Toonz has a long history in animation, with many popular productions originating from the application. Recently, Japanese publisher Django purchased Toonz from an Italian company, and has made an open sourced and free version of the 2D animation tool.
Its release is a game changer for 2D animation production that could rewrite the future of the art form, possibly leading to a major increase in drawn animation production, while forcing software developers like Adobe and Toonboom to scramble and find ways to distinguish their 2D animation software from a powerful, free alternative.Amid Amidi, CartoonBrew
Open Toonz is free to download and use, and offers a powerhouse of features for professional animators.
Still, that doesn’t mean that it will be a friendly environment for animators who have used After Effects for creating 2D animation.
After Effects is not a great many things, but it is very easy to learn. Stacked layers are something that everyone can pick up really quickly.
If you have been trained in traditional animation however, you might feel right at home using OpenToonz.
OpenToonz makes use of the Xsheet rather than a linear timeline. This places the focus on the drawings rather than standard computer interpolated keyframes.
There is not a lot of information at the moment, that will help you get started with OpenToonz, but there are a few community driven resources available.
Getting Started With OpenToonz
Visit the OpenToonz project for more information and download.
Visit the OpenToonz User Forum, or the Developer Forum.
Visit the Open Toonz Resources found on Animation News and Art.
Visit the Open Toonz Help & Discussion on Reddit.
Lloyd Alvarez
For anyone looking to do cel animation in After Effects you should check out Paint & Stick: http://aescripts.com/paint-and-stick