Toon Boom Animation Launches Beta Program for Ember, its New Suite of Productivity Tools

Sign up for the Toon Boom Ember Beta to test drive AI-powered tools in Harmony and Storyboard Pro

Montreal, March 11, 2025 – Toon Boom Animation announces the beta program for Ember, a suite of AI-powered tools designed to enhance creative workflows in Storyboard Pro and Harmony. These new tools allow professional artists to work with fewer interruptions, iterate faster, and focus on the creative process. The beta previews of Harmony Premium with Ember and Storyboard Pro with Ember seamlessly integrate six powerful new features into tools which artists already know and trust, streamlining workflows and automating repetitive tasks.

Since 1994, Toon Boom Animation has developed cutting edge tools for artists working in the animation industry. Storyboard Pro is a versatile pre-production suite empowering artists to structure sequences, refine visual storytelling, and pitch stories on their own terms, while animation studios around the world rely on Harmony for productions using traditional digital and 2D rigged animation techniques. 

Toon Boom Ember is our new feature set for intelligently creating masks, upscaling and extending backgrounds, as well as aiding the time-consuming scene setup process.

The initial features in Toon Boom Ember include:

• 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

Developing new tools to support artists, not replace the craft in animation

Toon Boom Ember is an add-on currently built into the latest beta test releases of Storyboard Pro and Harmony Premium, with features that can be individually opted into. Artists are encouraged to apply for the beta program’s waitlist in order to be among the first to try Ember and provide essential 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."

“Toon Boom Animation has always been interested in the potential for software to assist skilled artists,” added Francisco Del Cueto, CTO & Co-President at Toon Boom Animation. “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 for Harmony with Ember and Storyboard Pro with Ember

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 with Ember and Harmony Premium with Ember.

"We will be reviewing all beta program feedback to guide the development of Toon Boom Ember," said Del Cueto. "Our focus is on making these tools as useful as possible to the needs of skilled artists and productions.”

For more information about Ember, visit Toon Boom Animation’s website: toonboom.com/ember

About Toon Boom Animation

For 30 years and counting, Toon Boom Animation has been the global leader in pre-production and 2D animation software with clients in over 140 countries. The organization has made its mark with products which include Harmony (end-to-end animation) and Storyboard Pro (storyboarding and layout), which continue to build upon their reputation for high performance tools which push the limits of creativity. Producer (production management) and Harmony Gaming (drawing and animation tools for game development) are the most recent new products to join the line-up. Disney Television Animation, Atomic Cartoons, Bento Box, Fox Television Animation, Dog Head, Toei Animation, The SPA Studios, Xilam and Boulder Media are just a few examples of our high profile clients. To learn more about Toon Boom, visit: toonboom.com