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Interview with FLASH artist/animator Justin Dike of Cartoon Smart. 02/03/2004
Interviewer: Mark Cansino What is it like being a FLASH master? Hahahah, satisfyingly stressful. I can only MASTER so much at once. What kind of Stress are you receiving? Its a self imposed stress. Maybe some psychic connection with my clients. Everyone wants everything "yesterday"...and I'd rather just play on my own. Did you go to school for any of what you do now? Not really, I went to the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan.. graduated 2000.. but didn't learn any flash there. Were you self taught in the ways of flash or did you have some instruction from someone before you? Self taught, I got turned down at a job interview (at Rumpus.com) because I didn't know anything about flash 4. I went home and learned everything I could in about 10 hours, and then sent the company a cartoon I made the night before and I got the job. Wow! That's pretty awesome, were they surprised? Yeah, they called me back that day. By the way Speaking of Rumpus! I was amazed when I saw the first full screen highly active flash animation. It really intrigued me and it was very entertaining, do you think you'll be doing anything like that in the future or are you working on anything like it presently? No way.. too hard! Thats one project I'd never want to get involved in again. But to be positive and not so negative, its fun to work in a team. Your client list is pretty nice, Lego, Footlocker to name a couple, is there any other big name companies you've gotten the chance to work with? Maybelline and Proctor and Gamble, but I don't think I can say much else other than that top secret! Let's hear about your past projects! Is there any jobs you loved or hated the most? My all time favorite job... Someone hired me to animate a cartoon called Saddam's Palace Sweep. Basic premise: You are a weapons inspector and you have to find the weapons saddam has hidden. Which in retrospect is ironic, since we now know he didn't have. (You can download the free-flash-made-weapons Justin Dike made here: http://www.cartoonsmart.com/freestuff.html) I enjoyed that job because the client was just having fun with it... he was trying to spend some money at the end of the year to just get into a lower tax bracket so the pressure was off if only they could all be that way. Hmm makes you wonder if it was someone from Enron who hired you.. no he was too cool for Enron. =) Now that we know your most favorite work project. What was your least favorite? How to put this... female client, an artist, very picky.. a deadly combination when it comes to freelancing. Any other details? Nuff Said. Before Flash were you working with any other design/animation products? Around 1999, Maya.. Great program. I can only imagine how different that program is today. At least I hope they've taken it alot further. I liked using it for 3D. I tried miserably to learn Macromedia Director at one point. I hated it, then really focused on 3D for about 3 years. Again with the irony, got that job at Rumpus only because I learned a different Macromedia product. Did you have any traditional animation work (like cell animation) before rumpus or any of your animation jobs? A little cell animation. I animated my art teacher from high school. I made his arm fall off or something like that. But he's a great guy, I just thought it would be funny. Hahaha! I know that you do your flash cartoon animation with frame by frame animation as opposed to using motion or shape tweens. Is there any reason behind this? For character animation I do that, its just a matter of confidence, I think.. and praying you don't screw up everything and need to go back and change a hundred frames. 
Let's talk about Cartoon Smart! How'd you come up with this idea?
I realized there's some serious basics to drawing in flash that SO many users, even advanced flash users, don't know about. The two biggest are creating a shape and adding more vector points & the other is the fill transform tool, which should probably be named the ADJUST YOUR FREAKING GRADIANT tool. I cover both those tools in my free quicktime tutorial at cartoonsmart. Have you gotten any feedback from anyone who has used it? Oh yeah! Lots! And of course the most common feedback, " I had no idea I could do that". I've gotten some great responses from people that just like my style of teaching. I don't edit anything out, so if I do something wrong or have to correct myself, OR if I my cat starts whining in the background, it adds something fun to the tutorial. Why would you suggest that someone use Cartoon Smart tutorials as opposed to another source, say a school or workshop? Aside from just teaching little known tools, I'm focusing alot of tutorials on cartoonists and animators and most online flash resources, schools, or workshops never go into that.... these teachers know alot, but try learning to make your own cartoons from someone who's only familiar with making a website in Flash. It just doesn't work. Do you have any advice for the future flash animators of the universe? Keep creating. And keep Macromedia informed as to what we need. I get worried they are out of touch with cartoonists and animators... With each new version of the program they've done some things that really make me wonder if they have a single digital artist on staff.... My greatest fear is that in 5 years, Flash will be in like version 10, but I'll still be using MX because they got rid of all the core drawing tools for us folks that just want to have fun. Kudos to the person at Macromedia that added Envolope and Distort!!!! Thank you! What plans do you have for the future of Justin Dike, Cartoon Smart or FlashBooty? Ideally... I would love to move away from taking so many freelance jobs, as they are usually more boring. and... stressfull. and just build up the cartoonsmart site, with more tutorials and LOTS more free flash files and resources for cartoonists. I have a feeling though I'll end up training the next creator of a huge show like South Park. unless I get to "wet my beak" I just hope that person knows to kick up something to the "boss". LOL. oh and as for Justin, when he's not working, he's training to be a professional "lounger". Nice.. Before we conclude this interview is there anything else you would like to tell the readers about? Good question. Check out cartoonsmart.com and email me any requests and comments. I love feedback! Justin Dike is a flash animator / site designer currently based out of the Virgin Islands. If you'd like to see his design company site "Flash Booty", click here. If you have any questions to Justin or would like to discuss this article, head to the message board topic for this editorial by clicking here: Discuss this article in the forums - Click here. | ^ Internet Ads ^ |
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