How Shows Like Rick and Morty Are Animated (ft. BaM Animation)

What are the differences between the animation styles of Family Guy and Rick and Morty? Maximus Pauson from ‪@BaMAnimation‬, who's worked on Rick and Morty, will help us understand how both shows are animated. This episode's main focus is on traditional animation and puppet animation. Thank you for all your help, Max!
Recommendations from Max:
"Make stuff for KZbin. People are going to want to hire you or pick up your project because it already has a following on KZbin. Social media is absolutely crucial. Its tough right now, there are so many people I know who are super talented and super experienced who haven't worked in over a year. Its really scary... You have to appeal to a small niche group and try to get them to pay for your stuff.
A portfolio that looks like the stuff out right now. Know where the jobs are. A lot of times I see portfolios and the art might be really good, but its just a bunch of furries that are drawn in an anime style. Your a great artist but you cant get a job because there are no shows right now that are furries in an anime style."
Resources:
‪@jessejayjones‬ Has a wonderful series showing how to rig. His videos really helped when I was creating the Rig for Stewie from Family Guy: • Toon Boom Harmony Tuto...
‪@jordan_beatty_art‬ Also has wonderful videos on rigging and I used his Scott Pilgrim Harmony Rig.
‪@JackieDroujko‬ If you love traditional animation, she is the one to go to! Here's a video I loved: • How to Create Your Fir...
If you are using Character Animator there are great resources for you too! This is one that I watched for rigging Stewie in Character Animator:
• How to create and rig ...
Sources:
Max's Website: artofmaximus.com/
Art Of Family Guy and Rick and Morty: alextoons.com/...
Rick Sanchez Rig: • Rick rig demo
Designs from Rick and Morty: characterdesig...
Simpsons do and dont's: ilustrablog.wo...
Thank you guys for watching. This was a super fun episode to make.
#2danimation #aniamtion #toonboomharmony

[@ArtofMaximus]

nice work!!! Thanks for the opportunity :)

[@zaid.1271]

Thank you for your time!

[@MohamedElHanoun]

Beautiful Work ❤ , A Question Max what Software did Paul Robertson Use in Rick & morty “ the eternal nightmare machine “ I know he’s Using Photoshop for pixel art but What i need to know what Animation software He’s Using ?? Thanks

[@BlancoNiñoo]

I honestly just assumed Family Guy used the same puppet method. It looks like it does.

[@zaid.1271]

I know, I did too! They use 3D models sometimes for cars but no puppets. When I talked to max about it, he said that these animators have 30 years of experience drawing the same characters, so it becomes second nature, and that made a lot of sense to me.

[@coltynstone-lamontagne]

​@zaid.1271 second hand means you are using something that someone else used before. Eg. A second hand jacket could be your older siblings jacket that they don't fit anymore so you got it. Or anything at a thrift store! You phrase you meant to use is "second nature" which means it becomes natural like a default action.

[@zaid.1271]

@@coltynstone-lamontagne thank you

[@kylespevak6781]

​@@zaid.1271 The 3D models are obvious, but considering the Family Guy characters frequently use the same poses, most being pivots, seemed very puppet

[@speemus6223]

I didnt

[@aydenbales]

As someone who knows almost nothing about the animation process, this was very informative and easy to understand! Thank you Zaid!

[@kwk111]

My introduction to animation techniques was Animator's Survival Kit, it has easy to follow tutorials. Then there's Disney's "Illusion of Life" book, I've heard that is a good book for aspiring animators.

[@zaid.1271]

Thank you! I'm glad it was easy to understand.

[@zaid.1271]

Same here! it's also free on google if you just search Animator's Survival Kit pdf.

[@BTierWizard]

I'm a retake animator on Rick and Morty and can confirm that this is accurate. A lot of rigs these days have advanced enough deformers on them that you could do extreme poses, like Stewie's arm, without needing to redraw it. Some rigs even have the mouths made entirely with deformers, so no need to redraw mouth shapes either. Hands always still need redraws though, rigging all the fingers never really works.

[@zaid.1271]

Oh wow! I didn't know people rigged hands! That honestly sounds like a nightmare. I always want to keep everything as accurate as possible, so thank you! I should have talked a little on deformers but I chose not to because I wanted to keep everything easy to grasp. Thats super cool you get to work on Rick and Morty! I would love to learn more!

[@BTierWizard]

@@zaid.1271 Yeah, you made the right call keeping it nice and concise. It was more important to explain that redrawing still happens in rigged shows than to get into the nuances of deformers. And if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer.

[@zhane9islame61]

great video, also "rig and Morty"

[@zaid.1271]

HAHA! Damn I didn't think of that, I should have put that somewhere in the video.😂

[@tzarg]

rigor mortis raeal

[@guccigirl2389]

XD

[@soevilcat]

There's also shot-based puppet animation: instead of making a 360-rig that can do almost anything, you storyboard a shot and do a specific rig for that shot only, that can only do animations in the shot. Requirements are much lower this way, and the cost is midpoint between frame-by-frame animation and 360-rig puppets.

[@ChelseaStBongwater]

2:23 I always loved Turtle Stevie. I am happy he is traditionally animated. Stick to tradition!

[@zaid.1271]

🤨🤨🤨…

[@NevilsicoShard]

So real for this comment 🥹

[@gargoyled_drake]

The solution today seems to be exactly like rick and morty is done. A mix of both. Puppet animation is less time consuming. But if it isn't aided by traditional animation. It's gonna have a look, feel and style that is offputting for most people over the age of 10.

[@zaid.1271]

It could be because, as you said, those shows are usually made for kids, and they might not even have the budget to mix traditional and puppet.

[@MaaveMaave]

Yeah, puppet animation reminds me of flash games (RIP) and el cheapo mobile games

[@Animotions01]

Puppet animation is great for talking Avatars for YT videos etc. I use Reallusion cartoon animator for this purpose. But you really need hand drawn animation for Dynamic Action and Camera angles & perspective.

[@Jottagelado]

Puppet can actually be extremely good for dynamic action. The reason it tends to look stiff is because of the lower budget and deadlines of the productions. The amount of time required to make a good action pose on a cuteout rigg is pretty much the same it would require to hand draw it, so it end up being better to just handdraw anyway since the purpose of the rigg is to speed up the process. What a lot of animators end up doing is a mix of both

[@zaid.1271]

Yea that's what Max mentioned! VTubers! I was going to cover it, but I couldn't find a way to make it fit the video.

[@danielamaria6810]

Dude, if you seriously think that I recommend you watch “America the motion picture” those rigs are monstrous.

[@Prekachu]

I forgot that merry little batman spin-off show is still happening, thanks for the update

[@Holammer]

MLP used rigged animation and they got crazy good at it after a few seasons as their skill and ready made move-set repertoire grew. Got plenty of time left for bespoke animation flourishes in later seasons.

[@Fatih_M177]

What the hell, why does that family guy animatic in the beginning looks SO MUCH better than the actual final animation. (Could be the slightly slower timing allowing the smooth motion to truly shine, compared to the general animation where all in-betweens move at like 1 milesecond, but who knows.)

[@zaid.1271]

I had to slow it down because there were cuts in the animation and I didn't want it to affect the person watching, so that could be why it looks slower.

[@Fatih_M177]

@@zaid.1271 They gotta do that themselves too! Given the style they're going for, the slower movements just look nicer, it's like season 1-3 family guy!

[@phillippia]

Wow…less than 1,000 subs? Quality, dude. Loved this!

[@zaid.1271]

Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you!

[@quimera963]

Nice video, I really like Max work, and always waiting for a new BAM video

[@zaid.1271]

I agree their videos are always great! I'm glad you liked the video!

[@waiyan7586]

Always wanted to see the behind the scenes process.

[@somarriba333]

I definitely prefer traditional 2D animation above all else but it's really nice to learn about all the animation styles.

[@zaid.1271]

Fair enough! I'm glad you enjoyed!

[@jakelevinson7802]

As someone who’s really into puppet animation, I gotta say good puppet animation requires a good understanding of traditional animation, and knowing when to use it.

[@themrjai8362]

This video is amazing, when I saw you only had 695 subs i was shocked.

[@zaid.1271]

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed the video! It's all good, we all gotta start somewhere.

[@cwgochris71]

Thanks for making this. It was very informative. I liked and subscribed.

[@zaid.1271]

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed!

[@SwagHyde]

mixing both animation styles seems like a good way to animate

[@Funhaus_Fr34k]

VERY INFORMATIVE AND KOOL

[@zaid.1271]

Glad you liked it

[@pramit_yt]

Great video 👍🔥

[@Padawancoding]

Congratulations on your 10k views over 72 hours! Thats a nice one for your channel

[@zaid.1271]

Thank you!

[@Padawancoding]

​@@zaid.1271as far as I can tell it's going to be your best video so far. Hoping for 100k views! ❤

[@zaid.1271]

@@Padawancoding HAHA!! I hope so!

[@JuhoSprite]

Whaaatttt insane collab!

[@RTKdarling]

This is great work. Liked, and I'm your 906th sub.

[@zaid.1271]

Thank you for being the 906th sub!

[@ninjagogetta]

I agree that family started out as traditional animation but later episodes I don't believe that family guy is still traditional animation it's stiff it's barely change angles the way family guy animates looks like a puppet😢

[@zaid.1271]

I don't think so. I researched all over to find anything saying Family Guy was puppet animation, but everyone is saying it's traditional animation. It does look rigid but I think that's due to budget. If you look closely you'll see that most of the family guy is only one person moving at a time, while the rest stay still, so I believe budget definitely has to play into it.

[@ninjagogetta]

@@zaid.1271 i understand unless they copy paste animation like how my animations are made and everytime they move its on a separate layer, but i can see a rig system for how there hands move they have a hand rig for all hand poses plus traditional animation has line boils the family guy no line boils its perfect every frame

[@zaid.1271]

@@ninjagogetta Maybe, i would love to actually get an answer from the show runners, that would be awesome. One thing also is the animators have been animating this show for so long that it may be second nature to them. One day we’ll know hopefully

[@ninjagogetta]

@@zaid.1271 yeah I agree great video on the topic tho nobody besides animators know how hard it is to make a puppet it's absolutely dreadful

[@zaid.1271]

@@ninjagogetta Thank you! I saw some of yours their amazing.

[@philosophyfrog2653]

Puppet animations are more commonly used in games than in tv and film. It’s a tedious process to set it up but saves animation time if the product exceed a certain quantity. It is indeed a much stiffer and limited way of animating but more time efficient. Despite what people seem to think, frame by frame animation still dominates the 2d film industry simply because of the quality output but it’s common to combine techniques to save time or create complex shots. Combining 3d and hand drawn animation is a much more common and efficient pipeline than using puppet animation.

[@JayChase-x1w]

Trad animation is not going anywhere it maybe drawn on digital but 100% drawing animation isn’t leaving

[@Frrk]

Reminds me of Harry Partridge's Starbarians April Fools episode. "Eww, motion tweens! I feel all practical and cost-effective!"

[@tavone6D]

Good video! I'm helping the algorythm

[@zaid.1271]

Thank you! Legend!

[@_end3rguy_]

I never knew Rick and Morty used puppets I always thought it looked way too smooth! What software is it to make them so advanced like that?

[@zaid.1271]

Toon Boom Harmony is what they used. It does look amazing!

[@unpaidpiper]

I think a lot of us always assumed Seth MacFarlanes projects were puppet animated because they recycle a lot of poses and have a very static look in general.

[@supercut5287]

Isee the use of both styles

[@zaid.1271]

Yea you’re right. Often shows do have to use both styles, they have too sometimes.

[@JunkieRemix]

1:35 I'm only human after all, don't put the blame on me

[@drillerdev4624]

Pupoet animation allows for reskinning as well, right? It's nice having the characters change clothes from time to time

[@zaid.1271]

Yea you can but I was talking about bigger stylistic changes, like rick turning into pickle rick or in my example stewie turning into a turtle, I can't really use the same rig I have for stewie as I would for turtle stewie. Maybe I should have made that clearer.

[@drillerdev4624]

@@zaid.1271 my bad. I wasn't mentioning it related to that, but rather the possibility for relatively cheap variations to give more verosimilitude Also, the possibility for cheaper "extras" in the scenes, even reusing main character animations

[@getjack55]

This channel is so peak.

[@zaid.1271]

Thanks, dude!

[@getjack55]

@@zaid.1271 np bro! ill def watch these

[@getjack55]

@@zaid.1271 is crazy how your videos get 1k+ views but you have less than 1k subs. I hope it changes soon!

[@zaid.1271]

@@getjack55 Thank you bro! It's all good, Its harder to get moving if you have less subs because its almost less trustworthy to sub to someone who doesn't have a lot of subs. I hope so too! I honestly really appreciate all of the support, you def made my day.

[@fabianojeda3078]

lovely video

[@zaid.1271]

Thank you

[@johny-ns3wh]

Talk about Adobe Max. I heard you can turn around 2d characters like its 3d characters. And when u post that video can u mention me on this comm? Subbed. Well done

[@zaid.1271]

OH, that's interesting! I was thinking of making a video about AI affecting animation. This might be really useful. I'll have it lined up. Thank you for recommending that.

[@Melissa0774]

What program are they using in this video?

[@zaid.1271]

I used toon boom harmony.

[@Melissa0774]

@@zaid.1271 Is that something you can buy outright, or is it only available as a monthly subscription?

[@rRedirl]

ask max when the new BaM video is coming out

[@zaid.1271]

One came out just last week!

[@rRedirl]

@@zaid.1271 no cap?

[@zaid.1271]

@@rRedirl Yea dude it was awesome! Go watch it. It was about improving character design.

[@Knee_Boy64]

Puppet animation is good because it allows shows to be made in a much shorter time frame than traditional animation. It's also cheaper and more ethical. That being said, I always hate it when I NOTICE it. There are a lot of lazy people who want to make cheap, easy animations, and it shows. When it's bad enough that you remember you're watching puppet animation, it takes you out of it. Feels like you're watching a KZbin kids cartoon.

[@dark0ssx]

Traditional animation is definitely not gone in japan

[@zaid.1271]

Definitely not but they are starting to use a lot of 3d models

[@imnugget8085]

What family guy use traditional?

[@zaid.1271]

Shocked me when I learned that too!

[@LucidAnimation]

One day, people will talk about my animations

[@zaid.1271]

you got it!

[@Ponlets]

a bit of an investment into a good mic can help your videos do better

[@zaid.1271]

Did the mic sound bad? I have the Blue Yeti, but it is a bit old.

[@Karonclip]

More

[@Iwidelyoutliveeverything]

puppeted always looks ugly

[@deleted_handle]

no

[@Smite_erthing]

👍

[@DietermiGamzD125]

Nah, it can look good with enough effort put into it

[@coinopanimator]

Scavengers Reign didn't.

[@coinopanimator]

Infact a lot of shows are now hybrid. As the video says turnarounds are a great example of this. Its just that you animated the key poses once. Its like saying all CG animation is crap. Depends on the animator.

[@Thornskade]

I can't believe FG is traditionally animated. It looks so bad

[@HerbieBancock]

It's animated the only way that Millennials know how to do anything: shittily.

[@Dr.W.Krueger]

This art style is irredeemable cr*p