The DailyER Talks With 'South Park' Animation Director, Ryan Quincy

Story by Carson Vaughan 

| Published Sep 30, 2008

DailyER: What is your favorite episode of “South Park?” Why?

Ryan Quincy: Right now, I’d say, “Lice Capades.”

I love the story, and it was refreshing to work with a new world of characters that still existed in the “South Park” universe. Plus we pretty much set up and animated this show in four days—It was exhilarating.

ER: You were part of the team that received a 2007 Emmy Award, and your name now also appears on the list for the 2008 Creative Arts Emmy for the “Imaginationland” episode. What does that mean to you?

RQ: It means a great deal. We won the Emmy this year for “Imaginationland,” too. It was thrilling.

I was eligible to receive a statue this year, so that was really amazing as well. The whole entire “South Park” crew should get Emmys.

It was cool, too, that Valerie Bertinelli presented “South Park” as the winner....and as we were walking off backstage, Tom Hanks was getting ready to go on next, and he was screaming, “WINNNERS!!!WINNERS!!!!” and shaking our hands wildly.

Very surreal experience.

ER: The subject matter for “South Park” is always current each week. Can you describe the process your team goes through when animating a new episode? What is the production schedule, and how do you keep up with it?

RQ: It’s unlike how any other animated show is produced. We are very much like an animated SNL.

We produce a 22-minute episode in about five or six days. We never get a full script. We’ll get it piece by piece, and changes are made constantly as Trey works it out in his head.  

I think Trey and Matt use the show as an outlet to voice their feelings and frustrations with current events and pop culture.

“South Park” is an animated editorial cartoon. They’re also incredible procrastinators, and thrive creatively in those 11th hour situations. That’s also why the show is so topical.

ER: Holdredge, Nebraska? WTF?

RQ: I know, right?

That place was frustratingly depressing from seventh grade to 12th grade and when I’d come home for summers during college, but is now incredibly cathartic and refreshing to go back to once or twice a year.

ER:How involved are Matt and Trey in the animation process?

RQ: Not a whole lot other than Trey giving notes on the finished stuff. He writes and directs every episode and has input on all of the finished animation. Trey and Matt aren’t animators.

ER: If you weren’t doing “South Park,” what would you be doing, ideally?

RQ: In my off time, I focus on my own artwork and characters.

Whether it’s animated music videos, paintings, character designs, etc., so if I wasn’t at “South Park,” I’d most certainly be doing my own stuff full time.

ER: The animation for “South Park” seems very simplistic. Can you explain the mentality behind this? Is this something the producers originally had in mind, or is it something the animators felt strongly about?

RQ: There’s something to be said for that style; it’s very raw, organic and visceral.

That style lends itself very well to the show. The first “South Park” shorts, “Frosty” and “Spirit of Christmas,” were done with construction paper cutouts.

Trey and Matt are both huge fans of Monty Python and the cutout animation style of Terry Gilliam. That was definitely an influence on “South Park.”

We create the show on computers now, and originally they tried to mimic that cutout style, but the animation and look of the show have evolved dramatically over these last 12 seasons.

Compare the look of the first season to “Imaginationland.” We’ve come a long way.

ER: What’s the most disturbing moment you’ve had to animate on “South Park?”

RQ: Since becoming an animation director on the show, I don’t get to animate as much I used to, but there was a shot from “Manbearpig” that involved Cartman crapping out a bunch of treasure he had eaten.

It wasn’t that that disturbed me so much as that it was 4 in the morning on Wednesday when I started to animate it—and the show was airing that night.

We try to get the show locked by 9 a.m. so audio can do their final mix. It was pretty nerve wracking and disturbing in that way.

ER: Will Lemmiwinks appear in any future episodes?

RQ: We started on a Lemmiwinks Easter special a few years ago, and it never got finished. I’m not sure that it ever will, but I bet he’ll show up one of these times in some capacity.

ER: The more violent, graphic animations (people getting shot, killed, etc.) have gotten noticeably better over the years.  Do you feel like you’re still getting better?

RQ: Again, the style has evolved, and Trey continues to challenge all of the artists on the show to make it look better. It says a lot about the talented people on the staff.

ER: Can you describe the transitions you had to make moving from Mad TV to “South Park?”

RQ: I had no previous experience with computer animation when I started on “South Park.” I was more familiar with drawn and stop-motion animation.

They taught us the software on the job there when we began the “South Park” movie.

ER: You also do a lot of art promoting more alternative, indie bands (Leviathan Brothers, Les Savy Fav). How do you choose which bands you will create artwork for? Does it have anything to do with their music?

RQ: It has a lot to do with the music, plus I’m friends with guys in those bands, so that helped.

I have to really like the songs I’m doing videos for, because you listen to them over and over and over, like 300 times.

ER: Other thoughts?

RQ: The creative process on “South Park” is insane. When we start an episode, we never get a full script.

We’ll get two or three or four pages at a time and then it just snowballs from there. It’s truly unlike how any other animated show is made.

It’s very organic.

It’s always changing up until the last minute, one of the reasons why the show is so topical and brilliant.

I oversee about 25 artists (technical directors and animators) and not enough can be said about these amazing artists and how they pull off what they do week in and week out.

A lot of people think working on an animated show and especially working on “South Park” is a lot of fun like a carnival or something, like there are clowns doing cartwheels, with balloons, confetti, cotton candy, etc., but it’s not like that at all.

It’s very challenging, frustrating work, but it’s extremely rewarding. I love it, and I’m thankful to be a part of something that people have so much admiration for.