Dominic Bianchi and Mark Hentemann at CCAD, photo by Katlin McNally

Dominic Bianchi and Mark Hentemann visited CCAD on April 29 and gave students a rare peek behind the curtain, showing what goes into creating a weekly, half-hour, prime-time network television program. The fact that they were hilarious while doing it shouldn’t be a surprise; they are, respectively, the supervising director and head writer/executive producer for Family Guy.

Like any good comedic act, the duo knew how to warm up their audience, opening with a montage of clips from the popular series. They then went on to detail the creative efforts that go into producing each episode—a process that  takes approximately 13 months, which means that multiple episodes are in varying stages of development at any given time.

Hentemann shows the writers’ room, photo by Katlin McNally

It all starts in the writers’ room, where Hentemann and his team collaborate on a script that must be ready for the first table read at the end of the week.

“That’s when the first version of the script is finalized and all the actors come in,” said Hentemann.  “We get about 60 people in a room at the table read, and we hear a script on its feet. (We call it hearing it on its feet—it’s performed.) We hear how it sounds, get a good sense of what’s working and what’s not.”

From there the writers will go back and rewrite jokes (aka gags) that didn’t quite work. Hentemann went on to share a few gags that were proposed in the writers’ room but didn’t make the final script—they may not have made it into the show, but they still got laughs from the CCAD audience.

Bianchi talks about the storyboarding process at “Family Guy,” photo by Katlin McNally

“Family Guy is storyboard-based show,” Bianchi said as he began to explain the process for dealing with the artwork on the show, which begins as soon as the audio track of the script is recorded.

“A director and assistant director will have two to three storyboard artists per episode,” said Bianchi. “They’ll take the audio file and listen to it, and go over the script and break it down into different scenes.” The team uses Cintiqs with Toom Boom Storyboard Pro software to begin creating thumbnails of shots for the show, which are then pitched to the supervising director, who makes edits. Bianchi and Hentemann used the episode “Back to the Pilot” (S10, Ep 5) to illustrate this process.

After more editing and rewriting, the team moves to animatics, which (at their most basic) are animated drafts that include sound. There are more rounds of editing and rewrites. At some point color is introduced, and even after that there are rewrites. During this process they also have to work with standards and practices, the network entity responsible for ensuring that a program’s content doesn’t cross legal, ethical, or moral lines that might result in anything from FCC fines to lawsuits or lost sponsors.

Bianchi shared examples of animatics from “Back to the Pilot” (S10, Ep5), photo by Katlin McNally

Anyone who has watched Family Guy can imagine the conversations between the show’a producers and the network. Hentemann read some particularly funny notes they received from standards, including one that involved the word “kleeman”—a word the writers made up to see if the standards office would tag it. They did. However, when producers noted that the word was not in any dictionary and did not actually exist, the standards office had to concede. Unfortunately, after the episode aired “kleeman” became a popular Google search term. When the writers tried to use it again four months later, they were denied, because several online dictionaries had come up with a definition.

The last stage of the production process includes final animation, which is done in Korea and can take as long as four months.

Bianchi and Hentemann ended their presentation with a Q & A that naturally generated questions about how to get a job in their industry. Both men noted that everyone has a different story for how they landed their careers, but Bianchi still offered some advice:

“No matter where you go, what job you are targeting, if you are at a job that you think will lead to that storyboard job (or whatever it is that you want), if you are PA [production assistant] somewhere, be the best PA, have a good attitude, ask questions, be indispensable at that job.”

From left, Animation Chair Charlotte Beland, Toon Boom CEO Joan Vogelesang, CCAD President Dennison Griffith, Cinematic Arts Chair Ron Saks, and Toon Boom Market Development Director Mark MacLellan,
photo by Katlin McNally

This morning Columbus College of Art & Design was officially declared a Center of Excellence by Toon Boom, a global leader in digital content and animation software. CCAD is the first college or university in the U. S. to receive such an honor.

The announcement was made, fittingly, in the college’s labs for Animation and Cinematic Arts. Toon Boom CEO and President Joan Vogelesang flew in from Montreal (where the company is based) to celebrate CCAD’s selection with faculty, staff, students, guests, and media including WCMH-NBC4, WBNS-10TV, and WSYX . As CCAD was honored, a moment was taken to give a special thanks Cinematic Arts Chair Ron Saks for his ongoing commitment to the industry

“CCAD has been a long-standing customer and supporter of Toon Boom. We are thrilled to see them become the first Center of Excellence in the U.S. and prepare students for the marketplace. CCAD will be highly recommended to all our customers as a prime source of talents for their productions,” Vogelesang said.

Dana Turtle (right) interviews Don Yoakam while a few feet away Angela An interviews Andrea Rawson and Emma Pennington, photo by Katlin McNally

When asked why Columbus was chosen for the site of their first U.S. Center of Excellence, Vogelesang noted that in addition to Columbus having a solid reputation, CCAD was an early adopter of the technology. Toon Boom began changing how animation was produced 14 years ago. They not only sought to create paperless methods of production, but to utilize technology in a way that allowed for more creative flexibility. CCAD was among the first institutions to embrace these advances in the industry.

“Being a Center of Excellence provides CCAD students with the opportunity to test and use the latest versions of this industry-leading software and maximize their value among film and animation employers,” said Dennison Griffith, president of CCAD. “Employment opportunities in this field are growing significantly with the use of animation not just in the entertainment industry, but in the development of apps, software, and gaming technology.”

Rather than explain the value of Toon Boom software in Animation and Cinematic Arts work, CCAD chose to show how students work with the product. A team of three Animation students worked together to animat three local television anchors.

Juniors Andrea Rawson and Don Yoakam along with sophomore Emma Pennington turned Angela An (WBNS-10TV), Monica Day (WCHM-NBC4), and Dana Turtle (WSYX) into animated characters.

Juniors Andrea Rawson and Don Yoakam along with sophomore Emma Pennington turned Angela An (WBNS-10TV), Monica Day (WCHM-NBC4), and Dana Turtle (WSYX) into animated characters—which were shared to the delight of the gathered audience, which included An and Turtle.

The audience also viewed a live demonstration, thanks to senior Alan Backer, who showed how the software works through each phase of concepting and producing animation.

The audience was also shown a trailer for the student-made film Lumin, which utilized Toon Boom software in its production. Lumin has been submitted to more than 30 festivals internationally and nationally and it has already been accepted into several, including Chile Monos, Leeds Young Film Festival, Ohio Shorts, taafi Official Selection, and Sff International Film Festival.

To cap off the event, CCAD announced a storyboard contest for high school students with a prize worth nearly $3,000. Students are invited to create and submit a storyboard for a short film (not to exceed one minute of screen time). The winner will receive a full-ride scholarship to attend CCAD’s three-week residential summer program College PreView, where they will be able to focus on Animation and Cinematic Arts and work with Toon Boom production suite software. Details on the contest can be found here.

The choice of CCAD as the first American Center of Excellence follows Toon Boom’s selection as an official educational resource and curriculum to support development of 21st century skills among Canadian students by the Information and Communications Technology Council in Canada.

Becker is from Columbus, OH, and graduated from Dublin High School; Rawson is a from Buffalo, NY, and graduated from Williamsville East High School; Yoakam is from Delaware, OH, and graduated from Bishop Watterson High School; and Pennington is from Hilliard, OH, and graduated from Hilliard Bradley High School.

Screenshot from the "Toon Boom News" article

Toon Boom News, an animation industry newsletter, recently featured Columbus College of Art & Design’s animation department, and, in particular, Adjunct Faculty Andrew Friz.

The article noted that CCAD’s animation department works closely with local industry professionals and businesses to help students gain real-life experience and strong portfolios, committing itself to keeping up with current industry practices.

“CCAD has better equipment than most people will have in their first job,” Friz said in the article.

He offers advice to animation students, stating that “you can study and copy from great animation to learn technique, but observe and sketch from life so you can draw from experience, making work that is uniquely yours and delivering it with the highest quality possible.”

Friz continues to work professionally in the animation industry with experience in feature films, commercials, illustration, and graphic design. He leads a small, full-service animation company, The Little Black Cat, in Columbus, OH.