fandom q+a Writers in Harmony Q&A

[Simon 4,557]

Hey guys!

 

Today we have our monthly Q&A with Writers in Harmony!  We're running a bit late, so I'll cut the intro post short.  

 

Today we're honored to have Minty Root an animator for Writers in Harmony and director of Dinky's Destiny answer questions, and we hope to be joined later by Cast, the head of Writers in Harmony.  The Q&A will run until about 6:00 pm!

 

To get things started, I'll ask Minty a question:

 

What made you get into animating?

[That One Techpriest You Used To Know 2,286]

What was it like directing the WiH crew in Dinky's Destiny?

[Lightwing 12,967]

I'm terrible at asking thing, but here goes nothing...

Is there something that didn't ended up being added on Dinky's Destiny?

[InfectedPone 1,550]

How long do you usually work on your animations?

[Batbrony 16,051]

Hello there Minty, it's a pleasure to have you join us today!  Do you have a favorite canon character or a favorite fanon character that you love to animate or utilize in your productions? 

[Fhaolan 4,483]

Hi Minty,

 

Do you have other animations you've done posted online anywhere?

[Minty Root 41]

Hey guys!

 

Today we have our monthly Q&A with Writers in Harmony!  We're running a bit late, so I'll cut the intro post short.  

 

Today we're honored to have Minty Root an animator for Writers in Harmony and director of Dinky's Destiny answer questions, and we hope to be joined later by Cast, the head of Writers in Harmony.  The Q&A will run until about 6:00 pm!

 

To get things started, I'll ask Minty a question:

 

What made you get into animating?

 

Okay, this one is a crazy story. I have been making things move on a screen since I learned how to make computers make thing move. I make very simple animations using PowerPoint until I learned how to use Flash, and thanks to Newgrounds I got to have a place to post my animations. Since my art skills weren't too good I used sprites, and I got to learn the very basics of animation in an animated series about an hybrid between a Yoshi and a Koopa until I found the brony fandom in 2012. 

I made a very crazy move and I sent an application for a panel on fan animation at BronyCon 2013 before I even started animating ponies, and after they accepted I started applying my knowledge of animation to ponies. In the process I made a short animated project called Project Thundercloud to share a headcanon about Derpy Hooves' cutie mark I had for a while.

 

 

What was it like directing the WiH crew in Dinky's Destiny?

Pretty interesting. I was sharing ideas with Cast about the lore of our two projects and started developing ideas about the characters we had in common. In the process we shared common resources and that's how we got Dinky's VA who happened to voice a filly in their project.

 

 

I'm terrible at asking thing, but here goes nothing...

Is there something that didn't ended up being added on Dinky's Destiny?

The original script for Dinky's Destiny was very very different from the final one. The first scene showing Dinky struggling with the door lock was completely absent, with Dinky walking down a hallway, finding Nightmare Moon and running away as Nightmare Moon attacked her. Nightmare Moon was supposed to be shown as a violent character trying to destroy Dinky, until we realized that it would be much stronger to show her try to save Dinky while Dinky would defend herself in fear. So we cut Nightmare Moon using magic beams, which allowed to use the time it would have took to animate them to work more on the backgrounds instead.

 

 

How long do you usually work on your animations?

We worked for eight months to produce Dinky's Destiny, which is only eight minutes long. It may seem a lot but typically fan animation projects tend to take even more time to make, as a single shot can take almost a week to animate.

Hi Minty,

 

Do you have other animations you've done posted online anywhere?

Yup, you can all find them on my channel.

 

I also have a new animation that will premiere at BronyCon 2015.

[Simon 4,557]

What made you decide to do MLP fan-animations?

[That One Techpriest You Used To Know 2,286]

What gave you the idea to produce something like Dinky's Destiny? What was the thought train the lead into it?

[Minty Root 41]

Hello there Minty, it's a pleasure to have you join us today!  Do you have a favorite canon character or a favorite fanon character that you love to animate or utilize in your productions? 

My favourite canon character is probably Luna, which was shown in my last two projects.

 

As for my favourite fanon characters, I don't really have any I animated.

 

What made you decide to do MLP fan-animations?

Lived a really weird time back in 2012 where I didn't really know what to do of my life, and one of my friends introduced me to the show. Since I previously animated things in Flash and the show was also animated in Flash I told myself that maybe I could try something like that. I didn't expect to be the best but I could give my own touch and do something original.

 

What gave you the idea to produce something like Dinky's Destiny? What was the thought train the lead into it?

Back last year I got into a very difficult moment in my life as my parents were divorcing and my last project didn't have the result I expected.

I was looking at the Luna episodes that were released, Sleepless in Ponyville and For Whom The Sweetie Belle Toils, and I got interested in the idea of seeing Luna helping fillies in need. She felt like some sort of mother, and I was wondering what could be done with Luna seeing a filly who reminded her of her own childhood.

Dinky was already portrayed in the fandom as some sort of filly Twilight, and it gave some pretty interesting ideas of a young character with a passion for magic who needed help from someone else. So what if Luna talked to Dinky about her best friend, Star Swirl the bearded, a unicorn who once had troubles with his magic like her.

[Cherry_Bloom 165]

Hi minty it's an honor! Whats your very favorite project you have worked on?

[Minty Root 41]

Hi minty it's an honor! Whats your very favorite project you have worked on?

Definitely Dinky's Destiny. I really liked the art direction, the choice of color, the choice of cameras and the themes behind the project. It felt different from other projects.

[Simon 4,557]

What's your favorite MLP animation you didn't work on then?

[Moved to Elsewhere 11,331]

Greetings guest of honor!

 

What's the hardest part about animating?

[Minty Root 41]

What's your favorite MLP animation you didn't work on then?

Lullaby for a Princess

#Bestpony

[That One Techpriest You Used To Know 2,286]

It seems that your biggest complaint about the animation Dinky's Destiny is the VA for Luna. What's your opinion/general response on this?

 

Also, why is Luna your favorite pony?

[Minty Root 41]

Greetings guest of honor!

 

What's the hardest part about animating?

 

Getting characters to act right when they move. Moving them isn't too hard in the technical level, but giving them the right emotion is. I have to play with the way the scene is framed, the background elements, the choice of color and the audio elements to strengthen the emotion of the character as it's hard to make the action of the character convincing enough on its own.

[Moved to Elsewhere 11,331]

Getting characters to act right when they move. Moving them isn't too hard in the technical level, but giving them the right emotion is. I have to play with the way the scene is framed, the background elements, the choice of color and the audio elements to strengthen the emotion of the character as it's hard to make the action of the character convincing enough on its own.

Hmm interesting.

 

One of my ideas for a career is in animation. What would be some advice to give to some up and coming animators.

[Cast 238]

Hello Everypony,

 

 This is Cast, Founder, and Executive Director of Writers in Harmony Productions, and Production Director and co creator of Equestrian Tales. Thank you for having me and bearing with me, I just got to my new home 30 mins ago and rushed to get online to be here. Its such an honor to be able to answer your questions and to be here today

[Knight Hadron 372]

Have you ever run into legal issues? Do you take any steps to prevent legal issues from happening?

 

Also, what do you use to animate the animations?

 

I could ask a lot more questions, but I think I've taken up more than my share of your time here.

[Minty Root 41]

It seems that your biggest complaint about the animation Dinky's Destiny is the VA for Luna. What's your opinion/general response on this?

 

Also, why is Luna your favorite pony?

Yeah, I definitely didn't have the right VA for Luna. While JennaBun didn't do a bad performance, it felt it didn't fit Luna as much as I first thought. The main intention I had was to show that Luna felt weak and I couldn't go with a very deep voice. I needed someone who could voice Luna just like she did in Sleepless in Ponyville, something soft and young.

 

I like Luna because she feels like a deep character, a character with a dark past who decided to turn her life around and to help others. She's a character to be proud of. I also really like Twilight Sparkle for the same reasons.

[Moved to Elsewhere 11,331]

Hello Everypony,

 

 This is Cast, Founder, and Executive Director of Writers in Harmony Productions, and Production Director and co creator of Equestrian Tales. Thank you for having me and bearing with me, I just got to my new home 30 mins ago and rushed to get online to be here. Its such an honor to be able to answer your questions and to be here today

Hello there Cast.

 

What's it like directing so any projects?

[Cast 238]

Hi there Knight Hadron,

 

 Thanks for the question,

 

 Question 1- We have never ran into any legal issues in our 3 going on four year history, we are very careful when creating content and when we get to the stage of having a project put together, such as our up and coming animated series Equestrian Tales (we are working to get it through hasbro right now) we contact hasbro through no special channels, they have a forum you fill out to let them know what your doing and how to contact you, if they have questions or need anything from you they will contact you about it. Our team also has a number of in roads into hasbro and other studios to help in this matter.

 

 Question 2- We use a few things in our current productions, Flash Cs6 - CC, 3D animation software such as Maya, 3D Max ext, and we also use traditional animation to put it all together. We do things just a bit differently then DHX and it will be noticed and felt in the show, and our future productions.

 

And dont worry your not wasting any of mine or any ones time,I love answering questions, if you have more now or in the future fill free to ask

 

 

 

Have you ever run into legal issues? Do you take any steps to prevent legal issues from happening?

 

Also, what do you use to animate the animations?

 

I could ask a lot more questions, but I think I've taken up more than my share of your time here.

Hey there ,

 

 Well it can be a lot of work, and tiring, however its all work it, to see something you love and have put your heart into something thats being brought to life right in front of you. This is the best crew I could ask for aswell and they more then make it a pleasure to be on something like this for this long.

 

 There is no crew without its captain, but there is no captain without his crew

 

 

Hello there Cast.

 

What's it like directing so any projects?

[Minty Root 41]

Hmm interesting.

 

One of my ideas for a career is in animation. What would be some advice to give to some up and coming animators.

Well, in animation there's three things you need to get right, each more complex than the previous one. You need to learn how to draw the character right, how to make the character move right and how to make the character act right. So improve your skills at drawing, learn on timing and spacing in animation and learn about acting. This will help a lot more to make animation feel more natural to you.

 

Have you ever run into legal issues? Do you take any steps to prevent legal issues from happening?

 

Also, what do you use to animate the animations?

 

I could ask a lot more questions, but I think I've taken up more than my share of your time here.

Never got into any legal issues, I even got to discuss with some people working with Hasbro to make sure not to run into any legal problem. That's why I don't use the Mane 6 in my animation projects and I go with background characters as my main characters, as Hasbro won't have to worry about their IPs.

 

For Dinky's Destiny I used Adobe Flash for my 2D animation, Blender for the 3D animation, Adobe After Effects for the compositing and the special effects, Adobe Premiere Pro for the editing, Adobe Photoshop for some rasters, Adobe Illustrator for some brush effects and Apophysis for the fractal flames that were used for the sky and the explosion of the elements of harmony. For my next project I might switch to Maya and Toon Boom however.

[Cherry_Bloom 165]

I'm currently a college student going for game development and design the interactive story telling path. Do you think something like this could be in the cards for me in the future? I mean what advice would you give me?