LuisCastanon.com

Ryan Miller aka Rtil

November 2007

Q:

November has arrived and just as the leaves change colors, so does the site. As part of the redesign of the site this is the first interview that will enjoy the streamlined look and commenting system.
Now that the mandatory disclaimer is out of the way on to the interview….

So today we have Ryan Miller or as he is more lovingly known in the animation community, RTIL. Rather than bore you with a synopsis coming out of my mouth I’ll let Ryan do it himself. LOL. So do me the honors Ryan, what got you into the flash scene, any particular influences and/or traumatic events?

A:

Early 2005 I had an idea for a cartoon. It came out of nowhere. I didn’t know how to animate, I didn’t know what Fash was, basically I was totally lost. I wasn’t even much of a serious artist at that point. But something drove me, and over the course of a few months I discovered Newgrounds, got Flash, and starting teaching myself the basics. After that, I spent a week or two on my short idea. I struggled a lot with the concept of how to put together a cartoon. I also discovered drawing in Flash with a mouse was a huge struggle, so I ended up doing my linework in sharpie, scanning it in and coloring it in Flash. I barely knew anything about streaming sound, in fact I didn’t know the difference between Event and Stream, and so my sound was on Event and I ended up moving keyframes further and further off on the timeline to match the sync of the event sound. And because you can’t scrub event sounds, I kept having to go back and forth between the published movie and my timeline. I kept thinking to myself, “is this what people REALLY have to do? this is ridiculous!” , I was starting to have my doubts about my future in Flash. But some way, somehow I produced my first functional and watchable cartoon, ‘Trix Rabbit Justice Ad’. I thought it was going to get blammed, but it passed with a 3.93, got Daily 3rd and the front page. I had no idea what people were going to think, and when I saw the positive response I was startled. This motivated me to further challenge myself in Flash and really get the tools and tricks of it down, as well as develop my own animation style.

Q:

So what exactly ARE Event and Stream sounds??? Hah, wow thats one of the more brutal start-ups we’ve had so far.
While we are on the subject of humble beginnings.. do you have bloodlines in the art/animation scene? ie. is your dad Matt Greoning, is your mom Don Bluth or did your affinity for art come out of nowhere?

A:

My parents, especially my dad, are anything but artists. The only person in my family who has a history in art is my great grandfather on my mother’s side. Although he was more of a fine artist. He paints in oils and does painstaking detail. I am predominantly graphic. I don’t think he has ever drawn a cartoony looking thing in his life.

Q:

Yea I’m much the same, I dont really have any roots to trace my art inclination to but I like to ask people for the sake of being nosy. Anywho, one of the interesting things about you in contrast to the other 12+ animators I’ve interviewed in the past, is that you are/were part of the Star Syndicate, this question will seem more negatively charged than it is intended but whatever. What is the rationale behind being amongst the SS? You are a respected animator in your own right and most ng-based groups/ cliques are what they are because most lack the skill to be able to single handedly create an identity of their own, what appeal do you find in it?

A:

Some of the first flash I ever saw was stuff that most everyone else saw first as well. Authors like Pikanjo and Legendary Frog. While all my friends were going “this stuff is hilarious!”, I was saying to myself, “is this really the best that’s out there?” I was simply stunned people found entertainment value and quality in these cartoons. I tried to like them, but I couldn’t. It just didn’t make me laugh.
Then in the summer of 2005 I saw some of my first Star Syndicate cartoons. They were part of their 2nd season of a series of a hundred consecutive cartoons per day for a hundred days, with four parts from random authors or members of the group. They were called dailytoons. At first I didn’t know what to think of them. But then I’d go back and watch them and I’d start laughing at them. And what I noticed is that they were all satire about the ridiculous antics of the internet and specifically Newgrounds. Some were directed at other animators, or flashes. I think what I loved most about it is that they were masters at getting reactions out of people. These cartoons, while having a seemingly small audience, turned a lot of heads. The reviews ranged from complete embrace to utter hatred. And those hateful reviews would spawn more targets for parody. It was an endless cycle that still continues today with the Star Syndicate.
I found all of this incredibly amusing, and I found myself agreeing with all their statements in their cartoons. After a while I made some cartoons for their dailytoons series, and joined the group soon after. I wanted to be a part of it and I wanted to help express myself in defense of the group through the medium I was most powerful at - and that was animation. During this time Wade had deleted a dailytoon because it had the pictures of faces of Newgrounds Moderators on it - but they had done parodies with people’s faces in it for years. So suddenly we’re not allowed to make a parody about the NG Mods (which was pretty lighthearted)? This made me really upset, and I made a cartoon about it for the SS and it was featured as a solo on a dailytoon. It got the SS their first daily award and the beginning of all my work in the SS. I don’t do a whole lot for them anymore as the group has sort of lost its way after several forum disasters and original members drifting away, but we’re still around.
Bottom line is I don’t think it has little to do with skill. If you’ve got a good message or story, people will notice. If you’ve got a controversial one, people will start talking. And I’d say half the reason is that the cartoon opens up their eyes, but they refuse to admit it.

Q:

Hmm… I never thought of trying to see the whole picture behind the movement. I DO still think however that the SS has some bad apples / hacks sprinkled about. Then again so do many groups. Ehhhh.

On a more light hearted note, you recently completed your long-anticipated piece: Project Freetown, Metropolis Circuit. This was probably your most polished of all your works and most engaging. The environment and characters are probably deeper and Freetown more lush than the first episode suggests. How long was project Freetown on your mind, how long were you actually working on it, and where are you going with it post-Metropolis Circuit?

A:

Freetown started with a drawing I made in 2005 called “Welcome to FreeTown”. It was a picture of a guy with a crazy headset, hitting the ground with his foot and causing the pavement to break in waves. The caption was, “welcome to Freetown, where anything can happen”. I wanted to build on the concept but I felt like I didn’t have the capacity to draw it all. I still feel like I haven’t totally grabbed the feel of the massiveness and electric cyberpunk feel of the city, and I’d like to grab that with the next episode. Since most people who know of me look at my animations and not my still images, I wanted the first cartoon to be the introduction to Freetown that so many people have missed out on with all the concept art I had done prior. I started it last year in February of 2006, worked on it all over the summer, then deleted the entire thing. It felt like it was going in a totally wrong direction. So I made fresh storyboards, planned it out, timed it and started a new file in September of 2006. It was a bad time to start because school had just started up, and my school demands most of my time with a very rigorous course schedule. I hardly got any of it done over the 8 months I was in school. When I got out, I vowed I would finish it before the summer or so help me. And I did! I finished it 2 days before school, and submitted it everywhere 3 days into school.
Now I’m working on my scriptwriting skills for episode 2, which will be heavily fueled by a narrative by one of the main characters. It will start to dive deep into the story, and focus on another character, a detective named Erelli, who is very important to the story.

Q:

Cool, the series is coming along well. Ok time to be blunt…with the release of Metropolis Circuit, there was the inevitable comparison to Vinnie Veritas and his CCC City.
In an attempt to do away with the comparison and lift that cloud out of your head… what unique quirks does Freetown house? Does it annoy you that people bring up Vinnie’s name whenever they watch your movie? I’m being a hypocrit asking this, cause I did it myself without even noticing :(

A:

It wasn’t just Vinnie I was being compared to but anything from Air Gear to TRON (no joke). It’s funny to me, because people had hounded me for years to do an original cartoon. Then I finally do one, and they accuse me of ripping people off. It’s like you can’t win. But most people draw comparisons simply because it’s human nature, and I understand that. At the same time I find Freetown and CCC City to be two completely different universes. The only parallel I can draw is “large city”, which amounts to nothing in my mind. The colors, character designs, buildings, atmosphere and personalities are all vastly different from the world of CCC. This will become far more apparent as the story develops. Ultimately, I only know so much about CCC to begin with. I can’t read the cartoons because I’m not fluent in Spanish, so there’s only so much I even know about it besides what I can gather from the animations.

Q:

Well handled. I agree with you, I think if anything its a bit premature to even try and compare apples to oranges without letting you crank a few episodes of Freetown and had a chance to build its personality.

Ok so aside from Project Freetown, anything else you involved in? I sort of enjoy your random spurts of creativeness.. flicks like ‘Gum’ and ‘Say Something’… i find that it keeps your audience honest, in that youre a creative person and you can jump in the scene whenever and not necessarily be Adam Phillips about it and just shoot for a major blockbuster a year.

A:

I get tired of working on the same thing or concept over and over. If I ever get an idea for a cartoon I always write it down, no matter what. And I write it down ASAP, so I don’t forget any of the details that would make it worth my while. I have a lot of these, and every so often I’ll make one on a whim if I think I have the time and want to take a break from school, another cartoon, or whatever. It’s a fun experience and always a good chance to try new techniques and, of course, practice more animation. Most of them are total flukes, like Say Something. I made the MP3 and cartoon for it in 3 days, and I thought everyone would think it was annoying and hate it. Much to my surprise it became my most viewed cartoon on Newgrounds, and still is to this day. Just goes to show you can never predict what’s going to happen with your work, and to never neglect an idea if you think it is stupid or pointless.

Q:

You have a ton more discipline than I do. I usually assume if I forget an idea its because it wasnt strong enough anyway.
Enough about me, Ok laaast question, do you see yourself sticking around the Flash scene or is it a stepping stone for something greater in mind, ie cel based animation, 3d animation, gaming animation etc?

A:

The only thing you listed there that I think is “greater” than flash is traditional cel animation. 3D and game stuff, even at the level it is today, still feels very fake and dead to me. It makes me sick just looking at it. The animation tools are a disgrace, and it takes a lot of work to make something look decent. Once you’re at that place, you’re forced to streamline and smooth everything. 3D animation is all about curves, lines, rigs and bones. Then there’s your character model. Even at that level I am baffled. Do we look like we are made out of polygons? No. Humans are smooth and fine, or jagged and raw. There’s nothing like a drawing made by a human being that gets the weight and movement of a figure.
Traditional animation has a flare that 3d and computer generated movements will never acheive no matter what the technology, and that flare is something I am attracted to. I don’t see any joy in pushing and pulling things in space and having a computer do the rest of the work for me. I’d like to render my own images, thank you very much.
And what is sad is that 2D is suffering in the hands of this fast-growing 3D industry. What people forget is that without 2D animation, there never would be 3D animation. People jump right into 3dsmax or maya and start animating without ever studying the basic and solid principles of what even makes animation work. And people wonder why there’s so many horrible 3D movies and cartoons out there? Has the industry really become that blind? It’s incredible and infuriating to me.
I feel it is going to be a significant part of my life to help fuel the dying fire of 2D animation. I will do everything in my power to get people educated and interested about the history and importance of 2D, and get people into it. I’m not saying I’m some kind of guru, I just care a lot about 2D animation and its significance not only in art, but in culture and entertainment.

END OF INTERVIEW LOL.