Brackenwood and Beyond - 04/19/2004
Author: DanPaladin | Interviewee: chluaid
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One of our favorite NG artists, Dan Paladin (also known as Synj) took a moment to discuss animation with a favorite newcomer, Disney animator Adam Phillips.
Adam is best known for his "hitchHiker" movies, as well as the current hit, "Bitey of Brackenwood". Let's here what he has to say! |
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Which films were you involved in the creation of at Disney?
I've been there for almost 11 years now, so I've worked on quite a few. Most of them are direct-to-video/DVD sequel projects such as Lion King 2 and 3 (also called Lion King 1 1/2), Peter Pan 2 (briefly in cinemas), Lady and the Tramp 2, etc.. You'll find my name under the Special Effects credits.
Were you laid off as one of the rumored thousands during the recent Disney 2D abandonment?
Nope... the Sydney studio is still standing so I still have a day-job.
What other previous professional experiences have you taken part in before your arrival to newgrounds?
Before I started work with Disney in 1993 I worked on farms, in kitchens and in factories. I didn't take any art subjects at school and I've had no formal art training, so luckily Disney only wanted me for my drawing ability, and weren't too concerned with my education :D.
Is there a backstory on the inspiration for Bitey of Brackenwood?
I've always loved forests, natural environments and folk tales of faeries and spirits. Brackenwood is the place where I've always wanted to live, so I try to create the appropriate scenery and atmosphere.
Do you have any personal goals set with your work right now?
For a few years now, my main aim has been to make Brackenwood, Bingbong and Bitey household names all over the world. There's a long way to go, so I'm trying to get it all done while I'm still in the mood.
Have you reached any of these goals?
Newgrounds has been excellent exposure, so the journey is just started; my work has had such massive exposure now, which I couldn't have got from my own website alone. Now that there is a lot of interest in my stuff, I'm challenged to keep producing and updating my site with new content regularly. If I stop doing that, or slow down at all, people will get tired of waiting for new stuff and all the interest in my work will likely fade away.
So just what is it? Your main motivation for being an animator? What makes you tick?
My main motivation is to tell my own stories, which is why I also have text-stories on my site. Many people have offered me work as an animator, but to be honest I don't want to animate for the rest of my life.. I've been doing it for over a decade, and I'm getting kinda tired. :)
I want to tell stories, preferably my own; so I figure the best way to do that is to get my name out there as a director and storyteller, first and foremost. If I can prove myself to be a good director, then I can apply it to any medium, whether it's comics, 2D/3D animation or live-action.
Have you ever spent some time with Richard Williams, Tim Burton, Ron Clements, Milt Kahl, or Joe Grant? Do you have any interesting tales to tell of these people?
I haven't met any of those people because living in Australia makes you kinda isolated from the rest of the world.. particularly from all the big stuff in America (the other side of the planet) where it all happens. The internet is changing all that though!
How about a spontaneous list of your top 3 favorite animated films?
1. The Iron Giant
2. Triplets of Belleville
3. Princess Mononoke
Do you happen to have any tutorials you have written before on anything regarding art?
No, on my site I have a couple of early Flash tutorials that badly need updating, so some time soon I'll try to do that, as well as add a couple more. Apart from those, I've contributed to 2 books for friendsofED, details of those below. The chapters I contributed to those books are like a bunch of tutorials strung together.
So what's the comfiest? Animating on ones or twos, and at what framerate? (for those of you unfamiliar with "ones" or "twos", it essentially means how many frames until the next keyframe is created)
In Flash I use a mish-mash of techniques. I really like to fully animate things and not be restricted by the limited nature of Flash and bandwidth, but on the other hand I like to get things done quickly and will re-use various elements throughout each movie to save myself from doing unnecessary work. For example, if I draw a tree or a shrub, you can be guaranteed that you'll see it at least a few more times throughout the movie. The same goes for character drawings. There were only about 10 different heads for Bitey, so much of the time I only drew his body, and just dragged an existing head from the library.
All my work up until the hitchHiker movies was 12fps, which is the Flash default. But I've always intended Brackenwood for broadcast, so I did those at 30fps, which is NTSC standard. When you're working frame-by-frame, the higher frame-rate means more than twice as much drawing work, but it really smoothes everything out; especially camera moves.
Whether or not I work on ones or twos depends on my frame rate, and how I want the animation to look. If I want a particularly fast zipping movement at 30fps, I'll do it on ones. If it's just steady-paced action, twos are fine.
Any recommendations regarding personal disciplines and/or any literature for aspiring animators reading this right now?
I can recommend a couple of friendsofED books, one of which has a chapter I wrote about how I made the hitchHiker movies:
Flash MX Most Wanted Effects & Movies
and the other one was written by a friend of mine, Kevin Peaty who also works at Disney:
Flash Cartoon Animation
I've also just completed a chapter in New Masters of Flash: Volume 3, and my chapter is all about how I do my lighting effects in Flash. That will be released sometime around June/July. Here's the amazon link!
As far as personal disciplines.. do you mean self-discipline? How I get things done? Well, when I start a movie I turn off ICQ, MSN, etc. and just work. Occasionally when I finish a big scene I'll get online and play some UT2004 for a few maps, but I always try to stay focused on getting the movie finished. While I'm working I put on all my favourite music and nothing helps me work better than that.
When I'm at my day-job I think a lot about my Brackenwood projects, so by the time I get home in the evening my head is full of Brackenwood ideas and I let them all fall out into Flash. It's great having that time away from the computer to let your mind do some free-style thinking.
Do you have any films in the works currently?
I'm working on the new Brackenwood movie right now, which I want to be finished before July when I hope to be going to New York for FlashForward2004. There is a huge number of little 10-sec-film ideas running around in my head (very short movies like "Frank!"). When I'm tired of working on something, I'll usually do a bit of work on one of those little movies.
Anything else you care sharing with us before we are finished?
If you're interested in animation, first learn as much as you can about drawing; everything including people, architecture, animals, landscapes, lighting, etc.. It will set your work apart from everything else on the net. And whatever you choose to do, do it until you are tired of it, then keep doing it. In any field, practice is what separates amateur from expert.
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Check out these Portal submissions by chluaid:
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Website:
Bitey Castle
Age:
80
Gender:
Male
Habitat:
Bitey Castle, top floor
Job:
Knifeman
Favorite Bands:
Ween
RadioHead
PinkFloyd
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