KOOL WEB TOOL

The entire Simpson family was designed so that they would be recognizable in silhouette.[25] The family was crudely drawn, because Groening had submitted basic sketches to the animators, assuming they would clean them up; instead, they just traced over his drawings.[14] Homer's physical features are generally not used in other characters; for example, in the later seasons, no characters other than Homer and Lenny have a similar beard line.[26] When Groening originally designed Homer, he put his initials into the character's hairline and ear: the hairline resembled an 'M', and the right ear resembled a 'G'. Groening decided that this would be too distracting though, and redesigned the ear to look normal. He still draws the ear as a 'G' when he draws pictures of Homer for fans.[27] The basic shape of Homer's head is described by director Mark Kirkland as a tube-shaped coffee can with a salad bowl on top. Bart's head is also coffee can shaped, while spheres are used for Marge, Lisa and Maggie.[28] During the shorts, the animators experimented with Homer's mouth movements when talking and at one point his mouth would stretch out back "beyond his beardline", but this was stopped when it got "out of control."[29] In some early episodes, Homer's hair was rounded rather than sharply pointed because animation director Wes Archer felt it should look disheveled. Homer's hair later evolved to appear consistently pointed.[30] During the first three seasons, Homer's design for some close-up shots included small lines which were meant to be eyebrows. Matt Groening strongly disliked them and they were eventually dropped.[30]

In the season seven (1995) episode "Treehouse of Horror VI", Homer was computer animated into a three dimensional character for the first time for the "Homer3" segment of the episode. The computer animation directors at Pacific Data Images worked hard not to "reinvent the character".[31] In the final minute of the segment, the 3D Homer ends up in a real world, live-action Los Angeles. The scene was directed by David Mirkin and was the first time a Simpsons character had been in the real world in the series.[31] The episode "Lisa's Wedding" (season six, 1995) is a flashforward, set fifteen years in the future and Homer's design was altered to make him older. He was redesigned to be heavier, one the hairs on top of his head was removed and an extra line was placed under the eye. A similar design was used in subsequent flashforward episodes.[32]