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Rough Draft Studios is a California/Seoul based studio founded in 1991 by animator Gregg Vanzo and Nikki Vanzo. Originally the company started out in a garage. But while working on The Ren & Stimpy Show, Gregg Vanzo and his wife Nikki suggested to show creator John Kricfalusi about outsourcing to South Korea—which was how the company's South Korean division was formed.

Besides doing Western Animation, they also do Anime under the name Orange due to issues with stockholders in South Korea, and they also have a unit in Japan under that name as well (established in 2004 with CGI animator Eiji Inomoto and some former Satelight staff), although the Japanese unit only does CG work. You can find the credits lists here (for the Japanese unit) and here (for the Korean unit).

Compare Production I.G, Toon City, GONZO and Digital eMation, four companies that also use CGI in their animation, and on the Korean side of things. Compare (And contrast) AKOM, their partner on The Simpsons, DR Movie & MOI Animation, subsidiaries of Madhouse, Hanho Heung-Up, Saerom, Sunwoo Entertainment and JM Animation.


The company's work includes:

    open/close all folders 

    Rough Draft Studios in Glendale, CA only 

    Rough Draft Korea, with pre-production by Rough Draft Studios in Glendale, CA 

    Rough Draft Korea only; outsourcing work for other companies 
  • 3 South
  • A Kitty Bobo Show (Cartoon Cartoon pilot)
  • Achmed Saves America
  • Adventure Time (with Saerom)
  • Amphibia (23 episodes and "Amphibiland" pilot) List
  • American Dragon: Jake Long (season 2 only) (6 episodes)List
  • The Angry Beavers (pilot by Sunwoo Entertainment)
  • Baby Looney Tunes (season 1 only, with Wang Film, Big Star, Dong Woo Animation, Toon Town Animation, Yeson Entertainment and Yearim Productions)
  • Beavis And Butthead (seasons 3-8)
  • Ben 10: Alien Force
  • Ben 10: Ultimate Alien
  • Ben 10: Omniverse
  • Big City Greens (56+ episodes; plus main title sequence and several shortsList
  • Billy Dilley's Super Duper Subterranean Summer
  • Brandy & Mr. Whiskers (2 episodes)List
  • Camp Lazlo
  • CatDog
  • Catscratch
  • ChalkZone (season 1 only, with Galaxy Digimation)
  • Class of 3000 (14 episodes)List
  • Clone High (season 1 only)
  • Craig of the Creek (pilot and 8+ episodes)List
    • Jessica's Big Little World
  • Christopher & Holly: The Bears Who Saved Christmas
  • Codename: Kids Next Door
  • Coffin Dodgers
  • Cow and Chicken
  • The Critic
  • Curbside (with the Glendale branch)
  • Daria (season 2 only, Plus One handled seasons 1 and 3-5)
  • Danny Phantom
  • A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith
  • Dexter's Laboratory (with Fil-Cartoons for the first six episodes, quickly replacing it entirely)
  • Diggs Tailwagger
  • Dilbert (11 episodes)List
  • Dragon Tales
  • Eek! The Cat (Klutter segments)
  • The Electric Piper
  • Evil Con Carne
  • Family Guy (8 episodes)List
  • FernGully: The Last Rainforest (with Wang Film, A. Film, Hanho Heung-Up, Saerom, Luk Film, Character Builders, Time Art Studios, Siam Mammoth Animation, Sidley-Wright & Associates, Available Light Productions, Kroyer Films, Lumeni Productions, Electric Filmworks, Karen Johnson Productions, The Baer Animation Company, Pacific Title and The Chandler Group)
  • The Flintstones: On the Rocks (with Screen Novelties)
  • Globehunters: An Around The World In 80 Days Adventure
  • Gravity Falls (24 episodes)List
  • The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy (seasons 1-4, KND crossover) (Digital Emation worked on seasons 3-6, as well as all specials and movies)
  • Hailey's On It! (13 episodes)List
  • Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child (8 episodes)List
  • Hate
  • Harold and the Purple Crayon (6 episodes) List
  • Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law (8 episodes)List
  • Hotel Transylvania, Hotel Transylvania 2, and Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (end titles only, films animated by Sony Pictures Imageworks)
  • Izzy's Quest for Olympic Gold
  • Jackie Chan Adventures (14 episodes)List
  • Johnny Bravo (season 1 only, with Sunwoo Entertainment)
  • Jumanji: The Animated Series (6 episodes)List
  • Kim Possible (29 episodes)list
  • King of the Hill (30 episodes)list
  • Korgoth of Barbaria
  • The Legend of Tarzan (3 episodes)list
  • The Life and Times of Juniper Lee
  • Lilo & Stitch: The Series (2 episodes)list
  • The Looney Tunes Show (23 episodes)List ; (16 Merrie Melodies shorts)List
  • Madea's Tough Love
  • The Mighty B! (43 shorts)List
  • The Modifyers pilot
  • My Life as a Teenage Robot
  • The Nanny (1 episode)List
  • Nickelodeon Animated Shorts Program
    • Bug Salad
  • The Oblongs (6 episodes)List
  • Oh Yeah! Cartoons (numerous shorts)
  • The Owl House (11 episodes)List
  • PJ Sparkles (main title animation only; main feature by Island Animation)
  • Phineas and Ferb (seasons 1-3)List
  • Pinky and the Brain (24 episodes)List
  • Polly Pocket: Lunar Eclipse
  • The Powerpuff Girls (Sans pilot, done by Animal Ya and Fil-Cartoons)
  • Random! Cartoons (5 shorts)List
  • The Ren & Stimpy Show (53 shorts)List (4 bumpers)List
  • The Replacements (13 episodes) List
  • Rocko's Modern Life (season 3's "Fatal Contraption" and all of season 4)
  • Sammy (6 episodes)List
  • Samurai Jack (seasons 1-4 and the Season 5 episode "XCVIII"; with Digital eMation)
  • Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated (Season 2's "Night the Clown Cried" two-parter only)
  • Sheep in the Big City (minus pilot, which was animated domestically and digitally inked/painted by Cha-Pow!)
  • The Simpsons - Joined during the fourth season; animated over 200 episodes List and several commercials, replacing Varga Studio
  • SpongeBob SquarePants (every episode except for "It's A SpongeBob Christmas!" and "The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottom"note)
  • Squirrel Boy
  • Star vs. the Forces of Evil (starting on episode 8 then seasons 2, 3 and 4; opening animation for season 3) (63 episodes)List
  • Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003 mini-series)
  • Steven Universe (alternating with Sunmin)Select episodes include
  • The Story of Santa Claus (TV special)
  • Summer Camp Island
  • Sunday Pants (Periwinkle Around the World shorts)
  • Sym-Bionic Titan
  • Tig 'n Seek
  • Timon & Pumbaa (8 shorts)list
  • Tom and Jerry Tales (5 episodes)List
  • The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat (season 1 only, 10 episodes)
  • Uncle Grandpa
  • Wabbit: A Looney Tunes Production (season 1 only, 27 shorts)List
  • We Bare Bears (with Saerom, 13+ episodes)List
  • What A Cartoon! Show (10 shorts)List
  • Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones?
  • The X's

Unconfirmed:

  • KaBlam!: "The Louie and Louie Show": No overseas studio credits are listed but the animation style is very reminiscent of Ren & Stimpy, which had some episodes sent to Rough Draft.

    as Orange 
Korean unit

Japanese unit


Tropes associated with Rough Draft:

  • Animation Bump: Largely due to their CG. Making them one of the better received overseas companies.
    • Their work on The Ren & Stimpy Show was a major turning point for the show's animation. The first season had been done by studios that didn't "get" Ren and Stimpy's animation style (Lacewood Productions and Bon Art), and even the venerable Carbunkle Cartoons had their animation ruined by the careless ink-and-paint work (and even more careless re-animation) of Fil-Cartoons, whose own shorts also left a lot to be desired. Rough Draft did all of the animation process, and maintained a high standard of quality that would last for the rest of Ren and Stimpy's run.
    • Their work on the fourth to sixth seasons of The Simpsons was a noticeable step up over AKOM and Anivision (the former, while clean and polished, was a little more restricted; the latter, while a bit more fluid, was prone to Off-Model more often and more obviously). This difference lasted up until starting around Season 7 when the three studios' work started to mostly become indistinguishable from each other.
    • Rough Draft Korea's hand-drawn animation for Star vs. the Forces of Evil looked cleaner and more professional-looking than the Toon Boom animation for the show provided by Sugarcube (though neither studio was able to even nearly achieve the same fluidity of the Flash animation done for the show's first season by Mercury Filmworks and Toon City). This changed for the next Disney cartoon the two shared animation duties for, Big City Greens, however, as the the two studios' work on it are nearly identical to each other (aside from the Sugarcube-animated "Chipocalypse Now", which was animated in Harmony)
    • In a similar situation to the Star example above, their work on The Owl House is more fluid than either Sunmin or Sugarcube; the other two aren't bad by any means (Sugarcube is also considered a great studio for the show), but the latter in particular has obvious tweening present compared to Rough Draft Korea; special mention to the animation during the climax of "Enchanting Grom Fight" and throughout "Agony of a Witch".
    • Rocko's Modern Life also got a considerable boost in animation quality after switching from Sunwoo Entertainment.
  • Animesque: By default as Orange, and several shows as Rough Draft Korea (most noticeable in the shows produced by Genndy Tartakovsky).
  • Deranged Animation: Some of the shows they've worked on (especially Ren & Stimpy, SpongeBob, and The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat).
    • While the animation was usually relatively normal, certain Rough Draft-animated episodes of The Simpsons had moments of crazy animation, especially "Homer's Triple Bypass", "Homer Goes to College" and "El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer".
  • Ironic Name: Their animation is really anything but "Rough Draft".
  • Limited Animation: Some of their work from Hanna-Barbera and Cartoon Network Studios as well as My Life as a Teenage Robot.
  • Medium Blending: Hand-drawn animation and CGI (Either by themselves or, in the case of one Simpsons Halloween special, with Pacific Data Images providing the latter). With Futurama being one of the first animated shows to attempt blending Cel Shaded CGI with 2D animation, while most previous efforts in both western animation and Anime used flat-shaded, or otherwise realistically shaded, CGI.
    • This is, more or less, Orange Japan's bread & butter. Just like their Korean partner, the studio has been praised for its efforts in blending the two mediums.
  • Off-Model: While the episodes they animated for Big City Greens mostly look close in quality to Sugarcube animated episodes, they do tend to slip through this from time to time, with some of the biggest ones being as Cricket and Tilly's bodies appearing slightly taller and wider and their arms becoming bigger and fatter. Especially noticeable throughout "Cricket's Biscuits" where Cricket's head is sometimes decreased, and Tilly's eyes appear twice as large.
  • Thick-Line Animation: Dexter's Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls, My Life as a Teenage Robot, the first eight seasons of SpongeBob SquarePants, Kim Possible, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Camp Lazlo, Danny Phantom, The Angry Beavers, The Mighty B, and Steven Universe are this.
  • Thin-Line Animation: Most of their overseas work as Rough Draft Korea and all of their work from the California branch.

Alternative Title(s): Orange

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