THE SIMPSONS NEWS – Behind the Scenes of a Simpsons Doritos Commercial

Simpsons quote:

Homer: D’oh!

Doritors announcer: …ritos

I’ve fully animated on The Simpsons many times during my years on the show.  I say this because my job doesn’t require me to animate most of the time.

I spent most of my career on The Simpsons as a Character Layout artist.  This is different than being an animator although there is some overlap.  If you want to know more about the job of a Character Layout artist, I wrote about HERE.

The first time I was able to full animate for The Simpsons was actually on a Doritos commercial.

To hear the story behind this commercial,  you can either watch the video or read the text below.  At the bottom of the post, you’ll have a chance to watch the commercial:

Animation Training in Action

The Doritos commercial was directed by Swinton Scott. I had all been layout out before I got it and I was asked to animate every single shot in the commercial.

It was a lot of fun but it was a very challenging thing. I hadn’t done anything like it before. By which I mean, I’d never been paid to animated before.  It was a big learning experience.

I through everything I learned about animation up till then into the project. A lot of overlapping action, things stopping at different times, action, movement…it was fun.

The artwork is NOT the best.  It was very early on in my career. It wasn’t like I had the best drawing of Homer.  I didn’t have the character down as well as I should have, but it was the best I could do at the time.

I found a copy of it on Youtube and I’ve embedded the video below.

Making Things fit Together.

I will say that, there’s a scene in the commercial that used to be two separate shots.  When we showed it to Fox we received some notes.  One of the notes was to cut out a scene. This forced us to combine the two scenes that book ended the missing scene. The scenes looked identical but they actually were not.

I ended having to animate the scenes into one another.  It’s near the end and it’s weird.  You’ll see. There’s a scene near the end where the announcer says, “food in the fast lane.” Well, that whole scene used to be two scenes.

You’ll see at the beginning of that shot that Homer kinda morphs a little bit. That’s where I was trying to animate these two scenes together and combine them into one scene.

The Commercial

So if you’re ready to watch it, here you go:

What’s your Reaction?

What do you think? Did you ever see this commercial when it went live?

THE SIMPSONS NEWS – The Couch Gag that Wouldn’t Die

So this season seems have been the season of epic Couch Gags.

Most of the Couch Gags I’ve worked on this season have been epic.  Like, “mini movie” epic.

I haven’t worked on all of them but I’ve worked on quite a few. Most of the time I don’t mind at all.  They’re a lot of fun.

This week though, I came face to face with the Couch Gag that wouldn’t die.

I’m working on revising show 22 of this season. Production approached me to do some overtime revising the storyboards for a Couch Gag  that needed to be approved.

I said sure.  I fixed the boards really quick and off it went.  I continued revising show 22.

Next day, after lunch, I’m told  there where notes on the Couch Gag.  I needed to fix the board A.S.A.P., so I did.  The fixes where kinda elaborate.   It took me three times longer to fix than the original notes.  Meanwhile, I’m running  behind on show 22.

I finish the fixes.

Nope, there are two designs that I need to put in the board.  I have to redraw some stuff.

So I change the designs and turn it in.  The board is okay, and that was that.  The boards are sent to get approved again.

The next day, mid-morning, I get sent a note telling me there’s more fixes.  Different fixes.

“GAH!” Why won’t this Couch Gag leave me alone?!  (Sigh)

So I fix it.  It didn’t take long.  It was minor, but it was annoying.

I half expect to get the boards sent back to me again before the day was over…and they were.

More changes were sent to me. Nothing that was even in the original script either.  The board just wouldn’t die.

I managed to finish those changes.  I hope we don’t get sent more today.  Wish me luck.

Now I’m behind on my work and have to make up the time.

At least I’m getting paid overtime.

Oh well, I can’t complain, it’s still a fun job. It can just get annoying sometimes.

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