Toonz, a tool, which powered games such as Monolith’s Claw and Psygnosis’ Discworld 2, and beloved Futurama and Spirited Away
Toonz, a tool, which powered games such as Monolith’s Claw and Psygnosis’ Discworld 2, and beloved Futurama and Spirited Away from acclaimed movie-maker Studio Ghibli is said to be soon free said to be soon free for devs to use. Toonz was used for such projects as Ghibli titles including Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo and Tale of the Princess Kaguya, as well as TV series Futurama and 1997 film Anastasia.
Spirited.Away.full.178946
Psygnosis used it in Terry Pratchett adaptation Discworld 2 and Monolith utilised the tech in its second-ever release, Claw.
The tool, originally released in 1993, translates hard-drawn and rasterized art into vector graphics, which can subsequently be animated by creating virtual character skeletons.
Toonz Ghibli Edition is set to be released under an open-source licence following the acquisition of the software from Digital Video by Japanese publisher Dwango.
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, i.e. to make of Toonz a world standard for 2D animation. This deal will be also the starting point of a new exciting plan to endorse the open source business model, by supporting training and customizing Toonz for the old and new users.
Claudio Mattei, managing director of Digital Video
Some developers will also get a chance to buy a more full-bodied version for a premium cost.
Source: cartoonbrew