It’s been a busy news week for the folks at Montreal-based Toon Boom Animation. On Monday, it was announced that award-winning studio Cosgrove Hall (Little Robots, Fifi and the Flowertots, Postman Pat) had adopted Toon Boom Harmony. The Manchester-based shop plans to maximize the pipeline integration the solution offers while keeping all the production in the United Kingdom.
“While Cosgrove Hall continues its 30th Anniversary celebrations, we plan to give the industry an idea of what is next for Europe’s largest animation studio. Adopting Toon Boom Harmony is a critical step in our strategy” notes Anthony Utley, Cosgrove hall’s managing director.
On Wednesday, we got word that India’s Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics (the academic branch of 3D animation and VFX house Maya Entertainment) will launch courses in 2D animation in Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta and Bangalore, based on the curriculum designed by Toon Boom and the faculty trained specialists from Canada.
“In the past few markets, I have seen tremendous interest in 2D/CGI work and, looking at the in-roads Toon Boom Animation has had in the major studios around the world, we feel that it is the right time for Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics to introduce Toon Boom in its curriculum,’ says Rajesh Turakhia, Chief Executive Officer at MAAC.
“Having looked at the reach of Maya with 42 academies in India, we feel this will address the current man power shortage in India. As NASSCOM stated, India could use 300,000 professionals in content development and animation by 2008, up from 27,000 three years ago. We are thrilled to have our leading-edge technology play an active role in reaching that goal” shared Joan Vogelesang,Toon Boom’s president and CEO.
It was also announced this week that Trivandrum-based Toonz Animation has become the largest Toon Boom Harmony installation in Innida. Toonz plans to explore Harmony’s wide array of capabilities to create traditional and cut-out animation in a fully integrated production pipeline.
“To further our level of efficiency and bring our quality standards even higher, we decided to install Toon Boom Harmony throughout our studio” shared P. Jayakumar, Chief Executive Officer at Toonz Animation India.
To learn more about Toon Boom Animation and its award-winning products, visit www.toonboom.com.
