{"id":22363,"date":"2020-01-27T11:16:56","date_gmt":"2020-01-27T11:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/propstore.com\/?p=22363"},"modified":"2020-04-14T10:32:42","modified_gmt":"2020-04-14T10:32:42","slug":"simpsonsblog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/propstore.com\/blog\/simpsonsblog\/","title":{"rendered":"SPRINGFIELD CALLING: Storyboarding The Simpsons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\" class=\"p-l article__paragraph article__paragraph--big\"><strong>\u201cIn this world nothing can be said to be certain,\u201d so the saying goes, \u201cexcept death, taxes and the renewal of The Simpsons.\u201d Well, that might as well be how the saying goes. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p-r article__paragraph\"><!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><em><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-19665 aligncenter article__image\" src=\"https:\/\/content.propstore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/23004235\/125276_Five-Hand-Drawn-Pages-Homer-SC-20_3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"682\" height=\"486\" \/><\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p-r article__paragraph\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-r article__paragraph\">At the time of writing, Fox\u2019s hit primetime animated comedy has reached its 31<sup>st<\/sup> season, with Season 32 due to start airing this Fall. Not only is it America\u2019s longest-running sitcom, it is also the longest-running scripted primetime series, having outlasted <em>Gunsmoke<\/em>, which sauntered off into the sunset during Season 29 in 1961. Yet, during its 30 years of entertaining millions worldwide, Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie haven\u2019t aged a day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-r article__paragraph\">Almost as ageless is the process by which the show is made. Unlike those scrappy, quick-to-produce young bucks that came along in the \u201990s, such as <em>South Park<\/em> and much of Adult Swim\u2019s output, <em>The Simpsons<\/em> has always stuck to the same detailed, multi-staged production process that was set in stone by its forebears, such as <em>The Flintstones. <\/em>From 1989 to the present day, every episode is painstakingly developed from initial pitch to scripting, to voice recording, to storyboarding, to layout, to clean line animation (outsourced to South Korean company Akom since 1996), to final review. However, there have been some significant tweaks to that process along the way.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-r article__paragraph\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/content.propstore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/23004231\/125271_Four-Hand-Drawn-Pages-Marge-and-Homer-SC-2_4.jpg\" rel=\"gallery[london]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-15696 article__image\" src=\"https:\/\/content.propstore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/23004231\/125271_Four-Hand-Drawn-Pages-Marge-and-Homer-SC-2_4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"386\" height=\"233\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/content.propstore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/23004233\/125271_Four-Hand-Drawn-Pages-Marge-and-Homer-SC-2_5.jpg\" rel=\"gallery[london]\">\u00a0 \u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-15698 article__image\" src=\"https:\/\/content.propstore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/23004233\/125271_Four-Hand-Drawn-Pages-Marge-and-Homer-SC-2_5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"382\" height=\"322\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/content.propstore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/23004228\/93205_Hand-Drawn-Sketches-of-Homer-02_2.jpg\" rel=\"gallery[london]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-15696 article__image\" src=\"https:\/\/content.propstore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/23004228\/93205_Hand-Drawn-Sketches-of-Homer-02_2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"488\" height=\"628\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"p-r article__paragraph\">During the early days of <em>The Simpsons<\/em>, its storyboards \u2013 where the scripts first came to visual life \u2013 were hand-drawn on paper. But during the \u201990s, hand-drawn storyboards were replaced by animatics, which combined images with the voice track. At first these were edited on tape, but more recently became fully digitized, enabling them to be accessible anywhere via an online hub.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-r article__paragraph\">Another notable change was the combination of the storyboard and story reel stages. The latter involved artists working from the storyboards on small portions of each episode, adding in such details as background elements and character poses, while taking in the director\u2019s notes. But now all that happens in one fell swoop, thanks to the sophistication of digital storyboards, streamlining the progress from the start of storyboarding to the first screening of the rough cut for showrunner Al Jean and the <em>Simpsons <\/em>top brass.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-r article__paragraph\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/content.propstore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/23004230\/93227_Hand-Drawn-Sketches-of-Bart-08_4.jpg\" rel=\"gallery[london]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-15698 article__image\" src=\"https:\/\/content.propstore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/23004230\/93227_Hand-Drawn-Sketches-of-Bart-08_4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"628\" height=\"513\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"p-r article__paragraph\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-r article__paragraph\">Not that anyone could accuse the <em>Simpsons <\/em>team of taking any short cuts. After this stage, each episode goes through a lot before it\u2019s ready to air, even being printed out on old-school paper and shipped to South Korea, so the animators there have everything gathered together \u2013 layouts, exposure sheets, and so on \u2013 as reference. \u201cWhen we do character layouts [digitally], we are restricted to the field sizes of actual paper,\u201d storyboarder Luis Escobar told <em>Verve <\/em>in 1996.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-r article__paragraph\">Three full decades after the series\u2019 premiere, with no end in sight, there is something reassuring about the fact that, despite significant digitization of its process, this beloved show still has the same traditionally crafted feel it had way back in the early \u201990s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-r article__paragraph\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-r article__paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/propstore.com\/movie\/simpsons-the\/?sortType=4\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter article__image\" src=\"https:\/\/content.propstore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/23003736\/simpsonsblogbutton.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"684\" height=\"128\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Follow us on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/propstore_com\">Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PropStore\">Facebook<\/a>\u00a0to be the first to know about all current &amp; upcoming Propstore Auctions and more!<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-r article__paragraph\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.blogcounter4free.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.blogcounter4free.com\/counter.php?page=propstore.com\/blog\/simpsonsblog\/&#038;digits=4&#038;unique=0\" alt=\"blog counter\" border=\"0;\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cIn this world nothing can be said to be certain,\u201d so the saying goes, \u201cexcept death, taxes and the renewal of The Simpsons.\u201d Well, that might as well be how the saying goes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":230,"featured_media":22366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[581,722],"class_list":["post-22363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-collections","tag-artwork","tag-the-simpsons"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/propstore.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22363"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/propstore.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/propstore.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propstore.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/230"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propstore.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22363"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/propstore.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23170,"href":"https:\/\/propstore.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22363\/revisions\/23170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propstore.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/propstore.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propstore.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propstore.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}