Making drawn animation

Before we get started, let me just establish that this isn't a comprehensive guide; there's plenty of real information out there on the Internet for all you animation students. No, this is a little look at various stages of production, which will (hopefully) provide an insight into how certain Cosgrove Hall shows were created in the past. I say "in the past", because some things just aren't done this way anymore, but that's progress, right?

Starting off

You may think that cartoons spontaneously appear out of the nostrils of magic pixies, but surprisingly this is not the case. In fact, when a company decides it wants to make a new show, loads of work is done before anything even gets near your TV screen. Initially, different ideas are chucked around. What sort of show will it be? A show for under-fives about magic shoes? A drama about sentient meat? The possibilities are endless. Once a basic idea has been decided upon, characters are created and designed, and the show's main premises are established. Material produced at this stage is called concept art. Below, you can see a selection of conceptual artwork from Count Duckula.

Well, it's not hard to see how these characters changed! Early Duckula looks very much like Daffy Duck (check out that "boxer" stance), which is how he was in the Dangermouse episodes. Igor and Nanny both look, well, ugly. Compared to these early versions, the final character designs are much "cleaner", more streamlined and, importantly, more friendly-looking. But you can see many of the features of the final character designs present even at this stage.

The Pilot

If an idea proves popular enough, a pilot episode will be made. Every TV series has a pilot, but they're very rarely seen by the public. They're generally made to pitch to networks and test audiences of restless kids. If the network decides that a sufficiant amount of cash can be made from merchandising, and the electrodes that are wired into the children's cerebra beforehand register that they're happy at the end of the test screening, production can begin. Woo!

Design

When a show is commissioned, an overall "feel" has to be established, i.e. how the backgrounds are rendered, whether it has a dark or light colour palette, whether the characters will be stylized or realistic etc. These issues have usually already been tackled at the pilot stage, but now everything needs to be finalized. The animators are issued with model sheets, which show recurring props and characters from different angles and, for characters, with different expressions. These ensure that everything is drawn consistently by all the animators who work on the show. (In reality, though, every animator has their own quirky style, and on early Cosgrove Hall shows it's easy to see where one animator's sequence ends and another one's begins. You can also spot the same animators from show to show. No, try it, it's fun.) Below, you can see a selection of model sheets from Victor & Hugo.

Victor's model sheet here shows a "turnaround", a basic model sheet requirement which enables the animators to draw a character from almost any angle. Hugo's sheet shows some construction guidelines, mainly dealing with proportion (just as horses are measured in hands, cartoon characters are measured in head height.) Model sheets will also often contain notes about how NOT to draw certain features, as you can see in the Nanny and Duckula sheets below.

Colour models are also created, giving paint references for the cel painters. Of course, hardly anyone uses hand-painted cels these days, but the same palette referencing holds true for digitally coloured cartoons.

Scripts

While the designers are getting on with the, er, designing, the writers are off creating an entire series' worth of story outlines, detailing the basic plot of each episode. Once enough outlines have been written and approved, they can be turned into scripts. Shows like "The Simpsons" have an entire army of scriptwriting drones, but back in the days of yore at Cosgrove Hall, they had about two (I believe there are more now!). At any rate, as each script is completed, designers can be briefed on props, backgrounds and original characters which need to be created for that story. These requirements obviously change from episode to episode, and are supplemental to the basic model sheets.

On to page 2 for more incredible learning!