"I have gained a real appreciation for voice actors," Patrick says. "They came into the studio and had about five different ways to say the same line."

Patrick knew he wanted a mousy sounding voice for Toad, the smallest frog. Bully had to have the lowest kids’ voice, because he’s the biggest. And Uncle Phineas is a preacher, so he needed a deep Southern accent.

Ribbits! features some of the top voice talent in Hollywood. An actor who’s performed in about 400 projects, plays Uncle Phineas. And a man who’s played Pluto, Goofy and Foghorn Leghorn, is the voice of Bully and Toad.

Character Sketches

Once the appearance and voice of each character was determined, the animators needed to see how the Ribbits! cast looked together.

"One of the first things we do is a lineup," Patrick says. "Before we animate anything, we have to see how they relate to each other."

Whirligig Animation created a "digital puppet" for each character. While this process takes a lot of time, it actually saves hours of work, compared to traditional cell animation. In cell animation, every frame is drawn by hand starting with a blank screen. Computer animation creates a "real" 3-D world where various props and characters can be placed. In computer animation an animator only has to create a rock once—then it can be used again and again. But in cell animation, the rock has to be drawn each time.

Developing a digital puppet is a five-step process:

1. A model is created to show the size and shape of the character.
2. The animator gives the character its skeleton, which determines how it can move. The frogs in Ribbits! walk instead of hop.
3. Rigging is added. This is like putting strings on a puppet and helps the animator move characters more easily.
4. Color and texture are designed.
5. The character is fully animated.

Action!

Ribbits! features eye-popping 3-D animation. Whirligig Animation uses the same computer program as the creators of Star Wars and Monsters, Inc. The only real difference is the number of animators.

"There were about 400 people working on Shrek," Jon says. "In the beginning, it was just me working on Ribbits! Now, with up to five people, we were able to crank out 30 minutes of quality animation."

About six months of work went into animating The Hero of Hopper’s Landing.

"Our goal was for each person to create about 450 frames a week, which is about 15 seconds of animation," Jon says.

Sometimes a person could do more, especially if the scene just had a couple of characters talking to each other. Difficult effects such as water splashing and dust blowing took a lot more time.

But Jon and Patrick agree that the animation stage is the best, because that’s where they could add some funny things, like a frog that always faints or one that occasionally runs through scenes.