fear

@Ihhh  
Getting back to your original question, I have no idea how DHX does that, and it is an incredibly fascinating question that I would love to learn more about.
 
My impression is that since Studio B Productions was aquired by DHX, they have largely kept their … “whatever you can get away with, get away with it” approaches to 2D animation, and listening to the writers talk it sometimes sounds like they hand the studio a “whatever works - go for it” blank check, and then the studio acts out as hard as it can, and then they pull it back down to make it fit in the TV-Y box, so the concept could have come from anyone in the art department … but I’m sure it’s going to match someone’s personal style - I just can’t figure out whom.
 
That episode had a ton of storyboard artists, revisionists, and supervisors, too.
 
Timothy Packford supervised the storyboards, but Ed Baker and Mincheul Park were the artists, and Carrie Mombourquette was the storyboard lead, and you also had Kaylea Chard, Sinan Demirer, and Harinam Virdee as storyboard revisionists. The art department is very top loaded on some of the shows, which I think is great, because I think it really makes for an interesting and very creative show.
 
And based on DHX Studio’s job descriptions, even the revisionists are in a position to really push the team to expressions like these.
 
So it could have been any one of seven people who pushed the envelope on this one.
 
And that’s really for me a huge part of why I love this show. The production approach is … tantalizing.

@Ihhh  
I’ve never drawn any flash that made it to the screen, but I’ve worked in the (mostly post) industry most of my life, like architecting the networks to get dailies between the shooting location and the studio, getting rendering farms to not fall over (again), figuring out why the moon in the sky over Hogwarts is flashing in time with the candles in the hallway, or figuring out why this DVD label that was created in Denmark, touched up in France, approved in Canada, translated in the U.S., and now sitting on a machine in Japan waiting for the production run is full of mojibake urusei, ne?
 
So, I haven’t done any real on-the-screen work, but I’ve been yelled at by many people who do, so even though I don’t know the “how to animate” I have gotten some exposure to the “why they won’t let that person animate what they want to animate”.
 
In all sincerity, I think a lot of animators would be delighted to be able to do the complete scene. But it’s a money thing.
 
And, like companies that hire a steno pool and teach their development staff to write shorthand (because “development is mostly typing and this way we’ll save lots of money!”) the thinking behind it is usually driven by someone who probably shouldn’t be in that position of authority, but that’s where they are, because if they were anyplace else the damage they might do would be catastrophic.

@Ciaran  
I guess you do know what you’re talking about.

@Ihhh  
Even in Flash, you have some individuals who are responsible for key frames and poses, and all the others who do the rest of the shit including making sure that you get from key frame to key frame without pissing off the Layout Supervisors.
 
In the case of MLP:FiM, the (formerly known as) Studio B folks put together the keyframes, poses, and character designs and backgrounds for approval.
 
But once they’re approved, the go to Top Draw Animation for the rest of the shit between the key frames and poses.
 

 
The technology has changed a lot, but the hierarchical approach to creative responsibility and authority, especially in something like a Hasbro shop, is still very much 1995.

@Ciaran  
I don’t want to be rude, but do you even know how flash puppets work?

@Ihhh  
Whatever it is that Top Draw Animation does - I’m used to thinking of that step as the inbetweener step. Whatever the Flash equivalent is.

@Ciaran  
What I meant was, does anyone know which of the two storyboard artists who boarded this episode drew this? Also, what inbetweeners? This show is made in flash with puppets.

@Ihhh  
It’s a 100% actual screenshot from the show. So someone in DHX Media, just assuming that the inbetweeners wouldn’t be reaching this far.

Who drew this?

anyone else get pony.mov vibes off of this?

for some reason this image reminds me of Mr. Meeseeks

@Priyan  
this image just reminds me of sonic the hedgehorg

“Ah! Wrong hole!”

@a6p  
That was never good :D

That’s no good