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SPRING 2012 toonboom.com FEELING GRATEFUL

A WORD FROM THE PRESIDENT

Dear Customers, Partners and Friends,

I would like to open the Winter issue of Toon numerous studios and educational institutions Boom News by thanking all of you for your train animators and create jobs in a fast-changing tremendous support and loyalty. There are no market.” words to describe how privileged we all feel at Our dedication to making the global animation Toon Boom to continuously serve such a vibrant industry successful can only be matched by our and dynamic community composed of professional passion for working with incredible individuals, such content creators, hobbyists, educators, students as yourselves, and helping to create entertainment and children. and messaging for a better world. We are deeply grateful for receiving our second We would like to wish you a wonderful Holiday Primetime Emmy® Engineering Award, this time Season and the very best for 2013. May Peace, for Toon Boom Storyboard Pro. This wonderful Health, Love and Creativity fill up your days recognition granted by the Academy of Television throughout the New Year! Arts and Sciences is a true testament to Storyboard Pro’s significant contribution to the broadcast With warm regards, industry, be it live action or animated. I was also very touched to receive a special Humanitarian Prize at The World Animation Feature Films & VFX Summit in Marina del Rey, California. The award, presented by Animation Magazine president Jean Thoren in front of animation industry leaders, was given to me in Joan Vogelesang recognition of our “tireless efforts to develop new President and Chief Executive Officer markets in animation all over the world and helping

Clockwise, from top left: Marc Bégin, Director R&D; Steven Chu, Chief Operating Officer; François Lalonde, Vice President Sales; Karina Bessoudo, Vice President Marketing; Francisco del Cueto, Chief Technology Officer; Marisa Labrador, Technical Support Manager; Lilly Vogelesang, Product Manager; Joan Vogelesang, President and Chief Executive Officer; Marc-André Bouvier-Pelletier, Senior Unit Tester.

2 Toon Boom News WINTER 2012-2013 Several workshops have been on the menu during the As Halloween lends itself perfectly to inspiring the fall, giving young talents and students the opportunity to creation of fun content, Toon Boom launched a contest explore animation and learn about pitching techniques. on its Facebook page and generated lots of activity. Not Kids’ workshops using Flip Boom Cartoon and Flip Boom only did the page receive over 11,000 Facebook likes, the All-Star were held at the Bradford Animation Festival team received nearly 100 submissions showing pumpkins in the United Kingdom, 16000 Images in France and the dancing, zombies running, and other cute Halloween- Chicago International Children’s Film Festival. Mark related elements. In addition, there were over one million Simon also delivered a Perfect Your Pitch workshop at Full page views and ad views related to the contest, including Sail University in Florida to a full room of students eager the large advertising campaign on deviantART, ads on to learn trade secrets and tips. Facebook, social media outreach and mailing list. Based on this success, Toon Boom has launched a series of sweepstakes and a new contest just in time for the festive holiday season.

After a busy fall season with major events in Europe, Latin America, Asia and North America, the Toon Boom team is poised to be as visible as possible in the coming months. In this quarter alone, the calendar includes CTN Animation Expo, Booth B12, in Burbank (November 16–18), during which Toon Boom hosted special guests at its booth, namely, Michel Gagné, creator of Saga of Rex, Erick Tran, Storyboard Artist on The Simpsons and creator of Urban Reggie, as well as John K. who presented his virtual studio. The team will also attend the Joan Vogelesang receiving the Humanitarian Prize from Jean Thoren, President of Animation Magazine Asian Animation Summit in Kuala Lumpur (December In its endeavours to position the Caribbean region as a 10 –11); Cartoon Connection in Quebec City (December new animation hub, the Toon Boom team led a Caribbean 10–13), during which Image Entertainment will give a delegation to introduce delegates to key executives presentation on the making of Walter & Tandoori using at Nickelodeon, Sony Pictures Animation, Disney the Toon Boom pipeline; Consumer Electronic Show, Television, Film Roman, Bento Box Entertainment, Booth 70909 at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas (January Rollman Entertainment following The World Animation 8 –11); Florida Educational Technology Conference, Feature Films and VFX Summit in Marina del Rey. The Booth 1420, in Orlando (January 28–31); Texas Computer team also met with Rita Street, Producer and Jan Nagel, Education Association, Booth 1353, in Austin (February Entertainment Marketing Diva, who welcome these new 4–8); and KidScreen Summit in New York (February 5–8). players in the industry. The team extends its heartfelt Be sure to come along and drop by our booth! thanks to everyone for their kindness, generosity and invaluable advice.

Toon Boom is a proud recipient of 2011 these awards:

GLOBAL ANIMATION SOFTWARE ENTREPRENEURIAL COMPANY OF THE YEAR AWARD Emmy-Award Technology This issue’s cover: Transformers Rescue Bots Transformers, Rescue Bots, and all related characters are trademarks of Hasbro and are used with permission. © 2012 Hasbro.

Toon Boom Animation Inc. is the worldwide leader in digital content and animation creation software, delivering products and services online to its global community. Toon Boom carries user-friendly applications for all, catering to children, home users, creative professionals as well as students, educators and schools. Toon Boom is fully dedicated to education and goes far beyond just developing technology and curriculums that will enhance the classroom experience. At the high-end studio level, Toon Boom offers a wide product range from powerful pre-production tools to leading-edge animation production solutions. Toon Boom is a 2012 and 2005 Primetime Emmy® Engineering Award recipient. Copyright © 2012 Toon Boom Animation Inc. All rights reserved. Toon Boom® is a registered trademark of Toon Boom Animation Inc.

toonboom.com Printed in Canada

Toon Boom News WINTER 2012-2013 3 TECHNOLOGY NEWS

Toon Boom Forms New Partnership with iheed Institute

Full Steam Ahead on Fun Apps Toon Boom and the iheed Institute Toon Boom is actively developing fun new apps for announced their part- Android, Windows 8 and iPad. Making creativity part of a nership at MIPCOM, cool lifestyle, anyone can create, learn and teach animation building on the launch on-the-go, as well as share videos and photos on social of iheedCrowd, an media. online animation plat- “At Toon Boom, we continue to expand our portfolio form where digital of fun and intuitive applications to facilitate the creation designers have the of user-generated content anytime and anywhere,” says opportunity to create the next generation of health educa- Joan Vogelesang, president and chief executive officer of tion content. Developed by the iheed Institute, iheed- Toon Boom. Crowd brings together individuals, animation studios and No matter what tablet you are using, Toon Boom apps animation colleges who can, via animation, change the are perfect for creating playful projects and animated field of global health education and training. videos. Dr. Tom O’Callaghan, CEO of the iheed Institute, stated “These animations can be used to train the millions of health workers in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and beyond, aiding the billion people who still have no access to any form of health care. They will be seen on the immense number of cheap tablets and mobile phones now available as training tools across the globe and help reduce the 9 million children and 350,000 mothers who die every year from preventable and treatable conditions.”

NEW WHITE PAPERS AVAILABLE ON 2D/3D INTEGRATION

If you’re exploring the Image courtesy of Buzzco Associates unlimited world of possibilities combining 2D and 3D assets, request a copy Developing a global animation library is a major part of of the new Toon Boom the online platform. Animations have already been devel- White Papers on this topic. oped and added by acclaimed producers and studios, These new documents such as Chocolate Moose Media and Buzzco Associates. cover the Storyboard Pro By partnering with Toon Boom, iheedCrowd encourages 3D and Harmony capabili- the development of animations which will be translated ties throughout the 2D/3D into many languages and be widely and freely distributed production process. via multiple platforms, including mobile technology, to Contact your sales rep or overcome education and literacy challenges in the field. [email protected] www.iheedcrowd.org

4 Toon Boom News WINTER 2012-2013 Emmy® Award Technology

TOON BOOM STAR This section is dedicated to Toon Boom employees. In each issue, we introduce you to the people behind the technology and put a face to the voice you may have spoken to.

Jacques Tremblay is a key member of the Toon Boom R&D team. He joined Toon Boom in 2000 while he was completing his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering. Working on the very first version of Toon Boom Studio, Jacques developed the scene planning tools and Open GL render capabilities. Then he moved on to Toon Boom Harmony, developing the morphing, inverse kinematics, deforma- tion tools, particles, and vectorization module. In addition, Jacques was instrumental in creating Harmony’s Software Development Kit for studios wishing to develop their own plug-ins. In addition to bringing new features to Toon Boom products, he also worked on optimizing the drawing tools and creation workflow. More recently, Jacques has been applying his high-end expertise to consumer prod- TOON BOOM ucts; in particular, the development of Toon Boom Studio STORYBOARD PRO™ version 7. He took care of the bone animation features, IS A 2012 PRIMETIME weather effects, and blur effects. These days, he’s working on Android applications slated for release in the near EMMY® AWARD future. These innovative applications will have Cloud capa- RECIPIENT bility to facilitate the exchange of projects between desk- top and mobile devices, and among users. In this era of interconnectivity, these new applications will deliver loads of fun and collaborative creativity! On a personal note, Jacques has been married for six years and is the proud father of Justine, age 6, and Alexis, age 4. One of his favor- ite family activities is watching movies, especially animated ones! He is also well versed in the art of fine cooking to the delight of his close family and friends.

Toon Boom News WINTER 2012-2013 5 INDUSTRY TIPS

Writing Songs for Children – efficiently that I saved money. I recommend using trained young singers (and their coach) when you record your The Pleasures of Recording and songs. Performing I also recommend including one or two live music tracks By Donna Lisa per song. A synthesizer that simulates instruments might be cheaper, but there’s nothing like a real piano, guitar or harmonica solo. In addition, I recommend recording at Those who write songs for children know how much fun least one live animal sound. I brought my dog, Spike, to the process can be. Children’s songwriters create lyrics the studio. His bark was perfect for one of my songs. Spike and melodies that are playful and catchy. In the space of was well behaved until he heard his yips played back. two to three minutes, each song strives to fully engage Then he tried to jump on the recording board, but Seth kids. It’s exhilarating when a songwriter is able to capture protected it by sprawling over the board with his body! the essence of a moment, person or animal, in one short It was a funny, chaotic scene, but well worth the trouble. burst of expression. As you can see, there are lots of creative options for performing and recording your children’s songs. Each of them offers exciting new possibilities.

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 Coordi- nator for Playful Journeys, a 2012 CD release.

Brush Presets After a song is written, most songwriters want to test it By Mark Simon with a young audience. Children are wonderfully respon- sive. They’re also very honest. If your song bores them, Speed is everything when working on production boards. they’ll let you know by fidgeting. If they love it, you’ll get You need to complete as many panels as possible every enthusiastic participation, a huge smile or even a hug. If day. There’s no time to sit around and perfect every you’re not a performer, you can test your song by sharing drawing. it with children you know. If you write songs for animation, you can incorporate lively visual props. I like to use char- Storyboard Pro helps speed up the storyboarding process acter illustrations, puppets and movements. by allowing drag and drop editing of panels, automatic renumbering, use of libraries and more. It also has some If your song tests well, you’ll probably want to record it. great ways to speed up the drawing process. The process of layering your song in the studio is very exciting. A home studio can work well, but if you’re elec- One of my favorites is the Brush Presets. You can preset tronically challenged (like me) you might prefer to hire a various sizes and colours for your pens to quickly switch professional recording engineer who will add his or her between them. It’s faster than grabbing a new pencil, and own delightful stamp to your songs. your markers never run dry. When I recorded my album, I chose Seth Alexander as my engineer. Seth had lots of creative ideas about how to bring each song to life, plus he’s a fantastic resource for professional musicians, singers and unique sounds. As we recorded, I had choices to make. For example, I had to decide whether to record my own harmonies or hire backup singers. I chose both. I also wanted to include children’s voices. I was concerned about the cost of trained young singers, but I took Seth’s advice and hired vocal coach, Mary Lou and her three teenage students. I worried that they might sound a bit too old, but they modulated their voices to sound young. Hiring these kids was a great move. They brought energy to the songs and worked so quickly and

6 Toon Boom News WINTER 2012-2013 In the image, you can see my list of Brush Presets. The one previous articles in Toon Boom News, Spring and Fall named Mark is my favourite custom black brush which I 2012 editions. prefer to draw with (as mentioned in my previous articles). Make sure to put a copyright notice on your website home I also have a blue line for sketching roughs, just like using page. a non-repro blue col-erase pencil. I have a thin red brush which I use for notes on a separate layer (easy to see and If you collect data from visitors (even for an email subscrip- turn off). tion through a service like Mail Chimp) make sure to post a Privacy Policy on how you will use that data. The brushes I jump between the most are my grey tone brushes. When I lay in tones, I tend to use 6 or 7 percent- Put a disclaimer about all content being original or being ages of grey. I have mine organized from light to dark, used with permission of the original owner. 10% to 90%. Simply click a preset brush and you’re ready If you allow for comments, put up community guidelines, to go. It’s that fast and easy. and reserve the right to moderate and delete offensive I like to set my minimum and maximum brush sizes posts, etc. between 5 and 75. This allows me to quickly colour small areas with a light touch and boldly fill large areas while pressing harder. Create a brush size, set a colour for it and click the plus sign (+) in the Preset Brushes window and you`ve created a new brush. The white brush allows me to quickly fill in eyes, teeth and highlights as I work. The more you use Storyboard Pro, the more shortcuts you’ll find, the faster you’ll work, and the more money you’ll make. I like it! Enjoy.

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 Blog and animation producer on Fox’s Tooth Fairy Blogs are becoming an integral and important part of 2. Mark has landed more than 25 deals for his online marketing. Blogs help highlight expertise and proj- original concepts. He is owner of three industry companies in Orlando, FL and the author of ten ects in an informal and easy-to-read manner. They’re also popular industry texts. short, so they don’t take much time to create. The blog should be part of your website, not separate from it. Have something worthwhile to contribute to the ongoing Online Legal Issues for conversation of animation. Animators Be careful not to defame someone (make a false state- By Deborah Gonzalez, Esq. ment). Do your research before making an accusation, or even repeat one, from another source. In today’s animation world, developing great characters Do not cut and paste from another website or blog into and a super story line are not enough. You have to let your own. You may be able to use short excerpts in review- others know about them. Without big marketing budgets ing other animator’s work, but do not take images without (sometimes without a budget at all) independent anima- permission. tors are constantly looking for creative and effective ways to gain exposure and recognition for their art. The web, Be careful not to use photographs of individuals who may and specifically social media, is constantly being touted be seen as endorsing you if you don’t have their permis- as the magic bullet. But before you bite, here are a few sion, as you may be violating their publicity rights. things to keep in mind, so that whatever you publish Social Media online is protected. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, Pinterest Website and others. Each of these social media platforms have This is the foremost online tool for any entity, but espe- specific Terms of Service (TOS) and Terms of Use (TOU) as cially for animators. Your website can showcase your to what you`re allowed to post and what they`re allowed to characters and your brand (from the domain name and do with what you post. URL) which can be tied to a trademark and audiovisual The content and all intellectual property rights in the content, and protected by copyright. For a more in-depth content belong to the user who posted it or the user has discussion about copyrights and trademarks, refer to my acquired all the rights necessary to post it.

Toon Boom News WINTER 2012-2013 7 INDUSTRY TIPS (CONTINUED)

The user who posted the content is liable for any intellec- Research is one of the most important things you can do tual property infringements, including copyright, trade- to prepare yourself and your pitch for go-time. There are mark and publicity right violations. three main areas of research you should be doing as you The user grants to the social media platform a non-exclu- work on project. sive, worldwide license to use the content posted for Research your show—Is your show similar to something improving the site, to market the site and its services, and/ else out there? If any parallels could be drawn, you should or to sub-license to affiliates and partners of the site. know why your show is different. You can save a pitch Remember, social media is public, permanent and by having a solid answer. Know the shows that are out powerful. there, how they are doing and how your show fits into this landscape. Create a Google Alert on your name and characters. This will keep you aware of anything that is being said that Research the networks—Networks change their mandates frequently. One day they will be seeking adventure shows relates to you and/or your work. and the next, they won’t want to hear another swashbuck- Crowdfunding ling tale. So while you should always be checking in and Funding animation projects is also a top priority. Artists getting the latest news, you should know the general tone are looking at sites, such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo as and attitude of each network and have an idea of what is ways to raise funds. The recently passed JOBS Act, short working for them and what isn’t. This will help place your for Jumpstart Our Business Startups, Title III section, is show. And if your show doesn’t fit anywhere…then you being looked upon as opening opportunities for crowd- need to go back to the drawing board. funding, but you must still adhere to specific U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) guidelines, including no solicitation of strangers. For more information, see attorney Rob Hassett’s slide deck: www.tellmesomethingidontalreadyknow. com/2012/10/08/2012-review-of-law-relating-to-video- games. Being online is essential, but so is protecting your work when you put it out there. Follow some of these basic rules and when in doubt, seek legal counsel.

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. Gonza- lez speaks at various conferences and festivals to educate artists about their rights. To learn more Research trends—Sometimes we can get tunnel vision about her practice and for more resources for artists, check out her website at just watching television though, so remember to consider www.dgonzalezesq.com. trends that are happening on other platforms, genera- tional trends, societal trends and so on. What is that gap in the market? What is a new surging area of interest? You are selling an idea that is going to compete with all Never Underestimate Research other forms of entertainment for eyeballs. It’s essential to By Heather Kenyon know your competition, the landscape and history. What are you bringing to the table? Know this answer and your confidence will soar. I was hired recently to help a person with their project. To be honest, while the project had good and noble intentions, the idea and characters were generic and the Heather Kenyon is currently working with Kid Glove Creative, a new division of B. Wooding designs were dated. We had our work cut out for us. We Media. For five years, she worked at Cartoon went out to lunch to discuss the project and I mentioned Network, as Senior Director of Development, other projects that were similar or design in other projects Original Series, leading the development of that perhaps they should consider or check out for inspira- all series for children aged 6 – 11. She is also currently Vice President of Production and tion. To my surprise, the person hadn’t seen or heard of Development for Citizen Skull Productions, a any of the current shows. In fact, they said, “Oh I don’t predominately unscripted and documentary have a TV.” And they said it quite matter of factly. “So do producer. you watch shows on your computer or Netflix?” I asked. “No, not really,” they answered, still very nonchalant. How do you expect to sell TV if you aren’t studying TV?

8 Toon Boom News WINTER 2012-2013 CASE STUDY: TOON CITY Photograph courtesy of Toon City Animation Inc.

GOING PAPERLESS BRINGS EFFICIENCY TO STUDIO AND QUALITY OF LIFE TO ARTISTS

Based in central Manila, Philippines, Toon City Before going paperless with Toon Boom Storyboard Animation Inc. is a long-standing traditional animation Pro and Harmony, the practice was to take one scene studio with an excellent reputation as a service provider folder, then six to seven days later, turn in the drawings, for prestigious studios, such as Walt Disney Television then another two to three days for revisions for a total Animation, Universal Animation, Warner Bros. Animation of seven to ten days of work for one scene. “Now, one and MoonScoop Productions, to name a few. As the animator needs only eight hours to complete the same largest Toon Boom installation in the Philippines, Toon City work!” proudly shared Rene. has steadily grown over the years, becoming the preferred The studio executives had to figure out how to maximize subcontracting animation facility in Asia. the new production workflow and organize shifts differently Back in 2011, Miguel Del Rosario, President and in order to inject a new discipline in work habits and change CEO, and Rene de Guzman, Head of Operations, were the animators’ mindset for their own benefit. “Indeed, all managing four productions simultaneously with a staff of animators are quite happy with the new schedules and 1200 people working three shifts a day. “The pace was enjoy having more time to spend with their families. The hectic. We felt that remaining a paper-based operation new organization enables them to have a better work and was unmanageable as it was hard to control all assets,” family life balance, as well as allowing them to generate explained Miguel. “We took the decision overnight to more revenue thanks to increased productivity. They can go paperless. It was the way to go to better manage our either produce more in the allocated time or deliver the workflow and teams,” he added. same workload in less time!” added Miguel. Knowing they had a two-month window before their In addition to greater efficiency, adopting a fully next project was due to start in February 2012, Miguel paperless pipeline using Toon Boom resulted in significant and Rene gathered the teams and made the official savings. “Just for the Voltron series, we used eight tons of announcement. “The older animators were not too paper. This expense is completely gone! We also saved comfortable with it because they never used a computer on shipping costs, drawing supplies and storage. All in all, before. The younger ones were quite thrilled. So it was a these significant savings made up for the investment in real mix of emotions!” Right away, training was put in place Toon Boom software licenses and it paid off!” concluded and Wacom Cintiq tablets were purchased. Rene. “We did not allow them to go back to their comfort Toon City is now at the forefront of digital animation zone and we explained how this was a unique opportunity production, demonstrating its great ability to undertake for them. Learning cutting-edge technology would enable animation projects of the highest quality and deliver them them to work in any other studio throughout the world within tight schedules. Going paperless has proven to and would make them eligible. We acted out of a sense be an excellent decision for the studio and reinforces its of social responsibility because we wanted to develop the leading position as a service provider within the global people. Knowing they were not tied to us by contract, we community. • took the risk in investing in them regardless and no one left the studio!” stated Miguel.

THE TOON BOOM PIPELINE IS SET FOR ACTION WITH ATOMIC CARTOONS

Award-winning Atomic Cartoons is an independent full- featuring new characters. Atomic has pushed the boundaries service animation studio located in Vancouver, British of Toon Boom Harmony. “The look, feel and quality of the Columbia. Atomic creates and produces animation for animation go beyond the regular Saturday morning norm. television series, commercials and music videos. Atomic’s The process involved close collaboration with the team partners Mauro Casalese, Rob Davies, Trevor Bentley and at Hasbro Studios, where we enjoyed the camaraderie of working with a great creative team there and we’re thrilled Rob Simmons head up a landmark studio that includes with the final product,” explained Trevor. some of Canada’s most creative animators, directors, The Atomic Cartoons crew included: Jennifer McCar- producers and writers. Adept at multiple genres and ron, Head of Production; Mauro Casales, Supervising animation styles, Atomic is recognized internationally as Director; J. Falconer, Director; Justin Gladden (Line one of the leading animation studios in North America. Producer), Dan Christman, Production Manager; Graham Peterson, Animation Director; Carl Upsdell, Animation Since its inception over 13 years ago, Atomic has Director; Dan Fung, FX/Comp Supervisor and Craig become well known for its dazzling creative talents and George, Storyboard Supervisor. battle-proven production pipeline for clients, such as Transformers Rescue Bots is a series of 26 episodes Cartoon Network, Warner Bros., Walt Disney and Cook- (each one is 22 minutes), which airs on The Hub TV ie Jar, to name a few. Also notable is Atomic’s unparal- Network in the U.S. and Treehouse in Canada. The style of leled success with its homegrown shows, including the hit animation is “action adventure”, which focuses on Chase, Atomic Betty and new series Rocket Monkeys. Heatwave, Blades and Boulder. As Rescue Bots, they’re Atomic is proud to have produced season 1 of stationed undercover, and given the task of protecting Transformers Rescue Bots for Hasbro Studios. and learning about mankind by teaming up with a family The excitement and familiarity with the brand have of first responders, including a police chief, a firefighter, a literally been “transformed” into an awesome show helicopter pilot and an engineer. There’s a lot of action and

10 Toon Boom News WINTER 2012-2013 adventure built into the show as the Rescue Bots help to compositing scenes much easier than having to go outside keep people safe and show us what it really means to be a the pipeline,” he added. hero. The series also includes many FX shots, all of which “We also worked with the team at Toon Boom to incor- were accomplished inside Harmony. porate some new features into their Harmony Tracker, Using Toon Boom Storyboard Pro, Atomic produced which helped us get the most from the software. The Toon the storyboards from script with the team at Hasbro Boom team was always open to our suggestions and quite Studios. Then came series design which they based on the often jumped on requests immediately. On more than one script and board. Once approved, Atomic built the charac- occasion, the Toon Boom team travelled to our studio to ters and props in Harmony and painted the backgrounds assist us in implementing new features and meeting with using Photoshop. our crew to review technical updates, as well as receive Atomic’s board team consisted of 8 artists. The design, direct feedback from the production team. We’ve always layout and colour team had 10 artists. felt that if we needed answers or if we had requests, there “We imported the storyboard directly into Harmo- was somebody on the other end of the phone listening to ny and created the specific scenes based on the board us,” shared Trevor. panels. In the case of Transformer Rescue Bots, the aver- The Atomic team enjoyed the challenge of produc- age scene count was 360 scenes per 22-minute show. In ing Transformers Rescue Bots to a very high standard and that context, being able to recover the file structure and looks forward to continuing that kind of high-end work in timing information was a great time saver,” stated Trevor. the future. “Harmony has given Atomic another tool in our “We enjoyed many aspects of the Harmony network toolbox to aid in that,” he concluded. animation software, from the power of the render to Atomic has now begun developing its own 2D shows the ability to incorporate all our camera work inside the using Harmony, as well as offering their animation services program. We also found that being able to do our special for hire. Keep your eyes peeled for their next shows! • effects inside Harmony gave us better control and made

Toon Boom News WINTER 2012-2013 11 CASE STUDY: TEEN TRUTH Images courtesy of Horizon Intertainment, LLC/TEEN TRUTH

USING ANIMATION TO CONVEY POWERFUL MESSAGING

Horizon Intertainment, LLC/TEEN TRUTH is North respect worldwide. Founded in 1968 by Eunice Kennedy America’s premier producer of educational content and Shriver, the Special Olympics movement has grown from issue-focused live assemblies. TEEN TRUTH’s trademarked a few hundred athletes to more than 3.1 million athletes combination of award winning films and empowering in over 170 countries in all regions of the world, providing speakers produce unforgettable, life-changing events. year-round sports training, athletic competition and other Working with such organizations as Special Olympics, the related programs. Special Olympics now takes place United States Department of Justice, Boys and Girls Clubs every day, changing the lives of people with intellectual of America, Comcast and Time Warner, TEEN TRUTH disabilities in places like China and from regions like the has created innovative programs that have motivated Middle East to the community playgrounds and ball fields state legislation, strengthened school communities and in every small neighborhood’s backyard. Special Olympics transformed youth behavior. In just six years the TEEN provides people with intellectual disabilities continuing TRUTH films have been implemented in every US state opportunities to realize their potential, develop physical reaching over 4,000,000 people worldwide and the TEEN fitness, demonstrate courage and experience joy and TRUTH LIVE presentations have personally touched over friendship. 1,200,000 lives throughout the US and Canada. Project UNIFY is a U.S. national project, funded by One of TEEN TRUTH’s recent projects is a short the U.S. Department of Education. Its goal is to activate animation titled Powerful Words, created for Special young people around the country in an effort to develop Olympics Project UNIFY, using Toon Boom Storyboard Pro school communities where all young people are agents and Harmony. of change—fostering respect, dignity and advocacy Special Olympics is an international organization that for people with intellectual disabilities by utilizing the changes lives by encouraging and empowering people programs and initiatives of Special Olympics. Project with intellectual disabilities, promoting acceptance for UNIFY initiatives include a host of core activities, both on all, and fostering communities of understanding and the national and the grass-roots level. Local projects that

12 Toon Boom News WINTER 2012-2013 meet Project UNIFY objectives are supported through lead Animator and Co-Producer, Daniele Filippin, handling grants for local Special Olympics Programs. the bulk of the workload. He has prepared the original Powerful Words is a short animated film adapted by character drawings, storyboard, animatic and rough director Erahm Christopher from an essay written by animation. He will also be polishing the final animation Soeren Palumbo, a high school senior at the time, who in Montreal. The art director is currently completing the delivered the essay to his entire school to honor his young colour palette in Toronto and will be sending the character, sister with an intellectual disability. background and prop bible to two colourists that will be Through Erahm’s work with implementing the colour in Montreal. The rough assembly Special Olympics, he learned is being completed by Shane Williamson in California and that Soeren’s essay was the final edit completed by Erahm Christopher in Montreal. inspiration behind Special Olympics international Spread the Word to End the Word campaign, a movement focused on eliminating the use of the hurtful word “retard”. Erahm read the speech and realized that the writing was extremely powerful, Erahm Christopher but also unknown to many people. Erahm decided to conceptualize an animated film that would revive the powerful words and use it as the core to an interactive educational experience that would be presented to youth throughout the U.S. and Canada. Erahm pitched the idea to Special Olympics, acquired Soeren’s permission to adapt his writing into a film and spent the next twelve months securing the funding and the team to produce the film. Erahm is extremely excited to finally be in production on a project that he feels will inspire, educate and empower youths and adults of all ages across the world. In addition to Erahm Christopher Any After Effects work is being completed exclusively in who is acting as Writer, Director, Montreal. Our composer, Darren Fung, will be writing the Producer and Editor, the production music in Los Angeles and recording the final score either team includes: Soeren Palumbo, in Europe, Montreal or Los Angeles. The final voice over is Writer; Daniele Filippin, Lead Animator being recorded by Mechanicland Studios in Montreal and and Co-Producer; Darren Fung, Music Kyle Stanfield will be completing the sound editing, sound

Daniele Filippin Composer; Kyle Stanfield, Sound design and final mix in Montreal,” continued Erahm. The Designer; JC Pohl, Executive Producer and Joanne total number of team members throughout the course of Maldonado, Executive Producer. the project is 10. As a seven-minute film, Powerful Words incorporates “Storyboard Pro has proven to be an essential tool a classical 2D animation style combined with subtle visual in helping us transform the Powerful Words film from effects to allow the powerful words to take centre stage text into a compelling visual story. The intuitive software while the animation serves to soften the controversial text made it easy to export the storyboard for a streamlined and subject matter. “Our hope is that the animated style client approval process and also made it simple to adapt will enable us to reach a much broader age demographic the approved storyboard into an animatic. Overall, I feel because younger youth will be entertained and educated Storyboard Pro made the production and revision process by the playful medium. The ambitious seven-month extremely fast and headache free,” stated Daniele. production is scheduled to be screened in schools across “Once the storyboard was implemented into an the U.S. and Canada as a part of an interactive educational animatic, we exported all of the drawings easily into experience called TEEN TRUTH LIVE: PROJECT UNIFY, Harmony. This proved to be a huge time-saver during which is focused on building advocacy and support for the production process since we were working on a very individuals with intellectual disabilities. In addition, the short production timeline and with a skeleton team. As we film will air across Special Olympics’ international network continued to fill in the rough animation, we were able to of websites and at live events throughout the world,” easily replace the animatic screen shots with the new rough explained Erahm. animations with ease. During the final phases of finalizing The production is being exclusively animated, the rough animation and integrating the colour, Harmony coloured, edited and mixed in Montreal. “We have one proved to be invaluable. Since we could have multiple

Toon Boom News WINTER 2012-2013 13 CASE STUDY: TEEN TRUTH (CONTINUED)

animators working on the same project, it enabled us to powerful and marketable. In addition, they have focused cut our production time in half while still maintaining the primarily on reaching the 12–24 year old demographic, highest level of quality,” shared Erahm. but feel the animated medium will allow them to reach a “Storyboard Pro and Harmony made our tight much younger demographic. They look forward to joining production timeline, limited budget and small team just forces with Special Olympics International to launch the as powerful and efficient as a production double the size. provocative Powerful Words film in schools across North Even though most of the team working on this project America as a part of their new live TEEN TRUTH LIVE: had little to no knowledge of the software, the intuitive PROJECT UNIFY experience. “We believe it will become Harmony interface, the efficient rendering times made it a very valuable tool in building support and advocacy for possible for the whole team to be up and running in less youth with intellectual disabilities. In addition, we look than two weeks. The powerful tools built into the software forward to exploring ways in which we can incorporate enabled us to utilize a streamlined process using multiple more animation in our current project slate, beginning team members, so we could hit all of our milestone with our TT: PARENTS film. Animation is a tremendously deadlines, acquire quick approvals and deliver the project versatile medium that allows one to reach a broader age on time and on budget without any problems,” stated group in a powerful manner. It also allows you to soften Erahm. the blow of a very provocative message. We can’t wait to For the past six years, Horizon Intertainment has find more ways to use the medium to enhance more of our worked hard to create thought-provoking educational and projects,” concluded Erahm. • mainstream projects that engage, entertain and inspire audiences of all ages. In the past, they have focused more www.teentruthlive.net on documentary and narrative live action films but they feel www.specialolympics.org that the animated Powerful Words film has proven that they can successfully produce animated content that be just as

14 Toon Boom News WINTER 2012-2013 Toon Boom News WINTER 2012-2013 15 ANIMATION STUDIOS

Huminah Huminah Animation is a service studio ed by working on this particular style of show was simpli- located in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Hamilton, Ontario. fied by the unique structure of Toon Boom Harmony. We The studio worked on season 2 of Bubble Guppies with were able to customize the Harmony to create an effec- Nelvana for Nickelodeon Jr. For their first project using tive compositing pipeline in partnership with collaborat- Harmony, they set the bar very high and had to ramp up ing studios. This allowed us to maintain our schedule and quickly to meet the quality expectations and deliver this meet our deadlines with ease. Modelled after traditional award-winning TV series on schedule. “While working animation production techniques, Harmony also proved on this 2D and 3D hybrid show, it was essential for the to be a successful all-purpose learning tool for the anima- team to have a standardized and intuitive workflow. The tors at our studio who come from various backgrounds and large scale of the project and unique challenges present- levels of experience,” stated Adam Mimnagh, Executive Producer. The team has now embarked on a new project titled My Family Starring Me, a four-episode serries, 11 minutes each. Photograph courtesy of Huminah Huminah Animation

Lab 206 is an animation and multimedia design as transparent PNG sequences, which in turn makes final studio based in Trinidad and Tobago and the winner of compositing and exporting to other programs efficient, the Top Young Service Provider of the Year 2012. This and allows flexibility in our final production,” explained Caribbean studio has the core competencies of illustration, Rene Holder, Chief Creative Instigator/CEO. “On a recent animation and motion design. In its two-year existence, project, we had to mimic the grain of a hand-drawn pencil Lab 206 has created animation and design work for several line. Toon Boom software allowed us to import textures prominent and iconic acts on the Trinidad and Tobago giving the appearance of a hand-drawn pencil line, and musical landscape, as well as created campaigns for both convinced the client to go the digital route as opposed to top advertising agencies and multinational corporations. the traditional draw, ink, scan method. This significantly They’ve also collaborated with creative green endeavors, cut down on production time making the project run such as the Environmental Film Festival. All of these efficiently,” he added. With the upcoming 2013 release projects have been created using the Toon Boom pipeline, of their web series The Upstarts, an animated sitcom including Storyboard Pro, Animate Pro and Harmony. that marries the comedic sensibility of 30 Rock with the “The ability to seamlessly use the Toon Boom suite of quirkiness of Family Guy, they will have their first foray products has been invaluable to our production pipeline. into serialized animated content, which of course will be Storyboard Pro’s ability to export printed versions of backed using the Toon Boom pipeline. “Toon Boom gives the storyboard as PDFs and viewing that same printed you the tools needed to focus on the creative; it creates a version as animatics makes pitching to clients seamless. sense of understanding that the sky is the limit in whatever Toon Boom also allows us to render animated sequences you want to create in your productions,” concluded Rene.

Image courtesy of Lab 206

16 Toon Boom News WINTER 2012-2013 Mixed Media Documentary Pays fore, that the challenge was to use animation in a way that Tribute to Ken Sykora was present throughout as part of the storytelling and char- acterization, but also sitting comfortably next to the other As soon as Five Feet Films media used,” explains Linda. Adopting a simple style, the filmmaking duo Linda Chirrey animation is an integral part of the story and serves to bring and Marc Mason encountered the relationship between the musician and his guitar to one of Ken Sykora’s musical the forefront. “The guitar is almost like a pet!” adds Linda. compositions, they felt compelled When Linda and Marc researched which animation tool to produce a documentary as a they should use, they decided Toon Boom Studio was the tribute to both the man and his most suitable option for the project and for the type of work. The two were not far into animation they wanted to create. “It was a revelation to their preliminary research when find software that one person could use to create tradi- they realized that their subject was tional animation,” states Linda. even more fascinating than they’d As far as the process goes, Marc gave very explicit anticipated. Without missing a direction for both the action and effects required for each beat, they contacted the late musician and BBC broad- sequence, and Linda took care of the character design, caster’s family and were invited to their home, where they scanning the drawings into Toon Boom Studio and keying. learned more about Ken Sykora and discovered a wealth of To be consistent with the time period during which Ken archives. “When we saw the impressive amount of records, Sykora was at his most popular, they went for a 50’s sensi- clippings and documents, we decided to embark on the bility, à la Hannah Barbera style. In total, they had 13 char- project,” explains Linda. Since there was little extant live acters, including the guitar, and 100 pieces of animation. footage of Ken, Linda and Marc opted to use animation to All backgrounds were created within Toon Boom Studio. bring this extraordinary character to life. “The tool provided us with the versatility we needed, Images courtesy of Five Feet Films

Titled The Man with the Jazz Guitar, this 115-minute and enabled us to create the look and feel we wanted. documentary includes 10 minutes of animation, all done Toon Boom Studio is such a neat piece of software; we using Toon Boom Studio. “The documentary combines were able to pick it up and start creating right away with several media. We incorporated a lot of memorabilia as the basics! It is very user-friendly,” concludes Linda. well, which was used in a creative way during editing,” The Man with the Jazz Guitar played in select theaters continues Linda. across the UK during the spring and summer of 2012, On the one hand, Linda and Marc were inspired and and will be released on DVD by the end of the year. The impressed by the use of animation in the award-winning plan is to license the rights to broadcasters locally and documentary feature Waltz with Bashir. On the other, they internationally. found fewer successful examples of documentaries which blended animation seamlessly with film. “Marc saw, there- www.themanwiththejazzguitar.com

Image courtesy of Lab 206

Toon Boom News WINTER 2012-2013 17 FREELANCERS

Parody Animation is a Hit on finally manipulates the multiplane camera in select scenes to create a cinematographic effect. All backgrounds are YouTube created in Photoshop and imported into Animate. “This is You may not know who David Stodolny (nickname a labour of love,” says David. “High quality is very impor- Stodoe) is, but if you’re one of the 500,000 plus who tant to me, and I was pleased I could achieve it so well watched the Harrey Podder: Say the Magic Word video using Animate.” on YouTube, you’ll know who we’re referring to. As a 2001 “I found Flash very hard to learn. I’m an artist, not a Sheridan College graduate, David learned classical anima- computer person,” says David. “With Toon Boom Studio and tion techniques, then Animate, I as well as how was able to ramp to produce up in no time. quality feature- The software length content. is intuitive, the He embarked video tutorials upon an anima- comprehensive, tion career in the documenta- Toronto, but tion well done, shortly thereafter and the support moved to Cali- I got on the fornia to work forum was time- for Sony Pictures ly and efficient. Imageworks and All the tools are more recently, there to produce DreamWorks anything at the Animation. He’s quality level you worked on the need.” Oscar-nominated How To Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu David started working on a new parody short, this time Panda 2 and Puss In Boots. Currently, he’s hard at work related to the Hulk. Once again, YouTube will be his plat- on Turbo. form of choice for publishing his work, and without doubt, In his spare time, David is an avid user of Toon Boom receiving great feedback from his fans. “This is very inspir- Animate. Even though he typically works in 3D, he’s very ing, to build such a dedicated online audience who can’t fond of 2D animation and develops personal projects as wait to see what I’m creating in my spare time!” enthuses a way to nurture that interest. A fan of the Harry Potter David. movies, David felt the characters would easily lend them- When one has such wonderful talent, one owes it to selves to cartoons, hence the parodies. He started work- himself to share and reap the well-deserved rewards, both ing on Harrey Podder in March 2011, and completed the professionally and personally. Congratulations, David! animated short in three months. “It was a great excuse to use Animate, as I hadn’t done 2D in a long time! I wanted www.artofstodoe.blogspot.ca to come up with a quick, short idea to learn the software, so it was perfect timing. With the release of the last Harry Potter movie set for July 15, 2011, I set myself that same deadline to complete the project. The short was an instant hit!” explains David. The animation and art were done by David, while the voices were done by David and his wife, Rebecca Perez. “I work in a traditional pose-to-pose method and then go back and in-between it using the Onion Skin tool. I always aim for feature quality in my animation. Even though I like to keep the character designs simple, I’m a perfectionist when it comes to the movement and timing of the animation,” he adds. Following a traditional paperless process, David creates his rough animation within Animate, running at 24 frames per second. He then cleans it up, colours it, adds

special effects, consisting mostly of blurs and glows, and Images courtesy of David Stodolny

18 Toon Boom News WINTER 2012-2013 Image courtesy of Andreas Paleologos Andreas of courtesy Image

Based in Oslo, Norway, Andreas Paleologos started which one of the several ideas for the next shot to draw? his career in 1995 and has since been working mostly with Boom, just try it out and you’ll know when you see it play. art, animation and music related projects. Andreas has Wonder if the timing is right? Boom, just hit play. This effi- been using Toon Boom products since 1997 and has cross- ciency inspires me to make better storyboards and animat- graded from Toon Boom Studio to Harmony over the year ics,” shared Andreas. The first project he decided to board to create his professional animations. It is only recently that was Twinkle from Kip Island, a 17-minute short production. he also adopted Toon Boom Storyboard Pro, moving away Check out his animatic in the Toon Boom Showcase and from Photoshop and Final Cut Pro. “The fact that you can you’ll see just how efficient he is with Storyboard Pro as his both start and complete the whole storyboard and animat- tool of choice for storytelling. ic process in one place is a big advantage and makes the whole process very healthy. Need an extra scene? Boom, www.palegolas.no draw it! Need a multiplane pan? Boom, just do it! Not sure

Based in Santo André, Brazil, Estúdio Udes was created by Elton Padeti and Bruno Del Rey. Both worked on the animated series My Big Big Friend and decided to join their creative forces to develop their own content using Toon Boom Storyboard Pro and Harmony. As advocates of paperless and cut-out animation, they make full use of Harmony’s drawing substitution, canvas rotation, network view, colour coding and rigging capabilities. “We create mostly corporate messaging. Before, we were using Flash which is a web development program; it was not made for animation production and has lots of bugs if used for movie instead web. With Harmony, the production is faster thanks to the library, which includes templates, cycles, transformations and reused parts. There’s no need for paper; I can see the animation happening while I work, allowing me to see if there’s something

wrong in a very fast way,” explained Elton. Image courtesy of Estúdio Udes

www.vimeo.com/43767988

Toon Boom News WINTER 2012-2013 19 FREELANCERS

Specializing in Animations for be very useful when you have a character that talks a lot; it enabled me to create a more fluid body language and give Museums the character a smoother attitude,” explained Pat. Then, he imported the soundtrack and synchronized the mouth Offering his services as Spring Shoe Animation & shapes. “I used the cell swapping tool to fine-tune the lip Illustration, LLC, Pat Bradley is an award-winning anima- synchronization. I built a full library of mouth shapes and tor and illustrator with a unique, playful style and a knack kept adding to it as I progressed in the project,” he added. for storytelling. His work can be seen in national advertis- All compositing was done within Harmony as well. “I ing campaigns and in some of the nation’s top museums created a handheld camera feeling because the character including: the Field Museum, Chicago Botanic Garden, is walking through the museum and the audience is follow- Lake County Discovery Museum and Art Institute of ing him. I was quite pleased with the result,” stated Pat. Chicago. Pat helps businesses and museums connect with The second production is The Charles Dickens Proj- their audiences by creating highly visual and memorable ect for the Lake County Discovery Museum. This project educational experiences. consisted of three forty-five second shorts, once again Not only is Pat a very efficient and reliable combining cut-out with traditional animation. “When you OOM B CE N R O T O I F T one-man boutique studio, he has also become I have limited budgets and tight schedules, combining cut-

E D

Toon Boom Harmony Certified, which P out with traditional animation in Harmony proved to be R O 2012 L F E A attests to his high level of proficiency at using S S I O N very efficient and enabled me to make the best of both technology for the benefit of art creation. Two techniques,” shared Pat. “I had five days to deliver this proj- of his most recent projects are testament to ect and the voice recording I received was of poor quality. his skill and knowledge. I reused a lot of assets in order to meet the deadline. The One of these projects is The Changing View of T. Rex. style looks like the old animation of Dickens’s time; I used created for the Field Museum, a natural history museum. hatching lines and grayscale This three-minute project is a mix of cut-out with tradi- colours for the main character. tional animation. Live action was also included in order to And as this was a monologue, associate the story with the museum. The main charac- I wanted to make the anima- ter is an actual scientist who works at the museum whose tion as dynamic and interesting voice was recorded to explain all the new findings made as possible, so I included a lot since the first T. rex was discovered in 1905, and how each of camera motion and played one has changed the way we understand this fascinating with panning on the Z axis,” he prehistoric animal, in relation to its anatomy, its posture, its concluded. sense of smell, its feathers, and so on. Pat has certainly become an In essence, the subject was dry, and using animation expert in developing captivat- helped bring it to life. The project took three months to ing animations to help explain complete. Pat received the script and made some recom- and illustrate scientific concepts. mendations to make it work visually. He then received the The result is always impressive soundtrack, which he used to storyboard the project. Once and certainly helps to reach all the boards were approved, he started creating rough audiences who come across the animations of the project. “In Harmony, I mostly used the museum exhibits. Thank you for different brushes available in the drawing tools, then the making learning so much fun! The Charles Dickens Project deformers and the lip sync tool. The deformers proved to www.patbradley.net Images courtesy of Pat Bradley The Changing View of T. Rex

20 Toon Boom News WINTER 2012-2013 Become a Toon Boom Centre of Excellence and enjoy the exclusive benefits it brings to your educational institution. Recognized as powerful incubators, Toon Boom Centres of Excellence prepare graduates for the animation marketplace. From storyboarding to animation production, integration of the Toon Boom pipeline into the curriculum enhances students’ learning experiences and provides them with industry best practices. FB Draw BENEFITS VALUE PRICING Access to Toon Boom valued partner pricing for all school and student purchases including: software, services, support, and maintenance and end-user certification Discounts on the Toon Boom Instructor Certification Program Access to Toon Boom courseware (download only) Exclusive, discounted pricing on Toon Boom student-to-commercial upgrade program PROMOTIONAL OPPORTUNITIES Opportunities to be featured on the Toon Boom website, as the Spotlight feature in Toon Boom NEWS magazine (printed quarterly), and inclusion in the Toon Boom annual Centres of Excellence booklet Opportunities to promote student work in the online Toom Boom Showcase and the Toon Boom Annual Show Reel TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES Exclusive access to quarterly online training seminars developed specifically for Centres of Excellence Access to online annual refresher seminars for teaching staff Priority participation in local Toon Boom events: workshops, product presentations, lectures, forums, etc. OTHER BENEFITS A Toon Boom Centre of Excellence plaque Access to Toon Boom’s guest speakers (where available) A commercial copy of Toon Boom Storyboard™ Pro and Toon Boom Harmony™ for one lucky graduate, awarded annually

Conditions apply. Call your sales rep for more information.

Toon Boom News WINTER 2012-2013 21 EDUCATION

Images courtesy of Adysen Reader MEET THE YOUNGEST TOON BOOM HARMONY CERTIFIED ANIMATOR Meet Adysen Reader, It’s a great way to involve them in my projects and get 14 years old and already their names in the credits!” she concludes. Adysen’s Toon Boom Harmony talent has not gone unnoticed; her English teacher asked Certified, simply for the her to design a logo over the summer. love of animation and an Aspiring to accomplish more with her toolset, Adysen

OM BO C ambition to develop her N E expressed an interest in learning Toon Boom Harmony. To R O T I O F T I

E D talent. Based in Nashville, become certified, she and her parents came to Montreal

A 2012 Tennessee, Adysen Apollo Okamura (left), Toon Boom software S to spend one intensive week becoming familiar with S instructor, and Adysen Reader (right), the O C I AT E learned Photoshop at youngest Toon Boom Certified Animator Harmony’s powerful features and professional animation school and started using it to create animation. techniques. Each day, Apollo Okamura, Toon Boom’s “At the time, I thought there’s got to be a better way to software instructor, brought Adysen up to speed on create animation, and so I researched the web to find a Harmony’s capabilities and introduced her to traditional better option. That’s how I found Toon Boom, and right and cut-out animation styles. They also covered special away, I tried Studio and Animate Pro,” says Adysen. As effects to explore different looks and feels. “Apollo was it was her 2011 summer vacation, she took the time to fantastic. I really enjoyed learning the new Deform tools. thoroughly watch the online video tutorials and learn how They are awesome! I didn’t know cut-out rigs existed to use Animate Pro. before, so it was very helpful to understand how it works When school started, she continued and made learning and what you can achieve,” comments Adysen. “I did animation her after-school activity. Half way through the try Flash before adopting Toon Boom’s products and school year, Adysen decided to submit her first school didn’t like it at all. Everything took so long to perform; for assignment using animation. “I got a science assignment example, setting a 3D camera move in Flash is impossible, and I did not want to use PowerPoint anymore. The topic while in Toon Boom, it is so much faster!” she states. was the various states of matter, so it was perfect to With her Toon Boom Harmony certificate added to put my new animation skills to work. I was the only one her impressive list of accomplishments, Adysen plans to using animation in my classroom and my project was very create more personal, animated projects while applying well received,” adds Adysen. She then created another her new skills to her future school assignments. Make animation for her English assignment and it was equally sure to subscribe to Adysen’s YouTube channel called successful. “My friends enjoy doing the voice acting for cheesepuffllama to follow her progress and watch her me. I also created cartoon characters to represent them. latest projects!

22 Toon Boom News WINTER 2012-2013 Photograph courtesy of Turnul Vechi Studio Developed in Romania, the unique animationKid proj- tablets. Each student completed different scenes, making ect was sponsored by the Romanian Ministry of Culture it a challenge to preserve the character shape from one (The National Cultural Administration Fund). Taking place scene to another. “We used paper on purpose because in Turnul Vechi Studio, Târgoviste, this project spanned students found it easier to draw with more precision and over five months ending in September 2012 and consist- had never used a tablet before. In addition, we only had ed of an animation workshop targeted at 9–15 year-old three tablets and computers, so we had to work within our Images courtesy of Adysen Reader students. Using Toon Boom Studio, students created budget constraints. Our studio is very new and our inten- everything from stories to storyboards, characters, animation is to continue training students in schools, incorporat- tion, scanned drawings, backgrounds and colours. The ing animation into the teaching of all subjects. Our plan purpose was to teach them how to produce three one- is to develop pedagogic material on different themes, minute films. “We selected 15 students from different ensuring students will find them interesting and helpful in schools in our home town and grouped them in three understanding the subject matter,” continued Andrei. His teams of five, based on their interest for each theme. studio is currently promoting its program to government They worked on the projects for two hours per day, from officials at the Ministry of Education get their full support. Monday to Saturday,” explained Andrei Scarlatescu. A In the meantime, the four projects have been selected at total of four projects totalling six and half minutes were two international festivals, namely Libélula International created: The Penguin Flight and Ballerina were done tradi- Animation Festival in Spain and Animateka International tionally while Utopia and Scherzo were done digitally using Animated Film Festival in Slovenia. Congratulations!

Creativity. Innovation. Inspiration. Animation. These “This class and using the Flip Boom All-Star program has adjectives describe the 2D Digital Animation class offered really sparked my interest in the field of animation. Anima- to eighth grade students at South Junior High School tion is a subject that I never thought I would be interested in Anaheim, California. Bringing characters and themes to in and now it is a subject that I would consider pursuing in life that have detail, appeal and tell an engaging story are college,” says Victor Toro. Adds Kevin Najera, “I like this positive challenges the students face in class every day! class and my classmates. I like being able to interact with South’s 2D animation course offers its my peers and I appreciate the level students a unique learning environ- of creativity all of the students add ment that encourages the freedom to their projects. Flip Boom All-Star to think creatively and collaboratively. is really easy to use and offers many The students animate short films that options to enhance my projects.” focus on a wide variety of themes, “Flip Boom All-Star has a very simple including subject matter that was interface for the students to learn and previously introduced in courses like navigate. This program is excellent for English, mathematics, history and students in the exploratory stages of science. To date, the students have learning animation,” says Carol Shaw,

completed short films focused on Photograph courtesy of South Junior High SchoolDigital Animation teacher. “The animating a haiku poem, representing fractions in their students are not only learning how to animate, but they’re simplest and equivalent forms, and illustrating and animat- also learning core concepts in greater detail. They own ing the four stages of holometabolous metamorphosis of the subject matter because they are retelling a story or insects. The animation class is using Flip Boom All-Star. process in a creative and innovative way.”

Toon Boom News WINTER 2012-2013 23