I was interviewed weeks back by one of the Newgrounds BBS moderators, Dark Archon for the NG Mag. The guys at Newgrounds have been quite busy with other things so the mag hasn’t been updated recently. So, I figured I’d post the interview here in case anyone was interested in reading it.
Well to start things off let me first thank you for the Interview opportunity!
Thanks for taking the time to ask me questions and allow me to pollute the minds of innocent web surfers.
At what age did you start drawing?
According to my parents, I was two when I started attempting to draw. Personally, I dont remember back that far and as far as I know, I have always drawn. So, we’ll assume my parents are liars and I began drawing some time in the womb. I do recall a photo of my umbilical cord that seemed to be covered in amateurish scrawls and hieroglyphics. I drew all the time as a kid and started making my own comic books around the age of five or so. In second grade, I made my first animated short in school. It was called The End of Mars. It consisted of 4 or 5 seconds of a transforming robot escaping an exploding Mars. I knew I wanted to make more animation, but I never had the means until I got a camcorder when I was 17.
Did you have any idea that drawing would be a big part of your daily life?
Absolutely. I was always drawing, especially comics. Telling stories was the biggest part to me. I love making art, but creating stories is my favorite part. I spent lots of my free time making stories for comics, for books, for role-playing games (the pen and paper kind, not the digital stuff). When I was 14, I was creating this comic series called Crossbreed. It was about a planet of intelligent insects and the way the world is revolutionized when an insect is born like mammals are (as opposed to hatching from an egg) fulfilling an ancient prophecy. I still have the notebooks for this story. I had mapped out every country on the planet, creating their governments, population dispersion, languages, political affiliations, and all sorts of intricate details based around the various species of insects. Its funny, because that was 12 years ago and I havent done anything as intensive since. I recently showed the notebooks to my roommate who is a screenwriter. After he looked through them, he handed them to me and said, “You inspired me, I have to go write now.” So, yes, drawing was always a big part of my life, but storytelling was an even larger part.
What has been happening lately in the mind of Fourchinnigan?
There has been a lot of mental turmoil lately. I moved to Los Angeles almost two years ago and I have been coming to terms with the difficulties of chasing your dreams. I’ve yet to get a good job doing something remotely related to my interests. Thus, my mind is full of the sorts of things I dont particularly enjoy: bills, work, paving a future for my life, etc. It’s also crowded with new and old story ideas and my plans for starting my own business soon. That and constant thoughts of food. I like to eat a lot.
What did you major in, while in College?
My degree is in Mass Communications-Broadcasting. I focused primarily on video production with a minor in Visual Arts. I switched to a different University in my Junior year so I could major in 3D Computer Animation, but somehow I ended up graduating in Mass Comm. instead. It was the closest field I could find in a cheap Louisiana school remotely similar to filmmaking. After graduating, I did graphics for television news for a couple of years. I hated it, so I quit and moved to Los Angeles.
What inspired you to become a flash artist?
The legions of naked groupies and the endorsement deals. Wait. Thats not it. Ive always wanted to make cartoons. I made one in second grade and it was a great feeling to see it play back on the projector and know I made it move. I spent a lot of my childhood trying to find a way to get my own animation camera. This was before the video boom and way before the digital boom so it was really expensive. I come from teenage parents so money was always a problem when I was growing up. I never got the animation camera. By the time I was 17 camcorders were getting cheaper. That Christmas, I split the $500 cost with my parents and got my VHS-C video camera. I used it to make lots of short movies with my friends and a few animated shorts on my own. Then, years later, Flash came about. It was everything I had always wanted. It would let me animate, color, and fully produce my own animated movies for almost no cost. I bought my first computer in 2000 right before I got out of college. I got a copy of Flash and have worshipped it ever since.
How long did it take for you to master Flash?
Ha ha. I still have a ways to go. I know the art of Flash quite well now, but I still have difficulty with the programming side. My parents could never afford a computer when I was growing up so I had very limited access to computers. It wasnt until I was halfway through college that I became entirely immersed in the world of computers (around 1997). Unfortunately, I was learning to use intricate software like Photoshop, Pro Tools, After Effects, and lots others before I understood anything about the way computers work. By the time I started learning Flash, I had learned a lot more about computers, but I still felt awkward with a lot of aspects of computers. My first few months using Flash were nasty. I picked it up fairly quickly, but my ability to shape it into what I wanted hadn’t developed yet. You can see samples of my early Flash work in the Mineshaft area of my website. They are atrocious. It wasnt until I made Miracle Explosion #04 that I felt like a master of Flash’s components. I felt I had made all the mistakes I needed to make and entirely understood the benefits and drawbacks of various tools and methods. The funny thing is I am still finding new methods and approaches to Flash even now, four years after I started using it. If you look at my Crow Clock Shorts, they show much more Flash knowledge than my Miracle Explosion movies even though they are more simplistic in lots of ways.
What was your inspiration for the “Miracle Explosion” series?
The toaster has some sort of innate humor no other kitchen appliance does. I cant explain it, but it’s the truth. I was somewhat obsessed with toasters in high school. They appear in lots of my short movies and to this day, I have a picture of a toaster on a pedestal I had professionally photographed years ago at Olan Mills. In my senior year of high school, I was doodling one day. The finished picture was a man, a squirrel, and a toaster surrounded by an enormous death machine. The only reason I can give for the drawing is that I wanted to draw all of those items and so I put them in one picture together. The more I looked at the picture, the more a story started to sprout in my head. I drew a few comic strips with the characters and eventually moved on to other things. Years later, I was flipping through my sketchbooks and I decided it would be fun to make a Flash series with those characters. Now, the name Miracle Explosion is an entirely different story.
One of my favourite animated series created by you was “Crow Clock Shorts”; can we expect to see more parts to the series in the future?
Yes. There will be at least one more Crow Clock Short if not lots more. There is one story I have been trying to make since before the third episode, but for some reason I always end up doing something else instead. There will also be another Crow Clock movie to follow up what happened after the events of How Crow Clock Stole X-Mas. I am especially excited about that one because it involves outer space, giant robots, and the apocalypse. The only reason I havent started it is because I need a copy of Swift 3D.
Flash is just one of the many traits you are skilled at, what other Programs and interests do you dabble in?
I am presently a member of Moodoo Puppets. We do live puppet shows and record videos. That has been taking up a lot of my time and part of the reason I haven’t made any Flash shorts in awhile. I draw a weekly comic strip on my site about the Mr. Fourchinnigan character. It is updated every Monday. I am currently working on writing and illustrating three childrens books I hope to self-publish over the next few years. Im also toying with a fiction novel as well. I like to make videos and documentaries when I can. I recently read Robert Rodriguez’s book Rebel Without a Crew and it has me pumped about making short movies again. I draw and read lots of comics. I also used to be involved in theatre and dance, but I haven’t done either in years. Oh, and DDR is great. As for software, I use the hell out of Photoshop and Dreamweaver. I also use various audio and video programs.
In July Comic-Con 2004 will be taking place in San Francisco. Will Mr. Fourchinnigan be making an appearance?
Ape and Wonder Con take place in Frisco. Comic-Con is in San Diego every year. I will be there, but I will be promoting Moodoo Puppets. Hopefully, next year I can promote some of my own work there. I may print a few issues of my Post Mortem comic Tokyopop rejected for their Rising Stars of Manga 3 contest. If I do, they’ll be available for purchase at the Moodoo Puppets booth at Comic-Con. (NOTE-since this interview, things have changed and I and Moodoo Puppets will be unable to attend Comic-Con).
How do you get through airport security? Just wondering.
I travel strictly by giraffe or as cargo.
Thanks for the interview Mr. Fourchinnigan it was an honor to…. is that a knife?
No no no, its just one of those switchblade combs. Come here, Ill show you.
