FOSSPicks
FOSSPicks

Graham looks at OpenToonz, Qtile, SageMath, starcli, Fermentrack, Mindustry, and much more.
Animation powerhouse
OpenToonz
OpenToonz is an open source version of Toonz, a widely used and influential 2D animation platform that's been in existence since the early 1990s. In particular, it was famously used by Studio Ghibli to help create Hayao Miyazaki's remarkable Japanese anime movies, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Howl's Moving Castle. Like Blender, Toonz has gone through a metamorphosis from a long-standing macOS and Windows proprietary application to an open source project that finally runs on Linux, a process that started in 2016 and is still finding its own feet. All of which means any of us can now install OpenToonz and start creating our own surreal voyages of animation discovery.
As you might expect from an application with such a long and prestigious history, OpenToonz is seriously capable. Its capabilities start with the way you can create the images used as the source for an animation. Not only does it contain powerful vector tools for sketching and drawing, it can also scan or camera-capture hand-drawn cells from the real world before cleaning them up, making them color consistent, and finally converting them into vectors. Vectors are the key to this kind of animation. Not only do vectors let you easily edit specific elements of your drawings across multiple timelines, they allow you to create keyframes. A keyframe is a snapshot of vector positions at a specific point in time. OpenToonz can smoothly tween between keyframes to create perfectly smooth animations. When combined with the inverse kinematics support for limb movement, you can create amazingly realistic animations without having to draw each individual frame.
But OpenToonz isn't anchored to the 2D realm either. Much like animations in Blender, the rendered scene is merely a viewport from a 3D stage, where the rendered 2D output is the result of framing a multi-layered composite visible from a virtual camera; you can even add multiple cameras. This enables you to create the kind of complex three dimensional and multiplane parallax movements you see in modern animations, where the camera changes angles around a supposed 2D object, all of which can then be synchronized with motion tracking and a custom scripting engine.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
Akamai Will Host kernel.org
The organization dedicated to cloud-based solutions has agreed to host kernel.org to deliver long-term stability for the development team.
-
Linux Kernel 6.14 Released
The latest Linux kernel has arrived with extra Rust support and more.
-
EndeavorOS Mercury Neo Available
A new release from the EndeavorOS team ships with Plasma 6.3 and other goodies.
-
Fedora 42 Beta Has Arrived
The Fedora Project has announced the availability of the first beta release for version 42 of the open-source distribution.
-
Dash to Panel Maintainer Quits
Charles Gagnon has stepped away as maintainer of the popular Dash to Panel Gnome extension.
-
CIQ Releases Security-Hardened Version of Rocky Linux
If you're looking for an enterprise-grade Linux distribution that is hardened for business use, there's a new version of Rocky Linux that's sure to make you and your company happy.
-
Gnome’s Dash to Panel Extension Gets a Massive Update
If you're a fan of the Gnome Dash to Panel extension, you'll be thrilled to hear that a new version has been released with a dock mode.
-
Blender App Makes it to the Big Screen
The animated film "Flow" won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the 97th Academy Awards held on March 2, 2025 and Blender was a part of it.
-
Linux Mint Retools the Cinnamon App Launcher
The developers of Linux Mint are working on an improved Cinnamon App Launcher with a better, more accessible UI.
-
New Linux Tool for Security Issues
Seal Security is launching a new solution to automate fixing Linux vulnerabilities.