The animation software Toonz which have been used by Studio Ghibli and Futurama is going open source on March 26. The software has prior to this not been available without some sort of business contract or something.
This is seriously great news for the hand drawn animation scene. Hopefully it will spark some interest and encourage more people want to make hand drawn animation.
It’s true !
Digital Studio is in Rome and many years ago I personally met the author, Claudio Mattei.
http://www.awn.com/news/open-source-animation-production-software-opentoonz-available-march-26
I guess OpenToonz will become the favourite open source 2D animation software and it could boost a lot of animation projects in all over the world.
On the other side, I am thinking about the Pencil2D project’s fate, after news like these…
Let’s wait next Saturday and we will get a awesome Easter’s gift
@tiber @highkillerdk Yeah, it’s the rave news this week. Todor (user:blurymind) posted the news over our facebook page on sunday. So far it’s been our most popular post until now. What an irony.
However I wouldn’t sing and dance with little cartoony animals just yet, at least not until we get to see what license model they are going to use as well as what are the limitations of the opentoonz software.
Toonz was (and still is) a great software, but it was damn expensive and not even most studios were able to afford it. Relying only in customer support and training seems to be a rather difficult (if not sloppy) move for the software, although to be fair it seems they were on the verge of bankrupt. So if I read correctly it was Dwango who bought Toonz, so right now it’s their call to release it.
Pencil2D won’t disappear though, because no matter how awesome Toonz is it is a complex piece of software; not one you can learn to use in one sitting. And Pencil2D has many advantages to it. Sure you can’t morph bitmaps or rig puppets, but it is because these are additional features that an animator might need over time, not core tools that you HAVE to have.
It is saddening though that all the marketing they’ve done for the pre-release was just shooting Studio Ghibli’s name (ocasonally Futurama’s) and everyone went nuts over it. We can’t even get a few developers to get this working as it should, but go get an already fully featured software release, throw Miyazaki’s name into the mix and people are literally throwing themselves into the fray just to be able to work on it, both programmers and artists. I find it quite entertaining to be honest.
Anyway. When it’s released hopefully we can have some peace of mind, to see if the deal is as great as they say it is.
Its actually quite a bit complicated software to use, like on similar terms as blender. I myself am gonna stick with Pencil because for its simple UI. And also hoping to see the video editor being developed as well. Anyways, although people seem crazy over the news right now, but we have to still wait for its release, because we still don’t know how their license will be.
I am going to get it just for testing it out at my leisure, but I don’t think I am going to use it anytime soon. There are some features that are specifically targeted for working in studios(small or large).
And also, Miyazaki didn’t prefer any form of software, he still uses pencil and paper. Only the digitizing(inking and coloring) of the frames takes place in the software followed by composition and such. The animation is still pencil and paper. Which, I don’t think many of the ‘jaw-droppers’ seem to understand.
I already got some plans arranged for my animations and have decided all the softwares I will be using for them. I am right now, still, improving my drawings and animation techniques, also need to test certain things before I begin my animation dream 
I am just awaiting the Bezier control points for vector layer, and the a decent stabilised version. Keep it up programmers, we need you more than ever!!!