Toonloop – Instant Frame-by-Frame Animation
Toonloop is frame-by-frame animation software built for in situ work: the loop is built and plays continuously while you shoot or compose each frame. Created and developed by Alexandre Quessy at Art Plus Code, it serves workshops and outreach as well as performances and installations in front of an audience.
Context
Traditional stop-motion often splits capture and playback. Toonloop changes that: the animation is always “playing”, so you can improvise, teach, or present live without breaking the flow of the session. The app has been released as free software and shown in many settings (digital arts, festivals, institutions, classrooms). One highlight was a live demo for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during their visit to CHU Sainte-Justine, where Toonloop was part of the official tour.
What Toonloop does
- Capture images one by one (webcam, files, or video sources depending on setup) and stack them in a looping sequence.
- Work live: each new frame updates the animation you see right away — ideal for pixilation, stop-motion, and in-room experiments.
- Project or output the loop while you work, so the group can follow both the gesture and the result.
Uses
- Outreach and education: short workshops where everyone sees the payoff of each frame immediately.
- Performance and events: Nuit blanche-style nights, venues, and cultural spaces with a strong live component.
- Solo creation: a direct pipeline from camera to timeline for authors who want immediacy.
Tech and open source
Toonloop is released under the GNU GPL v3. Early development relied on a stack suited to realtime playback on desktop workstations (C++, GTK+, GStreamer), with a goal: stay usable on location, not only in a studio.
Source code and contributions live in the project repository: github.com/aalex/toonloop.
Outcome
A tool that brings capture, editing, and projection into one flow — for immediate, shareable, in situ frame-by-frame animation.