• Interview with John Irving L. Prudenciano (Animator for MLP!)

    So Don_ko Sent me this interesting email earlier! It's an interview with John Irving L. Prudenciano, (Known as Irving-Zero)

    He provides us with some insight into the creation process for a pony episode! Check out the full interview after the page break!


    Don_ko: Is animator your main profession? How did you become an animator?

    Irving: Yeah it is. Actually I finished a totally different course in college but wound up in animation training while looking for a job

    Don_ko: You are from Philippines. Other animators are situated around the world. How do you communicate?

    Irving: Email, I guess.

    Don_ko: In what programs do you work? 
    Irving: Just Flash 8.

    Don_ko: How many time does it take to animate a 1 minute?
    Irving: Well depending on the scene (and more often than not the animator), a minute may take from 3 days to 1 week to animate...

    Don_ko: What can you say about other animators? How long does it take to animate one episode?

    Irving: Well we have different levels of animators. the ones who could do lots of scenes are the veteran ones. we have a month scheduled for an episode, including fixups on scenes and retakes from the client. So back in MLP I only did about 30 something seconds per episode. I can say that my scenes at winter wrap up were harder coz they were efx and action as compared to this episode where my scenes were acting (though it's a pain to animate acting because I'm not really good at it).

    Don_ko: As you have mentioned there are animators with different skill level. How is the work divided between all animators?

    Irving: The director divides the episode among animators considering their skill level, and well maybe also their speed and motivation.

    Don_ko: "Friendship is magic" is awesome with it's animation goofs. Were all those funny face expressions intended to be on storyboards or that's animators job?

    Irving: We follow the storyboards pretty much strictly but there are times when animators fool around with the background characters and gets away with it.

    Don_ko: When the actual animation progress has started?

    Irving: It actually started April last year.

    Don_ko: When was the job finished?

    Irving: We finished the project last december.

    Don_ko: Will you participate in creation of the second season? (because the internet is filled with rumors about season 2)

    Irving: I don't know. It depends on the director. But I hope I'd be included.

    Don_ko: Do you like what you do?

    Irving: Of course! Being a part of an awesome show is just, well, awesome. (insert rainbow dash expression here)

    Don_ko: have you ever visited pony-related sites like Equestriadaily.com or 4chan itself?

    Irving: It's pretty much hard to miss, so, yeah. At first it's kind of a culture shock but you grow outta it after several post readings.

    Don_ko: You have great art in your gallery. Can we call you a brony after that?

    Irving: Maybe, I dunno. Brony seems too hardcore for me.

    Don_ko: Your favorite character is...

    Irving: Pinkie Pie, of course. As much as I can request I'd go for scenes with pinkie pie, especially the flutterguy- spitty pie zecora song.

    Don_ko: Big thanks! Have you any warm words to tell for our readers?

    Irving: Eat lotsa sugar, do random stuff. (insert Pinkie Pie expression here)

    I love how the people from the show are so vocal in the community. Derpy Hooves becoming a canon character still amazes me.  We may rag on Hasbro for their...toy "designs", but it's really cool that they allow stuff like this!

    Thanks again for Don_ko and of course Irving for making this happen!

    28 comments:

    1. Ha, neat. I hope he really said that last bit out loud in its entirety.

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    2. Bronies for life, man, I'd like to see stuff like this from the other animators O_o I wonder if they have similar perspectives.

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    3. Good interview, its nice to see some of the design processes that go with animating as I˙m inspiring to be an animator.

      Hope that flash animation becomes more widespread with this show

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    4. crosses fingers for lauren faust interview after season 1 ****

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    5. He's filipino AND uses Flash 8! I can so relate to him so bad, it's not even funny!

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    6. Omg, this is awesome.
      This is that guy who made that sexy humanized pictures of the mainies and even Trixie. xD

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    7. Guy is awesome, proves that they really do have an eye on the community.

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    8. Great! So very great!



      Actually, this is exactly the kind of thing I hope to see in a DVD/Blu-Ray as additional content if such ever happens. Though perhaps I'm hoping a bit much.

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    9. "Eat lotsa sugar, do random stuff"
      Thanks, I will!

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    10. If you think about it, I don't think the creators were going into this thinking they would do many interviews or interact that much with fans, seeing as it was made for children. I wonder how taken aback they were and how much they enjoy this added surprise to making the show.

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    11. "Eat lotsa sugar, do random stuff" -- But I already do! :)

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    12. wait... What pictures was it this guy drew? I've seen so many I'm not sure

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    13. The next time we see Don_Ko, let's all give him a brohoof.

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    14. @oscarMIKE: Look through his gallery and see if you recognise anything! :)

      http://irving-zero.deviantart.com/gallery/

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    15. cool I remember those

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    16. Flash 8?! Wow, the show looks so damn good for being animated with such an old version. And I thought I was putting off upgrading (I'm no CS3, aka v9), lol.

      Nice to know that you really *don't* need to invest in the latest and "greatest" incarnation of every single application to still produce great stuff.

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    17. Regarding him being a brony or not, I guess its hard being a fan of something you work on as you will always have a more critic view on it.

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    18. WOAH WHAAAAAT!?

      AN ANIMATOR OF THE SHOW DID THOSE HUMANISED VERSIONS!?! WOAH!

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    19. makes sense the professional artists are getting in on the professional art scene of it too

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    20. He's just so relaxed and awesome. It makes me happy ^^

      The whole crew is awesome.

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    21. FILIPINOS REPRESENT!

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    22. Wait a minute, what do you mean Derpy Hooves becoming a canon character? Are you just referring to the intentional wall eyes in the newer episodes as a nod to us....or is there something more I don't know about?

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    23. By the way, what happened with the interview with that guy responsible for music?

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    24. @Anonymous
      Waiting on hasbro's legal department to ok it .

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    25. :D
      ahahha
      He Rocks.

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    26. He is a fucking retard and a leaker that Jhon Irving Prudenciano!!!!!!

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