All scenes are rendered in Max, using its default scanline renderer. Worlds Away does self-illumination renders where no lights are used. The company is able to render almost as fast as shots can be queued.

Then, layout creates a 3ds Max file for the shot with the exact duration, brings in the audio, the backgrounds, the props and the correct versions of the characters. We don’t want our animators to have to think about anything except animation. They open a file and the sound is set up already. They don’t have to find anything on the server; it’s all right there.

Once the characters are animated, we render out screen capture previews and sit down and do a daily kind of thing. When the shot is approved it goes to rendering. When it’s rendered, it’s brought back into edit where it replaces the storyboard. That’s sent to audio for a final mix and sound effects.

BR: Which tools are you using?

KL: For animatics, we use Avid. For artwork, PhotoShop. The storyboards are drawn by hand and scanned in. The rigging is in Max and the layout department works in Max. Pretty much everything from layout on happens in Max. For a very small percentage of shots, we use Combustion or Smoke; out of a given episode maybe 20 out of the 200 or 300 shots need compositing. Almost everything happens in camera.

BR: Would you want to do another season of episodes?

KL: We’re hoping, hoping we can. It’s really funny stuff — the writing and the voice talent — it’s like a Hollywood cast [with the likes of Balaban, Jennifer Coolidge, Paul Dooley, Nora Ephron, Lisa Kudrow, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, Rob Reiner and Paul Reubens].

Barbara Robertson is an award-winning journalist who has covered visual effects and computer animation for 15 years. She also co-founded the dog photography website www.dogpixandflix.com. Her most recent travel essay appears in the new Travelers Tales anthology The Thong Also Rises.