Animation Changes

Animation Changes have taken place throughout the run of South Park as the series' visual style has evolved, with character and location designs gradually being changed to include more depth and detail than they seemed to have in the show's earlier seasons.

The first four seasons of the show were produced using Alias/Wavefront's PowerAnimator as the primary animation software, animated at 24 frames per second. Storyboards were hand-drawn, while new character designs were created in CorelDRAW and had to be approved for use in the show; the latter has remained part of the production process to this day.

Though the idea of changing software was ruled out initially by J. J. Franzen, claiming "if you're wondering why we haven't moved to Maya, it's just overkill for what we do, ya know? That, and it would take a very long time to convert all our assets over", the series' fifth season was delayed several months to June 2001 so the animation staff could learn the Autodesk Maya animation software, a much powerful 3-D animation program which the series still uses to this day. As a result, the series' animation has changed greatly over the years, though it still uses construction paper textures, and the video game South Park: The Fractured But Whole was even built on an engine that could share artistic assets with the series.

Animator Lucas Walker described the complexity of the series' animation:

"...each one of those characters is actually like 10,000 pieces of geometry... Every single color of every single line, and every single shadow is an individual piece of geometry. That’s how they animate the show. In a rig you have no less than four views: left, right, front, back. You can also have special poses, but each of those poses has a special replacement animation, so you can hit a slider that turns off one piece of geometry and turns on another. In the front view alone, we might have 12 different hands, and those 12 hands exist separately in each individual pose. So the mounds of information for each character quickly stacks on top of itself."

As a result of these advancing techniques and the gradual evolution of the show's style, character designs and locations are updated periodically - especially beginning around Season Eleven onward - to look more refined and better reflect the greater skills and capabilities of the animation department.

Animation Evolution

In the "The Spirit of Christmas" shorts and the pilot episode, "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe", the animation was made using stop motion and the characters were made with construction paper, a costly and time-consuming process referenced and parodied in "A Very Crappy Christmas". The two shorts and the pilot were the only episodes to be created using this animation style; all future episodes were created using primarily computer animation software, a decision made before the technical crew for the series was even assembled.

During the early episodes "Weight Gain 4000" and "Volcano", the animation was done on a computer using PowerAnimator. The animation team was still working out the show's art style, using relatively few characters' expressions and animations. Trey and the animators experimented with changes to the animation style, such as using flat colors instead of construction paper texture, and using symmetrical eyes without shadow or any lines on them.

The animation was slightly altered in "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride", introducing new expressions, adding a small black line that divides the two eyes of most characters, and a few of the mouth shapes being redrawn. Now the characters have shadows on the upper part of their eyes, and all colors are now done using fabric-like textures, harkening back to how the show was made in construction paper.

From the episode "Tom's Rhinoplasty" on, most adult characters now have a different pair of eyes than kids, having a more diagonal and slightly stretched shape, and with shadows being at the bottom instead of the top (these eyes were also used for older kids and teens from season 2 onwards). This was also one of the show's first instances of using a photograph to represent a character's face. The animation style was maintained until Season Four thereafter.

It is also notable that during the first four seasons, the kids had two different shapes of "default" mouth designs, with one being narrower and the other being slightly larger and more exaggerated. Almost all of the kids also used the same eye assets, except for Kyle, Cartman, Kenny, Fosse, Bill, and Terrance (these last two, who had matching eye shapes).

A slightly more polished animation style was made for the film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, featuring more character movement and more detailed backgrounds, in addition to the large presence of scenes with a slight 3D print and moving camera angles. The film also uses darker, less contrasting colors than the show itself. Some designs for new characters for the film also look slightly more polished than usual.

After the switch to Maya in the fifth season, the animation became more vibrant. The characters gained more expressions and animation. The background characters (notably the adults) gained a new variety of assets, with some of the old ones being left out. Now the eyes for adults have more varied shapes and with shadows this time being on the upper part, while all the kids (except Cartman) keep using the same eye assets. In addition, the shadows on the characters' eyes became lighter, and this time, all the kids characters use the same type of mouth. The cartoon flames were changed to more realistic-looking flames (same for other particle effects), and new textures were added. African-American characters have lighter skin than they did before. Most of the fourth graders now use the same basic animation rig, with two major body types (with one being more like Stan, and another more like Butters, for example). Some of the mouths and expressions were refined again and altered slightly. Characters are also animated tilting their heads as they speak much less often.

By the seventh season, the style for adult characters began to change and diversify. Whereas many older characters like Officer Barbrady or Jimbo Kern and even those introduced in the previous season often had thick black lines to represent both wrinkles on their faces or zippers in their clothing, as well as hand-drawn, uneven ties or vests, designs for new characters like Harrison Yates, Ryan Valmer, and Sarah Valmer possessed cleaner, more symmetrical designs and smoother colors. Wrinkles or other body features are now thinner lines with a slightly-deeper-than-flesh color, while zippers are often similarly a slightly deeper shade of the surrounding color. Ties were straightened and belts/pockets became more common and subtler.

Around the same time, locations and backgrounds began to be refined as well. Stark's Pond is expanded significantly in "Toilet Paper" to set the mood of the parodied scene, with a cloudy, foggy look, a more defined shoreline and lots of rocks and trees surrounding it. The completely new Park County Police Station appears for the first time instead of the original station. In the ninth season, Hell's Pass Hospital now has red roofing and an altered sign. Heaven and Hell take on entirely new appearances in "Best Friends Forever" and we even see a new model for Satan himself, with a buffer look with curved horns.

Beginning in the eleventh season, most noticeably in "Night of the Living Homeless", the adult characters' appearances were updated to better fit the style used for new adults over the last few seasons as described above, with their collars and ties tweaked and dark lines softened. Randy Marsh's shirt is altered so his rolled up sleeves are softer, and his now-symmetrical collar and pockets are a deeper shade of thinner, blue lines rather than thick, black lines. Jimbo Kern has a softened chin, a completely new vest and shirt, now with a zipper and visible undershirt, and softened lines on his hat to a deeper shade of orange. Later in the season, Gerald Broflovski was given a more colorful yamulke and a new collar. By this time, we begin to see fences around the boys' houses and different snow patterns.

Background characters for both adults, fourth graders and the police force were first refreshed in the eleventh and twelfth seasons, including more characters with shading effects in their hair and more detailed clothing. New adult characters often had less uniform head and body shapes, with women in particular almost never following the round-faced, square-bodied designs of older seasons and now tend to have more petite, thinner bodies. Some characters such as Lizzy and Mark Cotswolds began to disappear from backgrounds, entirely supplanted by the new characters.

The adults and police would be refreshed again around Season Nineteen to include more modernized, hippie caricatures for the former, and in the latter case, detailed badges and new female officers, while a few more children of color were added to background scenes at South Park Elementary, such as Liza Nelson.

HD Remasters

In 2009, Comedy Central began broadcasting its programs in 16:9 high-definition. "The China Probrem" was the first episode natively produced to high-definition standard, and "The Ring" was the first to be broadcast in the format; all previous episodes of the show were produced in 4:3 standard definition, and could not be broadcast without black bars at the sides. As such, South Park Studios took on the task of re-rendering the show's previous seasons in high definition.

J. J. Franzen explained at the time:

“We’ve always been digital pack rats, so we still have all the Maya (and before season 5, Alias PowerAnimator) scene files we used to create the show... Since HD has become a real possibility, we’ve started re-rendering all those old episodes at full 1080p, which also means re-framing all the shots from standard 4:3 to full 16:9. It’s very labor intensive, but it also means that we’ll be the only animated show from the pre-HD world that will have its entire catalog of episodes in full native 1080p. It’s pretty sweet.”

These remastered versions of the seasons were slowly rolled out, and contained some alterations and errors:

• In "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe", the style of the computer-animated segments was updated to more closely resemble the rest of the episode; some construction paper shots were re-animated digitally as well, possibly due to the original frames being lost.
• The floor was removed from a scene in "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride" where Jimbo and Ned meet with an explosives expert.
• In "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig", the puddle that appears when Shelly beats up Stan, left over from a deleted scene, was removed. Additionally, a construction paper scene reused from The Unaired Pilot was re-animated digitally to match the rest of the episode.
• In "Clubhouses" when Cartman, Kenny and the Runaway Girls are talking in Cartman's clubhouse for the first time, at the end of the original scene they look at Cartman with a frown. In the HD version, they look at him with a neutral expression.
• In many episodes with large crowd scenes, new characters were added into the previously unseen edges of the screen, some being characters that did not debut until later in the series and thus contrasting with the simpler character designs of the time:
  • Lola can be seen at the Chinpokomon camp in "Chinpokomon"; she did not officially debut until "Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society".
  • Scott Malkinson, who did not officially debut until "Elementary School Musical", can be seen in line for cotton candy at the Jeffersons' house in "The Jeffersons".
  • In "It Hits the Fan", Thomas Tucker is seen with his updated appearance from "Pandemic", along with the Sawmill Worker who originally debuted in "Butt Out".
• In various older episodes, characters tend to switch between their original and modern designs. Changes to their designs include new details and eyes, mainly changes done during Season 5 after the switch from PowerAnimator to Maya Animation:
  • In the classroom scenes of "Weight Gain 4000", Pip Pirrip can be seen with his modern design; his hair fringe under his hat was not added until Season 5. Clyde Donovan also appears redesigned.
  • In "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig" when the boys are getting the animals drunk.
  • The boys in "Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut" during the ending scene when they learn who Cartman's father is.
  • Cartman after the school bus falls in the ice cream in "City on the Edge of Forever (Flashbacks)".

For unknown reasons, while most of the first ten seasons' shots were expanded outward to 16:9 in their HD versions, Season Eleven and the first seven episodes of Season Twelve were instead cropped to 16:9, removing the upper and lower portions of the original 4:3 frame; for example, in "Le Petit Tourette", the top of Principal Victoria's head is cut off.

Animation changes in the HD remasters

The SD version of "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe".

The HD version of "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe".

The SD version of "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe".

The HD version of "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe".

The SD version of “Cartman Gets an Anal Probe”.

The HD version of “Cartman Gets an Anal Probe”. Eric Cartman is now visible to the right.

The SD version of "Volcano".

The HD version of "Volcano". Ned's body is now visible as he rolls, instead of just his head.

The SD version of "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride".

The HD version of "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride".

The SD version of "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride".

The HD version of "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride". Everyone's smiles aside from Mayor McDaniels' were removed, along with Liane's tray of cookies.

The SD version of "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig".

The HD version of "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig", with the puddle removed.

New background characters added to "Chinpokomon" .

New background characters and Craig's dad's later design in "It Hits the Fan".

Scott Malkinson retroactively added to "The Jeffersons".

The SD version of "Fantastic Easter Special".

The HD version of "Fantastic Easter Special". The crowd further in the background was replaced with a different one.

The SD version of "Le Petit Tourette".

The HD version of "Le Petit Tourette".

The SD version of "More Crap".

The HD version of "More Crap". Randy's poop was moved upwards so it would remain visible.

The SD version of "Weight Gain 4000", with Pip's original design.

The HD version of "Weight Gain 4000", with Pip's modern design.

The SD version of the South Park Theme Song. Cartman can be seen smiling.

The HD version of the South Park Theme Song. Cartman is now frowning.

The SD version of "Chickenpox".

The HD version of "Chickenpox". The patch on the couch is now the same brown, and the boys were given sleeping bags.

The SD version of "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig" with the boys' original designs.

The HD version of "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig," with the boys' modern designs.

The SD version of "Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut", with the boys' original designs.

The HD version of "Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut", with the boys' modern designs and Jimbo added into the frame.

The SD version of "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride".

The HD version of "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride". The background was not properly expanded, leading to a noticeable black area.

Character Revisions

In the series' later seasons, many characters' designs have been changed or altered to match the alterations to the animation style, such as changing thick black lines for wrinkles to flesh tone. In some cases these changes were permanent, while in other cases the characters would sometimes or even often revert to a previous appearance.

• Randy Marsh: As of "Chickenlover", he has a different hairstyle and a dimpled chin.
  • From the eleventh season on, his rolled up sleeves are softer and his now-symmetrical collar and pockets are a deeper shade of thinner, blue lines rather than thick, black lines.
• Tolkien Black: As of "It Hits the Fan", he is a lighter shade of black than in the previous seasons.
• Pip Pirrip: As of "It Hits the Fan", he has slightly updated hairstyle, including a small fringe visible from his hat.
• Steve and Linda Black: They are first revised in "Cripple Fight" to give Linda darker skin and Steve a slightly altered head with larger hairs and tweaked hair.
  • They are seen with further revised designs in "1%" which include altered heads, a more detailed suit for Steve and new white sleeves for Linda. They continued to switch between their old and new designs often for several years.
• Jesus Christ: As of "Super Best Friends", he has a red sash and his feet are no longer covered by his robe.
• Bill Allen and Fosse McDonald: They originally had thick eyebrows in the first four seasons, but were redesigned starting in the fifth season to have the same eyebrows as most other child characters. Bill also lost the zipper on his jacket, and Fosse lost the buttons on his shirt.
• Terrance Mephesto: For the first four seasons he had big brown eyebrows and were always visible. After Season Four, his eyebrows got smaller and appeared only when he became worried or angry.
• Red McArthur: During the first four seasons, her jacket and pants are distinct colors, with her jacket a slightly lighter shade of blue/purple. After the fifth season began, her jacket and pants became the same shade of deep purple.
• Ned Gerblanski: From sometime before "I'm a Little Bit Country", one of the brown patches on his camouflage shirt was removed and has not been seen since.
• Satan: First revised in "Best Friends Forever" to have curved horns, stronger arms, and a much more detailed and muscular physique. with an entirely different silhouette.
  • He is further redesigned in "Freemium Isn't Free" to follow his original silhouette while still having curved horns and a more muscular form. One of his fingernails is now visible much of the time.
• Jimbo Kern: As of "Night of the Living Homeless", Jimbo has a softened chin, a completely new vest with realigned pockets and shading effects and a collared shirt, now with a zipper and visible undershirt, and softened lines on his hat to a deeper shade of orange.
  • During some instances in season 22, his vest has the shading effects reduced while still retaining the same pockets and shape.
• Gerald Broflovski: As of "More Crap", he has a different, thinner collar and a new yarmulke. His pants are also shaped slightly differently.
• Sheila Broflovski: From "Major Boobage" on, she has softened lines in her hair and updated earrings as well as a more symmetrical design, with a collar on her jacket, different pockets and a smoother skirt.
• Mr. Mackey: As of "Major Boobage", his shirt now has a pocket with softer lines, and the collar and tie are now even. He also has a belt.
• Herbert Garrison: As of "Eek, A Penis!", after his second sex change, he has an updated, straightened collar and a belt. His ears use softer lines and his glasses are now shown over his eyes from a sideview, instead of resting on his nose as previously.
• Principal Victoria: In "Breast Cancer Show Ever", her undershirt is lowered slightly to show more of her neck.
• Thomas and Laura Tucker: As of "Pandemic", their faces have both been given a slight clean-up, including shading on their hair respectively, though they retain the same silhouette.
• Stephen Stotch: in "Over Logging" on, has a collar to his shirt and a straightened tie.
• Stuart McCormick: As of "Pinewood Derby", the muss on his face closely resembles dirt, his hat is a dark red with more texture, he has a new realigned collar, and a cleaned-up body overall.
• Carol McCormick: As of "Pinewood Derby", she has more detailed hair, as well as new t-shirt with a different shape and her arms hanging differently, and new blue pants.
• Bartender: Has a major redesign in "W.T.F.", taking on an entirely different character shape.
• Skeeter's Friends: One of them had a major redesign on "W.T.F.".
• Peetie the Sexual Harassment Panda: had a slight redesign on "South ParQ Vaccination Special".
• Mayor McDaniels: As of "The F Word", the Mayor has a new collar and a small medal.
• Kevin McCormick: As of "Sexual Healing", he has new effects on his hair and face.
• Mecha-Streisand: As of "200", she has a completely new and fully 3D look.
• Dr. Alphonse Mephesto: As of "201", his wrinkles are softened and his hat now has a 3D effect to make its bottom visible, and his collar has been modified. A few new flowers have been added. His sideview is all-new.
• Kevin Mephesto: He got a redesigned shirt and collar in "201", in addition to less thick hair and softer facial features.
• Nathan: Had a slightly redesigned face in "Crippled Summer", and this time there's only one design for both angles of his head.
• Bradley Biggle: As of "Mysterion Rises", his hairstyle has some detail added to it.
• Tuong Lu Kim: From "City Sushi" on, usually has an altered hairline, softened cheekbones and skin details, a realigned vest, and black pants.
• Harrison Yates: From "City Sushi" on, his cheekbones and face detail as well as his hair detail are all softer shades, his holster is changed to a darker shade of brown, and the bottom of his suspenders is removed entirely so they appear to connect directly to his pants.
• Scott Tenorman: In "201", he gained more menacing and "creepy" facial features, as well as messy hair, a top hat and a new design for pants and shoes.
• Marvin Marsh has an entirely new wheelchair from "Cash For Gold" on, as well as wears a detailed purple blanket over his legs in many scenes. He returns to his old appearance when eating at the table with his family.
• Old Farmer: As of "Insecurity", he has a more detailed face, outfit, and hairstyle.
• Laura Tucker has an entirely new body type and design in "The Magic Bush", with both an updated version of her old outfit and an entirely new one including a flowery-patterned skirt.
• Karen McCormick: As of "The City Part of Town", she begins wearing her hair in pigtails with new detailed effects, possibly to differentiate her from Heidi Turner.
• Heidi Turner: Between Season 4- 6, she got a coat, as well as now having grey hair instead of black. It stays like this for the rest of the series. In Season 20, though her core design is unchanged, she began wearing a hat in "Skank Hunt" with a flower, that has become a permanent fixture of her design since then.
• Lolly the Candy Man: Has lost weight and has gray hair, and wears a different outfit when he reappears in "The Scoots", appearing to have aged several years.

Location Revisions

As locations reappear in South Park, the art representing them is often altered to include more detail. This often includes adding dimension, pathways, fencing, more naturalistic scenery such as trees and increasingly in later seasons, grasses.

• Stark's Pond: In season 7's "Toilet Paper, it was given a mistier atmosphere to reflect the episode's parody of The Godfather. **It was re-designed in "The China Probrem" as a much more detailed lake environment, now surrounded by more prominent mountains and detailed trees on multiple sides, with a bench overlooking the lake that has reappeared often.
• South Park Elementary: After being burned down in "Butt Out", it was rebuilt. More detail was added to the front doors, which would now be depicted more regularly. The interior mostly looks the same, with the various rooms being revised at different points. (see article)
• Hell's Pass Hospital: From "Best Friends Forever" on, the sign has been altered, there is red roofing, and the windows are more detailed.
  • It was given a more significant facelift in "Grounded Vindaloop" that includes a parking lot, trees, a fuller roof and significantly more depth. The interior rooms also return to having brown hospital beds instead of gray.
• South Park Genetic Engineering Ranch: Was revised in "201", with an more detailed fence and sign, the bunnyfish now replaced by asses adorning it, as well as more dead trees, hedges, and much more depth towards a detailed building with a boarded door. The interior is completely different with a tiled floor, a new workbench and new, dimly-lit cages for various animals.
• Jimbo's Guns: In "World War Zimmerman", the building has a more reddish coloration with detailed bricks, the 'Jimbo's Guns' name in a more proper typeface, and new signage. The interior is also revised to now include a longer counter with more detailed weapons, with lime flooring and dark green walls.
• South Park Church: Snow and a parking lot was added in season 11's "Cartman Sucks". By season 20's "Not Funny", new additions included a pathway from the sidewalk, a significant number of trees around the area, a slightly larger parking lot and a new, concrete exterior wall is introduced, behind which is a cemetery that can be seen from a distance.
  • For season 22's "A Boy And A Priest", the exterior was altered even more significantly, to accommodate wider shots featuring characters and a foreground parking lot. The building itself is revised to allow for a wider interior, now pushing out beyond the familiar arch shape that had characterized the building since the earlier seasons, with additional maroon stained glass windows on each side of this new mid-section. The exterior wall has also been changed to a thick wooden fence, with a visible gate, although the distant view of the cemetery is lost. These changes seemed to revert in "Season Finale".
• Bus Stop: In season 18's "The Magic Bush", more hills and trees were added in the background of it, to show the distance between it and the mountains, a forest was also added in front of the mountains, and in season 21's "Moss Piglets", some houses were added in the background.
  • Its design was altered even more in season 24's "The Pandemic Special", as trash can be seen on the ground, along with bits of grass poking out of the snow, snow can also now be seen covering the sign and slightly going onto the streets, and the houses previously added in the background were removed.
• Lolly's Candy Factory: In season 22's "The Scoots", it is now in the green building on Main Street rather than the larger building it was previously depicted as.

Video Games

For South Park: The Stick of Truth, the game developers had to recreate everything from the ground up and the models used in game, while intended to be as close to the show as possible, occasionally use different textures, thicker lines or contain small differences that an eagle-eyed fan may notice. An interesting detail is that the game has a design based on the Corel DRAW models of the characters, which explains why some of them are slightly different from their appearance in the show. Many of the background characters do not resemble those ever actually seen in the show as a result.

South Park: The Fractured But Whole uses the Snowdrop engine by Ubisoft that can actually import and export art assets in a compatible format with Maya, so it therefore uses art assets created for the show and the game's original assets are fully compatible with it.

The upcoming game South Park: Snow Day! took a different art direction than the previous two games (which aimed to have the exact look of the show), adapting the town into a 3D environment, but still faithfully maintaining the character designs and other features of the animation, such as the simple movements of the characters, which is more noticeable when they are talking. The only different feature regarding the characters' animation is that their legs are actually animated when they walk or run. The camera angles are also positioned in such a way that the characters are completely front, side or back, generally avoiding more diagonal angles. The characters' faces are animated using 2D images.

Trivia

• Liane Cartman, Sharon Marsh, Skeeter, Richard Adler, Richard Tweak and Mrs. Tweak are the only adult characters still active with their original appearances. However, Officer Barbrady is sometimes seen in his old uniform resembling his first season self, and Ned Gerblanski has undergone only a small revision. In later seasons, Sharon's eyebrows are virtually permanent and Liane often wears a jacket.
• In the first four seasons, the characters didn't have standard bored/tired eyes, so they always had to be drawn from scratch when making expressions like that.