave their students the
opportunity to surpass themselves
and they did. Using the Flip Boom
family of products, students from
Grades 3 to 5 created animation
to demonstrate their understanding of the core curriculum. During
the first year of implementation, this innovative approach
translated into an increase of up to 15% in overall marks
throughout the core curriculum, maintaining a much higher
performance than the state level. There was also an over
40% increase in science, 36% in math, 12% in social studies and 26% in writing amongst African-American students.
This spectacular achievement was recognized by the
Department of Education, which granted them the 2012
Palmetto Gold Award in the Closing the Achievement
Gap category, which recognizes programs that narrow the
gap in achievement between historically lower and higherachieving student demographic groups. Toon Boom is a
great advocate of the school’s methodology and is proud
to count Bluffton as a champion in the field.
Game Camps
Working in collaboration with Ubisoft in Montreal and
Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, Toon
Boom is directly involved in a series of animation game
camps targeted to 12 to 15 year-old children, offering them
an educational adventure in game design using Toon Boom
Storyboard Pro. Taking place throughout the summer in
both Montreal and Savannah, the camps have received an
overwhelmingly positive response.
On the Road
Recognized as experts in the field of animation,
members of the Toon Boom team are invited to speak
to audiences throughout the world on topics relating to
growing the animation industry, production pipelines and
education. Recently, Joan Vogelesang was a guest speaker at the 2012 Caribbean Investment Forum, sharing her
knowledge of how to develop the animation industry in the
region. Joan was also present at the 2012 FMX, presenting the How to Prepare Children for a Future in Animation
and the The Future of 2D Animation sessions. At MIFA,
Francisco Del Cueto was part of a panel on How to Optimize Production Management. Industry events scheduled
for this summer include: MIFA, Booth 2.005 in Annecy,
France (June 4-9); International Society for Technology
in Education (ISTE), Booth 5947 in San Diego, CA, USA
(June 24-27); Georgia Association for Career and Tech-
This issue’s cover courtesy of La Fabrique d’Images
Toon Boom Corporate Headquarters
+1 514 278 8666
5530 St. Patrick, Suite 2210
Montréal (Québec) H4E 1A8 Canada
toonboom.com
2
Toon Boom News
Printed in Canada
summer 2012
nical Education (GACTE) in Atlanta, GA, USA (July 15-18),
Virginia Technology and Engineering Educators Association Conference (VTEEA), Frederick County, VA, USA
(August 1-3); and SIGGRAPH, Booth 1030 in Los Angeles, CA, USA (August 7-9). Make it a point to drop by our
booth to say hello!
Awards
On the awards front, the Toon Boom team has been
twice honoured recently for its achievements in the animation industry, as well as for its commitment to its customers.
TOON BOOM STAR
This section is dedicated to Toon Boom employees. In each
issue, we will introduce you to the people behind the technology and put a face to the voice you may have heard on the
other end of the line.
Joan Vogelesang, Toon Boom’s President and CEO, accepting the
Frost and Sullivan 2011 Global Animation Software Entrepreneurial of
the Year Award from Krishna Srinivasan, Global President & Managing
Partner, Frost & Sullivan.
Mr Steven Chu, Toon Boom’s COO, receiving the Distinguished
Partners’ Award from Singapore’s Institute for Technical Education
(ITE). Presenting the award is guest of honour, Mr Teo Chee Hean,
Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister, Coordinating Minister for
National Security and Minister for Home Affairs, on April 3, 2012.
Presenting the Award with Mr Teo are Mr Bob Tan, Chairman, ITE
and Mr Bruce Poh, CEO, ITE.
Marc-André Bouvier-Pelletier joined Toon Boom in
March 2001, working in quality assurance for the then
soon-to-be-released Toon Boom Studio version 1. MarcAndré performed numerous hardware compatibility tests
to ensure this new product would receive the best possible reception in the field. As updates and upgrades were
made available, he conducted further tests while garnering a great expertise of Toon Boom vector technology. In
2005, Marc-André embraced the professional line of products, and began playing a more active role in the field. Now
dedicated to that family of products, he acts as a consultant; assisting customers with installation, pipeline optimization and production assistance. With regard to Toon
Boom Storyboard Pro, Marc-André has performed several
user tests on behalf of corporate accounts and manages
feature requests, prioritizing them and translating them
into new software functions. With the upcoming release
of Harmony 10, he is currently hard at work in the testing
phase, while helping define how new features are implemented in the software. He also oversees the beta testing
of the new version sent to corporate accounts and writes
the release notes, in which all the great feature additions
and improvements are outlined. On the personal side,
Marc-André is an avid four season amateur sportsman,
practicing indoor climbing, biking, roller derby and snowboarding. He also enjoys renovating his house and landscaping alongside his significant other, Geneviève and her
six year-old son, Vega, with whom they form a harmonious
and happily-blended family.
Proud recipient of:
2011
GLOBAL ANIMATION SOFTWARE
ENTREPRENEURIAL
COMPANY OF THE YEAR AWARD
Emmy-Award
Technology
Toon Boom News
Summer 2012
3
Technology News
Get Toon Boom Certified!
Toon Boom believes life-long learning is important—
from academia throughout your professional career. We
support students and educators as well as professionals.
Whether you need educational resources, instructor-led,
self-paced, or online training, Toon Boom has you covered.
As the worldwide leader in digital content and animation creation software, Toon Boom Animation is highly
recognized in the animation and the film industries. By
certifying their marketable skills, individuals can validate
their technical ability and demonstrate recognized proficiency in digital content and animation. Toon Boom’s
Certification Program opens doors to exciting careers and
lets successful candidates stand apart from their peers in a
highly-competitive job market.
Toon Boom Certification is an industry standard of
excellence that provides reliable validation of skills and
knowledge. This can lead to accelerated professional
development, improved productivity, and enhanced credibility. It’s the best way to communicate your proficiency in
leading products from Toon Boom.
Check out the 2012 training calendar for upcoming
Toon Boom Certification classes, all of which will be held in
Montreal. Course prices (USD) include a one-year license
of the related software, as well as the certification.
Learn more about Toon Boom’s certification programs
at toonboom.com/education/certification
Professional Training
Leading to Professional/Master Certification
OM CER
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TOO
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Harmony
Storyboard Pro 3D
Conditions: Have a working knowledge
of, or experience working with, Toon
Boom Harmony
Conditions: Have a working
knowledge of, or experience working
with, Toon Boom Storyboard Pro 3D
Capacity: 5
Capacity: 5
Price: $2,499
Price: $1,999
Dates:
Dates:
• August 27-31
• November 26-30
• August 22-24
• November 21-23
Associate Training
Leading to Associate Certification
(Creative Entrepreneur Programs)
M CE
TOO
Toon Boom News
IED
4
RT
IF
N
O
BO
summer 2012
Harmony
Storyboard Pro 3D
Conditions: Have a basic knowledge of,
or experience working with, Toon Boom
Harmony
Conditions: Have a basic knowledge
of, or experience working with, Toon
Boom Storyboard Pro 3D
Capacity: 7
Capacity: 7
Price: $2,499
Price: $1,999
Dates:
Dates:
•
•
•
•
August 13-17
November 12-16
August 20-22
November 19-21
Striking Speed
Striking Speed with Toon Boom Harmony 10
Toon Boom Harmony 10 delivers features that will require you to fasten your seat belt!
Racing Engine
Benefit from a powerful 64-bit engine, driving enhancements in speed, performance, and handling of this groundbreaking animation software.
Go Further
The new engine powers the ability to go further than ever
before. Take advantage of all the available memory on
your system; render high definition projects and high quality images, in 2K, 4K, 8K, and more.
64 BITS
Real-Time Manoeuvring
See the advantages when handling the software directly;
with a faster user interface, and faster interactive playback.
See these improvements when working with very simple,
or very complex, scenes with character rigs and deformation.
Turbo-Charged
See the benefits of 64-bit when compositing and rendering special effects. Take advantage of the multi-thread
technology and rendering improvements to render faster,
and to render more elaborate scenes. See the difference
when rendering large bitmaps, gradients, and complex
backgrounds. Efficiently render very sophisticated scenes
with particles, complex effects, and 2D-3D integration.
Toon Boom News
Summer 2012
5
Image courtesy of the Toon Boom Multimedia and Content Creation Team
Industry Tips
Avoiding the Presentation Crash
and Burn
by Heather Kenyon
How did it all go so terribly? You planned. You
organized. You wore your lucky socks. So, how did you
suddenly find yourself sputtering along, thrown off your
mojo with the person you are pitching looking at you with
a questioning, “What is this person talking about? And do
they need some sort of medication?” type of face!?
It has happened to us all and it is awful. While I can’t say
doing the below will ensure you won’t occasionally have
that bad, bad pitch, it might just help.
•
•
6
Control your pitch materials. This is most important.
I like to design my pitch bibles so that they naturally
lead me through my pitch. If I am nervous, all I
have to do is look at the pretty pictures and they
will lead me through my pitch. Do not hand the
pitch bible to the person you are pitching as you
begin. They will flip through it, read it, and it will
throw you off. Plus, once they start looking – they
are no longer paying attention to you. You need to
control how you tell your story. Put your hands on
the bible, keep it close to you, and turn the pages
for the person as you speak. Use your pitch book
as your guide to tell the story of your show. This
should help you to avoid blanking and getting the
order of information jumbled.
Don’t go overboard on the caffeine. People will be
focused on your hands and if you – and the person
you are pitching – suddenly notice that you are
shaking, it can throw you off. I’ve lived this one.
Toon Boom News
summer 2012
•
•
•
•
Turn off your cell phone. It will ring, vibrate or chirp
at the exact wrong time. It just will. Trust me.
If you can’t do it at home easily – play that clip,
say the joke, etc. – it could be trouble in the room.
Don’t stress yourself out with things that might not
work or require a very certain snap of the wrist.
Simple is better and means less to worry about and
handle.
Get some sleep. Practicing until 4 am isn’t going to
help. In fact, canned pitches are duds. You want
spontaneity. Do you know your characters? Do
you know your stories? Good. Go to bed.
And finally, maybe the person you are pitching to is
just REALLY listening and that’s the face they make!
I was once pitching to a lady who was making
such an awful face I almost asked her if I should
continue. But when I wrapped up, she broke into a
huge smile and said, “I like it.”
So there you go! You never know. When in doubt, just
keep smiling and keep pitching.
Heather Kenyon is currently working with Kid
Glove Creative, a new division of B. Wooding
Media. For five years, she worked at Cartoon
Network, as Senior Director of Development,
Original Series, leading the development of
all series for children aged 6 – 11. She is also
currently Vice President of Production and
Development for Citizen Skull Productions, a
predominately unscripted and documentary
producer.
Better Brush in Toon Boom
Storyboard Pro
When the Load Texture File window opens, simply
select the PSD file you made earlier and click Open.
by Mark Simon
The biggest complaint I hear from artists when they
start to draw in a vector-based program is that they don’t
like the line quality of vector lines. Never fear! It’s quick
and easy to set up a texture brush in Storyboard Pro 2.0
that will let you draw like Michelangelo with a line you will
love.
The first thing you need to do
is open Photoshop and make a
file that is 75 pixels by 75 pixels.
Fill it with black and save it as a
PSD file. I was incredibly creative
with my file name and called it
Mark’s Brush. Oooh. [Figure 01]
Next, open Storyboard Pro.
Fig. 01
Select your Brush
tool, and click on the
Tool Properties tab.
[Figure 02]
Name your brush
and set the parameters
as you want. You can
adjust these parameters
just like any brush, as
often as you like. The
settings shown here
are my basic settings
for working on a HD
storyboard file. You can
Fig. 04
set the minimum (2.8
pixels on mine) and maximum (33 pixels on my sample)
brush size to control your pressure sensitive Wacom pen.
[Figure 04]
Now, you are free to draw with a smooth, pencil-like
line that will make any artist happy.
Go forth and board!
Fig. 02
On the Tool Properties tab, click on the New
Brush icon.
Below, select the Texture
Brush option and then click
on the button under the word
Texture. [Figure 03]
Fig. 03
Mark Simon is a 25-year entertainment
industry veteran amassing nearly 3,000
production credits. He is head of story on
the upcoming Hong Kong Phooey feature for
Warner Bros and animation producer on Fox’s
Tooth Fairy 2. Mark has landed more than 25
deals for his original concepts. He is owner of
three industry companies in Orlando, FL and
the author of ten popular industry texts. He
also lectures around the world.
Toon Boom News
Summer 2012
7
Image courtesy of the Toon Boom Multimedia and Content Creation Team
Industry Tips
Co-Writing – More Sparks,
Better Balance
by Donna Lisa
Writers and songwriters create their own unique worlds.
This process requires hours of focused thinking, which can be
gratifying, but lonely. While working in solitude, many writers become distracted and have trouble finishing projects.
Those who choose to co-write avoid these pitfalls. They
have company while they create, and they rarely lose focus.
As a writer/songwriter who has co-written many projects,
I strongly favour this approach. The process of co-writing
can be very motivating. Writers who work with partners
don’t encounter writer’s block. It can be exhilarating to
brainstorm and develop ideas together. Meeting a deadline can be easier with a writing partner to spur you on.
I have found that carefully chosen writing partners can
offset my weaknesses and enhance my strengths. For one
of my writing assignments, I selected Monique Gramby,
a very funny writer. I had been hired to write for a children’s comedy/adventure series. I felt confident that I
could create exciting adventure stories, but I brought in
Monique to help me make the series funnier. Our collaboration worked. The producer loved our bible. Through
working with Monique, I learned to think in a more “out
of the box,” funny way and she learned more about the
pacing of episodes for children. We became good friends,
another benefit that co-writing can provide.
Writing songs with a writing partner has a natural flow
for me. In script and bible writing, the division of labour is
not well defined. Both writers work on all aspects of the
project. In songwriting, the creative tasks can be easily
divided.
In my case, I picked Ted Brancato, a very talented, clas8
Toon Boom News
summer 2012
sically-trained musician, as my co-writer. Simple, catchy
melodies and fun lyrics came easily to me, but I didn’t have
the musicianship to write the more unusual, exotic melodies
that Ted created. Through working with him, I learned to
expand my lyric writing. I created unusual rhyme patterns
to fit Ted’s innovative melodies. Ted learned to keep the
songs catchy and accessible. He also brought his arranging talents to the studio when we recorded our songs. This
was a huge benefit for the music and for me.
Although my experience with co-writing has been
very positive, it hasn’t always been easy. There were
bumps along the way. For me, co-writing has meant sharing a creative vision and compromising ideas. Sometimes
this process has involved a bit of friction. Monique and I
clashed about some of our story ideas. We decided that a
change of pace was needed. We went to a NYC restaurant,
ate sushi, drank Saki, and hashed out our differences. Our
collaboration quickly got back on track.
If you haven’t tried co-writing, I recommend that you
do. Even if you see yourself as a strictly solo writer, try
working with a partner just once. After that, you may want
to make co-writing a consistent part of your career.
Donna Lisa’s scripts and songs have been
honoured by iParenting, NAPPA, Children’s
Music Web Awards and other media organizations. Her screenplay, Kheng Kheng Crocodile,
is under option with Flat Rock Pictures. Her
series, Bat Cat and Bitsy, is being promoted by
Engine 15 Media. Donna’s CD, Toucan You Can,
received twenty international awards. She is
A&R Coordinator for Playful Journeys, a 2012
CD release.
Image courtesy of the Toon Boom Multimedia and Content Creation Team
Protect Your Characters, Your
Art and Your Brand!
by Deborah Gonzalez, Esq.
What do a panda, a mouse, and a bird have in common?
Would it help if I rephrased it as Kung Fu Panda, Mickey
Mouse and the Ikran flying creature from Avatar? What
these iconic characters share is the claim that they were
stolen – or in legal terms – had their copyrights violated.
Copyright is a form of protection grounded in the U.S.
Constitution and granted by law for original works of
authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression (US
Copyright Office). It actually consists of a bundle of rights
to the “author” of the work to control the reproduction,
distribution, display, and ultimate use of the work created.
Some key points:
• It has to be in a fixed, tangible medium. Thoughts
and ideas are not protected, their expression is.
• Who the author is can sometimes be the point of
legal contention – work for hire, employee vs. independent contractor, commissioned works – each
of these adds a new dimension of complexity if a
contract that spells out the exact relationship isn’t
explicit, or doesn’t even exist.
• Animation projects need to consider as well, the
copyrights of music that they may be using to give
mood and tone to the piece. Music has a series of
copyrights; mechanical for the lyrics and composition, performance for the sound recording and
synch licenses to synchronize the audio and visual
in the project.
What can you do if you feel your copyrights of your
characters and your art have been violated?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Document the incident – research for all the facts
and data
You need to determine if in fact it was infringement, or did you give consent for its use, or is there
a fair use justification?
Make sure your copyright is registered
Consult an attorney – understand your rights and
options
Send a Cease and Desist Letter
If the item is online, send a DMCA Take Down
Notice
Weigh the pros and cons of pursuing litigation/
arbitration
Character theft is a personal crime, not just a property crime. It takes away some of the essence of you as
an artist – your creative process, your creative decisions,
your creative efforts. It isn’t legal, but more importantly
it isn’t right. We need to talk about this issue, spread the
word when something comes up, be part of the discussion. Don’t let them steal the most important asset you
have – your talent.
Deborah Gonzalez, Esq. is an attorney focusing on intellectual property in the art, music,
and entertainment industries. She especially
enjoys her animation clients and their projects.
Deborah speaks at various conferences and
festivals to help educate artists about their
rights. To learn more about her practice and
for more resources for artist, check out her
website at www.dgonzalzesq.com.
Toon Boom News
Summer 2012
9
Images courtesy of Fabrique d’Images
Case study: Fabrique d’images
Full Steam for Productions within
the Toon Boom Pipeline
Located in the heart of Luxembourg, Fabrique d’Images was founded in 2002 by Christine Parisse and Jean-Marie
Musique. Over the years, the two have been called upon by prestigious animation studios to contribute their fieldproven expertise to everything from the scripting stage to final compositing.
Concurrently, the team develops in-house projects
alongside Art Director Bruno Murer, who infuses each
production with his creative vision. The in-house animation studio flies under The Picture Factory banner, while
Fabrique d’Images has evolved into the production arm,
one that is well-equipped to develop its own projects
while offering its services to out-of-house 2D and 3D
productions.
Some of their most recent projects include Pinocchio
(90’ as a service provider to Cometa Film, Iris Productions,
Walking the Dog, and 2D3D Animation), Golden Horse
(90’ as a service provider to Rija Films, Vilanima, Paul
Thiltges Distribution), Le Petit Avale-Lumière (1 x 10’, as
a producer), Night Light Monster (1 x 6’, as a producer),
Percy’s Tiger Tales (52 x 13’, as a producer, along with
Skyline and Planet Nemo) as well as Zoli & Pokey (26 x 13’,
as a producer, along with 2 Minutes, Cromosoma, Gulli
and TV3).
Created by Bruno Murer, the Zoli & Pokey series is a
home-grown project that has gone through several incarnations over the years. Finally, Fabrique d’Images part10 Toon Boom News
summer 2012
nered with Paris-based 2 Minutes to fine-tune Zoli &
Pokey’s aesthetic to achieve a pitch-perfect final result.
The combination of flashy visuals and original storyline
piqued the interest of Barcelona-based studio Cromosoma, which has since joined the production team. This
European threesome has embarked upon the production
of the program using the Toon Boom pipeline to both
create animation magic and unite their talented animation
teams.
At Fabrique d’Images,
the production team is
headed by Christine Parisse
and Jean-Marie Musique,
as Producers; Bruno Murer,
as Graphic Designer; Sean
McCormack as Director;
and Eric Berthier as Art
Director. The total staff
dedicated to Zoli & Pokey
numbers over 30 people.
Currently, the team is in
pre-production
mode.
There are four storyboard
artists, including one lead; four
designers, including one lead;
three layout artists, including
one lead; three compositors,
including one lead, as well as one
lead special effects artist. The
main pack, which includes all the
models, backgrounds, props and
rigs, was completed during preproduction. This pack is shared with
Cromosoma and 2 Minutes to ensure
consistency amongst the three studios. The animation
production is set to start in July 2012 at Fabrique d’Images.
Knowing each studio has to deliver two episodes per week
on schedule, their team will include one lead animator and
10 animators. The series will be ready for delivery by early
2013.
In addition to its great look, Zoli & Pokey delivers
loads of fun and laughter to a family audience. Indeed,
what would you do if your dog was...your Dad?! Well,
that’s exactly what happens to mild-mannered 11 year-old
Zoli when his estranged, world-renowned scientist father,
Michael Parrot, accidentally transforms himself into an
ordinary dog. The audience follows their weird and fantastically funny adventures as Zoli and Pokey attempt to undo
a scientific experiment gone haywire, battle through first
loves and vet visits, all while avoiding
bullies and imposters. Zoli
& Pokey is an animated
sitcom with a sci-fi twist,
lots of fantasy and loads of
heart.
Having worked within
the Toon Boom pipeline
for several years, Fabrique
d’Images found it only natural to maximize its multiple
advantages throughout the
production. Zoli & Pokey is
a mix of cut-out animation
and
traditional
frame-byframe drawing. The studio
uses both Toon Boom Storyboard Pro and Harmony.
Laurent Paqueteau, Studio
Manager,
explains
the
hybrid production workflow; “After the script has
been validated, we move
right into Storyboard Pro to start our
roughs. Since Storyboard Pro is so easily adaptable to
whatever changes might be needed, we find it is the best
way to keep the rough loose, but not to lose track of the
scene, or shot numbering. Then of course, we move on to
finalize the board and after the validation, we start working
on the animatic, which is made in Storyboard Pro as well.”
“Meanwhile, we build our characters. After the designs,
turn-arounds and various poses have been validated, we
then get into Harmony and start rigging them. This is one
of the most important steps in production, because any
bug that we may leave in the rigs will seriously hamper our
production schedule. Once the rigs have been thoroughly
tested and validated, we then move on to our layouts.”
Toon Boom News
Summer 2012
11
Case study: Fabrique d’images (continued)
“Then we export the final animatic from Storyboard
Pro, which creates all the Harmony files automatically.
Keeping all the camera moves, sound files and settings
that had previously been defined during the layout phase
of production becomes very straightforward. We then
import all the backgrounds, props and characters and start
simple posing to guide the animator’s timing.”
“Once this step is done, we can then move on to animation. With the simple character designs and the many
different possibilities in Harmony, the animation phase has
become much more time-saving and productive.”
“After the animation comes the final phase in which we
use Harmony: the compositing. Here, we add the shadow
layers, effects, light sources and other important passes
that bring together the final image of our show. It is very
convenient to access such a powerful compositing engine
within the animation production tool. In case of revisions
or corrections at the end of the process, we can do them in
real-time. No need to go through time-consuming conversions between applications!”
12 Toon Boom News
summer 2012
The final touches of Zoli & Pokey are then added in the
editing room and the sound department.
Fabrique d’Images is a master at the Toon Boom pipeline, while understanding how best to take advantage of
the tangible benefits it brings to the studio. They recently
added Toon Boom Storyboard Pro 3D to their line-up in
order to work on Percy’s Tiger Tales, a fun and educational
3D series targeted to 4 to 6 year-old children. Also, their
goal is to produce Season II of Zoli & Pokey, envisioning
wonderful new adventures, but also great potential for
reuse of assets!
Images courtesy of Mixer
Case study: Mixer
Venturing into Animation Using Harmony
Founded in 2003 in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Mixer is a production house for commercials, features and television
content. In addition to offering full production in all formats via a team of award-winning directors and producers,
Mixer provides film services to some of the world’s leading production companies, among them Partizan, Stink, Go
Film, Bandits, Blink, Radical Media and many others.
Mixer is the most highly-awarded production company
in Brazil, while ranking second in the world. In the advertising industry alone, Mixer is the winner of 47 Cannes
Festival Lions, in addition to numerous awards garnered at
prominent festivals held in New York, Tokyo and London.
Over the past nine years, Mixer has distinguished itself
by its productions for advertising, television and film.
Among them are the television series Julie e os Fantasmas (broadcast by Band and Nickelodeon), judged Best
Series for Children and Youth by APCA; Mothern (broadcast by GNT), as well as Descolados (broadcast by MTV
and Band). Mixer also produced the Discovery Chanel’s
documentary series O Assassinato de Jean Charles and
São Paulo Sob Ataque. Also, among Mixer’s credits are
the films Besouro (Miravista, Globofilmes, Teleimage) and
Corações Sujos (Downtown/Globofilmes).
In 2009, Mixer embarked upon their first animation
project using the Toon Boom pipeline, namely Toon Boom
Storyboard Pro and Harmony. Titled Doggy Day School,
this project was done in co-production with Canada’s CitéAmérique, resulting in the first animation co-production
between Brazil and Canada. Targeted towards 3 to 6 yearolds, the series spanned two seasons, resulting in a total of
52, eleven-minute episodes. In Brazil, Doggy Day School
premiered on Nickelodeon Latin America, TV Cultura and
TV Brazil. It also aired on four Canadian networks, namely
TVO, Radio-Canada, APTN and Knowledge Network.
The Doggy Day School series was created by Cathy
Moss and developed by a team of producers headed by
Tiago Mello and Greg Dummett. The original design is
credited to Didier Loubat and Carole Roy. With an average production timeframe of 16 months per season, there
were more than 60 people involved in the production,
including writers, members of the artistic and animation
departments, voice talent, storyboarders, musicians and
sound effects crew, as well production and post-production staff.
With a script written by a team of Canadians under
Cathy Moss’ direction, the series encourages an outlook
in which diversity not just enriches our lives, but is something to celebrate. The production also sprung from
Brazilian soil. Dubbed into English, French, Spanish and
Toon Boom News
Summer 2012
13
Case study: Mixer (Continued)
Portuguese, the series comes with a musical score by the
Brazilian Group Palavra Cantada, featuring Sandra Peres
and Paulo Tatit.
As illustrated in the diagram, the production was evenly split between Canada and Brazil. Both Mixer and CitéAmérique maximized the benefits of working in a complete
digital workflow to deliver the production on time and on
budget. Each team depended on the other’s deliveries, so
it was critical to maintain a consistent production schedule and flow. For example, the Storyboard Department
depended on the writers, who sent the final scripts. And
the Art Department relied on the Storyboard Department
for the final boards, animatics and so on. It then fell to
the Art Department to create the character design, the
final backgrounds and the props that the Rigging, Scene
Planning and Animation teams needed to start the
animation process.
SCRIPT
CANADA
VOICES
ORIGINAL
G
RECORDIN
CANADA
DESIGN
EPISODIC
CANADA
MUSIC
BRAZIL
MASTER
BRAZIL
14 Toon Boom News
AUDIOMIX
CANADA
summer 2012
FOLEY &
EDITING,
SOUND FX
CANADA
RD
STORYBOA
IC
& ANIMAT
BRAZIL
In order to produce both seasons, the following teams
were put into place between Brazil and Canada:
•
•
•
•
•
•
&
RIGGING
SCENE
PLANNING
BRAZIL
N
POST
N
PRODUCTIO
BRAZIL
ANIMATIO
BRAZIL
cript / Canada - a team of nine writers working
S
with Cathy Moss
Original Voices Recording / Canada – the four
main voices, plus those of all the supporting
characters
Storyboard and Animatic / Brazil – a team of
five storyboard artists
Art Department / Canada – a team of seven
designers, headed by Carole Roy
Rigging, Scene Planning & Animation / Brazil –
a team of 24 animators
Post-Production / Brazil – a team of nine people,
consisting of editors, post-production
producers and graphic designers
• Original Music / Brazil – a team of five
musicians
• Editing, Foley, Sound Fx & Audiomix /
Canada – a team headed by Serge Hamel at
Studio Digilog
”We estimate that in the second
season, we reused 65% to 70% of
the assets, which enabled us to
deliver the project much faster.”
“Using Toon Boom Storyboard Pro in both Brazil and
Canada sped up the approval process. Revisions were
executed faster, which enabled storyboarders to generate
more refined animatics for the animation team,” explained
Tiago Mello. “Thanks to the seamless integration between
Storyboard Pro and Harmony, they could rely on accurate
information to create better quality animation. As the
series was developed in cut-out animation style, we have
built an impressive library of assets for reuse within each
season and from the first season to the second. Finally,
the ability to monitor the progress of the production
efficiently was another key benefit of using Harmony,” concluded Tiago Mello.
As Head of Animation, Marcelo Moura
added the following about his experience
with Harmony: “The ability to import the
animatics, combined with the seamless
import of the model pack elements,
enabled us to quickly build the scene
setup and feed the animators. They
built the library assets per character,
dividing them by parts; animation
cycles such as runs and actions, as well
as attitudes. This library structure facilitated the reuse throughout the production. As the animators were creating new
assets as needed, the library was very
dynamic. We had two teams of four animators. We estimate that in the second season,
we reused 65% to 70% of the assets, which enabled us
to deliver the project much faster. During Season I, the
animation team created 11 minutes of final animation in
two weeks. During Season II, they were able to complete
an episode in six days only. This was a huge saving!”
Marcelo Moura explained that for Season II, the animation team used a more recent version of Harmony, which
led them to perform new rigs for the key characters. “The
rigging process was fast, so it was worth doing it in order
to raise even higher, the quality of the animation,” he
added.
As such a charming property offers great
merchandising potential, Mixer has signed
several deals with suppliers specializing in
books, DVDs, games, toys, party supplies,
school supplies and linens, covering
Latin America. In addition, Mixer is
working on a theatrical play slated to
open in Brazil in November, 2012.
Based on their first successful
animation venture, Mixer decided to
embark on a new animation project,
titled Sítio do Picapau Amarelo, a
co-production between Mixer and
Globo. This eleven-minute, 26
- episode series is yet another
great opportunity to set the Toon
Boom pipeline in motion while showcasing Mixer’s talent and creativity.
Toon Boom News
Summer 2012
15
Images courtesy of TouTenKartoon
Case study: TouTenKartoon
A Very Happy Ending for Black Comedy
Created in Harmony
Founded in Paris in 1995, TouTenKartoon (TTK) opened its Montreal branch in 1998, followed by another in Angoulême
in 2000, then Liège in 2011. Crisscrossing the Atlantic between France and Canada, Jean-Louis Rizet, President of TTK,
boasts an impressive track record of projects targeted for television and film, including My Life Me, Life on the Block
and most recently, The Suicide Shop.
TTK offers clients a complete range of services in digital
animation, from executive production to post-production,
including 2D/3D animation, ink and paint and compositing. In addition, TTK is part of the Toon Alliance, which
also includes Caribara Animation, ETS, Mac Guff, Ramses 2
and Waoo. Each studio brings with it a wealth of expertise
to offer a complete turnkey solution for animation production.
Jean-Louis Rizet and his team are true advocates of the
Toon Boom pipeline. This is why they chose to produce
The Suicide Shop, an eighty-minute animated feature
film, completely paperless using Toon Boom Storyboard
Pro and Harmony. The Suicide Shop is also one of the first
feature films to combine traditional with cut-out animation,
the latter amounting to nearly 70% of the animation. The
result is simply superb.
With production houses Diabolo Film in France and
Caramel in Canada, this co-production brings together
a highly talented group of individuals: Gilles Podesta,
Producer, France; André Rouleau, Producer, Canada;
16 Toon Boom News
summer 2012
Patrice Leconte, Director, France; Laurent Donnay, Studio
Manager, TTK Canada; David Pelkey, Lead Animator, TTK
Canada; Maxime Vallières, Lead Animator, TTK Canada;
Stéphane Pogran, Studio Manager, TTK Angoulême;
Pascal Herbreteau, Lead Animator, TTK Angoulême. The
team at Caribara, headed by Fabien Baboz, oversaw the
storyboard, art direction and model pack creation.
Based on the dark comedic novel by Jean Teulé,
which sold over one million copies in his native France,
The Suicide Shop is targeted to a thirteen year-old and
up audience. A tale about death and happiness, the story
is set in a city in which every resident is depressed, when
one day a happy and hopeful child is born into a family
that runs a shop specializing in suicide equipment. While
the novel ends on a bad note, the opposite is true for the
feature film, thanks to acclaimed director Patrice Leconte.
“This is an ode to life, and animation is the right medium to
bring this novel to the big screen,” says Leconte.
As The Suicide Shop is a musical, Patrice Leconte
sought actors who could sing as well as act, so that there
would be no disruption between the dialogue and the
songs. In addition, the 80-musician-strong Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra was hired to perform the music.
Spanning
over
a three-year period, the animation
production took 18
months to complete.
The Montreal team
included two groups
of ten animators, five
layout artists and
three riggers, while
in Angoulême, seven
animators and two
layout artists were
hard at work. The film
includes 2,000 shots,
27 sequences and
1,800 backgrounds
with up to 200 layers
each.
“The ability to import the animatic into Harmony,
as well as recover the timing and camera information is
extremely efficient,” said David Pelkey. “The smooth integration between Storyboard Pro and Harmony enabled
us to create the scenes automatically, which was not only
a major time saver, but also eliminated timing errors that
could occur when this process was done manually,” he
explained.
Upon receiving the animatics, the team analyzed how
each character needed to be built, how many props needed to be created, what actions characters would perform
throughout the movie, and how many levels were required
so that they would be cut accordingly. Characters were
coloured with gradients and textures, which made the
animation process even more challenging.
With such a high premium placed on creating a richlooking final product, Jean-Louis Rizet explained how
valuable it was to work closely with Toon Boom during
the production process. “The Research and Development
team collaborated with our animators to develop specific
features related to the textures and gradients. This close
collaboration enabled us to streamline the production
process further and create even more impressive quality
animation,” added Jean-Louis.
“We really pushed the quality of cut-out animation to
make it look like traditional,” added David Pelkey. “In order
to facilitate the process, the animators took the time to set
the proper number of layers to optimize the characters.
Our rigs were quite complex, but the result speaks for
itself. With the new Harmony Network Tree, we managed
to have less layers displayed, which visually made it easier
to manipulate the parts,” he continued.
The Library played a critical role in this feature film
production. It was structured by main characters, secondary characters, occasional characters, as well as props and
backgrounds. Each category was further broken down into
sequences, then scenes. “We built
extensive templates for the characters’ mouth in order to have the
proper shape for lip-sync. We also
created action templates for the
mouth, showing a happy, neutral,
or sad expression. This proved
to be very useful
during the sound
scrubbing,” stated
David.
“In addition to
the Central Library,
each
animator
could create a
personal library to reuse the necessary assets whenever
needed. They also shared these new assets with the rest of
the team when it could be useful.”
“As far as colouring went, we set master palettes per
scene because of the costume changes between each
scene. The camera was easy to use. As a former Flash
animator, it was powerful to have a smooth and automatic
camera capability such as Harmony’s,” enthused David
Pelkey. “We could not have produced such a high quality
animation with any other solution.”
Rendered in 2K and with a theatrical release date set
for September 26, 2012 in France, The Suicide Shop is
undoubtedly a must-see movie, not only because of the
great story matter, but also for its sublime artistic accomplishments. The good news is that Patrice Leconte is
already developing another feature film project titled
Music!, to be created in Harmony and certain to be another masterpiece. As for TTK, the team is proactively positioning itself for several feature films and television series
projects. Going beyond a service provider role, TTK is no
doubt a partner to consider when it comes to creating
quality animation efficiently.
Toon Boom News
Summer 2012
17
ANIMATION STUDIOS
Passion is a multiple Oscar-winning independent
production company with offices and animation studios
in London, Paris, New York and Melbourne. They create
every form of animation and live action imaginable across
an unlimited range of media. Passion was founded by CEO
Andrew Ruhemann.
Between its various brands, including Passion Pictures,
Passion Raw, Strange Beast and Passion Planet, the company represents over 60 exciting directors, from established
names to emerging talent. Together, this team creates
an enormous variety of work, ranging from commercials,
digital films, shorts, documentary features, music videos,
computer games, websites, wildlife films and live events.
Passion is renowned throughout the world of animation
for its ground breaking Gorillaz music videos, the product
of a ten-year collaboration between the band’s founders
Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn, and Passion director
Pete Candeland, resulting in a multitude of award-winning
films and live concerts. They are also enormously proud of
The Lost Thing, a short film directed by Andrew Ruhemann
and Shaun Tan, which won the Academy Award for Short
Film Animation in 2011.
Passion Pictures’ director Russell Brooke has directed
a new, 30 second animated commercial for Kinder Chocolate, the popular children’s treat. The commercial was
devised and scripted by Nick Hastings and Jon Gledstone
at Krow Communications. The spot features a boy and his
mother, and was designed by the award-winning artist,
author and illustrator Oliver Jeffers. Jeffers’ design uses
a lined background resembling graph paper, above which
hand-drawn characters and text explaining the characters’
thoughts appear.
Kinder Chocolate’s Invention was the first project that
Passion has used Toon Boom Harmony on. “We’d been
considering new 2D software for some time, and after a
trial of both Toon Boom Harmony and its competitors,
we decided that Toon Boom was the best fit for Passion,”
states Tim King. “It’s a wonderfully flexible production
tool that fits Passion’s style and workflow admirably. We
still use hand-drawn artwork on paper, so the quality of
scanned imagery, and Toon Boom’s ability to transform
that into editable vector-based imagery that maintains the
feel of the original artwork was very important to us. Kinder Chocolate’s Invention is a good example of where we
needed to maintain the style of Oliver Jeffers’ character
designs as closely as possible, while also working to a very
tight schedule. With such a short time frame, Toon Boom’s
linked, global palettes allowed us to make rapid changes
to the detailed look of the characters across scenes within
minutes,” explains Tim.
“Passion’s workflow can involve many different forms
of media, and we often mix 2D, live-action and CG. The
18 Toon Boom News
summer 2012
final compositing is done in other packages such as Nuke
and Adobe After Effects, and the compositors need many
separate renders of individual elements to achieve the
final look. This is where Toon Boom really excelled with its
node-based output structure, allowing parallel rendering
of image sequences from one scene simultaneously. Previously, we would have made a separate X-sheet/scene for
each element, and would have had to render each on in
turn. The amount of time saved in not having to do that
allowed more time to be spent on the final composite,”
concludes Tim.
Images courtesy of Passion
Passion Chooses Harmony for
Kinder Commercial
Mutant (Attack of the Killer Mutant Chickens), a short film
written and directed by Nayeem Mahbub. Murgi Keno
Mutant has already been shown at over 34 film festivals
internationally and has won six awards. In 2011, they
animated two Meena cartoons, which were produced
by UNICEF. Drawn by hand, Murgi Keno Mutant and the
Meena cartoons was created using Toon Boom Harmony.
“Our goal is to produce animation at a cost which will
be affordable for TV channels in Bangladesh; we are no
longer focused on selling animation services abroad,”
says Zahin Hasan.
Situated in Virginia in the greater Washington, DC metro
area, Studio Kinate is a women-owned animation studio,
one that operates as a complete virtual studio. Relying
on up to ten animators at a time, depending on their projects’ scope, Charlotte Rinderknecht and Randi Cohen
Coblenz maintain a roster of animators, all of whom are
comfortable working remotely using Toon Boom Story-
board Pro and Harmony floating licenses. This innovative approach enables the duo to keep the overhead
costs low, while delivering animation of the highest quality. With Rusty Mills as their Senior VP of Animation and
Director, they actively promote the studio’s services to
nearby government agencies, hence creating mostly institutional animated content. Recent projects include a training animation program for the US Navy, as well as a legal
project involving technical animation. As advocates of
classical animation, they have set up a server which facilitates a file exchange amongst animators, all of whom are
appointed a specific task within the production process.
“Each one generates a QuickTime file for approval. Once
it is approved, they upload compressed Harmony files on
the server for the next animator to continue the process,”
explains Rusty Mills. “All the animation is done using
Harmony, from drawing, up to final compositing. I truly
appreciate its compatibility with third party applications,
enabling us to smoothly import assets and combine them
with vector art,” says Rusty.
Image courtesy of Studio Kinate
Image courtesy of Toon Bangla
Toon Bangla was formed in August 2007. For the studio’s
first two years of existence, it was positioned as a service
provider for hand-drawn 2D animation services. “We
found, however, that we were only being offered very
low-budget projects which did not even allow us to break
even. Eventually, we realized that it would be difficult to
get better paid animation work until we had built a reputation by producing animated shorts and showing them in
festivals abroad,” explains Zahin Hasan, Managing Director at Toon Bangla. The studio spent most of 2009, 2010
and part of 2011 developing and animating Murgi Keno
Toon Boom News
Summer 2012
19
Image courtesy of Steve Harpster
Freelancers
Working for fourteen years as a professional illustrator,
Steve Harpster has illustrated over one hundred books
for kids. He recently started a publishing company called
Harptoons and launched a new website with content for
kids. Using Toon Boom Storyboard and Animate, Steve
creates animations aimed at promoting his new books;
Drawing Monsters With Letters, Drawing Sea Animals
With Numbers and Drawing Really Cute Baby Animals
With Lowercase Letters. ”I create videos that teach kids
how to draw, and also I try to inspire them to want to
create and draw on their own. My hope is that they make
the connection that a simple little drawing can become
an animated short,” states Steve. “I owned Toon Boom
Animate first and was creating short animations for a while,
but I was always going back and changing things...I would
add a scene, or change the dialogue. Sometimes I only
had a rough idea in my head regarding what the movie
was about and as I was creating it, I would come up with
new ideas. Once I bought Toon Boom Storyboard, I was
nailing down my story ideas and planning the shots and
scenes so much that I was getting most things right on
the first try. The time I saved with Storyboard allowed me
to spend more time on the animation,” concludes Steve.
Image courtesy of Héctor Bayona
www.frogfeetproductions.com
Image courtesy of Bryce Hallett
www.harptoons.com
Bryce Hallett has been an independent animator since
1999. He is a graduate of the Graphic Communications
Program at Canadore College in North Bay, Ontario and
the Classical Animation Program at Sheridan College in
20 Toon Boom News
summer 2012
Oakville, Ontario. He has also studied film and television production at Humber College in Toronto, as well
as acting, writing, and improv at various institutions such
as the Second City Toronto, Theatresports Toronto, The
Gateway Theatre Guild, the University of Toronto and the
Poor Alex Theatre. Using Toon Boom Animate Pro, Bryce
typically creates traditional hand-drawn animation. “It’s
what I’m known for and it’s what I enjoy most. Although,
I also use a lot of cut-out type animation and libraries for
certain projects. This one, Hunger Count 2011, is pretty
much all hand-drawn in Animate Pro, with some photos
of paper bags imported for the backgrounds,” explains
Bryce. “It’s much, much faster for me to animate directly
in Animate Pro with a Cintiq and see my animation roughs
moving immediately. Also, the ability to clean up and
colour in an efficient manner, and to be able to send these
files to another friend online, who may also be working on
the project, is really helpful,” enthuses Bryce.
Born in Mexico City, Héctor Bayona has been working
in design, illustration and animation for over 10 years.
Right now, he offers his services to clients such as L’Oréal
and Avon, among others. His work has been exhibited by
different art institutions and right now, Héctor is seeking opportunities to produce innovative, creative and fun
animation. “There are many things that I’m able to do with
Animate Pro. For hand-drawn animation, or tweening, it
works really well. I can choose to use peg layers and make
cool camera movements, options that were missing for
me in other software…Animation is more about technique
and planning. But if you want to make your life easier and
produce faster without compromising quality, Toon Boom
is the way to go,” explains Hector.
www.hectorbayona.com
“Coming up with an original
concept that is fresh and entertaining is extremely challenging
in this business,” says Erick Tran.
“However, with the advancement
of digital technology, content
creators have the power to reach
creative goals much more quickly.
My mission is to use my skills to
create shows that have a positive message and celebrate the
diversity of cultures from around the world, and with Toon
Boom software I can achieve that goal.”
Erick Tran’s concept would consume his heart, soul and
mind for almost three years; he wanted to bring a message
of hope to others and celebrate the spirit of achieving the
American Dream. With an Emmy award-winning team of
artists and producers by his side, the vision became a reality, and Urban Reggie was born.
Urban Reggie is a webisode series about two brothers,
Reggie and Pepe, who are determined to do whatever it
takes to fulfill their dream of making their mark in show
business. Reggie is the overzealous brother, while Pepe is
just along for the ride – except for when it comes to being
Reggie’s biggest supporter. The comedy revolves around
their journey of starting from the ground up in an unfamiliar society, jumping from job to job - just barely making
it - to find that one golden opportunity that will finally get
them in the door.
For more than fifteen years, Tran has been a lead artist
for The Simpsons. His responsibilities have included serving as animator, story artist, assistant director, merchandising and product designer, video game consultant, and
supervisor on the The Simpsons Movie. He also created
designs for The Simpsons ride at Universal Studios in
Hollywood and Orlando, Florida. Additionally, he has
produced work for Superbowl Coke commercials and the
commercial for the 2010 Nike World Cup.
“While we were producing The Simpsons Movie, we
had to come up with a digital pipeline to create our story
reels. We had rewrites on a daily basis, so we did the
best with what we had at the time to meet our deadlines.
But once we were introduced to Toon Boom products, it
changed everything! The studio went through a digital
transformation, which makes production smoother and
faster.”
Tran is the son of immigrant parents; his mother from
Guatemala, and his father a Vietnamese refugee. His life
was never easy, but his family believed that with hard work
they would be able to build a better future. He loved art as
a child, and by the time he was a teenager, animation had
become his greatest fascination.
Tran recalls a high school substitute teacher who said
something that gave him the direction he needed; “Always
go with your talents. If you do, you will always be better at
what you do than the people around you.” He took that
advice to heart and chose to find a way to make it happen.
Through a string of events during his senior year in
high school, at the young age of 17, Tran was able to get a
summer job as a character layout artist. That job evolved
into a lengthy career with The Simpsons that has changed
his life. “The funny thing is, once I knew I wanted to get
into the animation industry, I applied at Cal Arts and Art
Center, two of the most prestigious art schools near Los
Angeles. I was rejected by both of them, because they said
my portfolio wasn’t strong enough. When I applied at Film
Roman, they asked how long it took me to create my portfolio. They were impressed at how I was able to produce
my portfolio in such a short amount of time with no training. They hired me because they saw potential in me.”
Image courtesy of Erick Tran
A Success Story of
Determination and Talent
Tran wants to share his story of hope with kids around
the world and demonstrate that no matter who you are or
where you come from, anything is possible. Urban Reggie
is his vehicle to reach the next generation of kids. “When
I wanted to experiment with animation back in my day, we
didn’t have anything like what Toon Boom has to offer now.
I think it’s great that they have created a whole line-up of
animation software for all age groups. Animation is such a
magical medium and I am excited to be part of something
big like the Simpsons. I’m now applying all my skills and
effort to launch Urban Reggie to the web, so keep an eye
out ‘cause it’s coming!”
Urban Reggie is currently produced by Ideal Media
Entertainment, LLC, which was founded by Erick Tran
in 2004. They use Storyboard Pro and Animate Pro to
produce their animation line-up.
www.urbanreggie.com
www.imestudios.com
www.ericktranart.blogspot.com
Toon Boom News
Summer 2012
21
Image courtesy of South Junior High School
Education
Located in a city known for its popular theme parks, sports
teams, and sunny weather, South Junior High School is
one of Anaheim, California’s hidden gems. Accommodating approximately 1,500 students, South is home to
the Eagles. Of this diverse population, thirty talented
and enthusiastic young animators participate in a Digital
Animation course offered at the school, using Flip Boom
All-Star. “Digital Animation is a class for any student, with
or without an art background. In this course, the students
are learning the principles of animation, while extending
their knowledge of the core concepts,” says Carol Shaw,
Digital Animation teacher. The students combine their
skills in art with their individual creativity to develop crosscurricular themed animated short films. From animated
Haiku poems, to morphing various shapes into other
objects, to making characters talk and move, the students
have grasped animation basics through this easy-to-use
program. Alex Palomino, an 8th grade student states,
“The Flip Boom program is a lot easier to use than I
thought. This program and class is fun! I feel challenged
and I’ve learned that I am more creative than I thought!”
Based in Hyderabad, India, EVASCA has introduced a
visual arts and animation program to their curriculum.
This program is integrated into their regular syllabi, from
Grades 1 through 10, with each grade receiving one
period per day of instruction. “When we introduced this
program, a few pupils’ parents had queries and fears
about it, thinking that their kid’s regular studies would
be disturbed and that they may get carried away with
this. However, their doubts quickly vanished. To date,
we observed that the knowledge retention ratio in children has increased to a great extent and the course has
helped them in their academics. Above all, they understood the activity that they performed, just because they
did it themselves. So we feel the program at EVASCA,
in association with Toon Boom, will be of great help to
the student body,” explains Durgaprasad Varma, CEO
of EVASCA. “School faculty reported that students were
excited to be familiarizing themselves with the software, as
well as the creative process of animating. The pedagogical materials for all programs, ranging from Flip Boom to
Toon Boom Studio, were given to each student, enabling
them to learn the basics of each software. EVASCA’s
teachers and administration first discuss potential cross
curricular topics, while the students research and gather
the required information, prepare the storyboard and
finally, use the Toon Boom software to produce the final
product,” adds Durgaprasad Varma.
Celebrating Autism Awareness using Animation
In
February,
RethinkingAutism.com’s
Dana
Commandatore approached Dani Bowman about
creating an animation of her life story in celebration
of Autism Awareness month in April. The PSA was
to showcase the positive aspects of autism and the
special skills of people with autism.
Dani and Dana quickly came up
with a script and Dani decided to
involve three others with autism on
the project, as well: twenty-two year
old New York artist Justin Canha for
storyboards, character design, and
animation assistance; twelve year
22 Toon Boom News
summer 2012
old New York singer and musician Talina Toscano for
the sound track; and LA-based actress Tammy Klein for
voiceover production and tagline voiceover.
The PSA quickly came together and Justin’s family flew to Los Angeles during Dani’s Spring Break
to complete the PSA, which was premiered at the
Deutsch Ad Agency LA on April 20th, at the Golden
Goody Awards (like an Oscar for social good), during
a special Goody Awards Ceremony that took place on
Friday, April 20, 2012.
Find Rethinking Autism PSA by Dani Bowman on
Toon Boom’s Youtube channel at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ToonBoomAnimation
Image courtesy of Woodbury University
Growing Talent for the Marketplace
Woodbury University is located in Burbank,
California, in the heart of the entertainment industry.
Nearby studios include Disney, DreamWorks, Warner
Bros., Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, and Film Roman.
Founded in 1884, Woodbury serves the Los Angeles
professional communities, providing accredited graduate
and undergraduate degrees in media, design, architecture
and business.
Woodbury’s Department of Animation offers a fouryear Bachelor of Fine Arts. As part of the School of Media,
Culture & Design, animation students attend interdisciplinary courses with students from Filmmaking, Game Art
& Design, and Media Technology, with an eye towards
creating a more real-world learning experience. Courses
in the animation program focus on storytelling as the foundation of quality animation media. In the first two years,
skills-based courses lay the groundwork for a variety of
production techniques, including traditional hand-drawn
animation, computer graphics, and stop motion animation. Students hone their skills through the production of
personal projects in their junior and senior years. Professional practices include building a portfolio, completing
an internship at a nearby studio, and learning collaboration and leadership skills. All of their animation faculty
members have substantial professional experience; many
are currently working in the industry.
“Adding Toon Boom software to our tool kit has been
of great benefit to the students. We first introduced
Toon Boom Storyboard Pro in our storyboard class.
Edward Rosas, who works at Film Roman and teaches in
our program, includes Storyboard Pro in his curriculum.
Students complete a storyboard and animatic, learning the paperless pipeline. Last year, our juniors learned
Animate Pro as part of their collaborative animation project. This year, as seniors, they went on to use Animate Pro
in the production of their capstone projects. As part of
their compositing class, students integrated hand animation and computer graphics software with Animate Pro to
complete their senior films,” explains Dori Littell-Herrick,
Chair, Department of Animation at Woodbury University.
Senior Christine Willson, who served as an artist on the
Sheep Film, has this recommendation to students: “Since
our film was traditionally animated, Toon Boom really
helped with the compositing and colouring processes. We
did our junior film in Toon Boom. We were new to the
program at the time, so we used it to composite and put in
basic colours. Now that we know how to use the node tree
and various other features, this year we are able to do even
more. My advice to next year’s seniors: if you are planning
on animating traditionally, I’d definitely recommend using
this program.”
“We look forward to integrating Toon Boom software into more of our courses,” says Dori Littell-Herrick.
“Moving towards a complete paperless pipeline, we are
planning to add the puppet style animation to the current
traditional animation style. Also, one of our alumni from
2004, Ross Blocher, is Training Project Manager at Disney
Studios, where they are developing a paperless pipeline
based on Harmony. “We are currently developing postgraduate training opportunities for industry professionals,
including our alumni. We’ll share more about that in the
future,” teases Littell-Herrick.
Toon Boom News
Summer 2012
23
Paperless storytelling
Recognized as the most innovative
software, Toon Boom Storyboard
Pro 3D speeds up pre-production
and offers limitless visual possibilities
combining 2D, 3D and mixed media.
From the idea to the reel
Based on Emmy award-winning
technology, the Toon Boom Harmony
Solution includes superior vector
technology, real-time animation, a
powerful compositing engine, 2D-3D
integration capabilities, all set in a
multi-plane environment.
Track from anywhere
Toon Boom Manager is the perfect
production tracking system that
combines everything required for
monitoring daily activities, production
pace and communication between
members of the team.
Artwork courtesy of Imira Entertainment.
Embrace
the Toon Boom
Workflow