Premieres, Dragons, General Happenstance

AAAAH!!

What a crazy past two weeks these have been... Bearpuncher premiered, the Wingfeather Saga premiered and with that I feel like I've entered a new chapter of my life. It all makes me ready to sit down and write a cozy, short(?) recap of what all's been going on. It's something I hope to do more often in the post-Bearpuncher era... I've been particularly inspired by Coleen Baik's The Line Between newsletter, which captures moments across the creative process and publishes every two weeks. I don't want to promise that kind of consistency, but I do want to post more around here, since there's been plenty going on...

Bearpuncher Update

It's been two weeks since Bearpuncher was published to YouTube. In the event that I've done a severely poor job of advertising and you missed the announcement, you can watch it here! For free!

It's been thrilling and satisfying to see its audience evolve: from just me, viewer #1, as it premiered at 8AM, to friends and family throughout the opening weekend, and to the wider world over the following weeks. My main hope, as an unknown channel, was for it to surpass the 4K views of my previous film, Good Boy Richard. And based on Bearpuncher's initial performance, that goal seemed a bit ambitious. I was preparing to hustle and submit this film to dozens of festivals just so that it would be SEEN. By SOMEBODY.

But as of today, it's sitting at 83K views, which is just bonkers. My reaction to that news is all over the place - pride in the film's success and the quality of the artifact, confusion when I see other videos that are much more deserving of such numbers, fear that my next video may not do as well as this one, and gratitude toward the people who made this moment possible. It's that final mood that I've tried to settle into. I do genuinely believe that Bearpuncher's success on the internet is due to real people (most of whom read this blog) who took the time to recommend Bearpuncher, and get the ball rolling. People across the country and  the world  have seen it not because of me, but because of our community. Thank you so much.

I've prayed for months that God will prosper this film, and it's exciting to see that prayer answered. Perhaps the coolest thing so far has been  a highlight on the Animation Obsessive newsletter,  where it was mentioned in the same section as Worthikids and Cartoon Saloon... WOW. I just don't think any accolade could be better than that.

One other thing I'm learning - high viewership does NOT correlate with merch sales... in fact, I haven't sold ANY merch since opening weekend! I'm saying this not to guilt you into buying merch but as a word of warning to any other indie creator who hopes to fund their film that way... it's not easy!

But for all the talk of numbers and views and crap like that, I think my favorite part of the whole release experience was our little premiere party, where the local crew and friends got together to watch it on a big screen (which was SO COOL!) It was a fitting capstone to the whole experience, and a reminder that films are made and watched by real people - and that's who I want to make movies for.

bearpuncher crew

bearpuncher letterboxd admin team

My Father's Dragon

Circling back to the topic of Cartoon Saloon, my dad and I got to watch their newest movie together (as part of our unofficial watchthrough of their filmography) and it's a very sweet movie! It's as visually ambitious as ever, though thematically much simpler than their earlier work. It's very earnest and childlike and endearing, which was enough to get me sufficiently weepy at parts. And that kind of emotional investment means FANART! Which I now have time for! So weird!

Still on the fence about whether the magic effect is Too Much but I need to move on and not dally so long on this particular piece...

So... What's Next?

I've been trying to pump the breaks, turn on the reverse thrusters, and activate several more mechanical metaphors as I adjust to making art and living life without the burden of animating a short film. Turns out, I really DO like drawing (surprise) and drawing for a film helps orient my process and create clear goals. Already I've been diving into the next project, which is shaping up to be an '80s inspired reimagining of a favorite character from my childhood. I want to do something MUCH shorter than Bearpuncher, something nostalgic, something with more traditional mediums, and something attached to an existing property. Less than a week after Bearpuncher released, I was already back at it again, doing a bunch of sketches and trying to absorb an entirely new style.

It's strange because I don't feel spent. I thought I would be EXHAUSTED after Bearpuncher, but instead I'm hungry to make a new, different thing. Yet it feels a little too soon to again submit my life to the tyranny of another creative project. I had barely begun to indulge my non-art hobbies before I found myself putting them back on the shelf... and I think my next project will be better served by an extended period of exploration, marination, and play. Maybe I shouldn't be so anxious to return my life to the same state it's been in for the past 14 months.  I've mentioned before on this blog  that I felt like working on Bearpuncher was holding me back from the travel and adventure I had hoped to have post-college. But despite that, I've come to like the comfort of routine and the satisfaction of measurable progress. I still feel guilty to take a night off and watch Seinfeld. And I'm now scared to change things up, travel somewhere new, or advance my career. It's these concerns that I want to try to address in the (probably brief) time when I'm not going full-speed-ahead on another project.

I think it's fortunate that this season of rest is coinciding so nicely with the holidays, which is a natural time for reflection, and for watching a bunch of movies without feeling guilty... I'm already very much looking forward to Christmas and the new Ryan Reynolds musical looks intriguing!

There's still more to report - I've barely touched on the Wingfeather premiere or my recent fascination with Back to the Future (for some reason) but in the interest of time I will just say that the Wingfeather premiere was LEGIT - I was pretty starstruck seeing the cast and EPs on the red carpet, and Kevin McNally even walked past me! Twice! And my dad came all the way from North Carolina to see the show (and my first screen credit, technically) which meant a lot. Thanks dad :)

dad not pictured here, unfortunately. 

friends are pictured here, fortunately

I hope you all have a lovely Thanksgiving and are eagerly anticipating the arrival of Bluey in this year's parade!! I SURE AM!

See ya soon :)

-dh

Bearpuncher

 Too busy and tired to write much else other than...

Bearpuncher is RELEASED! To y'all! Check it out here:

Thank you for joining me on this journey - for caring and for watching and for making this moment special. Now that we've reached the summit, why don't we sit a while, and watch some cartoons?

best,

dh

Convergence

Things are happening, people. 

On Wednesday I officially announced Bearpuncher's premiere date, which is... TOMORROW. After a couple of relatively relaxed weeks supervising sound design and compositing, everything is now a blur again as we approach the finish line for this two-year-plus project. If making art is like having a baby, we're in the FRANTIC DRIVE TO THE HOSPITAL stage, people. Everything is happening all at once. I'm planning a premiere watch party, in a classroom on campus that could very well be occupied on the day of the event. (This is the downside of no budget and a small apartment.) The merch just arrived, and needs to be photographed for my Gumroad (shameless plug shameless plug). I'm back to caring about social media again, planning posts and checking numbers. In short, I'm spending all of my free time on the project again, trying to get all the details into place in a way that would honor the hundreds of hours of work I must have spent on this thing. 

When I get a moment to sit back and consider all this fanfare I'm building up I still can't decide if I'm spending my energy in the right direction. On one hand, this is a five minute cartoon that's only a little more than a student film. I see much more talented artists like Worthikids and Emily Xu drop their shorts online with only a single, simple post to get the word out. I envy their ability (through follower account or just temperament) to not break a sweat as they carry their films to their audience. 

But on the other hand, this is two years worth of my artistic work, and I'd like people to take a look. And I want look at it with them - animation is incredibly isolating, but I've finally reached the tiny moment when it can become incredibly communal. And I made Bearpuncher for the community. For you. Not for the faceless internet user or the number of views, but for the people I talk with each week. And it's worth the extra effort to gather them together online and in person, and you know, watch the thing. 

I'm thankful for your effort in sharing and anticipating the film. Scrolling through Instagram and seeing the way our little community has rallied around the film is like energy drink for the soul - I almost feel jittery! After tending to this film for so long it's finally time to let it go off into the world. And I can't think of better people to entrust it to. 

So tomorrow! Bearpuncher! Right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XcR9zv3_Gg

See you then :)

-dh

Harvest

My houseplants are in a horrible state. The ginger has grown far beyond my wildest dreams and put up dozens of stalks and flowers, all of which are in some stage of browning. A pot which used to hold thyme sits empty like a memorial to the plant it bore last summer. I've even come close to dehydrating my succulents. Plants, surprisingly, won't sit still like they do on my interior design Pinterest board. They shed leaves, twist upward, get moldy, and do all sorts of other things which require your care and attention. Care and attention that I'm much more tempted to spend on making art (or hanging out with friends, if we're being totally honest.)

Because of this, I've learned that I'm not much of a gardener.

Which is kinda ironic, since for the past few months I've viewed my artistic work as another sort of "garden." In my morning drawing sessions I snip a few branches, pull a few weeds, pour on the water.  I "tend" to the story, checking back in on it, encouraging it this way and that, watching the slow accumulation of time and effort grow it into something bigger. Bearpuncher has been the first time I've invested major time into one project, and it's surprised me that as you sit with a project for longer, it becomes more of it's own... thing. Like a plant, it wants to move a certain way, budding outward from the choices you made earlier in the process. For example, Bearpuncher purposely ends in an ambiguous, happy/sad kind of way, but it always begged for some note of hope at the end. I'd heard this from friends, and as I watched the final cut I could feel its absence. At the storyboarding phase, I was confused on how to add hope back to the ending, but now with the film more mature it was easy to see how to do it. So I created one additional painting (now one of my favorites in the short), and the film grew in an organic and beautiful way. 

Speaking of Bearpuncher, and this extended gardening metaphor, it seems like the harvest is around the bend. Me and my friend Clay have 99.9% finished the final visuals, the actual artwork/animation has been done for weeks now, and the audio is currently being designed and placed. The merch(!) has been designed, and sent off for production. Last year's poster has been dusted off and greatly improved:

Ever made wary by this project's tendency to take 3 times longer than expected, I'm still bracing myself for delays, emergencies, etc. But I'm ALSO bracing myself for things to go ok and for this film to go out into the world SOON. For it to be seen by you! For the fruits of the labor (the lumpy, well-loved, Appalachian fruits) to actually be enjoyed by real people. It's Going To Be Cool.

But what comes after the comes after the harvest? For the smart farmer, the soil is left fallow - to rest, not growing anything, just recovering its strength. I'm wondering if I should let myself be fallow. When I was deep into making Bearpuncher, I dreamed about the post-Bearpuncher future when I would take few months off from drawing, travel some, and engage all the other hobbies I had de-prioritized. But after two years of doing this, I'm reluctant to put down the shovel. I like doing this. I like the fruits that come of being busy. I like seeing quantifiable progress, and an identifiable purpose for structuring my days. I'm good at doing, not so much at being. It's hard to stop without feeling a little bit guilty; it breaks my heart to say "not yet" to my next project. With a pivotal career moment approaching, shreds of art-school hopes and dreams still in limbo, and the state of the animation industry only getting worse, it seems riskier than ever to just REST. 

Or maybe, riskier than ever to trust. To trust that God sends rain on the busy and the un-busy. To trust that I can find success without kneeling to the idol of productivity. To trust that a life spent exploring, dabbling, and aimlessly wandering is a well spent one. I want to reinvent my artistic process, to care for my health, and to not answer "busy" when asked how I'm doing. But ultimately what I need most is to prune back the Miyazaki tendency to only feel purposeful and satisfied when putting effort into an artistic task. Our God loves the things we create, but he loves us more. 

I still think about Mako Fujimura's guiding question, "what do you want to make today?" But maybe in a fallow time I can realize again the dazzling breadth of possible answers. I think I'll try making apple cider bread, more time for prayer, and maybe start sowing the seeds of my next project. I don't think I'll be sowing any actual seeds though, since my East-facing apartment windows seem unsuitable for sustaining much plant life. 

Hope this piece finds you well and settling into autumnal coziness. I'm already feeling very nostalgic for old stop-motion movies and memories of past Novembers... and Bluey's gonna be in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade this year!??! So excited. 

Also I'm going to be at Lightbox again, like tomorrow??! My last experience at Lightbox was a high-excitement, high-stress time, but I'm hoping that this one can be more relaxing and fun. If you're there, let's do a big high five (and I'll slip you some Bearpuncher stuff ehehehehhehe)

see ya!

-dh

PS:

A song about the simple things, one of my recent favorites

The lovely art of Jestenia Southerland, for lineless art inspiration

24

animation drawing from bearpuncher

It was one of those perfect summer nights in Nashville. We were smoking pipes on a friend's porch, the first time in a while our group of little Inkling-wannabes had convened to discuss our day jobs, personal projects, and of course, girl troubles. 

As I was smoking my pipe, the taste reminded me of who I was as a newly-minted 23 year old. Last summer, I was a house-sitting indie artist living on the cheap, nurturing a burgeoning interest in cooking, hiking, and travel. I was working on personal projects every day, in what was (in retrospect) a luxurious time to indulge the furthest extent of my child-like, artsy side. But now as a 24 year old, that self, and his goals, felt foreign. 

In the months that followed my 23rd birthday, I would accept my first, though rather non-artistic, job in animation. I would settle into my first apartment, though given the amount of boxes I still have in my bedroom, I can't say that I've totally unpacked. In order to create the amount of art I wanted in the margins of my social and work life, I would accept a motto of "minimize lifestyle, maximize output." I reduced the time I spent on hobbies such as hiking, cooking, and sleeping - but it worked. After a brief late fall slump, I was making art again, waking up early in the mornings with a cup of tea and yet another Bearpuncher shot on the table (technically the Cintiq, but that too was on the table.) Things were getting done. Bearpuncher was getting done. 

And as of just a few weeks ago, Bearpuncher is fully animated. 

It's weird to speculate, or even celebrate, about the light at the end of that tunnel. One of the many things I've learned on this project is that any task will take about three times longer than I expect, and with animation coloring and a few more background paintings left to go it could just take two more months to complete... or it could take the whole year. It's been hard not to compare the film to others in its field, like this stunner from Emily Xu. I've been so deep in the project it's hard to tell how it actually measures up. I think it's good. I know it's entertaining. But at the very least it's given me a reason to keep drawing something that's truly my own, which I really needed. 

Because despite literally working in animation, I don't feel much like an artist anymore. Not only do I have significantly less time to work on art nowadays, but I've also been wracked with serious doubts about the righteousness of the artistic quest I idolized in college. Was it selfish to want to spend a life tinkering on my own stories? Would the expense and foreignness of living in California outweigh the fun of studio life? As a Christian from Tennessee, would I even be welcomed into a established studio communities to begin with? Or perhaps most importantly, was creating better, more important, and more expensive stories worth what it would cost to have that opportunity? Now, I wasn't so sure. 

As the sun set and the pipes burned low, I missed that 23-year-old version of me who knew exactly what he wanted, who was filled with so much wonder and potential and zeal for the work. There's a lot I think I have to learn from him. But 23-year-old me had a very narrow vision of success, and even his own identity. He didn't expect to change. But he did. 

And my mission as 24-year-old Daniel is to make sure that was for the better. 

I Done Been Interviewed! (and made some unrelated fanart)

Hey everyone! 

Long time no blog! I can't say this year has been an especially prolific one for the Roost (although my main resolution for this year was to "be prolific," I've applied that more to my drawing than my writing.) But to fill the gap between this and the next post, I am happy to share that I did a recent interview for the Nashville Voyager which you can read here! - https://nashvillevoyager.com/interview/check-out-daniel-haycoxs-story/

It's a fun little summary of my journey in animation (familiar territory for this blog) but now that I'm almost a year out of college (wowie) I'm able to look back with some perspective on my time there and how it shaped me as an artist. The main thing I wanted to convey is that as long as you have a genuine love for the product AND the process I think it's really just a matter of time spent practicing before you gain proficiency, and maybe even a career making what you love. Talking about that did make me a little homesick for the days when my primary work was drawing - I now have to cram art in around the edges between working my job and sleeping. But I'm still trying to make it work, building momentum back on Bearpuncher (only 12 shots left to animate!) and even doing some fanart yesterday!

say cheese, 4townies!

I've been looking forward to Pixar's new movie, Turning Red, for a while - can't say I was initially wowed by the first announcement, but once I saw more trailers and learned that Domee Shi was directing I was totally on board. It also just happened to coincide VERY NICELY with a 2000s nostalgia phase I've been experiencing for the past couple months. Not that I actually remember a lot of the 2000s, but I do enjoy the music of the time and an era where the internet wasn't so invasive... In the movie the kids were taking pictures with the panda and I thought "how is that not going to end up on social media???" Then I realized they didn't HAVE social media. What a concept. 

Anyways, I think the movie nailed a lot of very specific niche interests of mine - animal movies, 2000s jams, hip-hop/asian fusion music, cartoony expressions in feature films, movies set in uncommon locales - and so I was never not gonna like it. And I haven't seen a movie really tackle puberty the way they did (usually movies stick to portraying "coming of age" as only a mental and emotional transition, something much more marketable...) But I'm glad they risked it here, as it reminded me of how confusing and even panic-inducing that age was for me, which I've never seen represented in a movie before. 

Turning Red is one of my first reviews on my new Letterboxd account - anybody else using that site? I was a begrudging convert at first, but my reviews have steadily been getting longer and longer... If you read this blog you probably can guess I like sharing my opinions, so it's no surprise that I have become an avid user of a site that lets you pretend to be a movie critic. Hah! 

Anyways, I hope all y'all are well. We got a freak snow here in Nashville a couple days ago but the cherry blossoms have been blooming nonetheless. I'm looking forward to watching some Ghibli movies and dreaming about summer! (Trying not to do that too much until Lent is over, but still...) 

You guys have any spring plans? Or thoughts on Turning Red? I've found people have a wide range of opinions on that movie so I'd be interested to hear 'em.

Your fellow wayfarer,

dh

Fest Zest

fest friends

About a week ago (I am much behind on my blogging!) was the culmination of the Lipscomb Film Calendar, the Five Minute Film Festival. The weeks leading up to the festival were stressful to say the least - even though I knew that Bearpuncher didn't have a chance of being finished in time, I caught a lot of secondhand diligence and anxiety from the Juniors who were working so hard to wrap their films. With the finish line for Bearpuncher being easily 4 months away, it was fun to vicariously have one last go at the finals hustle while also putting in additional hours on BP. The night before the fest I stayed up most of the night with the Juniors, waiting for the moment when we would export the final and celebrate. When that moment did come at 8:30AM, the celebration was postponed in favor of naps. 

But celebrate we did! That evening we gathered the crews of Sketchy Dealings, Home Slice, Chupacabra, and Bearpuncher together for a real good time. (Those films will be linked once public videos go live) Aedan Peterson gave a fantastic Fox-ian toast which really drove home what a blessing it's been to be a part of this community for four years now. The experience was such a shift from last year's festival. Even though it was still livestreamed, our room of excited, over-tired animation students burst forth into raucous applause anytime an animation professor or film appeared on screen. Applause so loud, in fact, that we got a noise complaint halfway through and had to end the evening most quietly. 

Unfortunately the awards announcement was a little more... complicated than last years. With seven animated nominations in the running (the most ever!) competition was at its tightest and some of the judges' choices seemed baffling. But nevertheless Lorna represented the seniors well by being the only one of us to finish (so far!) and by winning first. (An early version of Bearpuncher actually placed second, assuaging some worries about the general weirdness of the story and revealing that I GOT to finish it now)

The evening ended with an unofficial afterparty in the Shinn Center Event Space, karaoke to my new favorite Steve Taylor song, and Joel's legendary piano playing. Altogether an enjoyable evening - 10/10 would fest again. Even though I won't be nominated for future festivals (you know, with not being a student and all) maybe there will still be a chance for more celebration, more film, and more fest.

blessings to ya

-dh

BEARPUNCHER

bearpuncher

I have been teasing this for SO LONG guys - but the wait is finally over! I am ever so happy to formally announce Bearpuncher, my newest short film. Sorry to keep you waiting ;)

Bearpuncher is about a cursed mountaineer using her own monstrous powers to beat back the fearsome creatures of the woods. It’s a love letter to the Smoky Mountains, and the monsters I’m pretty sure are in them. If you like Princess Mononoke, Hellboy, or punching things, I think you’ll enjoy this film! It will be available to watch this fall, with an early (and I mean EARLY) preview this Thursday at the Lipscomb Five Minute Film Festival. 

It’s been a long time coming. For those keeping track at home, full production started in August 2020 but I've been doing development work on it since Fall 2019. My ever present worry is that the film will not live up to its two year production cycle, but I want to make sure this film is as good as a (mostly) one-man-team can make it! And that just takes a while. I'm committed to finishing it, and excited to begin bringing more people onto the team to make that happen (including my friend Sam Abner)! I’ve been trying lots of new things, most notably hand-animating it all Blender's 2D workflow, and even integrating some CG (never though those classes would come in handy but I was WRONG!)

But for now, it's exciting to start sharing it with you. I'll post some updates here, but most of the behind-the-scenes work will be in my new newsletter (more info in next post). Feel free to subscribe!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you’ll love Bearpuncher when it releases LATER THIS YEAR!!

-dh

Thesis Animation BEGINS!

 

Hi everyone, 

Today I began work on my first shot of my thesis film! So it felt like a perfect opportunity to mark the moment here on the Roost and post an utterly trashy photo of myself. Here you can see my Covid-stache in its full glory - wearing a mask has let me live my dream of looking like a vintage outdoorsman without other people pointing out that I look more like a suburban dad (which, admittedly, is true). 

And I'm holding up my notes/reference sheet for Blender, the software I'll be using to animate the thing! It's a whole new world for me, but after seeing the amazing work Worthikids has been creating in it I figured it had the chops for the kind of projects I'd like to do. And it's free! (you know I can't resist a good bargain). I've spent the better part of this week learning how to use the thing, and getting reacquainted with working in a 3D workspace (though the film will be 2D, I assure you!) For those interested in learning Blender for 2D, I've been watching this tutorial and that tutorial, in that order. And while I'm still not totally comfortable in the software, I've been making steps and I'm surprised by just how much this one program can do! 

I'm really close to officially announcing my thesis on social media - but I want to make a teaser poster first so I can really start building up some hype! To be honest this hype train may be a long one - I pretty much have no chance of finishing it while in school (sorry professors) but since I'm working in Blender I'll be able to keep working on it beyond school until it's done and ready to go. After counting up the shots from the animatic I've realized that despite my best efforts I've still been a little too ambitious... oh well. Guess I'll just do my best to stick to it and see it through. Hold me accountable bloggerfolk!

To that point I'd also like to start an email newsletter to keep people up to date on the film's progress (and share other cool things and art and music I've been enjoying). I'm trying to find a format that wouldn't conflict or overlap too much with what I do here on the Roost - especially for people who might be email subscribed to both! I could just do all the updates on the blog, but blogspot's email subscription service is a little clunky and I think it would be beneficial to have the newsletter just be its own thing. And I think I need to start something, since 2021 has the potential to be a big year with both the thesis and a little artbook (whaaaat???) on the horizon! And I want all y'all to know all about it and get excited with me! Anyways, you'll be sure to know if I do get something started up. And I still plan on posting here on the Roost regardless. I need somewhere ramble and post dumb pictures, after all! ;)

Thanks for sticking around and following my art journey - I can't wait for you guys to see this film!

May you continue to weather these times with grace, courage, and creativity.

-dh

Music Recommendation: This time of the year in Nashville brings me a particular kind of nostalgia that includes the video game Undertale, which I bought and played for the first time during this time of year, in Nashville, five years ago. (I guess that's how nostalgia works.) But anyways I've been listening to it's soundtrack again, and other video game music of the same genre/era. It's a niche love of mine for sure, but something about the chord progressions and 8-bit sound speaks to my heart in a way only chiptune can. And I'm looking forward to playing Undertale's sequel, Deltarune, during Thanksgiving break this year!