Hey and hello! I hope everyone had a happy Memorial Day weekend, even if you're not American. I spent mine writing, animating, and attending a barbecue where a horrible, terrible, awful children's version of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack was played. (Where can I get a copy for myself?) The upcoming cartoon is still underway and could take some time even though it's short, as I have other projects to work on. I'm not going to tell you when to expect it, but I guess I can tell you what it's about now that I'm sure I'm not going to change my mind. The working title (likely to be changed) is Masterpieces Explained. Sounds boring, I know, but it's the real story behind a very famous painting. (No, it isn't The Scream, and it's nothing by Dali). You all think you know the story behind this one, but I'm telling you now: you're wrong. Anyway, that's all I'm saying. You'll find out more soon.
Oh, a couple of notes... have you noticed there's a Facebook quiz now? Also, there's an easier way to send fan art.
All righty. Time to answer some emails.
Where did your inspiration come from for the girl. -TH
I guess you could say I wasn't very happy when I wrote that and, while Emmeline's story is not at all autobiographical, it came about because, well, I felt like writing about revenge. And originally, that's how the story ended. Emmeline got fed up, exploded with rage, crash-bang-boom, the end. But that sort of ending isn't how things happen in life. Vengeance is, in reality, a very nasty thing that only makes a bad situation worse. As I thought about this, the story developed further. How the specific details of a small girl with a monster friend came about, I'm not really sure. It just fell into place. But my point with the story is not only that love is more important than toys and things but also that bottling up one's feelings until they explode is just as dangerous to oneself as whatever caused one to bottle them up in the first place.
(Also, I had a fuzzy white dog once. Her name was Tofu. She didn't have red eyes or wings, but she was my best friend. And she liked socks.)
Do you comission the artists/orchestras yourself for your movies? Are you involved with the creativity process with the score? -N
Most of the music from my cartoons is purchased stock music or public domain or otherwise royalty-free. My friends Gwydi and Aisha Elderwyn composed and performed the soundtrack to When Genevieve Ruled the World, however, and I was as involved in that process as I could be without abusing the very generous gift of their talents. Basically, I gave them the script with extremely detailed notes on what was supposed to sound like what and where, and they sent me snippets of music for me to approve along the way. It was a lot of fun (for me, anyway), but also a great deal of work (for them, definitely)!
Is skary something from your own personal time? ... Have you've been approached for commercial items? - N (part 2)
It is most definitely from my own personal time, and a big chunk of it too. Not that I mind, of course! I have, indeed, been approached for commercial items a few times, but it was always either the wrong thing or the wrong time, or I was at risk of losing my control over it. It's wonderful when artists are able to profit from their work in any way. I'd just rather let mass-produced t-shirts wait until people actually know what it's all about.
I noticed that the captions for the skary movies have been mysteriously ran away from the posted movies on this site. I enjoy the captions (being a wee bit stone-deaf) and wondered if you could post the clips with captioning at at least on the skary youtube tags. - N (part 3)
That is an excellent suggestion. I moved everything to YouTube because the burden on my site is immense every time I post something new. It's just so much easier to host them elsewhere! But I hadn't even thought about the subtitles and, as soon as I have the time, I will add those to the YouTube videos, too. Thanks for the reminder!