Squigglevision is a method of

computer animation Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating Film, moving images. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both still images and moving images, while computer animation refers to moving images. Virtu ...

in which the outlines of shapes are made to wiggle and undulate, emulating the effect of sketchily hand-drawn animation.

Tom Snyder Thomas James Snyder (May 12, 1936 – July 29, 2007) was an American television personality, news anchor, and radio personality best known for his late night talk shows '' Tomorrow'', on NBC in the 1970s and 1980s, and '' The Late Late Show'' ...

Tom Snyder Productions Soup2Nuts (sometimes referred to as Soup2Nuts Studios, and formerly part of Tom Snyder Productions) was an American animation studio founded by Tom Snyder. The studio is known for its animated comedy series, its use of Squigglevision, a techniq ...

invented the technique, which his animation studio

Soup2Nuts Soup2Nuts (sometimes referred to as Soup2Nuts Studios, and formerly part of Tom Snyder Productions) was an American animation studio founded by Tom Snyder (animator), Tom Snyder. The studio is known for its animated comedy series, its use of Squ ...

subsequently used in ''

Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist ''Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist'' is an American adult animated sitcom created by Jonathan Katz and Tom Snyder for Comedy Central. It originally ran from May 28, 1995, to February 13, 2002. The series starred the voice talents of Jonathan ...

'' in 1995, and in ''

Dick and Paula Celebrity Special ''The Dick and Paula Celebrity Special'' is an adult animated series that aired on FX in 1999. The premise of the show was that Dick and Paula hosted a talk show where famous individuals, usually deceased, talked about their work or what made th ...

'', the first season of ''

Home Movies A home movie is a short amateur film or video typically made just to preserve a visual record of family activities, a vacation, or a special event, and intended for viewing at home by family and friends. Originally, home movies were made on ph ...

'', ''

O'Grady ''O'Grady'' is an American animated comedy television series created by Tom Snyder, Carl W. Adams, and Holly Schlesinger for Noggin's teen programming block, The N. The show features the voices of H. Jon Benjamin, Melissa Bardin Galsky, P ...

'', and ''

Science Court ''Science Court'' (retitled ''Squigglevision'' in 1998) is an educational entertainment, animation/Court show#List of present-day nontraditional court shows, non-traditional court show from Soup2Nuts, Tom Snyder Productions, which was aired on A ...

''. Compared with

traditional animation Traditional animation (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique in which each frame is drawing, drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation of the 20th century, until there wa ...

, Squigglevision is relatively fast and easy to produce. The non-stop motion of the "squiggling" outlines reduces the need for more complex animations in order to make a scene feel dynamic. Tom Snyder describes the result as "economy of motion". "There are almost no disadvantages," Snyder asserted. "It costs just as much to do a helicopter scene as it does to do a living room scene." In order to create the line oscillation effects that characterize Squigglevision, Tom Snyder Productions' animators loop five slightly different drawings in a sequence called a in a software called Autodesk Animator which ran on

DOS DOS (, ) is a family of disk-based operating systems for IBM PC compatible computers. The DOS family primarily consists of IBM PC DOS and a rebranded version, Microsoft's MS-DOS, both of which were introduced in 1981. Later compatible syste ...

. The animators then operate software from

Avid Technology Avid Technology, Inc. is a global technology company headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, and was founded in August 1987 by Bill Warner. It develops software, SaaS, and hardware products used in media and entertainment. History Avid wa ...

to merge the flics into the scene, and synchronize them with the

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

References

Animation techniques Audiovisual introductions in 1995 Computer-related introductions in 1995 {{animation-stub

See also

References