Bento Box Entertainment and Toon Boom Animation have joined forces to create a unique paperless digital animation pipeline, and Bento has opened a new animation studio in Atlanta, Georgia.

The state-of-the-art digital animation production pipeline will be used for Bento’s production on primetime animated television series including Bob’s Burgers, Allen Gregory, and the upcoming series Brickleberry, Out There, and superhero comedy The Awesomes, as well as numerous primetime animation pilots.

Both companies will promote the pipeline to other studios globally. The paperless workflow, which runs between Bento’s US studios and its partner studios around the world, optimizes Toon Boom’s digital animation tools including Toon Boom Storyboard Pro and its Harmony network animation technology. New animation tools for digital timing, digital track reading and digital lip assignment are incorporated in the pipeline.

In addition, the teams at four Seoul, South Korea-based traditional animation studios have now been trained to use the Toon Boom suite of software tools and the studios have been upgraded with new hardware.

In related Bento news, BBE is set to open a new Atlanta, Georgia-based animation production studio called Bento Box Animation Studio Atlanta (BAS). A deal brokered by BBE co-founder Scott Greenberg led to the creation of the studio. BBE’s head of operations Brett Coker, is leading the project to build and launch the new facility.

Veteran producer Craig Hartin will head up production for BAS, and Ashley Kohler, co-owner of Atlanta-based prodco Awesome Inc., will be the executive in charge of production. BAS will leverage the new Bento Box and Toon Boom production pipeline and provide services for Out There, created by Ryan Quincy with 20th TV for IFC, and The Awesomes, developed by SNL’s Seth Meyers and Michael Shoemaker with Loren Michael’s Broadway Video for HULU.

BAS is expected to employ more than 100 animators and production staff within a year, and may grow to more than 200 employees within three years.