Toon Boom Animation Launches Beta Program For Ember, A New Suite Of AI-Powered Productivity Tools

Exclusive: Industry-standard 2d-production software developer Toon Boom Animation is announcing today the beta program for Ember, a suite of AI-powered tools designed to enhance creative workflows in Storyboard Pro and Harmony.

The company, whose products are used by Disney Television Animation, Bento Box, Toei Animation, Xilam, and Boulder Media among many others, is making clear that these tools are designed to support artists and not replace the animation process. The tools are designed to streamline workflows and automate repetitive tasks, while allowing users to work with fewer interruptions, iterate faster, and focus on the creative process.

The first set of six Ember tools are designed to intelligently create masks, upscale and extend backgrounds, and aiding the time-consuming scene setup process. The specific tools are as follows:

• Script Breakdown: Analyzes a screenplay and automatically identifies key scenes, characters, or background assets
• Mask Generation: Allows artists to quickly isolate elements in artwork by accurately creating masks, which can be selected and edited in seconds
• Image Eraser: Marks the area to be removed and Toon Boom Ember fills in the gap seamlessly by creating a separate layer ready to be used in a scene
• Expand Image: Extends the borders of your image in a separate new layer, always keeping original assets intact
• Increase Image Resolution: Upscales the resolution of the original artwork, up to 8192 by 8192 pixels
• Rough Track Generation: Analyzes a screenplay, identifying characters, direction and dialogue, and inserts blank panels with scratch audio tracks on the timeline

Ember is currently available as an add-on to the latest beta test releases of Storyboard Pro and Harmony Premium, with features that can be individually opted into. Artists can apply for the beta program’s waitlist to be among the first to try Ember and provide feedback to guide development.

“Our approach to developing Toon Boom Ember is grounded in respect: Respect for artists, their intellectual property, and the creative process,” said Colin Bohm, CEO at Toon Boom Animation. “We believe these new tools, when trained using responsibly-sourced data, will be another step forward for artists and studios.”

Francisco Del Cueto, CTO & co-president at Toon Boom Animation, added, “Toon Boom Animation has always been interested in the potential for software to assist skilled artists. Through our beta program and close relationships with studios, we work with our community to develop helpful applications for new technologies.”

How to participate in the beta test program

Toon Boom Ember will be available to beta testers with active Storyboard Pro or Harmony Premium licenses for versions 22 and 24 at no extra cost during the beta testing period, running from March until the release of Storyboard Pro 25 and Harmony 25. Artists can apply to the beta program on Toon Boom Animation’s website. Once approved for the beta program, participants will be able to download the latest test builds of Storyboard Pro and Harmony Premium with Ember.