by , 4:05 PM EST, March 21st, 2006

Toon Boom Animation, Inc. on Tuesday released a Universal Binary version of its animation software Toon Boom Studio V3. It can be downloaded for free by anyone who owns the current edition of the application. The developer also said that the Universal Binary of Toon Boom Studio Express V3 will ship next month.

Toon Boom Studio, which retails for US$399.99, is an all-in-one solution aimed at newcomers as well as seasoned animation pros. Users can draw their animations digitally or scan and import hand-drawn images, lip-sync the animation, create 3D spaces for their characters to inhabit, implement special effects, and more. Projects can be exported in formats ready for viewing on a TV, HDTV set, a Web site, or an iPod.

System requirements call for Mac OS X v10.3.9 or v10.4.x, a G4, G5 or Intel Core processor, 256MB RAM (512MB recommended), 120MB hard drive space, and 8MB Video RAM (64MB recommended).