Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Hand-drawn animation Television production |
Founded | March 20, 1991 in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Founder | Gregg Vanzo Nikki Vanzo |
Headquarters | 615 Allen Avenue Glendale, California 91201, U.S. |
Key people |
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Divisions | Rough Draft Korea Rough Draft Feature Animation |
Website | roughdraftstudios |
Rough Draft Studios, Inc. is an American animation production studio based in Glendale, California, [1] with a second studio in Glendale [2] and its sister studio Rough Draft Korea located in Seoul, South Korea. [3] The studio was founded in Van Nuys, Los Angeles by Gregg Vanzo in 1991.
Rough Draft Studios and its divisions have produced specials, commercials and direct-to-video work for companies such as Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios, 20th Television Animation, MTV Animation, Film Roman, Disney Television Animation and Nickelodeon Animation Studio.
Rough Draft Studios was founded in a Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California garage by Gregg and Nikki Vanzo. While working on The Ren & Stimpy Show , Nikki approached John Kricfalusi, creator of The Ren & Stimpy Show, about taking the animation to Korea. [4] Nikki founded and runs Rough Draft Korea. [4]
After working on The Ren & Stimpy Show, many other shows requested the assistance of Rough Draft Korea in animation and ink & paint. In 1992, Rough Draft Studios had produced animation for its first feature film, FernGully: The Last Rainforest . In the same year, the studio began producing animation for The Simpsons and then for Beavis and Butt-Head in 1993. Also in 1993, Gregg's brother Scott Vanzo was brought on board. Rough Draft Korea quickly built a strong portfolio in the animation business with shows like their first series produced outside of South Korea The Maxx in 1995, which was nominated for an Annie Award. [5] Claudia Katz, who had joined Rough Draft Studios in 1994 to produce The Maxx, and Rich Moore, joining in 1995 after having worked with Gregg on The Simpsons, completed the core of a Rough Draft Studios which would help "drive the cartoon boom of the late ‘90s". [6] It was also in 1995 that Rough Draft Studios moved to Glendale, California, where they enjoyed their total success. Rough Draft would then later produce animation for shows like Futurama , Napoleon Dynamite , Sit Down, Shut Up , Drawn Together , Baby Blues , and Disenchantment , while its sister studio in South Korea would also produce animation for shows such as SpongeBob SquarePants , Amphibia , Dexter's Laboratory , The Powerpuff Girls , Samurai Jack , Phineas and Ferb , Rocko's Modern Life , The Angry Beavers , Star vs. the Forces of Evil , Family Guy , The Critic , Dilbert , Adventure Time , Sheep in the Big City , Dragon Tales , Gravity Falls , Steven Universe , The Owl House , and King of the Hill . Rough Draft and its divisions would also contribute to feature films based on the shows they worked on such as Beavis and Butt-Head Do America , The Powerpuff Girls Movie , The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie , The Simpsons Movie , and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water .
Rough Draft Studios is known for its blending of 2-D with computer animation, or non-photorealistic rendering which it first used on The Maxx and further utilized with Matt Groening's projects like Futurama, The Simpsons Movie and Disenchantment.
Most projects produced by Rough Draft Studios, Inc. in Glendale, California are also animated overseas by Rough Draft Korea Co., Ltd. in Seoul, South Korea.
Show | Year(s) | Client | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1990s | |||
The Maxx | 1995 | MTV Animation | |
Futurama | 1999–2003; 2008–2013; 2023–present [7] | The Curiosity Company 20th Television Animation [lower-alpha 1] | |
2000s | |||
Baby Blues | 2000 | Warner Bros. Animation | 5 episodes |
Star Wars: Clone Wars | 2003–2005 | Lucasfilm Cartoon Network Studios | |
Drawn Together | 2004–2007 | Double-Hemm Productions Comedy Partners | |
Korgoth of Barbaria | 2006 | Williams Street | TV pilot |
Sit Down Shut Up! | 2009 | Adelaide Productions 20th Century Fox Television | |
2010s | |||
Good Vibes | 2011 | Rough House Pictures Warner Horizon Television MTV Production Development | "Pilot" [8] |
Napoleon Dynamite | 2012 | Hess Films Scully Productions 20th Century Fox Television | |
Full English | Two Brothers Pictures | ||
Coffin Dodgers | 2013 | Williams Street | TV pilot |
Clash-a-Rama | 2014–2018 | Tolerable Entertainment Supercell | Web series |
Tarantula | 2017 | Rough House Pictures Solid Brass Studio T | |
Disenchantment | 2018–2023 | The ULULU Company Netflix | [9] |
2020s | |||
Fired on Mars | 2023–present | Pat & Mike Productions NN Productions | [10] |
Title | Year | Client | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1990s | |||
The Thief and the Cobbler | 1992 | The Completion Bond Company | ink-and-paint |
RoboCop 3 | 1993 | Orion Pictures | "Johnny Rehab" commercial animation |
2000s | |||
The Whizzard of Ow | 2003 | Warner Bros. Animation | theatrical short |
Duck Dodgers: Attack of the Drones | 2004 | theatrical short produced in 2003 | |
Futurama: Bender's Big Score | 2007 | The Curiosity Company 20th Century Fox Television [lower-alpha 1] | direct-to-video |
Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs | 2008 | ||
Futurama: Bender's Game | |||
The Pink Panther 2 | 2009 | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Columbia Pictures | opening title sequence only |
Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder | The Curiosity Company 20th Century Fox Television [lower-alpha 1] | direct-to-video | |
2010s | |||
How Murray Saved Christmas | 2014 | Universal Television | TV special |
2020s | |||
King Star King!/!/!/ [11] | 2023 | Williams Street | TV special |
Rough Draft Korea, RDS' sister studio based in Seoul, South Korea, has produced animation for the following series, features and specials:
The Ren & Stimpy Show, commonly referred to as simply Ren & Stimpy, is an American comedy animated television series created by Canadian animator John Kricfalusi for Nickelodeon. Originally produced by Spümcø, the series aired from August 11, 1991, to December 16, 1995, spanning a total of five seasons and 52 episodes. The series follows the misadventures of Ren Höek, an emotionally unstable and psychopathic chihuahua dog; and Stimpy, a good-natured and dimwitted Manx cat. It is the third cartoon to be aired of the original three Nickelodeon animated series known as "Nicktoons", alongside Doug and Rugrats, and is considered to be one of the progenitor series of the brand.
Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company and later revived by Comedy Central, and then Hulu. The series follows the adventures of slacker Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1,000 years and revived on December 31, 2999. Fry finds work at the interplanetary delivery company Planet Express, working alongside one-eyed mutant Leela and robot Bender. The series was envisioned by Groening in the mid-1990s while working on The Simpsons; he brought David X. Cohen aboard to develop storylines and characters to pitch the show to Fox.
Nicktoons is a collective name used by Nickelodeon for their original animated series. All Nicktoons are produced partly at the Nickelodeon Animation Studio and list Nickelodeon's parent company in their copyright bylines.
"Homer the Heretic" is the third episode of the fourth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 8, 1992. In the episode, Homer decides to forgo going to church and has an excellent time staying home. His behavior quickly attracts the wrath of God, who visits him in a dream. The chalkboard gag from this episode was a reference to the previous episode "A Streetcar Named Marge", which had made controversial references to New Orleans.
VirtualMagic Animation, Inc. was an American traditional animation studio and software development company based out of Los Angeles, California. The studio produced animation for television series and commercials, and provided ink and paint services to animated TV series such as The Ren and Stimpy Show and The Simpsons and films such as We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story. Its software division was best known for developing USAnimation, a high-end software package designed to facilitate the traditional animation process using digital technologies.
Robert Frank Camp is an American animator, writer, cartoonist, comic book artist, storyboard artist, director, and producer. He has been nominated for two Emmys, a CableACE Award, and an Annie Award for his work on The Ren & Stimpy Show.
Ronald P. Hughart is an American animator, director, and storyboard artist. He has worked on several shows, including The Ren & Stimpy Show, Family Dog, Futurama and American Dad!. He also worked on Ren & Stimpy as a layout supervisor and timing director. Hughart currently works on American Dad! as co-supervising director with Brent Woods.
Gregg Vanzo is an American animator. He has worked on several shows, including The Simpsons and Futurama. He is also the founder of Rough Draft Studios.
Chris Sauvé is a Canadian animator. He has done some directing, but works primarily as an animator. He has worked on several television shows and films.
"Stimpy's Cartoon Show" is the 7th episode of the third season of The Ren & Stimpy Show that originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on January 8, 1994.
Claudia Katz is an American animation producer. Katz is a partner and Executive Vice President of Rough Draft Studios.
Events in 1960 in animation.
Events in 1979 in animation.
Events in 1961 in animation.
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Events in 1966 in animation.
Lynne Rae Naylor is a Canadian animator, artist, designer, director, and producer for television. She is best known for co-creating DreamWorks' The Mighty Ones, co-founding the animation studio Spümcø with John Kricfalusi, Bob Camp, and Jim Smith, and co-developing The Ren & Stimpy Show for Nickelodeon. She also worked on Batman: The Animated Series, The Powerpuff Girls, Samurai Jack, Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, My Life as a Teenage Robot, and Wander Over Yonder.
Events in 1971 in animation.