Archer Exclusive: Talking Character Development Through Art Design, Trips To The Taj Mahal, and Exploding Hippos With Floyd County Productions

Archer has produced more than 130 episodes across 13 seasons of television and yet in some ways the animated spy comedy feels fresher than ever. Sterling Archer and the rest of the series’ egotistical espionage agents have faced countless changes, both literally and in a genre-bending coma fantasy sense. The show’s current 13th season features radically altered group and management dynamics as its greatest hurdle. However, as Archer’s cast either accept or refuse character development, the series has never stopped looking beautiful. 

Season 13 of Archer is full of the show’s standard world-hopping hijinks, but there’s an extra level of enthusiasm that brings this year’s adventures to life. Some of Floyd County’s finest, Justin Wagner and Megan Johnson, Archer’s art director and animation director respectively, take some time to discuss the long-running animated series’ evolving visual language, the increasing spectacle of its action sequences, the value in rewatching Point Break and The Predator, and why Archer’s 13th season features some of the most ambitious animation from the show’s entire run.

 

DANIEL KURLAND: Archer was never a series that was sparse in its action sequences, but it seems like lately there are more than ever before and that each episode has some flashy, explosive climax. Is that a gratifying challenge to meet that pushes you to work harder? Has it been a difficult tempo to maintain with some of the more elaborate action setpieces from this season?

MEGAN JOHNSON: It’s extremely gratifying and always a challenge, but the problem solving is part of the fun! Sometimes it feels like every act of the show has a flashy action sequence. It does keep you on your toes. You often have to do a little R & D, whether it’s rigging characters in a unique way for a fight sequence or coming up with the look of new effects or figuring out how to move your camera around so it looks natural, but still does what the story needs. This definitely puts a strain on schedule and our work processes, but we try to prepare for the harder stuff as much as possible.

JUSTIN WAGNER: Oh, it’s always gratifying to visualize a particularly complicated action set piece with storyboards and then work with every team in our pipeline to make sure it comes out as intended. It definitely pushes you to work harder on these bits, but really, we push our teams to work smarter. Archer’s animation has become much more fluid and we’re capable of a lot more these days, but that doesn’t mean we can just have the boarders throw anything against the wall. We play and plan to our strengths. 

The skydiving sequence in #1301 this year is a great example. If you watch carefully, we tried to avoid characters tumbling through frame, slowly twisting or any choice that would take an animator too much time. We just needed well drawn poses that we can move through frame, keep it frenetic until you need it to open up, and just provide our animation team with all the tools and assets to make it happen. I mean, we even got a render painted of a background that’s the curvature of the earth (just like you see in every skydiving scene we looked at for reference). It’s that type of choice that’s relatively simple to execute, yet effective once Megan’s team gets in there. From there, our After Effects animation team can make magic happen. Megan and her team are the animation wizards that make it come to life.

DK: On that note, this season features a fight atop a train with jet packs and machine guns, exploding hippos, helicopter and motorcycle crashes, and multiple skydiving fight sequences. Which of these sequences proved to be the most challenging, and why, and is there a particular setpiece that you’re most proud of from this season?

JW: We’ve done just about everything at this point on Archer with regard to action sequences, so we’re all very astute when it comes to complicated stuff. However, I’d say any shot or scene that requires 3D Animation coupled with character drawings and/or moving backgrounds can get tricky. All of our departments work hand in hand to ensure the best possible outcome, but making sure Pam sitting on a moving motorcycle going through space looks correct takes a lot of coordination. You have our 3D Animation team providing early draft animations and camera setups that then need to be dropped to our Illustration/Layouts team to come up with the necessary drawings of Pam we’d need. All the while, this is being communicated to our Animation team to make sure we get the intended result. It takes a lot of meetings with said parties and a whole lotta’ notes. 

But to answer your question about a scene I’m most proud of, that skydiving scene in the season premiere was stellar. We really pushed our storyboarders there, providing insight into what we do best as an animation studio. In the end, that short scene was so frenetic and fun. The posed skydiving character drawings are phenomenal, and the extra camera shake and atmosphere our Compositors put on it just make it sing. Plus, I got to re-watch Point Break clips for the one millionth time for reference (not a bad job we have over here).

MJ: Like Justin said, motorcycle sequences are always tricky getting the characters on them properly since we’re often matching 2D characters to 3D vehicles. It’s more challenging than putting characters in cars because their whole body is exposed. I was really happy with how the skydiving scenes turned out, especially in the first episode. That’s a challenge because you don’t really see a ton of movement in the sky itself, but you can add the illusion of speed by placing clouds in 3D space and then animating the camera and characters. It just all came together nicely.

DK: This season includes some bold setpieces that bring more real world locations to life, like a replica Taj Mahal in episode two and a trip to Coney Island in episode three. How do you handle those types of challenges and did you ever think that Archer would visit places like those?

JW: The part of this job I continue to love is opening up a fresh script and seeing where the gang is going to go this time. Archer is so unique as a cartoon in that way. One episode we may be designing a posh restaurant in New York and the next they’re off to Antarctica. It’s such a nice way to keep things fresh and exciting as we visualize these scripts. Per your question of how we handle these challenges, simply put, we dig into reference at first. The beauty of Archer is that it takes place in a real world setting, so if the script says we’re going to the jungles of South America, my first step would be to start pulling images of what the foliage looks like there, the lighting, and any cool structures we come across we feel we should include. 

Archer is also based in a cinematic language, so believe that if we’re going to the jungle, I may be watching The Predator for not only environment ideas, but shot composition ideas as well. As far as if Archer would visit these places, the writers do a fantastic job keeping our cast bouncing around the globe to keep it visually interesting and rarely is there a place they’d go to that doesn’t make sense. I will say, when a script has a Taj Mahal or Coney Island, it’s super easy to visualize. Just hop on Google maps and take a virtual walk around these structures to give our 3D Modeling team the proper pieces of reference. Our modelers have a very keen eye when it comes to architectural details.

MJ: It’s kind of nice when Archer goes to places that actually exist because you have real life references but it also lends more room for mistakes, but you have to pay attention to things you may not think about in early stages of planning, like which side of the road do they drive on in this country or what kind of plants/trees would you see in this environment?

DK: Alternatively, this season also features some more highly stylized visuals, like the sequence within the hall of mirrors. Are these more exaggerated genre pieces approached any differently? Does it become increasingly exciting the more that the series moves outside of its standard comfort zone?

JW: Moments/scenes like the hall of mirrors are a perfect example of us knowing from the script that we need a little extra push there. Not to mention, that particular scene was the very first scene of season 13, so we know we have to hit the audience with something special. From an Art Direction standpoint, as long as we have our supremely talented preproduction teams setting these scenes up for success and accurately usher that message all the way through production to final animation, we succeed. 

It takes an environment designer giving us a hall of mirrors concept with all the lighting/smoke/mist/neon we need and then storyboarders giving us some dynamic shots that work together in sequence. To your question about it becoming increasingly exciting, simply put, yes. I constantly marvel at what our Animation (After Effects) Department can do when given the right artwork. This is what makes Archer stand out among other animated shows, the extra bits that make it feel “real” (lighting/parallaxing/setting characters into the scene). That hall of mirrors scene is no exception and we welcome any script that pushes the right sides of our brains.

MJ: It’s always fun trying new things. We have to do a lot more research and development in the Animation department so we can help the Background and Illustration departments get us the assets we need. The mirror sequence is a good example of how much planning some of this stuff takes. The Illustration department had to draw each angle of Archer walking around and holding his gun up, but then also draw both the flipped version and the arms for different angle bodies. We also try to stay aware of flips for the guns so the ejection port and safety are on the correct side. Backgrounds had to give us multiple layers for each mirror so we could put a character in the mirror layer but have the glass “streaks” layered on top and the reflections from the room also separated out so we could move the mirrors and camera around.

DK: The second episode of the season is largely set in the jungle, which Archer is no stranger to after the show’s Danger Island season. When approaching similar visual territory like this, is there a desire to reuse assets from Danger Island and be prudent like that, or is there the reverse desire to try and do more with the material and have it stand apart from what’s come before it?

MJ: A little of both for this answer. We do try to re-use as much as possible from stuff we’ve created in older seasons just due to time constraints, but we almost always make some small tweaks. Sometimes we add in different types of plants/greenery or change the colors of things. Of course, the script isn’t always the same time of day as the last time we used assets so we might need to change lighting.

JW: With 13 seasons under our belt, when I get an episode set in a jungle, I absolutely look back to what we have and what we can reuse. It’s almost like if Archer was a live-action show, we as a team would take a walk over to the prop warehouse and grab some trees/bushes/flower assets that fit the particular region of the world we’re going to. Of course, that prop warehouse is actually just a bunch of very well painted psds. Our 3D department always provides a really great base psd for our BG artists to paint from, so we still have those, but it’s on those painters to grab some old but still really great palm trees and foliage to fill out the scene, shot by shot. This goes to our “work smarter, not harder” mentality. Important to note though, that it takes a keen eye when reusing assets, we don’t want a non-native plant showing up. We don’t want a pine tree in the middle of our Brazilian jungle. At this point, we got jungles on lock.

DK: There’s such fantastic attention to detail that goes into the characters’ outfits and accessories in Archer. This season includes a lot of exciting variants outside of the standard spywear, such as jungle garb as well as attire for the mafia and Russian mob. Talk a little on bringing this season’s new looks to life and any production details that are sure to go missed on the screen.

JW: I’ve learned so much working on this show about men’s suit construction. Our Character Design and Illustration Directors have so much built-in knowledge at this point with regard to costuming that they’re just detail obsessors in all the right ways. That being said, yes, it’s super exciting when we get a script where our gang gets to do a little change. I’m thinking particularly when we got an episode like #1101 where the gang had to go to a fancy museum opening. We bounced around ideas for what Pam may be wearing and landed on a tux complete with bowtie. I particularly like when our characters just get to look good and that was no exception. 

The beauty of working on an animated program is that we get to control all of that. Our Character Designers and Illustrators are our costume department, makeup department and hair all in one. And yeah, this year with another jungle episode, we had to come up with yet another round of jungle garb for our gang. They’re like action figures we get to dress up for the particular mission we’re on; how fun is that?! When coming up with new ideas there, again, we just start with reference. Tomb Raider, Jungle Cruise and Uncharted were just the tip of the iceberg when considering the cinematic equivalents we were shooting for.

DK: Another unexpected perk from this season is that it’s lousy with wild animals. Archer has gone so far as to include talking parrots and rock monsters in the past, but this year there are tapirs, pythons, tarantulas, sharks, and so much more. Was it a surprise to get to bring so many wild animals into season 13?

MJ: Animals are definitely challenging for the Illustration and Character Design departments. They not only have to figure out how to design them in the Archer style, but also make them animatable. We do tend to try and give the animals in Archer a lot of emotions since Archer has a strong bond with them.

JW: I’m so happy people pick up on our love for animals in this show. Really, everyone on staff gets super stoked when we read in the script that there’s a cute baby tapir that Archer will befriend. I think it’s because it’s just something out of the ordinary that we must figure out how to “Archerize”… plus, it’s a cute animal we get to draw, enough said. So, I’d say it’s not surprising at this point when we get an animal in the script that the team really comes together to make them feel cute or scary or imposing, whatever the scene calls for. 

The way our animation team handled that spider is a perfect example. The drawing was great to begin with, but it took a talented animator to give you the creepy crawlies while watching it inch toward Ray’s face. Fingers crossed that the writers keep stocking us with animals. I love that Archer himself has problematic relationships with humans, but when it comes to the animal kingdom, he fits right in there in a very endearing way.

DK: On that note, Ray’s worsening snake bite is perfectly disgusting. Was it difficult to find the right level of gross for those visuals and did they go through many revisions?

JW: HAHAHAHA. Yes, Ray’s bloated, venom-filled face went through several revisions. That type of thing requires balance. The point is to make him look ridiculous and incredibly injured, but we also need to make it workable for our animators. If you lay too many purple-y bruise layers on there he may end up looking like an eggplant in the end in a wide shot, so a delicate hand is necessary when finding the right level of damage. That all being said, we also are looking at a lot of disgusting references that I wish I could delete from my brain.

DK: There’s a healthy dose of AJ this year, who’s a unique character in the sense that she’s actually matured over the course of the series and continues to grow older. What has it been like to design this latest version, as well as the different ages of AJ throughout the show’s run? We’re radically different looks considered at all?

JW: Children, or really anyone under the age of 20, are always a challenge within our established style. Thick outlines just work for adult facial features and give our older characters so much added weight and form. As any artist can tell you, drawings of children/adolescents usually require a lack of thick line weight or line weight at all. So, with all that being said, AJ is a uniquely challenging character for us to keep coming back to and age up. AJ looks so great this year; our team really knocked it out of the park. We looked at baby AJ and our toddler version when considering what a school-aged AJ would look like. We also continually consider who her parents are. To me, she truly looks like Lana’s daughter and has just a dash of Archer snarkiness in her eyes. 

There were definitely other outfits we considered and had our character designers mock-up, but all within the realm of being the daughter of two super spies with a billionaire stepdad. She needed to dress preppy, so our Character Designers definitely looked at modern kids clothing styles and picked from there. We knew the target we were shooting for, so there weren’t any truly radical alternate options, just other options that live in the same vein.

DK: This season features a lot of guest stars, and a lot of the time the characters will closely resemble the actors who play them. Is that intentional on your part? Is it on a case-by-case basis? How do you approach designing the look for these guest characters?

MJ: It’s case by case. Our character designers are extremely talented and are very good at capturing the likeness of the guest stars.

JW: Like Megan said, it’s a case-by-case scenario when it comes to celebrity guest stars. It’s pretty easy when there doesn’t have to be a likeness, because, well, you can just come up with anything that serves the script. But in recent seasons, with a Kenan Thompson or Bruce Campbell, getting those likenesses to fit our style is always a challenge. But a fun challenge I should say. Those designs go many, many, many rounds with Character Designers pitching us updated designs based on our notes that we have to get producers and the celebrity in question to approve. 

I want to be able to tell you there’s a simple and specific way to get that likeness, but it’s such a unique thing to nail down. The Archer style’s simplicity really causes our designers to be experts in hitting the visual landmarks that make a person’s face unique. That being said, these are the designs we highly scrutinize to get right. Lots of pairs of eyes are looking at each round we do until finally, collectively, we’re like “YUP, that’s the Kenan Thompson we know.”

DK: Lastly, in a show that can change as much as Archer and feature such a limitless scope, what were some of the biggest challenges and surprises during this latest season?

MJ: This season’s biggest challenge was really the scope of work in each episode. It felt like each act had its own action sequence. The fourth episode was a great example where in the first act the gang was on an oil rig in the middle of the ocean that then exploded, the second act had a small skydiving sequence plus a car chase, and the third act was metal debris flying in various directions. It was just a lot to execute at once.

JW: These scripts are action packed, man. That’s always the challenge, how do we pack in all that needs to happen in an episode on a tight schedule. Our team here at Floyd County are some of the best and brightest artists in the industry. Sincerely, what we accomplish as a team in just a few weeks of production is astounding. So, when we get a script that calls for Archer to navigate a creepy mirror maze, go skydiving en masse and then battle other spies on a treadmill train contraption, I know our team is up for the challenge. It takes careful planning with our preproduction teams to set up that blueprint for the episode and then just communicating all the way from there through to final animation. 

Our team has some seasoned professionals and experts, so there’s always someone to poke if we need an opinion on how to execute a complicated scene. You’re right to say Archer is a show full of changes and a limitless scope, to which I say, bring it on. The team at Floyd County is equally limitless in its capability to bring these stories to the screen.

 

The season finale of Season 13 of ‘Archer’ airs this Wednesday at 10pm (ET) on FXX, with next day streaming on Hulu