Episode Process

[MAIKUN 262]

Why do all episodes take so long to be completed, I mean, Look at South Park, these SP episodes only took about Six days to be completed. I just wished MLP would go the South Park way, you know: The six-day production schedule before it's aired on Television.

 

But the point is: Isn't the Voice Recording the FIRST thing they do, in THEN animate it! and don't the episodes usually come out MONTHS after there finished!?! I mean why not do the SOUTH PARK way. I mean they do make episodes faster you know!

1) Scripting

2) Voice Recording

3) Animating Process

4) And voila, the episodes are OUT!

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,937]

The comparison is unfair. The reason why South Park episodes are able to be made so quickly is because of two things: The animation style and the engine they use to make it. The animation in that show is, for the most part, very simplistic. On top of that, the engine they use, from what I have heard, is insanely top-line stuff. Like, Unreal Engine for animation pretty much so animating it is probably the quickest thing in the entire show, voicing it, well, since the creators of the show seem to do at least %70 of the voices anyways, that would not take long either. 

 

I am not too sure how complex the animation is for FiM but I would assume it is much more complicated and that could explain why it takes so long. Plus there are other factors too, like the voicework of course, the writing, the timing that they have to air, that sort of thing. 

[MAIKUN 262]

And what about Family Guy or The Simpsons?

[I used to be a stranger 7,994]

It's because they're making 26 episodes per year.

 

Movies typically take two years to make, and their final working time is about two hours of movie: 2*60=120 minutes in 2 years.

 

My Little Pony seasons normally have 26 episodes and are made in under a year, which are made according to the Digital NTSC Serial: 26*(23:00) = 598 minutes in 1 year.

 

So there's one reason.

 

The distinguishing factor between My Little Pony and many other animated television programs is, as always, due to the production style. Almost every company has their own method, which can involve varying degrees of hand-drawn work (digitally drawn or traditional), which will forever be a slowdown. But the effect of spending more time on animation is always quality.

 

If you think South Park and MLP have comparable quality in terms of how much you enjoy them, fair enough; I'm not talking about that kind of quality. I'm talking about technical competence, detail, extraneous "flavor" added in, which is only afforded through extra time, extra work and extra money, which ratchets up the production scale.

 

The Simpsons for many years was drawn and then scanned and digitized. Now, the Simpsons does what Family Guy did from their beginning: entirely digitized painting and drawing. The biggest seperation between Family Guy or the Simpsons from My Little Pony or South Park is that the latter two are not made in pure digital drawing, but in a form of Flash animation, using vector sprites. This speeds up some kinds of work but slows down other, and the main draw of choosing flash is that it facilitates a certain visual look which is difficult or impossible to do otherwise.

 

All in all, the simple explanation is that My Little Pony from the very start was given a very specific designed look, which requires a certain amount of time to make to a satisfactory degree. And the degree of quality which MLP has been made to, ever since season 1, has been increasing.

Edited October 29, 2015 by Blue

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,937]

And what about Family Guy or The Simpsons?

That one, I am not sure. I am not sure on what processes they use. Haven't done much research on that specifically. Do they get episodes out incredibly fast too or something? 

[Silver Stream. 708]

I am going to be honest, I'm not familiar with what people do behind the scenes when it comes to the labor and time they put in a show. Whatever the reason as to why it takes them so long, I wouldn't ever question it. In the end, we get good fair results and a pretty d*mn great show. And I'm thankful for that. They can take all the time they need for all I care. 

 

 

Maybe they work so fast on South Park because they save time by killing a character off in nearly every episode. 

 

Writer 1: Oh hey shouldn't we spend some time on developing this character right here?

Writer 2: Naw.....OH HEY! Let's not waste too much time on that one....we can kill him off all the time for a great gag

Writer 3: Brilliant! What should we name him? 

Writer 1: KENNY!

Writer 2: What should he look like?

Writer 3: Who gives a f*ck? Give him eyes and cover the rest

 

(this is me joking btw. I'm sure they put a lot of work in South Park. The freaking show is great and has a thing for great detail) 

Edited October 29, 2015 by Princess Sunset

[Jeric 46,867]

Many many steps missing in the OP. Trey Parker and Matt Stone have fewer approval processes to go through. Here is Pony.

 

1. Hiring

2. Writing Summit & Assignments

3. Scripts written (lyrics if needed)

4. Revisions to scripts

5. Hasbro Approval

6. Boarding

7. Hasbro Approval

8. Acting and Singing

9. Animatics

10. Animation

11. Animation Revisions

12. Hasbro approval

 

Scoring is in there too but is more nebulous depending on the planning ... and one ep may be stuck in several revisions while another catches up. There is a BronyCon panel on this process that you should check out. Big Jim is very transparent on the process.

 

Then you enter marketing and setting an air date that varies. ... something that Simpsons and South Park have don't worry about as much.

 

Season Six already has stuff recorded now

And South Park has far more reused assets than Pony. >.<

[Simon 4,557]

The two types of cartoons simply aren't comparable, they have entirely different goals and reasons for existing.

 

Shows like Simpsons, South Park, etc... they focus on social commentary, so the purpose behind the show necessitates a heavily rushed process... after all, nobody wants to see social commentary on something that happened in politics a year and half before.  

 

Because of this, they do things like using the same actors for a number of roles instead of doing casting for parts, re-using a ton of animation assets, having a simplistic animation design, having a significantly rougher script with far less editing passes, having a repetitive score, etc

 

I mean just take a look at the list from a Simpsons wiki of roles that Dan Castellaneta has played on the Simpsons:

 

 

Homer Simpson

Abraham Simpson

Krusty the Clown

Sideshow Mel

Groundskeeper Willie

Barney Gumble

Joe Quimby

Itchy

Kodos

Hans Moleman

Louie

Frankie the Squealer

Squeaky-Voiced Teen/Jeremy Freedman

The Yes Guy

Santa's Little Helper

Snowball II

Snowball V

Hiram Simpson

Lugash

Charlie

Freddy Quimby

Professor Huntington

Ozmodiar

Poochie

Gary

Justin

Capital City Goofball

Blue-haired Lawyer

Kenny Loggins

Baron Von Kiss-A-Lot

Wino

Rich Texan

Sam

Larry

Gil Gunderson

Roddy McDonut

Lenin

Mojo the Helper Monkey

Ernie

Rudy

Postmaster Bill

Marty

Captain Lance Murdock

Fantastic Dan

Don Castellaneta

Alfred E. Neuman

Jimmy the Carriage Driver

Fernando Vidal

Señor Ding Dong

Jimmy the Snitch

Artie Ziff

Aristotle Amadopolis (in Homer at the Bat)

Arthur Miller

Otis

Angelo

Paddy

Ultrahouse 3000 (standard voice and Dennis Miller voice)

Kozlov

Pete

Chief O'Hara

Kaiser Wilhelm

Rabbi Hyman Krustofski

Devil

Diego

Dr. Bettleheim

John Armstrong

Mr. Teeny

Stage Manager

Mayor's Aide

Multi-eyed squirrel

Man Underneath Bowling Alley

Panicky Man

EPA Official

Kissing Cop

Bear

Boy on Phone

NSA Worker

Officer

Dinner Theater Actor

Screamatorium Repair Guy

Fan Man

Adam

Himself

Maggie Simpson

Oscar the Grouch

Big Bird

Miss Piggy

Tom Hanks (character)

Mary Spuckler

WALL·E

Mona Simpson

Abbie Simpson

Fred Flintstone

 

He's had close to 100 parts with varying degrees of involvement in the episode, and that's not because he wants to see how many voices he can do.  It's because casting is too slow of a process, so they only involve guests on episodes planned further in advance.

 

Comparing Simpsons and Pony in terms of animation process is like trying to compare a Soap Opera with a Primetime Drama.  Sure, the Soap Opera can put out 5 episodes a week versus a couple dozen episodes a year from the primetime show, but that doesn't mean it's because the soap opera group is so much superior in their work.  It's because the shows simply have two entirely different focuses and purposes for existing.

 

Also keep in mind that while the process is longer, the end result isn't much different.  Simpsons gets 22 episodes a year, we get 26... so we're actually getting more.  The difference is that Simpsons process puts together one episode after the other where Pony works in groups... sure you have one episode taking over a year to be completed, but you have a ton of writers and animators working on episodes at the same time so they still put out just as many episodes for us.  The only difference is that they aren't focusing on current events (since it would make no sense for Pony) so they can have a much more refined process.

[MAIKUN 262]

So what about SpongeBob, The Fairly OddParents & Archer? And Canadian animated TV shows too!

Edited October 29, 2015 by MAIKUN

[Marimo 555]

In an interview, Spongebob takes 10-11 months of work. I imagine Fairly Odd Parents shouldn't be much different. It also takes 10 months to do a season of Archer.

Edited October 29, 2015 by Marimo

[MAIKUN 262]

Wait did you just say "Reused assets"?

[Marimo 555]

Wait did you just say "Reused assets"?

I don't know if you're talking to me or not, but no. I don't know why you'd asked someone what they said because this isn't a real life conversation using just words, this is a forum. Just Ctrl+F to find if someone said those words.