Toon Boom

Harmony (software)
Developer(s)	Toon Boom Animation Inc.
Stable release	June 29, 2020; 4 years ago
Written in	C++ (Qt), Qt Script, JavaScript, Python
Operating system	Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux
Platform	x64
Available in	English, Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese
Type	2D animation software
License	Proprietary, Trialware
Website	www.toonboom.com

Toon Boom Animation Inc.
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Software
Founded	1994; 30 years ago
Headquarters	Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Products	Animation and Storyboarding software
Parent	Corus Entertainment (2012–2023); International Media Company (2023–present);
Website	toonboom.com

Toon Boom Animation Inc., also known as Toon Boom, is a Canadian animation studio founded in 1994 and based in Ottawa, Ontario. It specializes in the development and production of animation and storyboarding software for film, television, the World Wide Web, video games, mobile devices, training and education.

Its software like Toon Boom Harmony is used in many countries. It was awarded the Primetime Engineering Emmy Awards in 2005 and 2012.^[1]^[2]

History

2001

2017

Former logos

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.^[3] 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 Jacques Bilodeau left the company in May 2003, and the company's board of directors appointed chief operating officer Joan Vogelesang to take his place.^[4] In 2004, Corus Entertainment, owner of Canadian animation studio Nelvana, acquired a 50% stake in the company.^[5]

In 2006, Toon Boom acquired French company Pegs'n Co,^[6] 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.^[7] 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.^[5] 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.^[8]

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-based Southpaw Technology and planned to re-launch the product as Toon Boom Producer.^[9] On June 13, 2017, Toon Boom re-branded and launched Producer.^[10]

On July 13, 2023, Corus announced that it would sell Toon Boom to International Media Company (IMC), a portfolio of private equity firm TPG Inc., for US$111 million (CA$147.5 million). Corus stated that the sale would be used to cover debt and "advance our strategic plan and priorities".^[11]

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 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.

Harmony Server

This software provides additional capabilities for teams of animators using Harmony who want to share files and manage assets from a central database that is located on a server. 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 Server is available as an add-on for users of Harmony Advanced and Harmony Premium.

Storyboard Pro

This software is used in pre-production 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 and bitmap 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.