How was the animation of Simpsons done?

animation

In 1996, The Simpsons became the longest-running cartoon show in the history of television. It outruns The Flintstones setting a new record. It is 2018 and to this date, people somehow relate to the episodes and find it amusing. Simpson memes and gifs are the new hip for millennials. The Simpsons portrayed all yellow characters who often indulged into dark humour. You do not have to be an expert in animation course to know the legacy of Simpsons.

Who would have thought that Homer, Marge, Lisa and Baby Maggie’s everyday nuisances with Bart would end up making them the favourite family of the decade? Animation director David Silverman who defined the look of the show went through every single storyboard of the cartoon before giving them the digital look.

According to Simpsons storyboard artist, Luis Escobar they wanted to create something a little out of the box. Storyboards are nothing but blueprints of the episodes.  According to a series of posts on Escobar’s blog about the animation of the show, the board is first reviewed, revised, and then sent to Fox for yet another round of notes.

The Simpsons characters use a hell amount of CGI. The voice over of these characters played perfectly with the kind of role David wanted people to see. In the case of animated films, everything is done by different animation artists. The layout artist, however, played the role of a cameraman in this case. He had to rig the designs and put them into the frames.

Arguably the most important job of the layout artist is imbuing the static storyboard images with performance. Right from the props, backdrop, emotions and staging fall into the hand of the layout artist.

Talking about Simpsons we cannot possibly sideline Akom. It is an animation studio in South Korea, located west of Seoul, and is to animate all of the frames between the drawings in the final reel delivered by the layout artists.

That is where the role of an animation academy comes next. A large section of creative youth got aware of the increasing multitude and growth of animation. They started enrolling in animation courses to pursue their dream career. Simpsons was not just another famous cartoon on TV but has placed a milestone in the history of cartoon shows.


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