
How an episode of the Simpsons is made - pmcpinto
http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/25/9457247/the-simpsons-al-jean-interview?curator=MediaREDEF
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AdmiralAsshat
_In the world of animated TV, The Simpsons may be the last of its kind, an
expensive, high-touch, slow-paced production built on formulas dating back to
Walt Disney and Hanna-Barbera._

"Hanna-Barbera" and "expensive" do not belong in the same sentence. Their
Saturday Morning cartoons were so cheaply made that they were mocked by the
industry.[0]

[0][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanna-
Barbera#Production_proce...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanna-
Barbera#Production_process_changes)

~~~
shalmanese
The reason Yogi Bear wears a collar and tie was solely so they didn't have to
animate the head-body transition and save money.

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Keyframe
Korean inbetweeners have it rough. In fact, all inbetweeners have it rough!
That's kind of like getting a C code from a senior animator (Keyframe) and
hand-coding asm from it.

It's interesting they've mentioned discontinued software from ToonBoom. I
thought they would be using a full blown Harmony by now or DigiCel Flipbook,
at least for animatics.

~~~
sjwright
Why would they be having it rough? Many jobs involve repetitive actions with
little to no creative element. But still these animators will have built up a
substantial skill and the work output ought to be modestly satisfying.

If code compiling couldn't be automated, the people tasked with performing ASM
translation would eventually become extremely skilled at it... to a point
where it might seem impossibly magical to the rest of us.

~~~
Keyframe
Inbetweening (we call it phasing in Europe) is not repetitive work in a sense
of factory work. It's a line of work that requires extreme focus and is
repetitive. It's a rough job that taxes your mind, wrists, and back. You have
to have a special mindset if you're going to work that for a career. Everybody
starts at that step, but not everyone goes further.

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chrisseaton
"The process is called original equipment manufacturing; Akom is one of many
OEM studios in its nation."

Ha ha I think that's very clearly the wrong meaning of that abbreviation.

~~~
StavrosK
Overseas export market?

~~~
sjwright
Correct.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_animation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_animation)

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roySimpson
I often have a hard time placing the exact episode, in which The Simpsons
jumped the shark, but for me, the "22 Short Films Abount Springfield" episode
[0] in season 7 was the first one I distinctly remember having mixed feelings
about, while watching it.

By the eighth season for sure, there was even in-show acknowledgement, that
the characters were becoming over-developed and being painted into
unimaginative corners by established and beloved continuity, while
simultaneously being victimized by groupthink, in the Poochie episode [1].
That was probably the last "good" episode, in my humble opinion.

Also, in season 8, with the airing of the Guatemalan Insanity Pepper episode
[2], I found that more episodes were frequently disappointing and unfunny,
including that episode, and I tuned out.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/22_Short_Films_About_Springfie...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/22_Short_Films_About_Springfield)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Itchy_%26_Scratchy_%26_Poo...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Itchy_%26_Scratchy_%26_Poochie_Show)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Viaje_Misterioso_de_Nuestro...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Viaje_Misterioso_de_Nuestro_Jomer_%28The_Mysterious_Voyage_of_Homer%29)

~~~
mikeash
It's interesting how different people draw the line in different places.

I think Behind the Laugher is the last truly good episode. That's a deeply
unusual format, of course. I'd count Homer Simpson vs. the City of New York as
the last truly good normal episode. I mark the decline as the beginning of
season 9. I think season 8 holds up as well as any. I think I've seen others
draw the line as late as season 13ish, and as early as around season 4.

~~~
cdelsolar
Season 8 was fine. The last good episode was definitely the NY one and even
then that was very iffy. The Armin Tamzarian episode was what did it. Everyone
at school was talking about how it made no sense and I agreed. Although, I saw
the episode recently and it's still much better than anything since.. And not
as bad as I remember it.

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flippyhead
Honestly, at this point they should just start showing old ones and claim they
are new. There's so many I bet most people wouldn't even notice!

~~~
mikeash
The huge jump in quality would give the game away!

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dba7dba
Just wanted to point out a link between AKOM and Star Wars (lightsabers
actually).

AKOM was founded in 1985 by Nelson Shin, the one who came up with the special
effects of the original lightsaber in Star Wars Episodes 4, 5, 6.

Here's an interview with him by CNN in 2007. I remember watching the video on
youtube while back but cannot find it now. But here's the text of the
interview.

[http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/10/18/talkasia.nelsons...](http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/10/18/talkasia.nelsonshin/index.html)

And this in the interview caught my attention.

 _I went to the States in 1971. When I arrived in U.S. at that time, the three
major networks -- ABC, CBS and NBC -- started Saturday morning shows on a very
large scale for children. This was a new movement in U.S. to bring the
animation industry to life, but also to educate the children through this. But
despite this large movement, there were no people who could actually work on
the animation, which is why most of the work went to Taiwan, Korea and Japan.
So because of this reason it may seem that Korea was playing a large role in
the animation industry, but a lot of the animators in Korea actually started
off by learning and working for these American shows._

Star Wars. Simpsons. Who knew?

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takee
It is interesting to see that even animation studios outsource critical parts
of the process to other parts of the world, albeit the last stage of animation
after most of the creative process is complete. I think that really does prove
how flat the world has become over the years.

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leoc
It seems AKOM's willing to further outsource its animation jobs, including to
North Korea:
[http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/IC14Dg03.html](http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/IC14Dg03.html)

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anunderachiever
When they went from actually drawing the cartoon to computer-aided animation
techniques the Simpsons lost something very essential and organic. I love the
Simpsons up until about the fifth season. Beyond that I consider them
progressively unwatchable.

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kbart
_" His job is to take all of the digital character layout scenes, along with
the timing and everything [else], and he prints them out on paper and those
are shipped to [South] Korea."_

Why? Don't they have printers in South Korea?

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wodenokoto
I thought family guy and bobs burger followed roughly the same production
structure.

~~~
jcl
Bob's Burger is CG, so I imagine it has a production structure closer to South
Park (also CG) than the Simpsons, in that certain kinds of animation changes
are much cheaper to make even late in production.

~~~
objclxt
> _Bob 's Burger is CG_

No it's not, it's hand drawn using Toon Boom Harmony[1]. They offshore to
South Korea in a similar fashion to The Simpsons. Sometimes they'll use cel-
shaded CGI for static and complex objects (which The Simpsons do as well), but
character animation is all regular 2D cel.

[1]: [https://www.toonboom.com/news/bob-s-burgers-goes-fifth-
seaso...](https://www.toonboom.com/news/bob-s-burgers-goes-fifth-season-toon-
boom-animation)

South Park is animated in Maya, but it's really the style of animation that
makes South Park so quick to produce rather than the fact it's CGI (lots of CG
animation is equally as time consuming as 2D cel).

