Channel Frederator Blog

Alex Dron, an animator from Aucklund, New Zealand has an incredible sense of design and animation style. The folks at Yukfoo Animation Studios are lucky to have him. Channel Frederator is super excited and super lucky that we were able to feature FOT earlier this week!!!
AWESOME!

1) How long have you been animating/drawing Alex?
I used to draw “Wizzer and chips” a lot as a youngling..then moved onto Asterix, which was a lot more challenging… I drew a lot with my brother growing up and we influenced each other quite a bit. He is now an illustrator, doing a bit of animation and we are now working together at Yukfoo animation in New Zealand.
I really got it after completing a science degree at Otago university…then decided to do an animation course in Auckland before going onto Yukfoo for some work experience, they had a playstation 1….so I left cartoon college immediately …that was about seven years ago…

2) Who are some of your influences?
I remember when the interweb first came out..seeing some early Bill Plympton stuff which got me interested. The further I go on in my animation career though, the simpler my style seems to get. I appreciate artists who use interesting graphic shapes and unique colour design, guys like j.otto, Tim Biskup, Pete Fowler, Nathan jurevicius, Pete Candyland, Arthur de pins and more close to home working with kiwi talents such as Karl Wills, Julian Stokoe and Cameron Chittock.

3) Where did you get the idea to make this short, and how long did it take you to finish it?
I basically wanted a simple set up to display FOTs character traits and to explore his personality…and I hoped that if I kept it simple I would actually get it completed. Sport seemed an interesting way to display the conflict I was after..it usually brings out the best and worst in people
I started it in december 2006 and finished around September 2007, on and off, after work and weekends…..so it took a wee while. It was also a process in learning flash, which I was quite unfamiliar with.

4) Did you play soccer as a wee lad?
Not really…soccer balls were easier to animate than rugby balls..pretty much sucked at soccer..better than FOT though.

5) What’s next on the slab for you Alex? I hope it involves FOT again.
Directing a few commercials for poo paper and candy…then hopefully another short involving fot…probably will develop the characters a bit further and push the design more..(but he will retain the spikey ginger mullet.) and hopefully introduce a bit of dialogue.
ta very much..hopefully will have something again for you soon.

We look forward to seeing more adventures from Fot and yourself Alex!
Cheers!
-Jeaux Janovsky