1. Research
Traditional Animation:
Traditional animation, (or classical animation, cell animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an
animation technique where each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of
animation in cinema until the advent of computer animation.
Storyboards
Traditionally-animated productions, just like other forms of animation, usually begin life as a
storyboard, which is a script of sorts written with images as well as words, similar to a giant comic
strip. The images allow the animation team to plan the flow of the plot and the composition of the
imagery. The storyboard artists will have regular meetings with the director, and may have to
redraw or "re-board" a sequence many times before it meets final approval.
Design and timing
Once the animatic has been approved, it and the storyboards are sent to the design departments.
Character designers prepare model sheets for all important characters and props in the film. These
model sheets will show how a character or object looks from a variety of angles with a variety of
poses and expressions, so that all artists working on the project can deliver consistent work.
Sometimes, small statues known as maquettes may be produced, so that an animator can see what
a character looks like in three dimensions. At the same time, the background stylists will do similar
work for the settings and locations in the project, and the art directors and color stylists will
determine the art style and color schemes to be used.
While design is going on, the timing director (who in many cases will be the main director) takes the
animatic and analyzes exactly what poses, drawings, and lip movements will be needed on what
frames. An exposure sheet (or X-sheet for short) is created; this is a printed table that breaks down
the action, dialogue, and sound frame-by-frame as a guide for the animators. If a film is based more
strongly in music, a bar sheet may be prepared in addition to or instead of an X-sheet. Bar sheets
show the relationship between the on-screen action, the dialogue, and the actual musical notation
used in the score.
Animation
Once the Animatic is finally approved by the director, animation begins.
In the traditional animation process, animators will begin by drawing sequences of animation on
sheets of transparent paper perforated to fit the peg bars in their desks, often using colored pencils,
one picture or "frame" at a time. A peg bar is an animation tool that is used in traditional (cell)
animation to keep the drawings in place. The pins in the peg bar match the holes in the paper. It is
attached to the animation desk or light table depending on which is being used. A key animator or
lead animator will draw the key drawings in a scene, using the character layouts as a guide. The key
animator draws enough of the frames to get across the major points of the action; in a sequence of a
character jumping across a gap, the key animator may draw a frame of the character as he is about

2. to leap, two or more frames as the character is flying through the air, and the frame for the
character landing on the other side of the gap.
Timing is important for the animators drawing these frames; each frame must match exactly what is
going on in the soundtrack at the moment the frame will appear, or else the discrepancy between
sound and visual will be distracting to the audience. For example, in high-budget productions,
extensive effort is given in making sure a speaking character's mouth matches in shape the sound
that character's actor is producing as he or she speaks.
While working on a scene, a key animator will usually prepare a pencil test of the scene. A pencil test
is a preliminary version of the final animated scene; the pencil drawings are quickly photographed or
scanned and synced with the necessary soundtracks. This allows the animation to be reviewed and
improved upon before passing the work on to his assistant animators, who will go add details and
some of the missing frames in the scene. The work of the assistant animators is reviewed, pencil-
tested, and corrected until the lead animator is ready to meet with the director and have his scene
sweatboxed, or reviewed by the director, producer, and other key creative team members. Similar
to the storyboarding stage, an animator may be required to re-do a scene many times before the
director will approve it.
In high-budget animated productions, often each major character will have an animator or group of
animators solely dedicated to drawing that character. The group will be made up of one supervising
animator, a small group of key animators, and a larger group of assistant animators. For scenes
where two characters interact, the key animators for both characters will decide which character is
"leading" the scene, and that character will be drawn first. The second character will be animated to
react to and support the actions of the "leading" character.
Once the key animation is approved, the lead animator forwards the scene on to the clean-up
department, made up of the clean-up animators and the inbetweeners. The clean-up animators take
the lead and assistant animators' drawings and trace them onto a new sheet of paper, taking care in
including all of the details present on the original model sheets, so that it appears that one person
animated the entire film. The inbetweeners will draw in whatever frames are still missing in between
the other animators' drawings. This procedure is called tweening. The resulting drawings are again
pencil-tested and sweatboxed until they meet approval.
At each stage during pencil animation, approved artwork is spliced into the Leica reel.
This process is the same for both character animation and special effects animation, which on most
high-budget productions are done in separate departments. Effects animators animate anything that
moves and is not a character, including props, vehicles, machinery and phenomena such as fire, rain,
and explosions. Sometimes, instead of drawings, a number of special processes are used to produce
special effects in animated films; rain, for example, has been created in Disney animated films since
the late-1930s by filming slow-motion footage of water in front of a black background, with the
resulting film superimposed over the animation.
Backgrounds
While the animation is being done, the background artists will paint the sets over which the action of
each animated sequence will take place. These backgrounds are generally done in gouache or acrylic
paint, although some animated productions have used backgrounds done in watercolor, oil paint, or
even crayon. Background artists follow very closely the work of the background layout artists and

3. color stylists (which is usually compiled into a workbook for their use), so that the resulting
backgrounds are harmonious in tone with the character designs.
Computers and digital video cameras
Computers and digital video cameras can also be used as tools in traditional cell animation without
affecting the film directly, assisting the animators in their work and making the whole process faster
and easier. Doing the layouts on a computer is much more effective than doing it by traditional
methods. Additionally, video cameras give the opportunity to see a "preview" of the scenes and how
they will look when finished, enabling the animators to correct and improve upon them without
having to complete them first. This can be considered a digital form of pencil testing.
TV Show Examples:
Regular Show
Regular Show is an American animated television series created by J. G. Quintel for Cartoon
Network. The series revolves around the lives of two friends, a Blue Jay named Mordecai and a
raccoon named Rigby, both employed as groundskeepers at a park. Their usual attempts to slack off
often lead to surreal misadventures that are either over the top or supernatural. The show's tagline,
"It's anything but", alludes to this. The series is produced by Cartoon Network Studios. Although the
series does not air on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block and is rated TV-PG, it is considered more
of an adult animated sitcom rather than a children's cartoon.
Plot
Two 23-year-old friends, a blue jay named Mordecai and a raccoon named Rigby, are employed as
groundskeepers at a park and spend their days trying to slack off and entertain themselves by any
means. This is much to the chagrin of their boss Benson and their coworker, Skips, but to the delight
of Pops. Their other coworkers, Muscle Man (an overweight green man) and High Five Ghost (a
ghost with a hand extending from the top of his head), serve as rivals to Mordecai and Rigby.
Mordecai and Rigby would later befriend a new coworker; an intern named Thomas, and slowly
helps him adjust to life working in the park. The show usually revolves around Mordecai and Rigby's
attempts to avoid work and enjoy themselves. However, they often, at times, have to pay for their
irresponsible actions, as they always get into more trouble than they thought. This typically results in
Mordecai and Rigby going through bizarre and surrealistic misadventures, many of which nearly kill
them or others around them.
Reception
Regular Show became an instant hit with its first and second seasons on Monday nights, ranking #1
in its time period among all key boy demos across all of television according to Nielsen Media
Research.
Regular Show has received general acclaim from critics and audiences. Devin D. O'Leary of
Alibi.com's "Idiot Box" column gave the show a favorable review, saying that its theme felt like a
workplace sitcom and that the "parade of super-strange characters" added to the show's humor. He
compared the show to Beavis and Butt-head. PopMatters critic Chris Conaton gave the show a six-

4. out-of-ten rating, saying that it was "mildly amusing." His review praised Quintel's and Salyers' voice
acting, but thought that the humor was derivative of Beavis and Butt-Head and The Ren & Stimpy
Show. Common Sense Media reviewer Melissa Camacho said the show to be "pretty edgy for non-
Adult Swim Cartoon Network fare" due to its fantasy violence, sexual content and language but also
said that "viewers who are into creative animation will definitely appreciate the wit featured here,"
and gave it three stars out of five. Metacritic gave Regular Show a 9.0 rating, with the rank of
"universal acclaim".
Adventure Time
Adventure Time (originally titled Adventure Time with Finn & Jake) is an American animated
television series created by Pendleton Ward for Cartoon Network. The series follows the adventures
of Finn (voiced by Jeremy Shada), a 14-year-old human boy, and his best friend Jake (voiced by John
DiMaggio), a dog with magical powers to change shape and grow and shrink at will. Finn and Jake
live in the post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo, and travel the land while they adventure. Along the way,
they interact with the other main characters of the show: Princess Bubblegum (voiced by Hynden
Walch), The Ice King (voiced by Tom Kenny), and Marceline the Vampire Queen (voiced by Olivia
Olson).
Concept and creation
According to series creator Pendleton Ward, the show's style was influenced by his time at California
Institute of the Arts and his work as a storyboard artist on The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack.
He tries to include "beautiful" moments like those in Hayao Miyazaki's film My Neighbor Totoro, as
well as elements of subversive humor. The show began as a single stand-alone animated short which
ran for seven minutes. It aired in January 2007 and again as part of Frederator Studios' Random!
Cartoons on December 7, 2008. After its release, the short video became a viral hit on the internet.
Frederator Studios then pitched an Adventure Time series to Nicktoons Network, but the network
passed on it twice. The studio then approached Cartoon Network. The network said they would be
willing to produce the series if Ward could prove that the series could be expanded into a series
while maintaining elements from the original short. Ward, with help from Pat McHale and Adam
Muto, turned in a rough storyboard that featured Finn and an "oblivious" Princess Bubblegum going
on a spaghetti-supper date. However, the network was not happy with this story, and asked for
another. Ward then created an early storyboard for the episode, "The Enchiridion", which was his
attempt to emulate the style of the original short. Cartoon Network approved the first season in
September 2008, and "The Enchiridion" became the first episode to enter into production.
Production
While many cartoons are based on script pitches to network executives, Cartoon Network allowed
Adventure Time to "build their own teams organically" and communication through the use of
storyboards and animatics. Cartoon Network chief content officer Rob Sorcher explained that the
network allowed this because the company was "dealing with artists who are primarily visual
people" and by using storyboards, the writers and artists could learn and grow “by actually doing the
work.” Many of the series' writers and storyboard artists have a background in indie comics.
Pendleton Ward refers to them as "really smart, smartypants people" who are responsible for
inserting weirder and more spiritual ideas into the series during its third season.

5. In an interview with The A.V. Club, Ward explained that the writing process for the show usually
began with the writers telling each other what they had done the past week. He also said that, "a lot
of the time, if we’re really stuck, we’ll start saying everything that comes to our mind, which is
usually the worst stuff, and then someone else will think that’s terrible but it’ll give him a better idea
and the ball just starts rolling like that." Ward also revealed that a major inspiration for the series is
the fantasy, role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons. Before the series aired, many of the writers
were avid fans of the game. However, because of the busy schedule that comes with writing and
coordinating a television series, they no longer had time to actively play the game. Ward explained
that, because the writers were too busy, they would attempt to write stories that they would "want
to be playing D&D with."
After the writers pitch the stories, the ideas are compiled onto a "two-to-three" page outline that
contain "the important beats". The episodes are then handed off to storyboard artists, who are
given a week to "thumbnail a storyboard" and fill in the details. Ward and his creative directors then
review the storyboard and make notes. The storyboard artists are then given another week to
implement the notes and clean up the episode. Ward noted that it takes about nine months for a
single episode to be created. According to character designer Andy Ristaino, almost all of the
animation in Adventure Time is hand drawn. There have been elements of episodes that were not
hand-drawn, such as the second season entry "Guardians of Sunshine", which was partially rendered
in 3-D to emulate a video game. For the computer-generated segment in "Guardians of Sunshine",
the series asked animator Ke Jiang for assistance; he single-handedly "modeled, rigged and
animated" the sequence. A future episode, entitled "A Glitch is a Glitch" was written and directed by
Irish film maker & writer David O'Reilly, and it will feature his distinct 3-D animation.
Ward described the show as a "dark comedy"; he said "dark comedies are my favorite, because I
love that feeling – being happy and scared at the same time. It's my favorite way to feel – when I'm
on the edge of my seat but I'm happy, that sense of conflicting emotions. And there's a lot of that in
the show, I think."Executive producer Fred Seibert compares the show's animation style to that of
Felix the Cat and various Max Fleischer cartoons, but says that its world is also equally inspired by
Dungeons and Dragons and video games. Ward intends the show's world to have a certain physical
logic instead of "cartoony slapstick"; even though magic exists in the story, the show's writers try to
create an internal consistency in how the characters interact with the world. The series is rated TV-
PG. Ward, in an interview, has said that he does not want to push the show's PG rating. He
explained, "I’ve never really even thought about the rating. [...] we don’t like stuff that’s overly
gross. We like cute stuff and nice things".
Reception
Ratings
Since its debut, Adventure Time has been a ratings success for Cartoon Network. The show first
premiered on April 5, 2010 and was watched by 2.5 million viewers. The episode was a ratings
smash; according to a press release sent out by Cartoon Network, the episode's timeslot saw triple
digit percentage increases from the time period of the previous year. For instance, the entry was
viewed by 1.661 million kids aged 2–11, which marked a 110 percent increase from the previous
year. Furthermore, it was watched by 837,000 kids aged 9–14, which saw a 239 percent increase.
The second season premiere, "It Came From the Nightosphere", marked a decline from the first
season premiere, but it marked an increase from the first season finale, which was watched by only
1.77 million viewers. "It Came from the Nightospere" also marked gains when compared to the same
timeslot a year prior; for instance, 732,000 kids aged 6–11 watched the episode, an increase by 35
percent when compared to the previous year. As the show has gone on, its ratings have continued to

6. grow. The third season debut was watched by a total of 2.686 million viewers, and the fourth season
premiere was watched by 2.655 million. The fifth season premiere, "Finn the Human"/"Jake the
Dog", was watched by 3.435. This makes it the highest-rated premiere for any season of Adventure
Time. On November 14, 2012, it was reported that the shows averages roughly 3.3 million viewers
an episode. According to the Nielsen ratings, the show consistently ranks first in its timeslot among
boys aged 2 to 14.
Reviews
The show has received positive reviews from critics and has developed a cult following among
teenagers and adults; Adventure Time has a passionate audience of both children and adults "who
are drawn to the show’s silly humor, imaginative stories, and richly populated world." Television
critic Robert Lloyd, in an article for the LA Times, said that the series was a good companion piece
"to the network's [then] currently airing Chowder and The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack."
Furthermore, he complimented the setting and compared the series to Chowder and The Marvelous
Misadventures of Flapjack, noting that each take "place in a fantastical land peopled with strange,
somewhat disturbing characters and has at its center a young male person or person-like thing
making his way in that world with the help of unusual, not always reliable, mentors." He went on to
write that the show is "not unlike CN's earlier Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, about a boy and
his imaginary friend, though darker and stranger and even less connected to the world as we know
it." Lloyd also compared it to "the sort of cartoons they made when cartoons themselves were young
and delighted in bringing all things to rubbery life."
Mike LeChevallier of Slate magazine award the third and fourth seasons of the show four stars out of
five. In a review of the third season, LeChevallier wrote that the series "scores relatively high marks
for storytelling, artwork, music, voice acting, and realization with its neatly wrapped, 11-minute
packages of multicolored awesomeness." He further complimented the show because he felt that "it
scarcely appears to be trying too hard to attract attention, yet it does just that". He did note that
"the short-form format leaves some emotional substance to be desired", although he noted this was
inevitable for a series with such short episodes. In a review of season four LeChevallier positively
complimented the show for "growing up" with its characters, and that "the show's dialogue is
among the best of any current animated series." He concluded that the series possesses "strikingly
few faults".
The A.V. Club reviewer Zack Handlen summed Adventure Time up as "a terrific show, and it fits
beautifully in that gray area between kid and adult entertainment in a way that manages to satisfy
both a desire for sophisticated (i.e., weird) writing and plain old silliness. This is basically what would
happen if you asked a bunch of 12-year-olds to make a cartoon, only it’s the best possible version of
that, like if all the 12-year-olds were super geniuses and some of them were Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
and the Marx Brothers." Robert Mclaughlin of Den of Geek wrote that Adventure Time "is the first
cartoon in a long time that is pure imagination". He heavily complimented the show for "its non-
reliance on continually referencing pop culture [...] and the general outlook is positive and fun." Eric
Kohn of IndieWire said that the show "represents the progress of [cartoon] medium" in the current
decade. Kohn also enjoyed the way the show not only revels in "random, frequently adorable and
effusive" aspects, but also "toys with an incredibly sad subtext". Entertainment Weekly named
Adventure Time #20 on their The 25 Greatest Animated Series Ever list.
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. series of theatrical cartoon shorts. It was produced from 1930 to
1969 during the Golden Age of American animation, alongside Warner Bros.' other theatrical

7. cartoon series, Merrie Melodies. The series featured some of the most famous cartoon characters in
the history of animation, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and Tweety Bird among many
others. The characters themselves are commonly referred to as the "Looney Tunes." The name
Looney Tunes is a variation on Silly Symphonies, the name of Walt Disney's concurrent series of
music-based cartoon shorts. From 1942 until 1969, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies were the
most popular cartoon shorts in theaters, exceeding Disney and other popular competitors.
Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, Looney Tunes has become a worldwide
media franchise, spawning several television series, films, comics, music albums, video games and
amusement park rides. Many of the characters have made and continue to make cameo
appearances in various other television shows, films and advertisements. The most popular Looney
Tunes character, Bugs Bunny, is regarded as a cultural icon and has appeared in more films than any
other cartoon character. Several Looney Tunes shorts are regarded as some of the greatest
animated cartoons of all time. Many of the shorts were nominated for the Academy Award for Best
Animated Short Film, with two of them winning the award (For Scent-imental Reasons and Knighty
Knight Bugs), and the short Porky in Wackyland has been inducted into the National Film Registry of
the Library of Congress.
In the beginning both Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies drew their storylines from Warner's vast
music library. From 1934 to 1943, Merrie Melodies were produced in color and Looney Tunes in black
and white. After 1943, however, both series were produced in color and became virtually
indistinguishable, with the only stylistic difference being in the variation between the opening theme
music and titles. Both series also made use of the various Warner Bros. cartoon characters. By 1937,
the theme music for Looney Tunes was "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" by Cliff Friend and Dave
Franklin; the theme music for Merrie Melodies was an adaptation of "Merrily We Roll Along" by
Charles Tobias, Murray Mencher and Eddie Cantor.