Research 

Creation and Development of Regular Show

Kelsey and I are strongly referencing the animation style and storytelling of the Regular show. So before we start planning how we’re going to do this, I looked into how it is created.
 

Interview: Regular Show Creator J.G. Quintel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiBa_KauXXg&ab_channel=hottopic

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In the video, there is a quick shot of the basic break down of each episode. This showed some information I already knew from my previous studies, however, the wording and break down was far clearer than most other break downs I've seen.

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• Act 1. 25%

  • Start, a character in a state of equilibrium.

  • Then Define their goal

  • Eg – they want/need/is denied something.

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• Act 2. 50% 

  • They start their journey to solve this problem.

  • This starts small escalates towards the climax.

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• Act 3. 25% 

  • The Story Climaxes.

  • The Character Solves the problem.

  • Return to a new state of equilibrium.

 

Notes:

• Storyboarding on post-its while brainstorming (The whole story is 400-500 post-its)

• Post-its get blown up, cleaned up, and form a storyboard

What programs are shows like The Regular Show made with?:

 https://www.reddit.com/r/animation/comments/1186qz/what_programs_are_shows_like_the_regular_show/

"The regular show specifically is animated by Saerom studios in Korea. And is pretty much all hand-drawn on paper, then scanned in, with the backgrounds look like watercolors to me.

But the two most popular programs for 2D animation are Flash and Toon Boom. A lot of crappier looking animated shows are done in Flash (Usually the ones that look like paper cut-outs) but this is definitely a symptom more of the amount of effort or budget that goes into the shows and not the program. Motor City is probably one of the best looking 2D shows on television and it's mostly all Flash animation (With 3D stuff for the cars and shit obviously)

Toon Boom is more commonly used in movies then TV shows, a lot of the Disney direct sequels were done in Toon Boom, but it still shows up in tv shows too. King of the Hill, Family Guy, Kim Possible, etc were all done in Toon Boom.

If you're asking specifically cause you want to get into animating, then honestly the program isn't that important. Your skill as an artist is far more pressing". -Shambrook

Notes:

• ToonBoom does look to be the best software for what I am wanting to create. However, it comes with a hefty price tag that I cannot afford. Since I have access to Adobe Flash currently, I may have to work with that less hefty monthly price instead. Although I do own Clip Studios Pro, I have very little experience with animating with it. It will probably be a good idea to experiment with both before settling on a final decision.

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I'm J.G. Quintel, creator of Regular Show, and This Is How I Work:

https://lifehacker.com/im-j-g-quintel-creator-of-regular-show-and-this-is-h-5993992

 

Notes:

• Not much to note that I haven’t already researched. Seems to always start work on paper.

• Just getting the ideas of his head a quickly as possible? Something I need to get good at.

 

Did You Know Animation REGULAR SHOW [RebelTaxi]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6TqgTOTnII&ab_channel=RebelTaxi

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Notes:

• More interesting than helping me plan a pipeline. A fun watch though.

• It shows the development of the creator's ideas and how designs could be brought back. In this video, you also see designs of the character "Josh" from his other show "Close Enough"

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Regular Show -From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_Show#Production 

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“Each episode of Regular Show takes about nine months to complete. Quintel and his 35-member team develop each episode at Cartoon Network Studios in Burbank, California. The script is illustrated in rough hand-drawn images, known as storyboards. The storyboards are then animated and mixed with the corresponding dialogue to create the animatic, which is then sent to be approved by the network. The show's assets (backgrounds, character designs, props) are then assembled to be sent to Saerom Animation in South Korea, where the actual animation production of the episode is performed. When finished, the episode is sent to Sabre Media Studios back in California. Music and sound effects are created and the final episode is mixed and completed. The process allows the production team to work concurrently on dozens of episodes at different stages of production.

Although most modern animation has switched to hybrid methods such as the Cintiq, Regular Show has been described as "far more low-fi", and is animated traditionally by hand using paper which is then digitally composited and painted with digital ink and paint. Although Cintiqs were initially optioned to be used for the program, Quintel has stated that he has felt more comfortable working on paper, considering it to be more organic and more representative of each artist's individual style. Board artist Calvin Wong said, "the tools of the trade as being pencils, pens, white-out, and occasionally lightboxes and electric erasers”

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Notes:

• What I’m taking from this, is each frame is digitally hand-drawn. From my own experience with flash, that’s normally what I would tend to do. However, I want to make the animation cleaner and less janky. I have an idea to combat this. Although each frame would be hand-drawn, certain aspects would be frequently copied and pasted- for example, head shapes and props. Basically just not re-drawing what doesn’t need to be amended.

Searched “saerom animation software” Result:  Pegs'n Co -From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegs%27n_Co

“Pegs'n Co was a French software company that developed a traditional animation software package called Pegs, and is now part of Canadian company Toon Boom Animation. It was based in Paris, France. Pegs was used for several animated feature films, shorts, and television series, and it powered the French animation industry until the 2000s as it was used by studios like Millimages, Alphanim, and Animage, but it was also used by studios in other countries, most notably Saerom Animation, CineGroupe, and Mike Young Productions. In total, Pegs was used by over 100 studios worldwide.”
 

Notes:

• This just confirms that Toonboom Really is the bee's knees when it comes to this stuff. Damn it. I wish I could afford this, it seems it would be extremely helpful.

• Oh well, I’ll just have to make this work.

What is Pegs?

Peg, Pivot and Exposure:

https://www.toonboom.com/resources/video-tutorials/video/peg-pivot-and-exposure

https://www.toonboom.com/resources/video-tutorials/video/animate-mode-and-animation 

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Notes:

• From what I can gather from these videos is they use a function which I ‘believe’ there is a similar one of in Adobe Flash – which would be ideal.

 

Mysteries of the Bone Tool
https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2016/05/18/mysteries-of-the-bone-tool.html#gs.gxbd3i

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Notes: 

• Within Flash, there is the bone tool. It does have some similarities to the peg tool – however it doesn’t seem as clean and tidy as the peg tools in Toonboom. However, I will probably have to make do if I want to mimic this type of animation style. I have a feeling I will be using a mixture of the bone tool, my reuse assets idea, and breaking stuff until it works.