by Bernard Derriman

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

AN INTERVIEW WITH BERNARD DERRIMAN

Since it first appeared in 2004, Bernard Derriman and Arj Barker’s online, 10-episode series Arj and Poopy has enjoyed a large online fan base and numerous awards, including the 2006 internet trophy at Annecy.

The first 9 episodes featured Arj, an animated version of Arj Barker, and his cat Poopy who speaks in farts. But then episode 10 surprised us with a new character - the neighbor’s dog Bouncy, who is voiced by Johnny Brennan who plays Mort Goldman on Family Guy. As with all Arj and Poopy episodes, Congo Windfall is filled with Derriman’s lively character animation, a skill he honed at Disney Toon Studios in Australia. Bouncy’s musical performance is one of the most engaging sequences of animation to ever crisscross the information superhighway. I challenge you to watch Bouncy strut his stuff without a smile on your face. I mean, when he aims his backside at the camera and starts spinning - it’s nothing short of priceless.

Fact: series co-creator Arj Barker currently plays the role of Dave on HBO’s Flight of the Concords, but to learn more about Bernard’s latest adventures, read on…

AARON: Had you and Arj always imagined Bouncy as part of the Arj and Poopy world?

BERNARD: No. Arj and Poopy has been a pretty organic thing, and it’s been constantly growing. After a bunch of shorts with just Arj and Poopy, we were keen to expand their world a little. Arj and Poopy are very sweet characters, so I thought it would be fun to introduce a character with a little more bite to shake things up a bit. That’s when we came up with this mistreated dog from the apartment next door, who always wants to hang out with them. I’ve been a big fan of Johnny Brennan for a long time now, and he was a big inspiration for the character, so once he came on board Bouncy was born.

AARON: How did the concept for the Congo Windfall episode come about?

BERNARD: I planned for the next episode to showcase Bouncy, and I wanted to give him a really big entrance. I thought it would be fun to have a big dream sequence in front of a massive crowd, and in doing so show a bit of his character - very loud and full of himself. Then I reverse-engineered a regular Arj and Poopy episode before Bouncy’s big entrance. I used Arj’s joke about the spam because it was short and sweet, and perfect to open the episode like any other Arj and Poopy.

AARON: When did you create the Bouncy introduction video?

BERNARD: We created that around mid 2005, when we first developed the Bouncy character. Arj came up with the name Bouncy, so the first thing we did was to create a lame theme song for him, like the Arj and Poopy theme song. Arj came up with the “he bounces here and bounces there” rhyme, and then we started making up a whole bunch of verses on the spot - ridiculous stuff like the ogre’s mouth was Arj ad libbing while we were recording. I also liked how it had absolutely nothing to do with his character - we never intended Bouncy to actually Bounce. So these little shorts became a teaser for Bouncy in the series, but featuring a Bouncy that would be different in character to the one you’d see in the show. I thought by doing that he would have more of an impact in his first episode when you see he’s totally different.

I had actually forgotten about these, I might have to do some more - we’ve got about another 15 verses to go!

AARON: What was your reaction when you heard that Congo Windfall had won the Flashforward Film Festival last year?

BERNARD: I was stoked. Adam Phillips always submits stuff to Flashforward and he’s the one who told me about it. And when you go to his house you keep tripping over all these cool rubber arrows. I was always missing the submission deadlines, and Congo Windfall was the first time I got around to getting something in on time.

AARON: Has the Arj and Poopy series come to a close?

BERNARD: No definitely not! It’s just I’m really busy and I don’t have the time to work on them like I used to. It was cool at Disney, because I’d work 9 to 5 in there and then at home I’d have time to do A+P. But now I work from home I’m animating on other stuff 24/7, and I could always be doing more, so there hasn’t been any time left for it. But the site’s still up, we’re still selling Arj and Poopy t-shirts and Arj and I are always bouncing around ideas for new episodes, so the series is still alive!

And work has finally begun on a new episode, so stay tuned…

AARON: You mentioned in our 2005 interview that you might create an Arj and Poopy DVD at some point. Is this still in your plans?

BERNARD: Probably not as I imagined it in 2005. Another thing I’m doing at the moment is developing the show as a half hour series, putting together a bible, etc. Making it a series has always been our goal. So whether they’ll turn up as an extra or a main feature, I hope the current episodes will make it to DVD at some stage, in some shape or form. I just need to do a few more…

AARON: What are you currently working on?

BERNARD: I’m Animation Director on a kid’s series out of Colorado called Big Green Rabbit. It’s a combination of animation and live action. We’ve just wrapped season 1 and there are a few more series in the pipeline. It’s currently screening on Rocky Mountain PBS in Colorado and they’re hoping to roll it out across the country soon. It’s a fantastic show and has been just awesome to work on - animating to kid’s songs and animating characters interacting with live action. I also designed the main live action character, Charlie, the Big Green Rabbit himself. Each episode has new characters and new challenges, so it’s been a lot of fun to work on.

I also collaborated with Adam Phillips for the first time, on a TV series that is a spin off of a movie called Kenny. It was a huge hit down here and I think it’s just opened in a small amount of cinemas in the States too. The show is live action but there’s a little bit of animation in it. I directed and did the character animation while Adam did the backgrounds, effects and compositing. It was awesome working with Adam and we’re hoping to do a lot more together in the future.

AARON: Readers, don’t miss the 2-part CHF interview with Derriman from 2005.

The 2007 Flashforward Film Festival winners were announced last Wednesday night, and a couple familiar faces took home rubber arrows. Bernard Derriman’s Arj & Poopy episode Congo Windfall took home the top prize in the Cartoon category, while Laith Bahrani snagged the trophy in the Art category for his Flash-animated music video Creep. The final award given that night was the audience choice, which went to Adam Phillips, for his innovative 30 Shorts in 30 Days project. Phillips is no stranger to Flashforward rubber arrows, having won in 2003, 2005 and twice in 2006. Below are some clips from the event:

Thanks to Lynda, Toby and Christoph for the invite. I had a blast. And congrats to all the nominees.All three of these artists above have been interviewed here at CHF:

Bernard Derriman
Adam Phillips
Laith Bahrani

Arj and Poopy are back! In this 10th episode, Congo Windfall, Arj finds himself in receipt of an incredible offer from a mysterious source. We also get to meet the latest edition to the Arj and Poopy cast - Bouncy the Dog. Bouncy is a neighbor in Arj’s building, and his voice might just sound familiar. Bouncy is played by Johnny Brennan, one half of The Jerky Boys, who has also worked his way into the cast of Family Guy.

But hold onto your hats - there’s a musical surprise in Congo Windfall that contains some of the most likable animation I’ve seen in a long time. Bernard Derriman, the animator and co-creator of the series, displays the animation skills that landed him a gig at Disneytoon Studios Australia many years back.

Derriman has been logging the production on the Arj and Poopy blog, where you’ll find his write-ups on storyboarding, backgrounds and the voice records. For more on Derriman and his illustrious career, head over to the 2-part CHF interview.

Congratulations to Bernard Derriman, whose film ‘Unlucky in Love,’ took home the Netsurfers Award. The short is part of Bernard’s series called ‘Arj and Poopy.’ The short was written by Bernard’s US-based partner Arj Barker, a comedian who will be appearing on ‘Late Night with Conan O’Brien’ later this month.

Last year, Bernard also walked home with the Netsurfers Award for a previous episode of ‘Arj and Poopy’ - ‘Long Distance Relationship.’

CHF interviewed Bernard back in August of last year, and the Flash-animated nominees were catalogued in a post from last month.

The 2006 Annecy International Animated Film Festival announced their selections last month. For those not familiar with Annecy, it’s the world’s biggest and some say best animation festival, held over 6 days in Annecy, France. One of the things I like about the festival is that their selection of nominees is large and diverse.

This year, the ‘Internet Films’ category boasted several Flash-animated shorts, including some surely familiar to those frequenting this site. The category is split in two - ‘Short Films for Internet’ and ‘Series for Internet.’ My personal selections are below, but please visit the site to see them all.

SHORT FILMS FOR INTERNET

‘2-0-5: A JibJab Year in Review,’ is a short I have a personal bent towards as I work at JibJab, but it’s also a tight, vibrant satire. As with most of JibJab’s shorts, this one was made by a small handful of people, but mostly Evan and Gregg Spiridellis, the founders of JibJab.

‘Bendito Machine’ is one of a couple films in the category focusing on our capacity for hate and war. This 4:30 minute Flash-animated short is animated in silhouette, and it appears as if Jossie Malis did almost all of the work here. ‘Bendito’ is out of Spain, and is credited to a studio called Zumbakamera.

‘La mia migliore amica’ or ‘My Best Friend,’ hails from Italy, and was directed by Stefano Buonamico. The film centers on a Pakistani girl in a refuge camp, and her friendship with someone more fortunate. It appears as if the film was created for the humanitarian organization in Rome known as Medici Senza Frontiere. It was produced by a studio named Gordo, who animated ‘The Tribe,’ which is also well worth watching. Make sure you select your language preference before the movie starts, as they offer subtitles.

‘Le due cose preferite dagli esseri umani’ or ‘Two Things Human Beings Really Love to Do,’ also takes on the topic of war, and this time from the perspective of an alien race. I’d say this film is the most uniquely animated short in the selection, with bouncy scene builds and transitions, and the most engaging subtitles I’ve ever watched. Audio plays such a big role here, and I really enjoyed the sound effects and alien language. Luca Frattini, an Italian, directed, wrote and animated the short.

‘Sad Dog’ is a short Flash-animated film out of the Netherlands, created by ckoe. It’s a melancholic story about a misunderstood dog who loves birds.

I’m happy to see ‘The Mustache Contest,’ amongst the choices for this year’s festival. I really enjoyed this short, and wrote it up back in February. It’s a 4 minute film about a group of sea creatures who decide to have a mustache growing contest. It’s the creation of Mike Hollingsworth and Brittney Crump, and I really feel this one could easily slip into a long-running series.

SERIES FOR INTERNET

Adam Phillips is nominated at Annecy for ‘littleFoot,’ and I just heard from him that he’s going to the event. He’s up against a fellow Australian and good friend Bernard Derriman, who is nominated for his Arj and Poopy short ‘Unlucky in Love.’ Bernard was nominated last year for his music video ‘Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me,’ and he won the Netsurfers Award for another Arj and Poopy film ‘Long Distance Relationship.’ Good luck guys!

Don’t forget to vote for your favorite online. Head over to the Annecy website and mark your selection for the best Internet short before June 9th. The winners will be announced on June 10th.

Last week, Evan Spiridellis and I spoke at the 2006 Flashforward Conference, an event produced by Lynda.com. The title of our session was JibJab’s Animation Process and How a Small Studio Can Reach a Big Audience, and we spoke for just over an hour. Evan walked the audience through the JibJab animation process - from animatic to animation to finished product. I presented several animators and small teams that are reaching big audiences, first which was JibJab, who had over 80 million people watch ‘This Land‘ and ‘Good to be in DC!‘ during the 2004 election. Here’s the slides from my presentation detailing JibJab’s recent successes.

Back then, it was really 2 guys doing it all, and this is the story I repeated many times over during the night.

Next I spoke about Jennifer Shiman and her ‘30 Second Bunnies Theatre,’ the Flash-animated series currently airing on Starz! on Demand. As many of you know from reading the CHF interview with Jennifer, she pretty much a one-woman band, writing, animating, and directing alone, and she gets over 1.8 million unique views a month at her angryalien.com site.

Amanita Design was the next studio featured. This 2-man shop out of Brno, Czech Republic is creating viral click-along games like Samorost 2 and linear music videos with a very small team. Jakub Dvorsky, the founder, gets over 500,000 unique views a month at his site.

Weebls-stuff.com is the playground for Weebl, the British animator. He and a small cadre of animators create ‘Weebl & Bob’ and other funny series like ‘Magical Trevor.’ They get a staggering number of cartoon views every month - over 5 million!

Bernard Derriman animated the music video for TISM’s ‘Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me,’ which went on to become a hugely viral video. He animates alone, and he gets over 50,000 unique visitors to his site, arjandpoopy.com, every month. I completely missed posting about Bernard’s holiday ‘Arj and Poopy’ episode, but you can still see it here.

Adam Phillips, who happens to be an old working buddy of Bernard’s, won his 3rd Flashforward festival trophy for his Flash-animated short ‘littleFoot.’ He too is a one-man Flash army, writing, directing and barely sleeping while crafting his Brackenwood series. In a good month, he gets over 300,000 unique visitors to his site.

James Farr, the creator of ‘Xombie,’ is currently in production on a direct-to-DVD feature version of his Flash-animated series. All by his lonesome, deep in the heart of Tulsa, Oklahoma, James has written, animated and produced 7 online ‘Xombie’ shorts, and now he’s teamed up with Wetsand animation to create the long-form version. He has over 1 million subscribers to his ‘Xombie’ mailing list.

Laith Bahrani’s ‘Low Morale’ series brought down the house during our presentation. We screened episode 9, and the crowd went nuts. Very funny stuff. Laith is the sole animator on his shorts, and he’s welcomed over 800,000 visitors to his site since 2004.

And last, but not least, we talked about ‘Queer Duck: The Movie’ which is due to wrap production sometime soon. It’s a Flash-animated feature project penned by Mike Reiss, a Simpsons writer, and Xeth Feinberg is heading up the animation effort. He’s working with a team that’s usually smaller than 10, and he’s been in production since last summer.

While it’s not always about the size of the audience, it’s still impressive to see so few reaching so many. Thanks to everyone for contributing to our presentation, and to Lynda Weinman (of Lynda.com) for hosting us up in Seattle.

A few days ago, the first half of the Cold, Hard Flash interview with Bernard Derriman was posted. Now we’re back with part 2. In this half, we dive into the world of ‘Arj and Poopy,’ the hit web series that recently won a major animation award…

AARON SIMPSON: Congratulations on the Net Surfers award at Annecy for ‘Long Distance Relationship.’ Did you fly over to France for the ceremony?
BERNARD DERRIMAN: Thanks heaps. I was in Annecy for the full week which was great - I also had a film clip (music video) in competition called ‘Everyone else has had more sex than me.’ I wasn’t expecting anything so it was a real buzz to get the award.

AARON: How did you team up with your ‘Arj and Poopy’ partner, Arj Barker?
BERNARD: I had seen him do stand up here in Sydney, and I thought he was the funniest comedian I had seen live. I came up with the idea of animating him, so I went to his site and downloaded one of his skits, took the sound file and made a little cartoon around it. I sent it to him and he loved it, so the next time he came out (he is based in California) we got together, created Poopy and recorded a whole bunch of episodes. You can see that first short here.

AARON: How has your animation process changed since the first ‘Arj and Poopy’ episode?
BERNARD: The episodes have become more elaborate, the most elaborate being ‘Unlucky in Love’ which had a lot of animation in it. I’m trying now to put out more episodes more frequently, and in order to do that I’ll aim to keep the animation a little simpler. But as far as the actual process is concerned, I do them now the same way I always have - the only difference being I’m able to reuse more and more stuff - rarely do I have to draw a new mouth for instance.

AARON: What can you tell us about the next ‘Arj and Poopy’ episode, ‘Yoga’?
BERNARD: Yoga is going to be a fun one, as it has a lot of Arj jokes throughout - not necessarily building to the one punch line like the earlier episodes. I think it will be one of the funnier ones for sure. But before that comes out I will be creating a little teaser for an all new character to ‘Arj and Poopy,’ which should be out soon…

AARON: Do you storyboard the ‘Arj and Poopy’ episodes before you record?
BERNARD: No, which is one of the fun things about doing this series. When we record, 90% of the time the situations don’t exist at all, so when it comes to animating one of the recorded jokes, I have the freedom to create any situation I like - I can have them talking on the beach, on the moon, or as in the latest episode, trainspotting in the country.

AARON: Have you considered releasing the ‘Arj and Poopy’ shorts on DVD?
BERNARD: Definitely, and that will happen eventually, but I want to get a lot more material before we do. I have been filming recording sessions, which would be a DVD extra at some stage, and I’d love to get together with Arj for some commentary. So maybe in another years time - I just need time to do some more episodes!

AARON: How did you find out about the TISM music video contest for their song ‘Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me?’
BERNARD: A good friend of mine told me about it, and I had always wanted to animate a film clip, so this was my chance.

AARON: How long did it take you to animate the TISM video?
BERNARD: I found out about the competition 3 weeks before the deadline, so that’s how long it took me to do it, ‘after hours’: a couple of hours in the evening, couple in the morning before work, and a few days on the weekends.

AARON: Between ‘Arj and Poopy’ and the TISM video, which project would you say has a bigger internet profile?
BERNARD: Definitely the TISM video. I originally submitted it to an online category of a little animation festival in Australia, and it screened on their site for a while, didn’t win, and then I forgot about it. But someone saw it, loaded it up on their website, then someone else took it from that website, and then the next minute it was all over the place. I’m just fortunate I put my name on the front, otherwise no one would ever know who had done it!

AARON: Your shorts employ a high drawing count, but you’re still leaning on re-use a bit. What’s the best way to achieve a full-animation look while still employing a stock method?
BERNARD: I try not to draw too much, and rely on quickly getting characters into strong poses. Having settling cushions after an action really gives simple animation a full animation feel - a good example is the whiskers on the bunny cushioning to a stop every time he moves - it’s a little thing but it doesn’t make those sharp movements of the bunny look so abrupt.

AARON: When you’re building your Flash character models, do you build the various eye and mouth symbols into the head symbol?
BERNARD: Not really, I just do them all on their own levels - and the only time I will combine them all is when I have to move the head around. But when it comes to technical stuff don’t listen to me - I’m sure there are heaps of easier ways to do it!

AARON: Do you sketch out new character designs, and then scan them in to the computer, or are you drawing straight into the computer?
BERNARD: I am always sketching character designs everywhere, but for anything on screen I draw straight into the computer using a Wacom tablet - I don’t own a scanner.

AARON: How do you balance your time between work and your personal animation projects?
BERNARD: It is tough, as work can be pretty hectic sometimes, and the last thing you feel like doing when you get home is go into the office and start animating again. The only time I seem to get things done lately is when I give myself a deadline. As a result I end up going berserk as the deadline approaches. To meet the deadline I set for myself for ‘Unlucky in Love,’ I was doing 2 hours in the morning, working all day at Disney, coming home and then working on it until early the next morning. That deadline nearly killed me.

AARON: You and Arj produced a live action short. Can you tell us more about this project?
BERNARD: How did you find out about that one?! I came up with an idea for a live action short film and got Arj on board as the star, and filmed it in a bar with about 100 friends as extras. It was a great learning experience (code for ‘it turned out a piece of shit’) but Arj was very funny in it, and it was great fun to do.

AARON: Are you working on any new personal projects - new series or shorts?
BERNARD: I am currently developing an animated series for television, and I hope to animate a short pilot for it later in the year. Other than that it’s all ‘Arj and Poopy!’

AARON: What animators and character designers have had the biggest influence on you?
BERNARD: I grew up watching the Warner Bros. cartoons, and when I look back at all my favourites as a kid I realise most of them were by Chuck Jones, so I’d have to say he is a big influence. Another big one would be Jim Henson and ‘The Muppet Show.’

AARON: What animated DVDs have you purchased recently?
BERNARD: I recently got a bunch of Miyazakis, part of the prize for the TISM clip, including ‘Castle in the Sky’ which is my favourite Miyazaki. I also got ‘The Incredibles’ which of course is awesome - the bonus Jack-Jack short was classic.

AARON: Do you regularly watch any Flash animated web series?
BERNARD: Not really, except ‘Brackenwood’ - but Adam puts out episodes less frequently than I do!

AARON: Your latest Arj and Poopy movie ‘Unlucky in Love’ has a very definite ‘Brackenwood’ feel to it. Are you getting more than just good conversation out of your weekly coffees with Adam Phillips?
BERNARD: He loves to think that, the little bastard!

AARON: I apologize for that last one. It was Adam’s idea. Thanks for the interview, Bernard, and best of luck with the next installment of ‘Arj and Poopy.’ Now get some sleep, for crying out loud!