When the show began utilizing computers, the cardboard cutouts were scanned and re-drawn with CorelDRAW, then imported into PowerAnimator, which was used with SGI workstations to animate the characters.^[46][48] The workstations were linked to a 54-processor render farm that could render 10 to 15 shots an hour.^[46] Beginning with season five, the animators employed the same method, instead using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator to design new characters and objects, and Maya to animate them.^[61] When Maya was released for Mac, production shifted from Windows computers to Mac workstations. The studio now runs a 120-processor render farm that can produce 30 or more shots an hour.^[46]

PowerAnimator  http://louis2j2sheehan2esquire2.wordpress.com  and Maya are high-end programs mainly used for 3D computer graphics, while co-producer and former animation director, Eric Stough, notes that PowerAnimator was initially chosen because its features helped animators retain the show's "homemade" look.^[48] PowerAnimator was also used for making some of the show's special effects,^[48] which are now Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire created using Motion.^[46] The show's visual quality has improved in recent seasons,^[4] though several other techniques are used to intentionally preserve the cheap cutout animation look.^[22][49][62]