MOSCOW, 17 Jun. The popular animation project «Smeshariki» is 20 years old. During this time, more than 600 episodes were released, including special ones. How they make a «round story» and solve the problem of sanctions against Russia — in the material.
Production secrets: how to draw a cartoon
The first thing, of course, is writing a script. Six minutes of release — six pages of text. According to the leading director of the series and feature films «Smeshariki» Denis Chernov, his colleagues draw the first sketch (storyboard) themselves.
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» The format allows: six minutes — it's not very much. Actors are recorded according to the director's sketch. This is necessary so that later the animators know how long the hero’s phrase takes.
Denis Chernovleading director of the series and feature films «Smeshariki»
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Animation artists get not a hand-drawn sketch, but an animatic.
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"Storyboard pictures are given movement to make sense of the length of the episodes. Then this material, with voice acting and music, is cut into scenes and given to animators with background people. And the finished parts are glued together into a single cartoon".
Denis Chernovleading director of the series and feature films «Smeshariki»
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One release takes up to four months. Three teams work in parallel: one starts the series, the second ends the other, and the third is in the middle of the way.
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«The team consists of six to eight animators, a director, a screenwriter, background artists, a composer — about 20 people in total,» Chernov clarified.
Denis Chernovleading director of the series and feature films «Smeshariki»
With the full mobilization of the project team with one series, you can keep within a month and a half. 
Round heroes: who is hiding behind your favorite characters
Although there were no specific prototypes, allusions are indispensable. For example, according to Chernov, Barash is Pushkin, Kar-Karych is Chaliapin, and Pin is Johann Goethe's Faust.
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"Kopatych was written with Papanov. His voice carries a lot in itself, it is immediately clear that this is a guy from a plow, a kind, soft, sympathetic, domestic bear. But Sovunya, although a female character, is voiced by a charming man Sergei Mardar. You can draw a parallel with Ranevskaya — there are sharp statements, and some similarities with Freken Bock», — explains Chernov.
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There are also two absolutely unique heroes — Krosh and Nyusha.
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< strong>"Krosh— archetypal, with unbridled energy, obsessed with new ideas. But the rabbit is also one of the main philosophers of the series. Nyusha — a collective image with all the best and worst female qualities. They are compressed like a nuclear mixture, — the director notes. » media-type=»ar16x9″ data-crop-ratio=»0.5625″ data-crop-width=»600″ data-crop-height=»338″ data-source-sid=»» class=»» />< br />
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Sometimes in a children's cartoon, adults are also addressed. So, in some episodes there are Easter eggs — frames from big movies and animations. 
Philosophy and psychology: who is working on the Smeshariki series
The project is attracted professionals, especially psychologists.
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«Children from year to year become more mature than their predecessors: that is, today a six-year-old child is not the same as he was before. Digital literacy is very important — there is a lot of information on the Internet. And another main theme of cartoons follows from this — critical thinking, this is an important skill for the guys, «emphasizes the producer of» Smeshariki » Tatyana Pavlova.
"Smeshariki" — this is not only the original cartoon, but also spin-offs. For example, over the past 20 years, several ABCs have been published: safety, health, children's rights, reading, real estate, and others. In addition, there is a "PinCode" is a separate project dedicated to science and invention.
< br />For example, an expert from the ethnographic museum participated in the creation of the ABC of Peoples' Friendship.
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“He checked the color of the clothes on the sketch, the size of the manti that lie on the plate, in a series about Buryatia and Khakassia,” the producer explains.
Official departments also turn to the computer animation studio «Petersburg» (GK «Riki»), which deals with «Smeshariki».
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"They came to us from FBU "Avialesookhrana" with the idea to make the alphabet of protecting the forest when there were fires. And the experts and I revealed this topic: how to behave correctly, in which direction to run if the wind is blowing, and so on. Not even all adults know this,” says Pavlova.
Pandemic and sanctions: transformation » Smesharikov»
The pandemic, as Ilya Popov, the founder of the Riki Group of Companies, noted in an interview, helped create a different model for the production of the cartoon. 
«The project team has grown over the past two or three years. And we reorganized the process so that no additional space in the office was required. Now each part of the team acts independently,” he clarified.
< br />Arty-Russian sanctions have complicated the work.
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"Many licenses were purchased earlier for a long time. Now we are looking for separate solutions for open source software. On other issues, we are at the negotiation stage to find a way to legally acquire the software. The worst option for us is to use the resources of foreign companies that have access to licenses,” Popov explains.
About money: revenues and expenses of Smesharikov
Not only public funds are invested in the project (as, for example, in the case of the Avialesookhrana FBU), but also private ones.
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"Many investors have become our licensees. In a sense, we were the first crowdfunding company in Russia,” Popov points out.
In Russia, advertising on TV is prohibited during the broadcast of children's content. Therefore, programs for kids and teenagers are mostly unprofitable.
"The main sources of income are the sale of media rights, licensing for the release of promotional products, cooperation on joint projects. Moreover, we make not only video content, but also audio: music on streaming and podcasts,” adds the general producer of Ricky Group of Companies. Julia Nikolaeva.
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A separate direction — concerts and exhibitions. Like, for example, now at the Khlebozavod.
You can learn more about the creation of Smeshariki and get to know each character more at the Khlebzavod, at the exhibition «The Art of Being Round».