Hanna-Barbera, the noted animation studio that gave the world the Flintstones and Scooby-Doo, based in Hollywood, California and part of Turner Home Entertainment (THE) recently ran into a quality control/cost problem requiring a technology-based solution.

The problem was that every time an animation studio such as Hanna-Barbera develops a new cartoon character or series, it licenses the property to toy companies, apparel makers and other merchandisers. These licensees receive a style guide, a book featuring all the artwork associated with the cartoon series that can be used to create imagery for products. The artwork in the guides meets Hanna-Barbera's standards of how the character(s) can be depicted.

Though the style guides as currently produced serve their purpose, they have drawbacks. Because of four-color reproduction and a limited press run of only 1,000 copies, the guides are very expensive to print, averaging $150,000 per press run or $150 per copy. The cost of updating and reprinting the style guides, which average 200 to 300 pages, also is prohibitive. Quality control issues also arise in order to use the images in the style guide because licensees first have to electronically scan the printed images. Imagery could be compromised and sometimes didn't meet with Hanna-Barbera's final approval, resulting in delays in product development cycles. Also, licensees were demanding earlier delivery of the style guides. Toy companies, for example, needed about one year's lead time to meet production schedules.

For these reasons, Hanna-Barbera began looking for a new style guide format. Mike Schelske, Director of Business Operations for Orbit City Art Company, the consumer products support division for Hanna-Barbera, spearheaded the project to come up with a new style guide format for the Jonny Quest television series.

Since the majority of licensees Hanna-Barbera worked with were using Macintosh computers with built-in CD-ROM drives, and Hanna Barbera itself relied on Apple technology in its art departments, the idea of pursuing a CD-ROM approach created with Macintosh technology seemed most appropriate.

The Solution

In order to get ideas for creating an easy-to-develop and easy-to-update CD-ROM-based style guide, Schelske and his MIS staff approached Apple Computer, Inc. for help. They learned about Apple Media Tool software, which makes development of multimedia titles easy. The visual authoring environment allows users to assemble graphics, text, sound files, QuickTime and QuickTime VR movies into multimedia programs without writing scripts or code.

Hanna-Barbera was also put in touch with Christopher Deppe of TSE International, a software development company. Deppe used his own proprietary technology, which involves a database engine and template system setup to create structure applications, and to ultimately create the CD-ROM master for the studio. The Digital StyleGuide (DSG), as it is called, was created in both a Macintosh and Windows format to suit the varying needs of the studio's licensees and is the first for the licensing industry.

The Process