Zedrin

So StarSign will be 20+ minutes long?

Negative.

We don't know how long it'll be, but 20 minutes for a single cartoon isn't easy, and if we do what we want to with it 20 minutes at a time won't be feasible.

We'll actually go more into detail about what it is next week, so be sure to catch the livestream on Youtube :Y

What are some of your other hobbies outside of My Little Pony?

hah, we were just talking about questions like this, actually. :Y

Personally MLP doesn't even count as a hobby for me anymore. I'm so far removed from it, I haven't watched it since the end of season 3.

I do a lot of personal art in my free time. I run a webcomic-style askblog featuring my robot girl among various other OCs. I sometimes draw nsfw as well (which I'm not shameful of at all because I'm trash).

I've experimented a bit with game design here and there, nothing substantial. I've had a small platformer on the backburner for a long while.

Can you describe one beautiful moment in life? 

This video

https://vine.co/v/e9nxJubttIE

11 characters

I kinda wanna play along with this, but I prefer random critical thinking so: Do you believe technological advancement is negatively impacting biological evolution?

I'm planning on keeping all of you in my people zoo once we robots take over.

What do you guys like to do when you feel really lazy? Showers or baths? Boxers or briefs? Any weird habits? Just throwing out some random questions

I play vidya gaems mostly.

Showers

Boxers. (orpantiesifwe'retalkingaboutwhatweliketoseeinsteadofwearhurhurhurhur)

I'm such a shut-in I don't even know which of my habits count as 'weird'

What are some of your favorite foods?

Cheesy things. Chocolatey things.

I'm so healthy.

What was the hardest video you guys worked on?

Fall of the Crystal Empire.

Let's see... any fan art of your own properties that have ever particularly struck you as moving or just plain cool?  And that includes music, art, fics, whatever.  :grin2:

My personal favorite, two cosplayers made some awesome cosplays of Luna and Celestia based on Fall of the Crystal Empire, weapons and armor and all.

You people are amazing! How do you guys avoid legal problems with Hasbro? As you may know, lots of artists who make MLP animations got in legal trouble at some point, but you haven't (which is awesome!).

Ah, this is a good question, and I really want to try and help other people learn how to deal with issues like this, not just with Hasbro but with ALL companies.

Just a little background: Copyright pertains to visual media, audio, and writing. And I'm very specific with that: When I say visual media, I mean a specific piece of art or a specific clip from a show. Fanart and fan creations are NOT a violation of copyright. Ideas CANNOT be copywritten.

The lowest level of these issues on Youtube are the content ID claims, which can be done by interns or mismatched from auto identifications. These actually can be disputed usually with succcess if you point out that it's fair use, because while it may be based on something else, it's still original art, animation, etc. (Style variations further help this argument).

DMCAs also can fall under this category, even if they're more impacting.

Another aspect to this is whether or not your usage of an IP is conflicting or competing with the original work. This is less of an issue with animation, since it's usually original scripts, and they don't replace the original works at all. Some plushie makers and fanartists have ran into issues though for selling trademarked characters, because often those characters are already being sold by the company in question.

A higher level issue is trademark dilution. This is where people sometimes get into more trouble: If you're using a company's icon, and people think you created that icon, that can cause significant problems and poses a risk to the trademark holder. In animation, you can help avoid these issues by making sure it's clear what you do or don't own. Style deviations again help with this and are an added level of security, but ultimately when people see a licensed character, they should think of the actual owner, not just the person who is using it.

The most we've really had to deal with were a few false content IDs by Hasbro on some of our videos, and all of those were resolved when we pointed out that they were original animations and counted as transformative works.

Technically I'd argue that Fair Use isn't even an issue with fan works, cause again, the only thing similar are the ideas, not the actual media, but that'd be a bit of a stretch. Plus Canadian law includes ideas under copyright (but internationally that's no the case)

Any advice or recommended programs for someone who wants to learn how to draw? I also just wanted to say thanks for all the content you guys put out as sfs and individually. I already preordered a snowdrop plush as a birthday present to myself and can't wait for your next project. Oh and congratulations on 25k subscribers Memj0123!

Photoshop - expensive but very versatile, can do almost anything, from video editing to drawing to photomanipulation. This is what I primarily use, and is also what I started with.

Sai - cheaper, prefered by a lot of people. Geared towards drawing alone.

Firealpaca - Free, can be built to look like Sai and actually function similar. Probably a good starting point.

Gimp - Also free, can be customized to look like Photoshop.

Manga Studio/Clip Studio Paint - this one is one of my favorites. It's about $70-100, can't remember, but it's REALLY good. I do a lot of linework in this.

Krita - Free, geared towards drawing.

Pretty much any program that has tablet pressure sensitivity will work as a starting point. Just one piece of advice: if you use a stabilizer, keep it as low as you can. High stabilizers lead to lack of line control long term. Fast, confident lines are both more efficient and look better.

Hey SFS! I'm a huge fan of your animation!

 

Anyway, do you guys have a daily routine that you run through or is it just straight into the animations?

well it kinda varies.

SFS isn't conventional. We more kinda operate like a giant collaborative effort rather than a singular studio (which is kinda necessary since we're cloud-based).

If we're in downtime between animations, I personally often dedicate myself to my personal stuff, from commissions, streaming, side animations, or running PV02. I usually dedicate a sizeable chunk of time to this as well normally, just cause I don't need to spend every hour working on animation, so long as I get done what needs to be finished by its respective deadline.

However, if there's a deadline I usually am still dedicating at least a few hours each day.

It's usually a bit easier to think of things on a week-to-week basis, though, rather than day-to-day. We meet up once a week over skype so that's when we decide what tasks need to be done by next meeting.

Other people have jobs and stuff so they can't reliably commit their full attention to the group, and one policy we have in the group is RL comes first. Make sure your finances and work and the like are taken care of.

Do you enjoy what you do? And do you think you'll quit anytime soon? (Btw I love your work, Especially fall of the crystal empire!)

I aint stoppin' anytime soon. :Y

What we collectively and individually work on gradually changes over time, but at the end of the day I'm still arting and animating, and that's what I plan to do.

My most benevolent of greetings to you guys. I'm an avid fan of your work, and I commend you in the highest of ways for your work, such stories, backgrounds, additions, characters, emotions that you all so selflessly bestowed upon this fandom have truly left their mark in many headcanons and hearts far and between these boundaries. Thank you kindly for that.

 

Now, to finally spew a couple of questions:

 

Which do you people think is the bedrock for a successful, enjoyable project?

 

And regarding the artistic facet of these stories, is there any advice you could spare us in matters like animation? The first steps for rookies who would appreciate being able to explore the field?

The tl;dr: the execution.

There are no bad ideas (but that's not to say 'ideas guys' don't earn my ire), how you spin and present an idea is going to determine how successful it is.

This obviously can be easier to do with interesting premises, but again, execution is still key.

Take for example, One Punch Man. It's about a guy who's so strong he can beat anyone in a single punch. He sounds like a total Mary Sue. Except, in practice, the manga and anime are really funny and they introduce faults and challenges to him that have nothing to do with his ability and power.

As far as art goes, when it comes to cartoons, I'd say stylization is the ability to represent anatomy. Most novice artists think that style can excuse anatomical choices--style is actually how you represent anatomical choices, not mask them.

Cartoons need to clearly represent a character's form while still being simple enough to draw repeatedly and move around without looking awkward.

I guess tl;dr, focus both on learning anatomy and also how to represent it.

you said that there will not be any snowdrop sequels but would there be the chance to see her make a cameo in other projects ?

TBH we're not really planning any new MLP projects atm, so it's not likely.

Hiya, do you have any upcoming projects? (Sorry if this question was already asked)

We'll be revealing more about Starsign next week in our youtube livestream. It'll be at 5pm pst/8pm EST next saturday.

We've also got a small cartoon planned for Christmas, nothing really major.

Who is your favorite princess  :comeatus:

 

And how hard is it to keep replying? 

Mulan, I guess. :Y

Whay advice would you give to others who have ideas but need to find motivation to create and build them up ? Great work by the way

The two options seem to be either tuck your head down and just do it, or reassess your scope. Scaling a project back, or switching to do a smaller one that's more feasible and less overwhelming is probably the best choice.

For someone who wants to get into animation or VA work, what sort of computer programs, equipment, advice, anything would you guys recommend?

For VA work, the ideal is gonna be an XLR condenser mic. You'll need an audio converter to translate the signal to something your PC can read, but XLR mics work awesome. A step below that is one of the higher end USB mics, which can still be good if you treat them well.

You'll also want to make sure your space is treated to dampen any reverb and noise. Bags of laundry can help a lot with that, just pack em along the walls of your room.

Hello there SFS, what is the most challenging project you had to work on and why?

For me, Fall of the Crystal Empire. There were honestly some complications with it, partially dealing with timing and effects.

One animator was really good with visual effects in flash, but the way they were structured was outside of what I had specified, so they were inseparable from the rest of the layers. Removing the effects would mean reanimating everything. As a result, that's why the trailer has some shading, while the full animation doesn't.

There was a lot I wanted to do with it but it started to get less and less feasible. It didn't help that I was getting disenchanted with MLP at the time, and we were having headaches with Youtube's overzealous content ID system.

What's the greatest thing a fan has done for you?

 

To all members.

Probably the best thing has just been be supportive. E.g., sharing our videos with friends, subscribing, etc. It seems small, but it's something anyone can do, and there's a lot of different ways to do it, both small and large. And at the end of the day, the support does help a lot.

So what were you all doing before SFS and how have those skills evolved up until this point in time?

I was just starting to learn how flash worked thanks to some tutorials by OneyNG. Since then I've made it my main source of income and my job.

So I'm wondering, do you ever start losing motivation to work on a project? And what do you do to get through those times?

Head down and plow through it, usually. I have to force myself to commit to things frequently. Snowdrop required 5 12-hour workdays straight during the home stretch.

This is a lot more of a risk for bigger things. It's usually better to avoid this problem all together by not biting off more than you can chew. Of course that's not always feasible.

Hey there SFS

 

First of all, I really like your stuff. I'm always amazed at what quality creations come out of this fandom!

 

Now, I wanted to ask you, as a future animator (I hope x) ), how did you find the motivation to carry on animating when you first started out? I can only guess how tedious it must be if something didn't go correctly.

 

Secondly, do you see yourselves choosing animation as a full time career in the future?

 

Thanks

Honestly, having an idea and resolving to finish it is the best thing you can do. And I don't mean like grandiose films or cartoons, just short little gags.

Wanna animate a character flipping a table with spaghetti while screaming obscenities in German? Go for it, that's a great starting spot.

Wanna animate a full length film as your first project? I would proooobably advise against that.

Set your sights on things you can finish first. My first animation I published (that took off) was one of Rarity driving a tank barreling down a mountainside (as a fad response to something Tiarawhy had made with Pinkie in a Trans Am).

As for animation as a full time career, it already is for me. I make my living through work with SFS and personal work.

Hey, Silly Filly Studios.

 

First, I wanna say I'm a big fan of your work.

 

My question is how long does it take to complete one of your animated films?

It can vary. Snowdrop took like 6 months once we started animating, longer if you count writing and revisions. Fall of the Crystal Empire took about that as well.

Meanwhile Starsign has had light amounts of work off and on for the past year and a half now.

I recently saw the footage you guys showed for the upcoming StarSign series and since I'm a Sagittarius, out of curiosity, is there going to be a Sagittarius character in the series and if so what kind of design would they have?

Yes, but we want to avoid spoiling anything about character designs too early on. : D

What type of Anime shows (if any) do you guys enjoy?

YES THIS IS RIGHT UP MY ALLEY

Madoka Magica, Kill la Kill, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Nichijou, Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, Gurren Lagann, and my personal guilty pleasure: Monster Musume (I am trash and proud of it). Also currently watching One Punch Man.

 

First question time!

 

Since there's a few of you, I guess I'll go with a practical question to start things off:

 

How did each of you get involved in Silly Filly Studios and what do you do?

 

A long while back right before season 2, there was basically this ridiculously stupid idea by one of my friends to make some kind of fan film for MLP. It was dubbed 'Project Saturation.'

I figured it'd be worth a shot to try so I agreed to help out. There were 3 of us originally, and we recruited a bunch of people as VAs, artists, etc. My mentality was I wanted to see how far we could get, and if it failed, we'd still be a group and could make other things.

Well, lo and behold the project did blow up, but it was from someone pretending to be someone they weren't to try and get in someone else's pants. They 'died' and their 'brother' informed us of this. The person they were getting in the pants with happened to be the director of the project, and he pretended to commit suicide to 'expose' this person.

tl;dr that was a giant drama bomb so we all splintered off and formed a new group, then called Silly Filly Studios, now called SFS Animation, and basically continued with the plan to keep making stuff together as a group.

Hey there SFS.

 

What was your inspiration to get into animation?

Egoraptor and Chris O'Neil (shocker, I know)

How did you get into MLP:FiM

I can't even really remember at this point. I started watching sometime before season 2 and stopped watching after season 3.