Toon Boom Animation Inc. today announced the release of Toon Boom Studio 5, completely rebranded and now positioned as the multi-technique animation software for learning and creating animation. With its new stop-motion animation capability, Studio 5 is the best tool for becoming familiar with the main styles of animation, including stop-motion, traditional, digital, cut-out and rotoscoping or combining them for greater creativity. In addition, its simplified user interface makes it ideal for hobbyists, educators and students, to discover the various methods of animation creation and unleash their creative potential.
In addition to traditional and paperless animation capabilities, Studio 5 enables you to:

  • Create stop-motion animation using your favourite characters
  • Speed things up with Time-lapse Imagery
  • Live View/Image Capture lets you see images exactly as they will appear in your movie
  • Change your backgrounds using Chroma Key Screens (Green and Blue Screens)
  • Position and align elements perfectly using Onion Skinning
  • Use Rotoscoping to take advantage of actual imagery to better position your characters
  • Improved Image Playback Optimization increases speed
  • Annotation Layers for feedback
  • Easily export your animation directly to YouTube or Facebook
  • Import Flip Boom Classic and Animation-ish projects to bring them to the next level
  • Enhanced colourful User Interface
To accompany this release, a new Workout title has been published to give users step-by-step instructions on how to create a stop-animation short from start to finish. The Stop-Motion Animation Workout is available electronically only and retails at $26.99.

“We are proud of this latest release as it testifies to Toon Boom’s commitment to deliver easy-to-use applications that inspire, develop and stimulate creativity. Knowing how educators and hobbyists have used Toon Boom Studio over the years, we are confident version 5 will fire up their love for animation even more,” shared Joan Vogelesang, President and Chief Executive Officer at Toon Boom.

Revamped Education and Community sections
In order to facilitate the access to information on its web site, Toon Boom has revamped its Education and Community sections. On one hand, the Education section makes it easier for students, faculty members and schools to find and purchase the products they are looking for. On the other, the Community section conveniently points out the various free services Toon Boom provides, including Job Connections, Forums, the Professional Blog, Expert Corner, Festival Watch and Showcase.

New Curriculum for Educators
The new curriculum is divided in two, each part designed to meet the needs of different educators:
* Art Curriculum – Created for the arts program to support educators teaching basic animation courses. It covers the complete set of animation techniques available in Studio.
* Cross-discipline Curriculum ‘ Designed for teachers of traditional subjects such as Science, Languages or Geography. It allows students to use selected animation applications to learn traditional topics in an exciting and motivational new way.
Each curriculum is designed to be easy to follow and includes a variety of sample material.
The curriculum is included free with lab-packs or site license orders.

Pricing and Availability
Toon Boom Studio for MAC OS X on G5 and Intel ® based systems, and for Microsoft ® Windows ® XP, Windows Vista ® and Tablet PC (32 bits) platforms is ready to ship now from the Toon Boom Store at www.toonboom.com/buy/onlinestore/customer. Buy Toon Boom Studio 5 now at the special launch price of $349.99 US, instead of $399.99, valid until July 8, 2009. Customers who purchased Toon Boom Studio as of May 1, 2009, will receive a version 5 key by email. Their Studio 5 license key will be automatically registered enabling them to download the software at their convenience.

Information about Toon Boom Studio 5 is now available online at www.toonboom.com/products/toonBoomStudio/