Thomas Lee and BentTV! - 08/27/2004 Author: unclemike | Interviewee: pyropymp Thomas Lee. One great flash artist indeed. Today I talk with him about his past, present, and future in the world of Flash Animation. I am very happy to be doing this interview, and I am especially glad it's going to promote Thomas's work. For those who don't know, you've been doing flash for a long time. Would you consider yourself "NG Old Skool"? Oh yes, and proudly so. I started visiting Newgrounds on a regular basis since '99, and have actively participated and contributed to the Portal since the Summer 2000. It's good to see how Newgrounds has evolved though the years... and it's good to be able to say "back in the days" whenever I'm here! Star Wars Gangsta Rap. The first creation I witnessed from you... and one of the best flashes I've seen on NG. Sadly, it is no longer on NG; what makes me want to remember the lyrics to those awesome parody flashes? What makes you want to remember? Probably the same reason I wanted to make the video in the first place. A friend of mine showed me Bentframe's Star Wars Gangsta Rap mp3 back in 2000, and I immediately fell in love with it. I was just starting to learn Flash too, and I thought - why not make a video for it? After showing the results to Bentframe, they were like "Dude, you want to work with us?" and now here I am, a part of Bent TV. Let's talk animation. Unofficially dubbed "The Motion Tween King", you seem to out-do any other flash artists's detail in their animation by this method. What sets you apart from other flash artists? Speaking of detail, I definitely wouldn't dare to say I can "out-do any other flash artists"... I envy people like James Farr (Xombie series) and Adam Phillips (Bitey of Brackenwood). But I do like to incorporate as much details as I could, because I like the idea of people having to watch my stuff more than once or twice to catch everything. Now, on motion tween, I guess what sets me apart from most motion-tweeners I know, is that I always try to blend the outlines, and edges of my shapes and symbols as smoothly as I could, so the movement would seem more organic and fluid, rather than straight, hard vector tween. What animation techniques do you most commonly use in your flashes? Well, technically, I guess it would primarily be shape and motion tweening ;) Layers and layers of motion/shape tweens. You would not believe how many layers I have, in symbols, scenes, and the main time-line. I wish I knew enough classical animation to be able to do frame-by-frame. How long does it usually take you to create one of your toons? If you start to slow down because lack of interest, what keeps you motivated? On average, a 3 minute more-or-less flash would take around a month and a half or so... I don't slow down because of lack of interest, I slow down sometimes because I get exhausted, or I am trying to find new ways to animate certain elements/scenes/characters. It's like solving a math problem, only without the actual math *cringe*. Sometimes the problem takes a long time to solve. Practically speaking, what keeps me motivated right now is mainly the desire to complete my portfolio, getting my stuff licensed to gain what measly cash I can get, and submitting them to local festivals. But ideally, my motivation is the act of creating itself.... it's both fun and painfully tiresome, but it's what I love. Do you get alot of feedback from your flash parodies? If so, good or bad? Well, compared to the more popular flashes in the Portal, I think the amount of feedback I get is rather modest. As for the feedbacks themselves, I get both good and bad, I appreciate the positive ones very much, but I absolutely adore the negative ones. I guess it's because people are usually much more intense when they are negative as opposed to when they are positive, and that leaves a lot of room for some comedic ridiculing. You can see that I respond to almost every negative review I get, I enjoy the interaction, especially when it's about my more controversial works. Also, what would you like to tell the people who take your flashes too seriously? Okay, this is to these people: Please, take it AS SERIOUSLY AS YOU CAN! Be as offended as you can possibly be! Please keep telling me how much I suck because of my personal tastes, and my opinions about politics and pop-culture, and then turn to making colorful comments about my sexual preferences and bodily inadequacies. Because of people like you, I would be able to do something like this: http://www.yorku.ca/casa/thomas/tupacconvo.html (MSN conversation with a hardcore Tupac fan in regards to my work "EmpTV: Tupac, Paris Hilton") Chipmunks Gangsta Rap is threatened lawsuit by the owner of Alvin and the Chipmunks?? What do you have to say about that? I think it was ludicrous... we were perfectly within the legal boundaries of parody rights and fair use, and they threatened lawsuit on grounds that it was "defamatory". Their marketing representative even called me up saying that they think Chipmunks Gangsta Rap is going to affect the sales of their merchandise. Please, if anything, we are actually making Alvin and the Chipmunks more popular, seeing that they haven't done squat since '93. One word to fellow satire artists: beware of corporate bullies. Anyhoo... we complied and let atomfilms take it off their site (where it was seen by them in the first place). BentTV. Who are the people involved in this group? Jason Brannon, the brains and voices behind the majority of our BentTV stuff. Chris Crawford, the main musical talent (and also voices). Also a respectable hip-hop artist. Moi - director / animator / producer What do you think about Newgrounds these days? I've always loved newgrounds, it is always improving itself. Although I do get nostalgic at times and start looking up some of the old classics. Personally I think the Portal needs a better way to give exposure to all worthy flashes rather than having them end up getting buried away and forgotten beneath the top 50. Tom spoke of an automatic categorizing system, where the submissions can automatically be put into the "Genres and Series" part of the page. That would really help a lot. I think this should be made a priority. Do you like the new flash content that is sweeping the Portal? What new artists have really caught your attention? Yes, very much so. The many talents on Newgrounds also get better and better everyday. I will have to say this site has the largest community of the most talented artists on the web. James Farr and Adam Phillips immediately jumps to mind when talking about being immensely impressed. Notable mentions also goes to MikethePod for his hilarious "John's Arm" series, and Ping146 for his laugh-tastic "The Hate Machine" series - both of these two artists are severely underrated in my opinion. Where do you see yourself in the future? Do you plan on being an animator for life, or is there something else that you want to try too? I want to be a director - an animation director. I think animation is not respected enough as a legitimate film form in the film industry. Animation is a very disciplined art form, and takes immense skill. I want to see more animated feature movies the theatres, not generic live-action block-busters. I want to take part in this change, and I want to join with people who feel the same way. Yes, I am a big fan of Hayao Miyazaki ;) You rock. What do you have to say to an animator in the making like me? Work your friggin' ASS off! And have patience. If you don't have patience, you cannot be an animator. You also need to always keep a calm temper and be cheerful. It helps. Well hey thanks for your time Thomas. It's definately been a pleasure interviewing you since I've watched your stuff since the beginning of me going to NG. No, thank YOU for giving me this chance! Well to sum things up, Thomas is better than ever with his new flashes on the way and will definately be known as a grand flash artist in my books. Be sure to look out for his re-mastered flashes like Tupac and his cheetos. Check out these Portal submissions by pyropymp: --select-- Website: Bent TV Productions Age: 28 Gender: Male Habitat: Toronto, ON Job: Animator / Director Favorite Films: Fight Club, Battle Royale Being John Malkovich,Zoolander Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas Favorite Bands: Amon Tobin, Sonic Youth Thievery Corporation, Pink Floyd, Beastie Boys, Air