Rough Draft Studios

Rough Draft Studios, Inc. is an American (with studios in South Korea) animation production studio based in Glendale, California with a second studio in Glendale and its sister studio Rough Draft Korea located in Seoul, South Korea. Rough Draft Studios was founded in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California by Gregg Vanzo and has produced animation for shows like Futurama, Napoleon Dynamite, Sit Down, Shut Up, Drawn Together, Baby Blues, and The Maxx, while Rough Draft Korea has animated shows such as The Simpsons, SpongeBob SquarePants, Gravity Falls, The Ren & Stimpy Show, Beavis and Butt-head, Dexter's Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls, Samurai Jack, Phineas and Ferb, Rocko's Modern Life, The Angry Beavers and Star vs. the Forces of Evil.

Rough Draft Studios and its divisions have also produced specials, commercials and direct-to-video work for companies like Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios, 20th Century Fox Television, Nickelodeon Animation Studio, Film Roman and Disney Television Animation.

Founding
Rough Draft Studios was founded in a Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California garage by Gregg and Nikki Vanzo. While working on The Ren & Stimpy Show, Nikki approached John Kricfalusi, creator of The Ren & Stimpy Show, about taking the animation to Korea. Nikki founded and runs Rough Draft Korea.

Growth in business
After working on The Ren & Stimpy Show, many other shows requested the assistance of Rough Draft Korea in animation and ink & paint. In 1992, Rough Draft Studios began producing animation for The Simpsons and then for Beavis and Butt-Head in 1993. Also in 1993, Gregg's brother Scott Vanzo was brought on board. Rough Draft Korea quickly built a strong portfolio in the animation business with shows like their first series The Maxx in 1995, which was nominated for an Annie Award. Claudia Katz, who had joined Rough Draft Studios in 1994 to produce The Maxx, and Rich Moore, joining in 1995 after having worked with Gregg on The Simpsons, completed the core of a Rough Draft Studios which would help "drive the cartoon boom of the late ‘90s". It was also in 1995 that Rough Draft Studios moved to Glendale, California.

Technology
Rough Draft Studios is known for its blending of 2-D with computer animation, or non-photorealistic rendering which it first used on The Maxx and further utilized with Futurama and The Simpsons Movie.

Rough Draft Studios filmography
Most projects produced by Rough Draft Studios are animated overseas by Rough Draft Korea.

Other

 * The Simpsons - "Deep, Deep Trouble" music video (animated by Anivision)
 * MADtv - Spy vs. Spy shorts (produced for Klasky Csupo)
 * 2003 Wendy's "Go Wild" commercial starring the Looney Tunes characters, promoting Looney Tunes: Back in Action
 * 59th Primetime Emmy Awards - Brian and Stewie Griffin opening number
 * Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow

Rough Draft Korea filmography
Rough Draft Korea, RDS' sister studio based in South Korea, has produced animation for the following series, features and specials: