by Milton Pool

AN INTERVIEW WITH MILTON POOL

Milton Pool, the creator and director of the Akumi series, said on his own message boards that he wanted to “shock people.” His violent and sexually explicit project did just that, but he also dropped the jaws of our Flash Animation 10 judges. Megan O’Neill, the VP of Acquisitions & Development at Atom, said the film “creates a world through imagery that completely drew me in.”

Pool produced all three episodes with a cadre of industry friends, artists like Dave Johnson, Dustin Remmel, Milton Pool and Tyree Dillihay. We pass along our congratulations to then entire team, but Pool shared his insights on the project below.

AARON SIMPSON: Where did the inspiration for the Akumi series come from?

MILTON POOL: The name derived from two sources 1) a martial arts movie my friend showed me called Azumi and 2) a character I liked from Street Fighter 2 called Akuma.

I had been trying to come up with a character to lead a story for 2 years after I finished Soybean. I made many concepts before she got the look she has. Akumi is a result of my ‘Soybean style’ taken to the next level of production efficiency. Soybean was fun but took way too much work to complete.

I had always loved Dungeons & Dragons, swords, and magic but I also liked big guns, aliens and robots. So I wanted to incorporate both. Akumi is a story and world that allowed me to take those 2 things plus my love of sexy female characters and animate away.

AARON: What are you favorite sci-fi movies, TV series and comics?

MILTON: I like things that incorporate cool creatures, so all the Star Wars films have inspired me visually. Early in my life, John McTiernan’s 1987 Predator film and Aliens together got me hooked on sci-fi.

As for comics, I have always loved looking at Greg Capullo’s work (the Spawn series artist). Simon Bisley is another comic artist/painter that caught my eye. I have really enjoyed his graphic novels, in particular his fantasy adventure series Sláine.

TV shows like Robotech we’re my first taste of anime before Akira. Before I started watching anime, I didn’t know animation could be have blood and sex.

AARON: Was there a particular animated property you relied on for inspiration for shot selection, FX and animation technique?

MILTON: My animation uses similar techniques found in some of my favorite anime project: Fooly Cooly, Dead Leaves and Ninja Scroll. They showed me how to create high-impact, energetic action scenes with keyframes and FX. Beyond that, the characters and animation from Capcom and Squaresoft games are things I always look to for more ideas. Tyree Dillihay helped me push my animation shots to the next level with his dynamic boarding.

AARON: Did you find Flash limiting in any way?

MILTON: Flash is the reason I’ve animated the way I have. Without it I would not have had the patience to take it to the level I did. Flash is the perfect animating tool for me.

AARON: So how has it effected your work?

MILTON: It’s made it possible for me and a few of my friends to create a high-quality film in a relatively short period of time. It’s efficient.

AARON: Mixed in amongst a great deal of praise, you’ve been hit with a fair amount of criticism for Akumi. Why do you think this is?

MILTON: I’d say it’s because of the sexual content mixed with the style of my art. People told me they didn’t expect to see a rape scene in the first episode. I heard that the cute style of my characters and that sexual content didn’t mix. But I wanted that contrast because I hadn’t seen it done yet.

AARON: How’s your next episode, Akumi 4, coming along?

MILTON: We’re about 50% done. We had to put it on hold for a while. Work and life have delayed things.

AARON: How long will this new episode be?

MILTON: It will be 15-20 minutes. Maybe more depending on the content we decide to put into it. We want to take it to the next level!

AARON: Will a DVD release follow?

MILTON: Yes, as soon as episode 4 is complete, we want to package our hard work into a DVD. It’ll be fun to have created our own little product.

AARON: What is the ideal outcome for the Akumi project?