An
interview with Mike Brown, creator of the Nyxies.
3DTotal - You previously studied
fine art & then after a short
stint as a 'ski bum' you studied
animation. Would you say that education
or life experience is more important
in relation to cg & film making?
Mike
- Both, you learn from
living life. Living in Vail didn’t
teach me how to make films or produce
good art work, but it did teach
me how to survive on my own with
very little money. I made a lot
of life long friends living up there.
I also learned how to gain the respect
of my peers and when to give respect
to someone that deserves it. I had
a great time and have a million
stories to tell from the experience
and I think that’s very valuable.
3DTotal
- You're working on Nyxies at the moment
& you've mentioned that you worked
for about a year on the back story &
universe as a whole. How has this helped
you realize your vision?
Mike
- I originally started working
on Nyxies as a tool to learn more
about film making and story telling
in general but at the same time I’m
also trying to build an Intellectual
Property (IP) that has value. One
of the biggest things I want to accomplish
is to tell a compelling story without
using dialog. I think this is important
for two reasons. First, I wanted to
avoid any kind of language barrier.
No localization means Nyxies is essentially
the same whether you live in Europe,
Asia, South America of where ever.
Second, I thought I’d learn
a lot more if I didn’t have
the dialog crutch to fall back on.
That said, I spent about a year figuring
out how the whole world of Nyx fit
together before I wrote any of the
story line or episodes. I’m
hoping the time I spent on that will
bring a certain depth to the IP as
things develop and more episodes are
completed
3DTotal
- We're all eagerly awaiting episode
2 & you say you have a total of
18 episodes planned. What made you
decide on an episodic format &
what advantages and disadvantages
have there been to this?
Mike
- I decided to make it episodic
because of the limited amount of time
I have to work on it. If I did it
all in one shot I would never be able
to complete something this epic. It
takes a huge amount of time to create
a 1-2 minute episode at the quality
I want to achieve. The main advantage
is being able to focus one small piece
of the grand scheme and not get lost
or bogged down with to much stuff.
Another advantage is being able to
take a break from it when needed and
not have to worry about figuring out
where I left off. I can also evolve
and change the story as needed. I’m
constantly learning new things and
getting new Ideas so it’s nice
to have some flexibility. The big
disadvantage right now is the amount
of time it takes to get an episode
out the door. I had hoped to be able
to produce an episode every 3-4 months
but since I only have a few hours
a week to work on it that’s
just not possible. It’s hard
to maintain interest if you can’t
produce work in a timely fashion.
I’m hoping once I have a few
more episodes done and more characters
and environment props constructed
and introduced production speed will
increase.
3DTotal
- What's
your favourite part of the process?
Mike
- My favorite part of the
process is definitely animation
and story telling. I enjoy doing
all the design, modeling and texture
stuff, but it can get a little tedious
at times. Once I start animating
an episode things tend to move along
pretty fast. Lighting is probably
my least favorite because it’s
so time consuming..
3DTotal
- Your characters are interesting &
from the site it seems like you went
through a few different designs. Was
the nightcap look intentional &
what inspired the textures for Leeek
& Laurr?
Mike
- The design for Leeek came
from a recurring dream I had about these
little creatures made of rope that were
at war with each other. Then I took
that idea and refined it, and made it
a little fatter to give it more appeal.
The dark textures and glowing eyes came
from the dream. When I built Laurr,
I based her design off of Leeek but
I learned very quickly how difficult
it is to give something feminine appeal
without a neck line, so I added some
curves. The rest of the characters are
loosely based on the overall art direction
I established with Leeek and Laurr.
A friend named Phil Robb coined the
term “Chubby Style” for
the look of Nyxies. I kind of like that.
3DTotal
- With Nyxies being set mostly at
night or in dark environments, lighting
is a hugely important part of the process.
How do you approach lighting in
your shots?
Mike
- Yes, lighting is probably
the most difficult and time consuming
process of each episode. It’s
also the most important aspect of
achieving the visual look of Nyxies.
I want the environments and textures
to be colorful and vibrant but still
feel dark which is a contradiction
in itself. Every character has their
own lighting setup for each shot
which also has to work well within
the environment the action is taking
place. I generally start with the
characters, then begin placing all
the lights for practical elements
in the scene (glowing crystals,
mushrooms, ect,…) and finish
with some fill and bounce lighting.
Once that’s done I do a small
(low resolution) test render of
the entire shot and go to final
render. After its all complete I
bring everything into combustion
to do the post effects such as glows,
particle lighting and volumetric
lights
3DTotal
- If Nyxies went into full scale production
do you think it would work better as
a movie
or a tv series & who would you want
to make it? (including yourself obviously.)
Mike
- That’s hard to say.
I’d love to make a full blown
feature but I actually think it would
work very well as a series of short
pieces that fit in between shows on
television or cable. I don’t
think I’d want to do a half
hour format on Television simply because
I feel the quality level would have
to drop considerably to meet production
deadlines. It’d be great if
someone like Pixar became interest
in the IP but for now, I’m happy
to just have fun with it. It’s
a great learning tool and stress reliever.
3DTotal
- What does the future hold for you,
Leeek, Laurr & the rest of the
Nyxies world?
Mike
- Hopefully great success.
Nyxies is going to get a lot stranger.
There’s some new characters,
like the Snot Giants and Snoutlings
that’ll be introduced over the
next few episodes that are truly odd,
even by my standards. I’ll just
keep pluggin away at it. I’d
also like to introduce some Nyxies
toys to the site. I think that would
be fun. Even if I just broke even
on them, I’d still get to have
the toys for myself which would make
it worth the effort and expense.
3DTotal
- Thanks again for the interview and
such insightful questions.
