Number eleven

What episode took the longest to make?.... what took the shortest? The Third episode took by far the longest of any episode... The story took a really long time to finish and the animation took a while. We started thinking about the story in early february... finished writing in late april. That is when I started animating... It was finished in early August.... there was about a month in between where I did morph, so the episode took about six months. so far the fourth one has taken the least amount of time... about four months.... but if things keep going on the right track, the fifth one will take the least amount of time.
The story was finished in a month and I am going pretty fast on the animation.

got any more Secrets?

right almost forgot.

Alright who here knows exactly how the winter scenes were done in Episode four.... probably nobody.... Did I cover the normal set, or make a new one.....

I made a new one.... I used wax paper and traced the creek so it was the same shape... Put down one of the grass mats and painted it white, put down the creek, painted the rocks, then took the trees from the normal set and put them in the same place. the bottoms of the trees and the lodge were covered with Woodland Scenics snow powder.

Both of the sets are on doors. so they take up a bit of space in my room, it was a bit of a challenge to figure out where to put it. the normal set is in the far end of the room, I put the interior set on the right wall, So to do the winter scenes I took that down, and put the winter set there. After I finished I took it down to save space..... right now it is balanced up against a wall next to my train layout....

OKay Number Thirteen

Now.... Beaver Creek has a lot of little puns and references... Most of the are based on real things or types of things.
the first one are the insta-homes.... those are referencing kits or things you buy that never really work right.

Drake has his little plastic flamingo.... Do you have those in the UK? or are those American... People put out decorative plastic flamingos in there yard. Drake does the same

If you look closely at Twigs laptop... It looks like an apple laptop, but it has an aspen leaf with a bite out of it instead of an apple

stick-os- That is your basic cereal, like Cherios or somethin'

Drake has an mp3 player, it looks like an ipod.

the chairs they sit in are adirondack chairs

when Riley looks at Drake and sees him as a roasted duck... thats just a classic cartoon gag

the products in episode four
are Mac & Trees - Mac & cheese
Oakmeal - Oatmeal
Chef Barkodee - Chef Boyardee
Root Loops - Froot Loops
Will-O gelatin - Jello gelatin

The snowman Twigs makes is supposed to look like Snowman Sam from Rudolph.

and I there are a bunch of the in episode 5 that I can't tell y'all about yet.

Extra Trivia...

In episode Three there is a fight scene between Twigs and Riley... This is actaully a pun.... I have never seen the movie, but it is a famous scene. In the movie "Deliverance" there is a scene called the Banjo Duel where a guy and a kid are playing a banjo and a guitar trying to outdo each other, the music is called dueling banjos, and everyone knows the scene as the banjo duel.... so we put it in as a joke that in episode three there is a Banjo Duel.

here is the scene http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uzae_SqbmDE

Haha!
I'm not sure about the UK but in Australia people have them, Also in the game The sims 2 you can put them in the yard...

Alright haven't done one in a while, I was kinda waitin' fer Beaver Creek 5 to be done.
Beaver Creek has a lot of good gags and puns,

first you have Treebay, which is a word play on Ebay.

then you have, FirEx, a word play on FedEx.

The Weather reporter is actually a word play on her real name, Amy Barkley, We changed it to Amy Barkleaf.

The books are funny, "Go Dogwood Go" word play on "Go Dog Go"
(a dogwood is a type of tree, where is the largest amount of dogwoods in the world? Louisville, Kentucky!)
The second book "Three Little Twigs, word play on "Three little pigs"
and last book "Goodnight Loon" a word play on "Goodnight Moon" (A loon is a duck)

Thats pretty much all of the word plays in this one.

The second book "Three Little Twigs, word play on "Three little Twigs"

Surely the Three Little Pigs?

I am going to do another one.

Alright, as the Theme Song states, Beaver Creek is "Somewhere in The Middle of Nowhere"...... But there is a clue of where it is in the fifth one! We know now that Beaver Creek is somewhere in the middle of nowhere east of the Mississippi River.... How do we know this? The TV station in episode five is WBC-TV and only TV and radio stations on the east coast start with a W if it was west it would be KBC-TV, which I don't think sounds as good, maybe I am just partial to it because that is how all of the news stations are here.

Extra Trivia!
I will never say for sure where Beaver Creek is supposed to be, I want everyone to think for themselves where it is, well at least east of the Mississippi. I am entitled to my own opinion, I don't know for sure where Beaver Creek is set..... but i think it is somewhere in mid-Eastern Kentucky or maybe West Virginia, just somewhere like that. I always picture it in the upper Eastern South.
These area have those great wooded hills, and the background in Beaver Creek has those rolling hills that I see everywhere, if you go a few minutes out of the city.

I've always thought Beaver Creek is set more in somewhere like British Colombia in Canada! I know your from louisville, Kentucky etc and I understand that beavers are found in northern states of US (I think) but I've always built up a visual picture of Beaver Creek in either a canada state or a national park in the US state of Washington.
I remember a few years back I watched a video in Geography about Mt St Helens in Washington state and it showed lots of forest shots with the creeks, beavers etc. Since then I've always had my own opinion of Beaver Creek being set somewhere like that!
Whats the difference between a loon and a duck? Is Drake a loon or duck??

Beavers actually live in every state, except Hawaii and almost all of florida. So they could pretty much live anywhere.

and I think a loon is a separate thing, they look like a duck, but they are not related.
Drake is a mallard duck, and his name is actually a joke, because a male mallard duck is called a "drake"

Here is a Mallard Drake, which is what he is.

And here is a Loon

Ah, a loon is quite different! Never heard of a Mallard drake, clever! Sorry to sound stupid but when the tree is been sawn down in ep 5 whats the meaning of the tail slap, is that to worn off other beavers and humans to 'get off my territory' ?
I like the fact you only see the humans arms! Almost like those old Tom & Jerry films where you only see the humans legs and feet!

yes'ir you are right, a beaver tail slap is exactly that, they are to warn other beavers and to scare predators away, since Twigs is alone, he is warning it off. A beaver tail slap is really cool, it sounds like a combination of a gunshot and somebody droping a huge rock in the water.

yeah, I definately didn't want to show the full human, it is just clay arms with some fabric, attached to a can of the spray snow, that I had left over from episode four.


And here is another bit of trivia, when Twigs says that the tree will grow back, and it does.... that isn't cartoon magic. It is called coppice cutting, if a beaver chews a tree down at the right hight, then it will actually grow back bigger. Two years ago there was part of the forest at a local park that had been, completely chewed down by beavers.... someone who isn't looking really hard would not be able to tell that those tree were chewed down...

I also found out that in the UK, "loons" are called "divers".

Neeto!

So much to learn lol! What about the chances of a MOVIE?

lad feels as if talking to a..... a....... I'm trying to go some where as if a FAMOUS ANIMATOR kind of deal.... yes, lets stick with that. Iantimothy: The Famous Animator. ITFA.

Any more stuff you would like us to know?

I can't think of anything at the moment, I am sure I will soon. Anybody have any questions? It might make me think of somethin'.

Just fishin' for ideas for what you could write....What type of post production techniques do you use to make it look tip top?

I actually don't do too much for post production. I always use simple transitions, I don't want it to look cheesy. Whenever something has to fly, I do that in photoshop, I cut out the object and move it frame by frame in every picture. The rain is an effect in imovie, the most filters and effects used are on the underwater shots, there is three filters on that, I think it is fisheye, wave, and a blue tint. Other than that, most of the stuff happens on a seven foot table in a tiny room.

are you homeschooled? im not a stalker, im just wondering how you get this much time do you get to to do this!

also, is the inside of twigs entirely clay (besides the wire skeleton)? like sometimes, i put like a marble in my charactors head to save clay or something.

any more secrets?