Emmy-award winning animators Dan Povenmire and Jeff 'Swampy' Marsh have given some insight into how they bring their cartoon characters to life.

In a video for BBC News they observed that hands are often the most difficult part of a character for animators, and answered that oft-asked question: Why do cartoon characters only have a thumb and three fingers?

"Everybody shortens it to three fingers and a thumb... just simply for an economy of line. When you're having to animate 24 drawings per second, dropping one finger makes a huge difference," Marsh said.

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For budding animators they advised: "Don't use any erasers and draw with a Sharpie as much as you can, because it keeps you from going back and fiddling with it, and you just keep doing bigger and bolder shapes."

Cartoon fans were delighted on 1 April where the news that Rick and Morty was back turned out to be true, and not a cruel April Fool's joke.

Duo Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland had been taunting fans with a Rick Roll masquerading as a new trailer for the third season, but finally came through with the first new episode aired on Adult Swim.

Alongside the new episode, a fresh teaser was revealed featuring the new and improved Rick - check him out here.