Pinching pennies will no longer be necessary
Anyone who knows anything about anime should have seen or at least heard of a film produced by Studio Ghibli. Having put out feature films such as Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbour Totoro, and Howl’s Moving Castle, the Japan-based animation studio is well known for their artistic prowess. With vibrantly drawn landscapes and intricately detailed character designs, Studio Ghibli’s animated films make for a stunning visual feast for people of all ages. Their movies stimulate the creative creature living within their audiences, and as someone who has a great deal of appreciation of art in all of its forms, I probably won’t be the first or last to admit to having held onto a fantasy involving the creation of my own Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki-inspired masterpiece. It is precisely for this reason that, upon learning that the means to make said masterpieces has become available to the public, I freaked out. A lot.
For those who are unfamiliar with Studio Ghibli, and are unable to bring an example to mind or are too lazy to do a quick Google search, perhaps you are more familiar with the Fox and Cartoon Network late night classic, Futurama. Yes, Matt Groening’s Bender and Doctor Zoidberg were also animated using the same software that brought us Hayao Miyazaki’s Porco Rosso and the wizard Howl.
On March, 18, 2016, the Italian studio known as Digital Video announced that they, in partnership with Japanese publisher Dwango, would be releasing an open sourced version of the Toonz 2D animation software most famously used by Studio Ghibli. The press release details that Digital Video and Dwango have collaborated to develop and publish “an open source platform based on Toonz (OpenToonz). Effective Saturday March 26, [2016], the Toonz Studio Ghibli version will be made available to the animation community as a free download.”
Digital Video’s managing director, Claudio Mattei, in the March 18 press release, made comment: “The contract with Dwango, which offers the Toonz open source platform to the animation community, has enabled Digital Video to realize one of its strategies, i.e. to make of Toonz a world standard for 2D animation.”
Toonz was originally created by Digital Video and initially released in 1993. It had been used by various production studios around the world, and used by Studio Ghibli in particular since 1995. The open source edition of the software, OpenToonz, will allegedly incorporate a number of features that can be found in the Toonz Ghibli Edition that was developed by (Yes, you guessed it) Studio Ghibli.
The deal between Dwango and Digital Video will allow members of the animation community—whether they are well-off studios, independent animators, or a university student in their dorm room—the ability to access “state of the art [animation] technology” without breaking the bank. So, animators everywhere rejoice! You are one step closer to being the next Miyazaki thanks to OpenToonz. The only catch? The artistic talent to do so is sold separately.