Earlier this week, Cold, Hard Flash posted ‘Gene Fowler: The Comeback Cat, part 1,’ and, as promised, we’re back with part 2. In the conclusion of the interview, we learn about Fatkat Animation Studios’ recent hiring ramp-up, the studio’s original projects and some of Gene’s inspirations.

AARON SIMPSON: You’re currently in a hiring phase, as you ramp up to new projects. Are you finding enough talent?
GENE FOWLER: Yeah, we’re crazy busy. Finding Canadian talent is becoming difficult. I’m getting a ton of resumés everyday, but a lot of them don’t have the skills I need and many of them are outside North America, many from Italy for some reason.

AARON: What do you look for in a Flash Animator?
GENE: I look for strong creativity and draftsmanship – period. If they seem to have cool ideas and know how to design or animate well, we can teach them Flash. Although knowing Flash or After Effects on top of having the other two elements will insure a strong fit for Fatkat.

AARON: What schools are you seeing strong Flash animators emerging from?
GENE: Sheridan College seems to have some talent coming out. They were always strong in the traditional sense, and now they’re teaching Flash too. NBCC Miramichi is also pumping out some strong students.

AARON: What projects are you guys currently chewing on?
GENE: Oh man, tons of stuff. We’re working on a prime time series for The Comedy Network with our pals at Copernicus Studios in Halifax. We’re working on three web cartoon series for some major players in the states. Just wrapped on two music videos, one for Pat Green and the other for The Dears, we’re also working on animation tests for a Flash feature and a preschool show called ‘Humf.’ We’re also developing a pre-school show called ‘Hopper’ with The Comedy Unit out of Scotland and developing our own shows too.

AARON: What new tricks have you guys been employing into your Flash animation process?
GENE: Wouldn’t you like to know? We have some cool little gadgets that allow us to speed up the way we animate. We have some programmer buddies that have made some things in the past for us and again in the present. The Flash code has a hole in it that allows us to make some tools and integrate them into the menu. Fun stuff for sure.

AARON: How does your studio keep abreast of the latest advancements in Flash animation?
GENE: By keeping up on the most informative sites. Cold Hard Flash, Cartoon Brew, AWN, subscribing to all the newsletters and magazines also keeps us up to date.

AARON: Fatkat is currently developing several original properties. Are you planning on producing pilots first, or will you pitch them off show bibles?
GENE: We always pitch the show with the least amount of investment possible. It all starts with a high level concept right? So we figure its enough to throw in some artwork while making sure that the idea, age group and network are appropriate. We used to just produce one sheets, with art and concept on the front cover and company bio on the back; we found this simply wasn’t enough for the networks and it certainly wasn’t enough for us.

We find that you actually have to put the work into creating a pitch package not only for the benefit of the network who’ll need to know the show, but also for your benefit. To be absolutely sure that YOU know the show inside and out. Mashed together ideas bring in mashed results. Spend the time. Do it right the first time; as you only have once chance per broadcaster. They tend to not want to see the show again once they’ve made up their minds.

AARON: Stylistically, do you think a Flash feature project will require a different approach?
GENE: We’re currently working on a test for a Flash feature for a producer in the UK. The show will be very realistic, close to what we’ve done in our last training film ‘Universal Revolution’ but unlike it as well. We’ve come along way in Flash since then, so we plan on kicking it up a notch with this one. The setup will be the same, but a more sophisticated design will lead the way and it will move a lot differently. Backgrounds in 3D and props too. The kicker is going to be in POST though. We plan on hooking up with Ex-Fatkats at Copernicus Studios; there Juan Cruz Baldassarre has some neat techniques on leveling everything into 3D space and keeping movement in the scenes with variant speeds. I believe it’s the first Flash production of its kind.

AARON: Have you experimented with other vector animation software packages?
GENE: We played with a program called Swift 3D in the past. Can’t say we used it all that much though. In upcoming productions, like the feature, we’ll certainly be using more of that stuff though.

AARON: What Flash TV shows do you watch regularly?
GENE: I honestly don’t watch a lot of TV, which is silly considering how often we produce commercials and broadcast shows. But since hockey has been off the air I have been tuning in to shows like ‘Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends,’ ‘Odd Job Jack,’ ‘Atomic Betty,’ ’6teen,’ ‘Peep in the Big Wide World,’ ‘Ratz’ – whenever I can find it, as well as Sean Scott’s creation – ‘Doodlez’ that Campbell MacKinlay and co. are producing. That show is great.

AARON: Which character designers do you draw inspiration from?
GENE: Now that’s a question! Fellow Fatkat Mick Harrison for one. He’s the best damn cartoonist in the world! Another Fatkat James Stewart has a neato style. Former Fatkat’s: Cindy Blakney, James Walsh, Rodrigo Amador, Andrew Holland, Darren Rawlings, Jordan Greenstein, Steve Lambe, Brad Cayford and Peter Auld have inspiring styles.

Fatkat Freelancers: Mike Gilbert, Dagan Moriarty, Jonathan McNally and Jessica Borutski have killer designs.

Industry Dudes: Aaron Augenblick, Gary Dunn, Bob Staake, Shane Glines, David Feiss, Luc Latulippe and Stephen Silver. Superheros: Ed Benedict, Ward Kimball, Jim Flora, man there is so many more! I have about 5GB of pictures from all these guys and the drawing board which I try to download as much as I can from.

AARON: What animated DVDs are you currently watching?
GENE: The first and second season of ‘Dangermouse‘ and ‘Samuari Jack.’ I always find the time to throw in ‘Cats Don’t Dance‘ or ‘The Iron Giant‘ along with ‘Road to El Dorado‘ or ‘The Emperor’s New Groove‘ too. I gotta get myself the ‘Roger Ramjet‘ and ‘Rocky & Bullwinkle‘ DVD collections along with all the ‘Pink Panther‘ stuff too. It’s all so good. I prefer older cartoons.

AARON: Thanks, Gene. Very informative interview – and best of luck on the veritable flood of work you guys seem to be enjoying!

Everyone loves a comeback. Lance Armstrong, Apple Computer, Carlos Santana; they saw the end of the line, and then refused to quit. Flash animation went through a rough spell after the dotcom collapse, as parent company Macromedia witnessed its stock price plummet from $100 to $7. As the tech investment capital disappeared, so did many animation production houses that relied on Flash. And in early 2003, Fatkat Animation Studios (then known as Trainingscape Studios Canada) closed its doors after 3 years of exciting work and relative prosperity.

But much as Flash animation has seen a revival in recent years, so have the production companies that spawned the revolution. Enter the second chapter of Fatkat Animation Studios, the Miramichi City, New Brunswick animation house headed up by Gene Fowler. Not long after closing, Fatkat re-opened its doors, and ever since the work seems to be flowing in faster than ever; with network pilots, possible feature projects and Fatkat originals all packed into the production pipeline.

It’s a poignant comeback story, and Cold, Hard Flash recently discussed this and many other topics with Gene Fowler, the owner and founder of Fatkat Animation Studios.

AARON SIMPSON: Fatkat Studios disappeared for brief stint. How does the current iteration of Fatkat Studios differ from the previous collective?
GENE FOWLER: Well for one, I own the company now. Before I was simply the executive director of an un–incorporated collective of animators. Most people think that I’m an older gentleman with years of industry experience. Fact is, I’m only 28 and when I opened the first Fatkat studio I was only 24. The studio was assembled for one reason, to create Flash animated interactive training films for a company in California. You can read the full story on our website.

The new collective of artists were born into Flash, whereas the old collective of artists didn’t know what it was when we started. Being the only surviving member of the last studio I can teach our team proprietary production techniques that are proven while they dream up ways of making it all better and experimenting with new, innovative techniques.

AARON: Once Fatkat reformed, was it easy to get the band back together?
GENE: Yes it was actually. As soon as the Trainingscape ship had sunk, I immediately banded together with a group of friends from the studio: Steve Kahwati, Robin Mitchell, Rod Amador and Juan Cruz Baldassarre, and we started over. Most other people saw me as the devil. Even those whom I regarded as close friends turned their backs to me. That’s the price of being the boss I guess.

These guys had all the high level talents Fatkat needed to get back in the game. But it was slow going and the abrupt sinking of Trainingscape left us pretty broke. In the months following the Trainingscape break up, many from the group left to search for work elsewhere. It was pretty mutual and we all understood the situation. Rod and I stuck together for a few extra months and produced 4 pilots for a CBC short series. After those were done, I moved back to Miramichi, New Brunswick and Rod back to Ottawa, Ontario. We pretty much did nothing that summer. Some freelance work here and there. We still keep very much in touch and work together and visit each other from time to time.

AARON: How many employees currently work at Fatkat?
GENE: There are 6 official producers beating the bushes for us; while roughly 22 artists plug away at the projects we bring in for them.

AARON: When did you discover Flash?
GENE: I found out about Flash in 2000. Said yes to a few hefty contracts without even knowing how to use it.

AARON: You’ve described your studio as ‘Flash-exclusive.’ Is Fatkat a Flash-only studio?
GENE: Well, 90% of everything we do is Flash. I have been doing huge productions in Flash for a long time so we push our expertise in the Flash production pipeline. We also execute in Maya and After Effects as well.

AARON: What type of project isn’t right for Flash?
GENE: There are very few, except for the obvious ones. I would say that a lot of mo’graph’ (motion graphics) stuff that could be done in Flash would be better left to After Effects. For example we produced a 30 second spot for the RCMP last April in Flash that would have been better through After Effects. But at the time, the person behind it didn’t have enough training in AE so he used what he knew best. Still looked great, client loved it – but would have been better in AE.

AARON: What’s the secret to designing a character so that it works well in the Flash animation pipeline?
GENE: Depends on the production but some of the general items are little things. Making sure that the character and all it’s parts were created at 100% true size and not resized to fit the work area after it’s been designed. There’s nothing worse then hitting the true size shortcut key and having all the body parts explode/implode. Also making sure all the centre points are in the right spots and that the symbols are set to single frame. All layers should be named properly and also color coated. We even keep the library super clean. Nothing out of place, nothing out of whack.

Other notes of interest are keeping the whole character and all of its layers in a layer folder, but also, along with that, keeping a layer on the outside of the folder that is associated with that layer. So that when animating you can select a key frame in that blank layer and drag it down into the folder, which selects all the hidden layers in the folder. Pressing F6 leads to not only putting a keyframe on the blank layer but all those in the folder without having to actually open it. There’s lots of other little things but let’s keep them for the rest of the interview.

AARON: Can you tell us more about the 4 pilots you created CBC’s ZeD?
GENE: They were pretty stiff and limited but it was the most we could muster for the timeframe and budget. We went on to produce 20 more that fall. We were starting to find our groove so the last half of them looked pretty good.

AARON: One the bigger projects you produced for ZeD was called ‘And I Still Blame Hollywood’ (‘AYIBH’). Did this production go smoothly?
GENE: Yeah for sure. It was great little project and our first co-production along with New Brunswick’s first animated series. A big step for us along with our province. The other producers were out of Prince Edward Island, Copie Zero Media + TV. Great guys over there; good story folks.

The Production went off without a hitch. ZeD and Copie Zero pretty much left us alone with the whole thing. All twenty episodes went out on time and on budget.

Compared to a lot of our stuff they were a bit subpar animation and design wise – but the comedy was good and so was the animation for what it was. A fun production indeed. It didn’t get picked up for a second season. ‘AYIBH’ was ZeD’s first commissioned series. It seems that season of the entire show (not just our portion) was too expensive. The following season they eliminated commissioned pieces and now just pay on delivery. It’s great for independent producers whom are looking for a chance to get their stuff on TV. It’s a great idea they have going on there and indeed worth a look.

That’s the end part 1. Check back soon for part 2 of Gene Fowler: The Comeback Cat.