Animators agree that Toon Boom Studio V2 gives unparalleled quality animation for a low price. © Toon Boom Technologies Inc.

Animation is all about the flow — the fluidity of the image moving through a frame, possessing a kinetic energy all its own. Animators are always on the lookout for software tools that can help them achieve this sense of eternal motion. Toon Boom Studio V2 seems to fit this bill for many animators. Affordable and easy to use, Toon Boom Studio V2 was designed specifically for Web animation and offers an end-to-end production environment that is being used by experienced animators, Web designers and content developers alike. While Flash is the industry standard when it comes to Internet animation, the program wasn't actually built with animators in mind. Toon Boom Studio V2 offers to remedy this; its rich animation feature set and intuitive user interface accelerates workflow and efficiency. Able to import textures and models from other programs and export the finished product in a number of ways, TBS V2 is being used to create animation for not only the Web but everything from the small screen to giant arenas. Animation World Magazine recently asked a twice Oscar® nominated animator/director, a digital artist and two production companies about their experience with Toon Boom Studio V2.

Cordell Barker (left) and Jesse Giroux work on a project using Toon Boom Studio V2 at Production Pascal Blais' studios in Montreal. Photo by Denis Roy. Courtesy of Cordell Barker and Production Pascal Blais.

Cordell Barker
Twice Oscar® nominated animator/director Cordell Barker has worked in the commercial field for 27 years. A native of Canada, Cordell made the 7 1/2 minute animated folk song The Cat Came Back for the NFB, which received an Oscar® nomination in 1989 and went on to garner 18 international awards. He was nominated again in 2002 for Strange Invaders. Cordell has created numerous TV ads in Canada, the U.S. and England for clients such as Energy, Mines and Resources Canada; Benylin; Nike; Chili's Restaurant and Bell Canada. He continues to receive awards for his innovative animations.

The bulk of my commercial opportunity came after I completed my first short film The Cat Came Back. Since then, and as a direct result of the success of that film, I have worked on over a hundred commercials. In that span of time, I have shifted from traditional ink and paint on cel over to the computer. The last two or three TV ads that I did were achieved using the updated version of Toon Boom Studio V2. These spots are an animated Coke campaign made through the production company Productions Pascal Blais in Montreal for the French Canadian market. The concept is a group of five very graphically designed teenagers created in the “Flash” look, who take advantage of life’s opportunities. We have approximately a five week production schedule, so we needed a program that would achieve what we needed quickly.

In all, I have directed about seven spots using Toon Boom Studio V2. For the first one we started with USAnimation, but for the quality that we needed to achieve, we switched over to Toon Boom because of the speed and cost advantage. We also chose to go with Toon Boom because it was so incredibly intuitive to learn and use. The projects have gone quite smoothly, especially as V2 seems to be much more stable than V1. Prior to that, we were using Toon Boom Studio V1 on about five of the Coke projects. The reason we continued with it was the flexibility and speed of use of the program as we only had about a week to a week and a half to put together the elements of each 30 second TV spot. The thing that I really like about TBS V2 is the top and side view windows that allow an animation director, whose formative years were spent creating animation in the traditional cel-paint and camera method, to approach the animation in a very logical and visual way. Much like moving people around on a stage.