Toon Boom Animation Inc., also known as Toon Boom, is a Canadian software company founded in 1994 and based in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

. It specializes in the development and production of

animation Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...

and

storyboard A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of simple illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding proce ...

ing software for

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

, the

Web Web most often refers to: * Spider web, a silken structure created by the animal * World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system Web, WEB, or the Web may also refer to: Computing * WEB, a literate programming system created by ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

mobile device A mobile device or handheld device is a computer small enough to hold and operate in hand. Mobile devices are typically battery-powered and possess a flat-panel display and one or more built-in input devices, such as a touchscreen or keypad. ...

training Training is teaching, or developing in oneself or others, any skills and knowledge or fitness that relate to specific useful competencies. Training has specific goals of improving one's capability, capacity, productivity and performance. I ...

and

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

. Its software like '' Toon Boom Harmony'' is used in many countries. It was awarded the

Primetime Engineering Emmy Awards The Primetime Engineering Emmy Awards, or Engineering Emmys, are one of two sets of Emmy Awards that are presented for outstanding achievement in engineering development in the television industry. The Primetime Engineering Emmys are presented by ...

in 2005 and 2012.

History

In 1996, Toon Boom purchased the software development business of USAnimation Studio. Its animation production services were to be merged into CST Entertainment according to a premature press release from CST. That merge never took place, and USAnimation's studio changed its name to VirtualMagic Animation in 1996 and operated independently. Toon Boom Animation continued the development of USAnimation software, which became Toon Boom Opus. It has since become Toon Boom Harmony. Founding president and

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

Jacques Bilodeau left the company in May 2003, and the company's board of directors appointed

chief operating officer A chief operating officer (COO), also called chief operations officer, is an executive in charge of the daily operations of an organization (i.e. personnel, resources, and logistics). COOs are usually second-in-command immediately after the C ...

Joan Vogelesang to take his place. In 2004,

Corus Entertainment Corus Entertainment Inc. (often simply known as Corus) is a Canadian mass media and television production company. The company was founded in 1987 as Shaw Radio Ltd. as a subsidiary of Shaw Communications and was spun-off from Shaw in 1999. It h ...

, owner of Canadian animation studio

Nelvana Nelvana Limited (; also known as Nelvana Enterprises, Nelvana International or Nelvana Digital; commonly known as Nelvana; stylized as "nelvana") is a Canadian animation studio and entertainment production company owned by Corus Entertainment s ...

, acquired a 50% stake in the company. In 2006, Toon Boom acquired French company Pegs'n Co, developer of the 2D bitmap animation software Pegs. Since the acquisition, the software has not been updated and can no longer be purchased. In 2009, Toon Boom acquired the British company Cambridge Animation Systems, developer of Animo. Since the acquisition, the software has not been updated and can no longer be purchased. In 2012, Corus acquired the remaining 50% stake of Toon Boom it did not already own, giving it full ownership. Chief Executive Officer and President Joan Vogelesang stepped down in September 2014 after over 16 years at Toon Boom, and Paul Gardner was appointed as interim CEO. On March 9, 2016, Toon Boom acquired all the related IP for the TACTIC Studio product, an asset management, production tracking and review tool from

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

-based Southpaw Technology and planned to re-launch the product as Toon Boom Producer. On June 13, 2017, Toon Boom re-branded and launched Producer. On July 13, 2023, Corus announced that it would sell Toon Boom to International Media Company (IMC), a portfolio of

private equity firm A private equity firm or private equity company (often described as a financial sponsor) is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of a Startup company, startup or of an existin ...

TPG Inc. TPG Inc., previously known as Texas Pacific Group and TPG Capital, is an American private equity firm based in Fort Worth, Texas. TPG manages investment funds in growth capital, venture capital, stock, public equity, and debt investments. The f ...

, for

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

111 million ( CA$147.5 million). Corus stated that the sale would be used to cover debt and "advance our strategic plan and priorities".

Historical products

* Toon Boom Opus (1996–2008) - formerly USAnimation, it was used in the traditional film/TV animation industry. * Tic Tac Toon (1996–2001) was succeeded by Toon Boom Studio. * Toon Boom Studio (2001–2015) was aimed at home users and individuals, and succeeded by Toon Boom Harmony Essentials. * Toon Boom Concerto (2004–2005) * Toon Boom Solo (2005–2007) was aimed at small studios. It was succeeded by Toon Boom Digital Pro. * Toon Boom Digital Pro (2007–2009) was succeeded by Toon Boom Animate Pro. * Toon Boom Pencil Check Pro (2008–2014) was a line testing software product. * Toon Boom Animate (2008–2015) was aimed at professional animators, boutique studios, students, and educators. Succeeded by Toon Boom Harmony Advanced. * Toon Boom Manager (2009–2014) was a production tracking system for the entertainment industry. * Toon Boom Animate Pro (2009–2015) was aimed at animation studios and freelancers. * Flip Boom product line (discontinued in 2014) - entry-level animation software * Garfield's Comic Boom (discontinued in 2014) is a comic strip or album creation software product developed with cartoonist Jim Davis. The application included built-in video tutorials by the cartoonist.

Products

Harmony

Harmony contains the tools required to handle cutout (puppet), paperless frame-by-frame, and

traditional animation Traditional animation (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique in which each frame is drawing, drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation of the 20th century, until there wa ...

workflows from scanning to composing and 2D/3D integration. Its toolset includes pencil lines with textures, deformation tools, morphing, inverse kinematics, particles, built-in compositor, 3D camera, and 2D-3D integration. Users can draw animation directly into the software, using a

graphics tablet A graphics tablet (also known as a digitizer, digital graphic tablet, pen tablet, drawing tablet, external drawing pad or digital art board) is a computer input device that enables a user to hand draw or paint images, animations and graphics, w ...

Harmony Database

This software provides additional capabilities for teams of animators using Harmony who want to share files and manage assets from a central database. Its centralized database system allows the sharing of assets between scenes and enables the workload to be shared across a studio or between studios. It also includes production controls for managing rendering jobs and coordinating batch scanning of paper drawings. Harmony Database is available as an add-on for users of Harmony Advanced and Harmony Premium.

Storyboard Pro

This software is used in

pre-production Pre-production is the process of planning some of the elements involved in a film, television show, play, video game, or other performance, as distinct from production and post-production. Pre-production ends when the planning ends and the co ...

to create storyboards for a wide variety of project types including 2D and 3D animation, stop motion, and live action productions. Storyboard Pro contains all the tools required to create storyboards and animatics. Its toolset includes

vector Vector most often refers to: * Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction * Disease vector, an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism Vector may also refer to: Mathematics a ...

and

bitmap In computing, a bitmap (also called raster) graphic is an image formed from rows of different colored pixels. A GIF is an example of a graphics image file that uses a bitmap. As a noun, the term "bitmap" is very often used to refer to a partic ...

drawing tools, pencils and textured brushes, a built-in camera, audio tools, a timeline for timing control, and a 3D toolset to integrate imported 3D models.

Ember

Ember is a suite of AI-powered tools designed to help skilled artists focus on the craft and technique of animation.

Producer

Producer is a web-based production tracking and digital asset management tool.

References

{{Authority control Software companies of Canada 2D animation software Animation software 1994 establishments in Quebec Canadian companies established in 1994 Companies based in Montreal Entertainment companies established in 1994 Former Corus Entertainment subsidiaries Software companies established in 1994 Proprietary commercial software for Linux 2012 mergers and acquisitions 2023 mergers and acquisitions Apple Design Awards recipients