Digital Video has released Toonz 5.0 Harlequin, which steps into paperless animation by integrating vector drawings in its traditional workflow based on raster drawings. This new environment allows to manage drawings, images and animation levels the way one prefers, preserving their nature throughout the workflow, with no unwanted conversion from raster to vector, or vice versa.
With Toonz 5.0 Harlequin animators can input and paint hand-made drawings or draw from scratch on the computer tablet and then animate; compose scenes; move and animate animation levels over background according to the xsheet; move pegbars, cameras and table; add special FX and render out final sequences.
Harlequin exploits advanced features such as a palette manager with linked styles and smart color models; schematics to control linked objects to define complex movements and to control special FX to obtain powerful results; 3D camera view with automatic multiplane effect; a fully integrated 2D particles engine; possibility to perform rotoscoping and inbetweening; a render farm to distribute render tasks on the network, while controlling it centrally.
All these tasks can be performed in a user-friendly environment, that the users can customize the way they prefer, following the production workflow they prefer, in order to fast-forward tedious and time-consuming steps.
Harlequin is not a single product but a product-line the full license can be split in modules to provide customers with the best possible Return On Investment because the prices varies accordingly.
List prices go from as low as $2,000 for Scan & Cleanup license, to as high as $11,995 for the Studio license.
Toonz 5.0 Harlequin is available for Windows 2000, Windows XP and for MAC OS X 10.4.
For more information, visit www.toonz.com.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
