Toon Boom Goes Manga with HeARTBIT in Japan

Toon Boom Goes Manga with HeARTBIT in Japan


MONTREAL, April 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ - Two-time Emmy award recipient,
Toon Boom Animation Inc. announced today that HeARTBIT Digital
Creation, one of Japan's promising animation studios, has signed a
memorandum of understanding formalizing their intention to use the Toon
Boom pipeline, namely Toon Boom(®) Storyboard Pro(TM) and Harmony(TM), in their upcoming production titled Francesca. In addition to Steven Chu, Toon Boom's Chief Operating Officer, and
Hitoshi Kumagai, HeARBIT's Chief Executive Officer, The Honourable
Edward Fast, Minister of International Trade and Minister for the
Asia-Pacific Gateway; The Honourable Christian Paradis, Minister for
Industry; His Excellency the Ambassador of Canada to Japan, Mackenzie
Clugston attended the signing ceremony which took place on April 11, at
the Canadian Embassy.



This first project titled Francesca is based on a highly popular Manga icon, which has already ramped up a
great fan base on Facebook and YouTube.



"I feel extremely honoured to use Toon Boom technology. I find it far
superior, providing users with unlimited functionality and efficiency
while creating projects. I'm sure Toon Boom will bring the Japanese
animation industry to a new level unattainable before. I'm hoping that
lots of Japanese animators will find as much excitement in using Toon
Boom's first-class tool as I did," states Mr. Hitoshi Kumagai, chief
executive officer of  HeARTBIT Digital Creation.



"We are delighted to welcome HeARTBIT Digital Creation in the Toon Boom
family. Their property will be a great opportunity for Toon Boom
technology to demonstrate its efficiency at producing Manga according
to the unique production style of Japan," says Joan Vogelesang,
president and chief executive officer of Toon Boom.


About Toon Boom Animation Inc.
Toon Boom Animation Inc. (toonboom.com), a Corus® Entertainment Inc. company and a 2012 and 2005 Primetime
Emmy Engineering Award recipient, is the worldwide leader in digital
content and animation creation software, delivering products and
services online to its global community. Toon Boom carries
user-friendly applications for all, catering to children, home users,
creative professionals as well as students, educators and schools. Toon
Boom is fully dedicated to education and goes far beyond just
developing technology and curriculums that enhance the classroom
experience. Toon Boom is an influential advocate of bringing industry
and education together, while partnering with value-added partners to
help students achieve their goals.



At the high-end studio level, Toon Boom offers a wide product range from
powerful pre-production tools to leading-edge animation production
solutions. Relying on its extensive expertise in animation production,
Toon Boom provides consulting services in the fields of optimization,
pipeline integration, production assistance and custom development.


About HeARTBIT Digital Creation

HeARTBIT Inc. was founded in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan in 2001 by Hitoshi
Kumagai (present CEO). Until now, they have created as many as 200
titles of mobile contents in Japan. In this growing mobile content
market, which is closely related to the Anime industry, their products
account for more than half of all the productions in Japan. They have
been granted approval by the copyright holders of major Japanese Anime
and Manga publishers.



In recent years, they have been designing and developing more varieties
of digital content, including Android/iOS apps, SNS games, 3DCG, and
more, along with the rapidly changing digital content industry
requirements.



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Copyright © 2013 Toon Boom Animation Inc. All rights reserved. Toon Boom(®) is a registered trademark and Storyboard Pro(TM), Harmony(TM), and the Toon
Boom logo are trademarks of Toon Boom Animation Inc. All other
trademarks are the property of their respective owners.


SOURCE TOON BOOM ANIMATION INC.

TOON BOOM ANIMATION INC.

CONTACT: Toon Boom Animation Inc.
Karina Bessoudo, VP, Marketing
kbessoudo@toonboom.com
+1 514 490 6479


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