OpenToonz developers release OpenToonz 1.4
The dev team for OpenToonz has released version 1.4 of the open-source 2D animation package, adding a new system of vector guides for drawing environments in perspective, and a stop-frame animation panel.
The official 1.4 build came out last month, but the Morevna Edition, which adds additional features and a Linux AppImage, was released yesterday.
As used on a range of major commercial animation projects
Formerly a commercial animation package used on Futurama and many Studio Ghibli movies, OpenToonz – then just plain ‘Toonz’ – was made open-source in 2016.
Since then, there has been a steady stream of updates adding new features including support for hi-DPI monitors, auto-tweening, a new horizontal timeline, and integrating the MyPaint brush engine.
The official edition is maintained by Japanese media firm Dwango; the Morevna Project maintains an experimental edition with advanced features including Krita-like assistants and an advanced colour selector.
New Assistant Layers system provides vector guides for drawing environments in perspective
The headline feature in OpenToonz 1.4 is a new vector-guided drawing system, intended to help users to draw environments in perspective.
The Assistant Layers require a bit of manual set-up, as you can see from the video above, but work for a range of perspective types: as well as one-point perspective, they can be used for fisheye effects.
New stop-motion panel with support for Canon DSLR cameras
The official edition also adds a new stop-motion panel, shown in the video above.
It builds on the existing sort-of-stop-motion system, which formed part of the toolset for scanning in animations from physical drawings, and only worked with webcams.
The new system adds support for Canon DSLR cameras, and a range of camera properties, including shutter speed, exposure and white balance, plus the option to pick the focal point of the image manually.
It’s currently only available in the Windows edition of the software, but it’s an initial step towards the kind of functionality available in dedicated stop-motion packages like Dragonframe.
Other features and bugfixes
Other changes in OpenToonz 1.4 include the option to use the Fill tool in raster layers, to create motion paths using the Geometry tool, and support for Clip Studio Paint‘s XDTS exposure sheet format.
In addition, the set of tools displayed in the toolbar is now context-aware.
You can find a full list of changes via the links below: the Morevna edition has a extra features and bugfixes.
System requirements and availability
OpenToonz 1.4 is available as compiled binaries for Windows 7+ and Mac OS X 10.9+. The Morevna Edition is also compiled for Linux.
Read a full list of new features in OpenToonz 1.4 in the online release notes
Download OpenToonz 1.4 from the official website
Read more about the Morevna Edition of OpenToonz 1.4
(Includes download link for the Morevna edition)