Montreal: Tic Tac Toon is the latest digital cartoon production software to be introduced to the booming international animation market. Its promoters claim various features of the system ­ 3D and multiplane camera movement capabilities, and a resolution-independent production and compositing process ­ give it the competitive edge over comparable systems.

Jacques Bilodeau, president of Montreal-based Toon Boom Technology, Tic Tac Toon’s owner and North American distributor, says the software’s highly compressed digital storage capacity makes it possible to transmit drawings online from any production center free of image degradation.

Another key innovation, in the preproduction phase, he says, is an automatic sound breakdown and assignment feature.

Tic Tac Toon is an intuitive, user-friendly animation software package covering the entire process of cartoon production.

Bilodeau says the program converts graphic data input to vectors, maximizing image quality and modification flexibility.

The software provides the option of working in an entirely paperless environment, from design to preproduction to finished format.

Computerized cartoon production eliminates the use of traditional acetate and paper cels. Instead, artwork is scanned directly into the system, imported from other systems, or drawn directly on the computer with a cordless pen.

Bilodeau says the interactive nature of each Tic Tac Toon production module, a function of ‘dynamic line tests linked to an exposure sheet,’ permits the animator to preview animation with full video resolution.

Introduced to the market by Toon Boom late last fall, the software package costs in the us$25,000 range per licence and runs on either a Silicon Graphics Indy workstation or Digital Equipment’s AlphaStation 250 platform.

Cost of the full working package, including software and workstation with animator tablet, averages in the us$50,000 range. With a dozen, or even fewer, units, a producer can stake a full and lucrative claim in the international serial cartoon production business.

Tic Tac Toon is a fully computerized digital production process.

‘One of the challenges in designing Tic Tac Toon was to make it totally transparent, so you don’t see and don’t feel the computer when you’re looking at the system,’ says Bilodeau.

‘It’s the first 100% vector-based software for cartoons. By vector-based, we mean that it’s totally resolution-independent. You can zoom right through a picture and the pixels won’t blow up when you try to modify the picture ratio or zoom into a character or make a camera moveŠ. There is no degradation.’

Rather than blowing up pixels when an image element is enlarged or modified, the program multiplies the number of existing pixels as an increment of the camera position, he says.

Worldwide revenues (combined sales and production revenues) from animated tv series and feature films is in the order of $9 billion a year, says Bilodeau. ‘The Lion King alone was over a billion, more than 10% of all (animation-sourced) revenues.’

Toon Boom estimates the world market for computerized animation production systems at 30,000 licences over five years, or $750 million.

To meet demand, Toon Boom recently opened an office in Burbank, California, headed by animation industry veteran Tom Carrigan, vp sales, marketing and distribution.

Bilodeau says digital animation systems significantly increase quality and quality control. ‘When there is a problem with inking or painting you don’t have to reship boxes of materials again to Korea and wait for six weeks.’

Another major bonus, he says, is that ‘with a product like Tic Tac Toon you are not limited to six levels of animation. You can go to 80 levels because it’s digital.’

He says digital storage space is 1% of the storage capacity required for bit-mapped files, and as such is also a source of production cost savings.

Putting aside the old-time animation stand and the Oxberry, Bilodeau says the overall savings with computer systems is between 15% and 30%. ‘It means the investment can be paid for in the first year.’

He says the abundance of spectacular special f/x in Disney and other theatrical animation movies has raised audience expectations, driving up costs.

Bilodeau, former president and gm of PMT Video, Montreal, outlines Tic Tac Toon’s key selling points:

– Image quality: resolution-independent production means adjustments, rescalings and zoom-ins do not undo high picture quality. Images can be squashed or stretched, and drawings can be modified ‘without redrawing, the costly part in animation production.’

– Price: the Tic Tac Toon system isn’t necessarily less expensive than the competition (USAnimation, Animo, etc.) but Bilodeau claims it generates bigger savings. ‘Because of features like auto gap-closing and automatic sound breakdown,’ he says, ‘the system sells itself.’

– The system is optionally paperless, that is, drawings can be digitized directly into the computer.

Bilodeau says Toon Boom’s focus is 100% cartoons, ‘not only the computer side of it.’ He says service backup and experience are key selling factors because Carrigan and Larry Smith, who also works out of the u.s. office, have many years’ experience working for companies like Disney and Warner Bros.

Toon Boom’s package hit the market this past fall, but the company was formally launched in late ’94 with a startup investment of about $5 million, an important part of which was used to buy the system from its Paris-based developer, 2001. Investors include Bilodeau, Groupe Videotron, broadcaster Tele-Metropole and Innovatech, a venture capital company.

Montreal animation design school, Institut de creation artistique et de recherche en infographie, has purchased 10 units of Tic Tac Toon. And with an eye to European coproduction, Tele-Metropole has made a similar acquisition.