Toon Boom Animation Inc. today announced the release of Toon Boom
Animate Pro, the high-performance animation software for
professionals. Toon Boom Animate Pro is the most complete
professional animation software for serious animators, offering award
winning state-of-the-art content creation, animation and compositing
toolset for any animation style within a single all-in-one desktop
application.
“At Toon Boom, when it comes to building a strong and tightly-knit
animation community, we believe in giving more for less. This is why
today we are releasing the most advanced animation software for
professional animators at an incredibly low price. In addition this
gives professional animators the opportunity to join the global Toon
Boom community,” shared Joan Vogelesang, President and Chief
Executive Officer at Toon Boom.
Here is what Adam Phillips, has to say about Animate Pro: “Animate
Pro.. How can such a serious beast be so much fun? I’m finding it’s
as addictive as any game, so for me the only difficult part is
getting to bed at a reasonable hour. With my background in
traditional pencil & paper animation, the appeal of Animate Pro lies
not only in the comfort of the traditional tools but also in the
time-saving aspects of the UI and the brutal power of the camera, 3D
elements and vast library of effects modules. When the results speak
so clearly, the choice isn’t a difficult one.” Adam Phillips is the
publisher of Bitey Castle (www.bitey.com), creator of the Brackenwood
series and has close to 12 million views on Newgrounds.
Feature Highlights
Toon Boom Animate Pro combines state-of-the-art vector technology,
real-time animation tools and nodal compositing to simplify the
conception of complex effects. With its easy-to-use interface,
non-destructive and resolution independent workflow, featuring a new
and unique 3D space environment Animate Pro delivers incredible power
at an economical price.
Explore true digital animation
Toon Boom Animate Pro enables you to create tradigital and bitmap
animation as well as combining both styles. You can access advanced
lip-sync and cell swapping tools to give an extra edge to your
content creation process.
Keep traditional art alive
Animate Pro masters traditional art thanks to advanced clean, ink and
paint tools as well as an Xsheet with drawing capabilities to
simulate a paper exposure sheet. Animate Pro supports Pencil Check
Pro to preserve the line test exposure sheet.
Artistic style unleashed
With Toon Boom Animate Pro, you can develop any project without
having to compromise quality. Refine your artwork style using
multiple brush tools, textures and gradients to get a unique look and
feel.
Beyond multi-plane camera
Animate Pro delivers full control on all 3 axes. Move, scale and
rotate any of your elements to create amazing 3D scenery with
real-time playback. Access a powerful Graph editor and apply subtle
acceleration with ease motion control.
Animation’s holy grail
Easily perform frame tweening using the timeline; expose your drawing
using the Xsheet; quickly create key poses with inverse kinematics;
create in-betweens automatically with the Morphing tool and even let
Animate Pro detect the audio phonemes for you.
Animate faster
Symbols and pegs work in unison. Keyframing in cut-out and tradigital
animation is a breeze. Easily fine tune your animation to get the
result you have imagined.
Sparkling effects and compositing
Toon Boom Animate Pro compositing takes place at any time during the
production cycle. Manipulate the effect network to apply any
combination of effects on elements in real-time. Over 50 special
effects, ranging from blurs to colour correction and deformation.
Enjoy an adaptable user interface
Whether you want to create artwork, set up your action or add special
effects, customize your workspace as you need. Each tool comes with a
contextual interface that will let you set your preferences in a
click.
Smooth pipeline and workflow integration Toon Boom Animate Pro can
import leading file formats, including MOV, SWF, PSD, AI and PDF, as
well as export to video in MOV and FLV. In addition, Animate Pro
comes with full scripting capabilities and command line tools. Add
Storyboard Pro to integrate the pre-production stages seamlessly into
your existing pipeline.
Toon Boom Animate Pro comes with more than four hours of video
training and ready-to-use templates for a smooth learning experience.
Dedicated support programs combined with a practical user forum are
additional resources for timely assistance, all handled by the Toon
Boom animation experts.
To promote the Animate family line of products, Toon Boom will be
touring North America, starting with a powerful presentation at Flash
on Tap, in Boston on May 28-30, 2009; then on to Colombus, OH, on
June 10, 2009; New York, NY, on June 16, 2009, Chicago, IL, on June
17, 2009; Orlando, FL, on June 18, 2009; Denver, CO, on June 23,
2009; San Francisco, CA, on July 13, 2009; Seattle, WA, on July 20,
2009; and Portland, OR, on July 21, 2009. All events will be from 7
pm to 9 pm, in their respective time zones. For a complete listing of
events and to RSVP, please go to http://toonboom.makeswebsites.com/,
select your city and register.
Toon Boom Animate Pro for Mac OS X on Intel based systems and for
Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Vista platforms is ready to ship now
with availability through the Toon Boom Store at
www.toonboom.com/buy/onlinestore/customer. Considering the
overwhelmingly positive response received from the field and the
great success Animate has garnered since its launch in November 2008,
Toon Boom Animate Pro will be released at $1,999.99 US, a saving of
$1,000 off the original listed price.
All customers who took advantage of the pre-order campaign which
started on March 30, 2009, will receive their Product Code
electronically along with instructions on how to install and activate
the product.
Toon Boom Animate Pro comes with a Personal Learning Edition and over
three hours of video training that will get any new user up and
animating quickly.
For more detailed information, please visit
www.toonboom.com/products/animatepro/