The animation program that Studio Ghibli uses

Open source and free, is at your disposal.

In any profession there are references to which everyone, or the vast majority, wants to resemble. They will have followers and detractors, but there are always some names like the big names in this sector.

One example is Studio Ghibli, a reference in animation. We may like his films more or less, but his influence on Japanese and western animation is unquestionable.

With titles such as My Neighbor Totoro, Chihiro's Journey or Princess Mononoke, Studio Ghibli, and geniuses such as Hayao Miyazaki, they have managed to continually reinvent themselves and turn their fantasy universe into realistic animations within reach of very few.

Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli are a reference to emulate in 2D animation, just as Pixar is in 3D animation. How can we emulate the mastery of Porco Rosso or The Travelling Castle?

One option is to use the same animation program used in some of the titles I mentioned. Its name is Opentoonz, it is free, multiplatform and open source.

Based on the Toonz tool, from the Italian Digital Video, Opentoonz is the result of adapting this animation software for Studio Ghibli's own needs in films such as Princess Mononoke or Arrietty and the world of the tiny ones.

After years of customizing and leveraging Opentoonz for internal use, Studio Ghibli and Digital Video have decided to offer it free of charge through Dwango.

In addition, it is Open Source licensed (New BSD) so that anyone can use it for free for personal or professional use and, with sufficient knowledge, can alter the code for their particular needs.

Professional 2D animation

Opentoonz is organized around projects, which in turn are divided into scenes. Before starting to work we can specify the resolution of the animation, as well as the size of the camera if we want to use a particular configuration.

Everything we need from this animation software is in the main window, organized by panels and tabs.

Frame by frame, frame by frame, we can develop each scene by controlling the whole process. Whether it's drawing directly with the available tool palette or importing material from a file, scanning a physical drawing or through a camera, Opentoonz makes it easier to do a job that requires hours of work.

In addition, we can take advantage of the GTS tool, developed from scratch by Studio Ghibli. It downloads separately and makes it easy to scan physical or paper frames.

Opentoonz is also an excellent 2D animation tool for both tinting and coloring frames, with the help of plugins and other built-in functions.

For all audiences

Although the help material is available in Japanese, it has a user group in English, as well as a lot of YouTube videos, unofficial but very practical to start with.

Here is an introductory tutorial in Spanish by Miguexe.

You can download Opentoonz for Windows and macOS, as well as its source code and plugins with effects.

Windows requirements are Windows 7/8.1 or 10 (64bit), 4GB of RAM, 500MB of disk space and 1280x1024 display. In the case of macOS, version 10.9 or higher, 4GB of RAM, 500MB of disk space and 1280x1024 display is required.

The GTS scanning tool has the same requirements. However, for now it is only compatible with Windows.