Why Don't You Make More Vids?

Why don't you make more vids?

Because I've been completing my degree. Don't worry though, I've got a new film that I've been working on all year that's coming out soon. It's been a strange year in that way; spending all day every day animating, while constantly receiving emails and comments from strangers saying "why aren't you animating more?"

With animations like 'Man Spaghetti', did you storyboard that or just made it up as you animated it?

With Man Spaghetti, I storyboarded a few seconds of stuff, then started animating it, while continuing with the storyboard as I went. All my work is made with some variation of this technique, and the first thing I usually animate on a film is the opening shot. So my work is planned out, but it's like in Wallace & Gromit, where Gromit gets stuck on a toy train, and is laying out the track in front of the train as he goes. That's my production schedule right there.

hom

As an professional artist, does it matter whether you use your real name or just a pseudonym? Are there any advantages or disadvantages to both? Or does it just not matter? Am I just worrying needlessly on unimportant things?

It just depends what you feel is appropriate for your practice, really. If you're a graffiti artist, or have a really shitty name, then a pseudonym is probably the way to go. Just remember that once your career transcends the internet, people will call you by your pseudonym in REAL LIFE. Play that scenario out in your head, and if it makes you cringe, pick a different pseudonym, or go with your name.

What was a major influence on your style (if any)?

'A' major influence, so like, just one at random? Alright then, Croc. As in the game, Croc. Prequel to Croc 2, you know the one. It was installed on my computer when I was a little kid but I didn't have the disc, so when I played it there was never any music- nothing to try and communicate any sort of 'mood'. It was just this quiet whimsical, charming place that I always wanted to wander around in and look at stuff, but then things in it would kill me, and that genuinely scared me. There's a very specific mood there, this sort of 'whimsical but mildly-threatening'. I think a lot of how my style has developed over the years, has been designed to lend itself to that mood. Regardless of the mood of the individual piece, I'm always aware of it lurking slightly in my sensibilities.

Some jars I animated to be used as ident type things in a recent screening. The jars themselves were drawn by the talented and incredibly handsome Ariel Victor. I wanted to animate them straight ahead, but they needed to resolve themselves into Ariel's illustrations, so I animated them all backwards. It's a fun technique to play around with, "straight behind animation"- the end results are far from logical or naturalistic, but you still arrive at intrinsically satisfying movements.