‘Bob’s Burgers,’ ‘Brickleberry,’ ‘The Awesomes’ Leading Use of New Eco-Friendly Animation Method

Although we live in a time where almost everything is done via computer, most cartoon shows are still created by Earth-hating animators using endless amounts of paper.

However, Bento Box Entertainment, producers of FOX’s Bob’s Burgers, Comedy Central’s Brickleberry (RIP), and Hulu’s The Awesomes, is pioneering a new method that’s saving an awful lot of trees.

Shows like Bob’s Burgers still outsource their animation to South Korea, as do other cartoons such as The Simpsons, but in Bob’s case, the animators abroad are equipped with tablets on which they animate – saving around 25,000 to 35,000 large sheets of paper PER EPISODE.

“Using less paper reduces the show’s carbon footprint,” Mark McJimsey, co-founder and executive producer of Bento Box told the Huffington Post.

Bento Box collaborated with Canadian animation software company Toon Boom to develop the software it uses, which, in addition to resources, also saves time and effort.

However, not everyone was on board with animating digitally at first. But after Bento Box had a team produce part of the show in both the traditional way and the new way (see the comparison here) “everybody was hard-pressed to determine which was which,” McJimsey said. This is because the art is still drawn by hand and only the technology used to animate it has changed.

This method is likely to become more widespread in the coming years, and Bento Box & McJimsey are proud to have pioneered it. “We were the first ones to do it this way, and it’s proven successful,” he said.

[via The Huffington Post]