Rough Draft Studios, Inc. is an American animation production studio based in

Glendale, California Glendale is a city in the San Fernando Valley and Verdugo Mountains regions of Los Angeles County, California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents ac ...

, with a second studio in Glendale and its sister studio Rough Draft Korea located in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the Capital city, capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the North Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. The studio was founded in

Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California Van Nuys () is a neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Home to Van Nuys Airport and the Van Nuys City Hall, Valley Municipal Building, it is the most populous neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. ...

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 Cartoon Network Studios is an American animation studio owned by the Warner Bros. Television Studios division of Warner Bros., a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. The studio is the production arm of Cartoon Network, and started operatin ...

20th Television Animation 20th Television Animation (formerly Fox Television Animation) is an American animation studio that creates, develops and produces adult animated television series and specials. It is a unit of Disney Television Studios, a subsidiary of Walt Disne ...

Nickelodeon Animation Studio Nickelodeon Animation Studio is an American animation studio owned by Paramount Global. It has created many original television programs for Nickelodeon, such as ''SpongeBob SquarePants'', ''The Fairly OddParents'', ''Rugrats'' and ''Avatar: The ...

, MTV Animation,

Film Roman Film Roman, LLC is an American independent animation studio currently based in Woodland Hills, California and formerly in Burbank. It was previously owned by Starz Inc., which is now a division of Lionsgate, and later by Waterman Entertainme ...

, and Disney Television Animation.

Founding

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 ''The Ren & Stimpy Show'' (also known as ''Ren & Stimpy'') is an American animated television series created by Canadian animator John Kricfalusi. Originally produced by Spümcø for Nickelodeon, the series aired from August 11, 1991, to Dec ...

'', Nikki approached John Kricfalusi, creator of ''The Ren & Stimpy Show'', about taking the animation to Korea. Nikki founded and runs Rough Draft Korea.

Growth in business

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 ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer Simpson, Homer, Marge ...

'' 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

'' The Maxx'' in 1995, which was nominated for an

Annie Award The Annie Awards are accolades which the Los Angeles branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood, has presented each year since 1972 to recognize excellence in animation shown in cinema and television. Originally d ...

Claudia Katz Claudia Katz is an American animation producer. Katz is a partner and Executive Vice President of Rough Draft Studios. Life Katz is a graduate of Franklin & Marshall College Class of 1988. Katz is Jewish. In 1994, Katz joined Rough Draft Stu ...

, who had joined Rough Draft Studios in 1994 to produce ''The Maxx'', and

Rich Moore Rich Moore is an American film and television animation director, screenwriter and voice actor. He has directed the films '' Wreck-It Ralph'' (2012) and co-directed '' Zootopia'' (2016) and '' Ralph Breaks the Internet'' (2018) for Walt Dis ...

, 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". 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 ''Napoleon Dynamite'' is a 2004 American comedy film produced by Jeremy Coon, Chris Wyatt and Sean Covel, written by Jared and Jerusha Hess and directed by Jared Hess. The film stars Jon Heder in the role of the titular character, a nerdy high- ...

'', '' Sit Down, Shut Up'', ''

Drawn Together ''Drawn Together'' is an American adult animated sitcom created by Dave Jeser and Matt Silverstein and premiered on Comedy Central on October 27, 2004. The series is a parody of ''The Surreal Life'' and follows the misadventures of the housemat ...

'', '' Baby Blues'', and ''

Disenchantment In social science, disenchantment (german: Entzauberung) is the cultural rationalization and devaluation of religion apparent in modern society. The term was borrowed from Friedrich Schiller by Max Weber to describe the character of a modern ...

'', while its sister studio in

would also produce animation for shows such as ''

SpongeBob SquarePants ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American Animated series, animated Television comedy, comedy Television show, television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It ...

'', '' Amphibia'', ''

Dexter's Laboratory ''Dexter's Laboratory'' is an American animated television series created by Genndy Tartakovsky for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution. It follows Dexter, a short, enthusiastic boy-genius with a h ...

'', ''

The Powerpuff Girls ''The Powerpuff Girls'' is an American superhero animated television series created by animator Craig McCracken and produced by Hanna-Barbera (later Cartoon Network Studios) for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic T ...

'', '' Samurai Jack'', ''

Phineas and Ferb ''Phineas and Ferb'' is an American animated musical-comedy television series created by Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh for Disney Channel and Disney XD. Produced by Disney Television Animation, the series was originally broadcast a ...

'', ''

Rocko's Modern Life ''Rocko's Modern Life'' is an American animated television series created by Joe Murray for Nickelodeon. The series centers on the surreal life of an anthropomorphic Australian immigrant wallaby named Rocko and his friends: the eccentric stee ...

'', '' The Angry Beavers'', '' Star vs. the Forces of Evil'', ''

Family Guy ''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show centers around the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their ...

'', '' The Critic'', ''

Dilbert ''Dilbert'' is an American comic strip written and illustrated by Scott Adams, first published on April 16, 1989. It is known for its satirical office humor about a white-collar, micromanaged office with engineer Dilbert as the title cha ...

'', ''

Adventure Time ''Adventure Time'' is an American fantasy animated television series created by Pendleton Ward for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television. The series follows the adventures of a boy named Finn ( Jeremy Shada) and ...

'', '' Sheep in the Big City'', ''

Dragon Tales ''Dragon Tales'' is an animated educational fantasy children's television series created by Jim Coane and Ron Rodecker and developed by Coane, Wesley Eure, Jeffrey Scott, Cliff Ruby and Elana Lesser and produced by Sony Pictures Television, Ses ...

'', '' Gravity Falls'', ''

Steven Universe ''Steven Universe'' is an American animated television series created by Rebecca Sugar for Cartoon Network. It tells the coming-of-age story of a young boy, Steven Universe ( Zach Callison), who lives with the Crystal Gems—magical, miner ...

'', ''

The Owl House ''The Owl House'' is an American animated fantasy television series created by Dana Terrace that premiered on Disney Channel on January 10, 2020. The series stars the voices of Sarah-Nicole Robles, Wendie Malick, Alex Hirsch, Tati Gabrielle ...

'', and ''

King of the Hill ''King of the Hill'' is an American animated sitcom created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It aired its original non-syndicated run from January 12, 1997, to September 13, 2009, and centers on the Hills, an ...

''. 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 SpongeBob SquarePants Movie'' is a 2004 American live-action animated film, live-action/animated adventure comedy film based on the Nickelodeon animated television series ''SpongeBob SquarePants''. The film was directed, co-written, and ...

'', ''

The Simpsons Movie ''The Simpsons Movie'' is a 2007 American Animation, animated comedy film based on the long-running animated sitcom ''The Simpsons''. The film was directed by the show's supervising director David Silverman (animator), David Silverman and star ...

'', and '' The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water''.

Technology

Rough Draft Studios is known for its blending of 2-D with

computer animation Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating animations. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both static scenes ( still images) and dynamic images ( moving images), while computer animation re ...

, or

non-photorealistic rendering Non-photorealistic rendering (NPR) is an area of computer graphics that focuses on enabling a wide variety of expressive styles for digital art, in contrast to traditional computer graphics, which focuses on photorealism. NPR is inspired by other ...

which it first used on ''The Maxx'' and further utilized with Matt Groening's projects like ''Futurama'', ''The Simpsons Movie'' and ''Disenchantment''. It became an influence for other studios like

, Saerom Animation,

Nick Digital Nickelodeon Digital, often shortened to Nick Digital and originally known as Nickelodeon Creative Labs, is an American animation studio based in New York City which opened in 1994. It is a division of Nickelodeon Animation Studio. Nickelodeon Dig ...

, Bento Box Entertainment,

Mercury Filmworks Mercury Filmworks is a Canadian independent animation studio based in Ottawa, Ontario. The studio was originally founded in Vancouver by Clint Eland, the current CEO, in 1997. Mercury Filmworks has produced animated television series and featur ...

Wang Film Productions Wang Film Productions Co., Ltd. (also known as Hong Guang Animation (宏廣) and Cuckoos' Nest Studio) is one of the oldest and most prolific Taiwanese-American animation studios since 1978. The company, based in Xindian, Taipei and Los Angeles, ...

, Digital eMation, Yearim Productions, and its sister studio Rough Draft Korea.

Filmography

Rough Draft Studios

Most projects produced by Rough Draft Studios, Inc. in Glendale,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

are also animated overseas by Rough Draft Korea Co., Ltd. in

TV series

Films/specials

Other

*''

'' - " Deep, Deep Trouble" music video (overseas animation provided by Anivision) *''

MADtv ''Mad TV'' (stylized as ''MADtv'') is an American sketch comedy television series originally inspired by '' Mad'' magazine. In its initial run, it aired on Fox from 1995 to 2009. After a one-off reunion show in 2015 to celebrate the twentiet ...

'' - '' Spy vs. Spy'' shorts (overseas animation provided by Shanghai Morning Sun Animation Co., Ltd.) *2003

Wendy's Wendy's is an American international fast food restaurant chain founded by Dave Thomas (1932–2002) on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio. Its headquarters moved to Dublin, Ohio, on January 29, 2006. As of December 31, 2018, Wendy's was ...

"Go Wild" commercial starring the

Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American animated comedy short film series produced by Warner Bros. starting from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series '' Merrie Melodies'', during the golden age of American animation. ...

characters, promoting '' Looney Tunes: Back in Action'' *

59th Primetime Emmy Awards The 59th Primetime Emmy Awards were held on Sunday, September 16, 2007, honoring the best in United States, U.S. prime time television programming at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. The ceremony was televised live on Fox Broadca ...

- Brian and

Stewie Griffin Stewart "Stewie" Gilligan Griffin is a fictional character from the animated television series ''Family Guy''. He was born in 1998 and is voiced by the series creator Seth MacFarlane and first appeared on television, along with the rest of the Gr ...

opening number *'' Gravity Falls'' - " Weirdmageddon 3: Take Back The Falls" ShackTron CG animation *'' Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow'' *''

DuckTales ''DuckTales'' is an American animated television series produced by Disney Television Animation. The original cartoon series premiered on syndication and on Disney Channel on September 18, 1987 and ran for a total of 100 episodes over four ...

'' - "Moonvasion!" (additional animation)

Rough Draft Korea

Rough Draft Korea, RDS' sister studio based in

, has produced animation for the following series, features and specials:

TV series

Films/specials

Notes

References

External links

* * {{MADtv 1991 establishments in California Adult animation studios American companies established in 1991 American animation studios Companies based in Glendale, California Companies based in Seoul Entertainment companies of South Korea Entertainment companies of the United States Mass media companies established in 1991 Privately held companies based in California South Korean animation studios

Founding

Growth in business

Technology

Filmography

Rough Draft Studios

TV series

Films/specials

Other

Rough Draft Korea

TV series

Films/specials

See also

Notes

References

External links