A Glimpse into the "Future" of Animation

Sometimes I forget that animators for companies other than Pixar also need to do research to properly bring their characters and environments to life.

That's why these desert reference photos from the show, "Futurama" (get the title now?!?) are so surprising and delightful.

First of all, it's fun to see the figurines of the characters from the show in such lively positions and exotic places. The animators have done a great job setting up these shots. It reminds me of my first film exercise - tell a story in 24 photographs. I told the story of two clay bunnies hunting for buried treasure. The treasure was Cadbury eggs. They almost got eaten by a multicolored llama. It was my best work.

Second of all, it's a solid reminder of all the hard work that goes into producing even a basic cable animated tv show. Animators are artists tasked with bringing inanimate drawings to life. That's not an easy job, and they do it very well.

You can read the full write-up with commentary from the director at the Comedy Central Insider Blog.