Citrus Software: Are TeamTO’s new animation Tools Worth It?

Last week, we featured a replay of TeamTO Studio’s talk at the Annecy Festival. The management team presented their strategy to relaunch the animation studio, which has recently faced major financial troubles.

Monday, August 4, 2025 by Benoît Rogez.

One part of this strategy involves software: the studio’s internal tools are now publicly available. They are marketed and developped by a dedicated branch, Citrus Software, with a production management tool (Yuzu) and an animation tool (Tangerine), along with a free tool we’ll cover further below.

Here are the details. A replay of the presentation from the Annecy Festival is also now available and can be viewed below.

Yuzu: A Production Tracking Tool Designed for Studios

The first tool introduced during the presentation is Yuzu, highlighted as a solution tailored for production managers, production coordinators, supervisors, as well as artists. It allows for tracking daily tasks, planning and managing projects, and accessing summaries and customizable dashboards.Citrus Software emphasizes that it can be used by studios of all sizes.Yuzu can be integrated into an existing pipeline, for example with tools like Maya or Tangerine. It operates as a cloud service and can be used through web browsers such as Google Chrome.

Tangerine: The Promise of Steady 24FPS Playback

Tangerine, on the other hand, is an animation tool. Its origins are linked to another animation software, Rumba: a tool developped by, Mercenaries Engineering, a company that had previously collaborated with TeamTO. Though the tools have since diverged, they still share some common elements.

Here are the key features of Tangerine:

• Real-time performance: The team boasts Tangerine’s ability to maintain 24 frames per second, even with complex scenes. This removes the need for playblasts and enables animators to work with multiple characters live and simultaneously.

  To achieve this, Tangerine relies on several tricks and technologies such as GPU-accelerated skinning, just-in-time shader compilation, and predictive motion interpolation.

• Focus on reuse: The tool emphasizes reusing existing work to save time on future shots and projects.

• Rigging integration: Tangerine uses Mikan, a suite of tools built for use with Maya and Tangerine.

• Compatible with Windows and Linux.

  
  

How much do they cost?

The official website does not list any pricing information for Tangerine or Yuzu, which is unfortunate. The FAQ explains that a free demo is available upon request and that interested users should contact Citrus Software directly to learn more about their pricing policy.

Bonus: Mikan, a Free Rigging Tool

A small surprise was revealed at the end of the presentation, around the 31-minute mark: Mikan, a free and open-source rigging tool!Mikan is presented as a Maya plugin, but the website notes that it can also be integrated into third-party tools, such as Blender.

Our takeaway

How will the industry respond to these new tools? We’ll have to wait a few months to get a better idea. At the Annecy Festival, the Citrus Software booth (which was a dedicated booth, with a second one dedicated to TeamTO) appeared to attract significant interest from MIFA badge holders.However, the tools face two key challenges:

• Yuzu’s challenge: A crowded market. In recent years, many production tracking tools have emerged. Some are successful, others not. The competition is fierce.

• Tangerine’s challenge: Market inertia. Animation studios rarely change their habits. Maya and Blender remain dominant, and it’s no easy feat to gain a foothold alongside them.

We’ll continue to follow the developments around Citrus Software. In the meantime, here is the presentation. The talk is in English, and both English and French subtitles are available.

Here are the panel participants:

• Tara Sibel Demren – Co-founder of RIVA Studios, the company that acquired TeamTO after its receivership.

• Jean Baptiste Spieser – Head of R&D

• Sixtine Pirat, Head of Projects

• Bill Kinder – Production Director

• Sébastien Barlet – Animator

0:00 Intro reel

1:43 Welcome to our live demo – Bienvenue à notre démo en direct

4:03 Panel Q&A – Questions-réponses

5:51 Introducing Yuzu – Présentation de Yuzu

8:38 Yuzu User Testimonial – Témoignage d’un utilisateur de Yuzu

16:24 Introducing Tangerine – Présentation de Tangerine

18:26 Tangerine Live Demo – Démo en direct de Tangerine

30:02 Closing statements – Conclusion

3DVF