Interview No. 188

Interview By: @The-Great-One

Patreon Post Date: September 13, 2023

Today's guest is one of the hardest working animators here on Newgrounds who at the time of this post is working on five individual series. Beyond the Fog, Chaotic Heart, Solace, Mix 'n' Match, and Bear-bot, which is still in development. His works involve a remarkable array of characters and worlds. I am most pleased to welcome writer, animator, and all around talent that is @9Hammer.

Q: We begin at the beginning. When and where were you born?

A: I was born in 1996 in South Florida.

Q: What do your parents do for a living?

A: For both parents, they both do accounting.

Q: Around what age did television and cartoons start to inspire your love for the craft of animation? What was it about these cartoons that drew you in?

A: At a young age, I was heavily into Spongebob Squarepants and Fairly Odd Parents. Something about the show's vibrant color palettes and grounded humor drew me into continuous bouts of viewing experiences.

Q: How did you find Newgrounds and why did you join?

A: I discovered Newgrounds at elementary school, though never made an account. Played games on it for some time, then High school came around and I decided to join Newgrounds for its helpful animation community in 2012.

Q: What can you tell us about Muffin and Banana- Pilot?

A: The pilot itself was more of a one-off idea I had in math class in High School where it was an attempt at anti-humor. Sadly, and understandably, it fell flat since I barely knew how to construct a set-up and punchline.

Q: Almost a year later you would also post Draw Anything. Why this gap between submissions?

A: The gap, from what I can recall, was mainly me stepping back to focus more on mathematic studies (which I still practice to this day). It was mainly me stepping away from animating to focus on schooling, but in a way, it helped incubate my animation mind a bit.

Q: What brought you to Valencia College? What have you studied there?

A: After a 4-year gap between High School and college, I decided that it’s best to start college studies. This was mainly because I graduated the youngest in my class, and didn’t feel confident about college yet. Nonetheless, I studied art and design to help construct the building blocks of my artistic and design abilities.

Q: You would intern for the Santo Design Group. For the artists and animators here on Newgrounds, what did you do as an intern there? How has this internship helped you and do you recommend interning? Why or why not?

A: The internship definitely helped with understanding what’s behind the curtain in the industry. We mainly handled social media posts, created graphic designs, and helped with other in-house studio needs. Interning helps, and given the opportunity during your schooling, i heavily suggest it. The opposite is also true where if you are out of school (or have the skillset & no degree), it’s probably best to go for a paying job with a portfolio.

Q: There's a lot to unpack here, I just want to know the start. What was the transition from Valencia to University of Central Florida?

A: Ah, during COVID, I had to finish my classes online at Valencia. From there, it was admittedly a nightmare to get through the transition, but that’s dealt with. There was a lot of pressure and some stressors that came about during the quarantine era with housing and the overal transition, but I was able to go in-person to UCF after all was said and done.

Q: Procedural Movements of Odanates - nature of the movement of a dragonfly. This is an incredible project I want to know more about. How did it begin? What is it? What can you tell us about the work you've done on it?

A: This project came about from my recent studies in college with insects. If I were to also side major for entomology, I would’ve, but nonetheless, I decided to showcase the movements of a dragonfly with code. In Autodesk Maya, there is a scripting language called MEL, and using various lines of code, and a model with animated movements, I was able to illustrate how a dragonfly would move and wander in 3D space.

Q: What can you tell us about your work on The Oniyanna and working with Jason Laureano?

A: This project, which we’re currently brushing up on, is an introduction to an outer space team of two. Jason is also a close friend of mine whom I met at college, and we worked on this project with a few others to deliver a 3D animation based on a space-like interior look.

Q: What is Sleeping Rabbits?

A: Sleeping Rabbit’s is my music alias (and also on FA), but it’s mainly a different name for that scope of work.

Q: We now come to your first series on Newgrounds. Beyond the Fog. Where did the idea come from?

A: This idea came about after I graduated High School. The tagline “A Tale of Dissociation” came about from leaving schooling and everyone going their separate ways. I decided to take this idea through my gap years and built on in constantly.

Q: Starting at Beyond the Fog: Episode 2 - Astray at Sea, it is amazing how we go from the high seas to the high skies. What made you employ air ships and sky isles? Was it a barrier to keep Abyss away from Sen and Valerie? Why airships instead of a secluded island on the sea?

A: It’s funny actually. The initial idea with the scripting left a lot of room for interpretation as nowhere in the script was the idea of ‘water’ relevant. In the production of Episode 2’s storyboards, I came up with the idea of sky ships and isles. The idea would soon open my horizons to other ways of conveying the story, and here we are. Honestly, one of the best accidents I’ve implemented into a story.

Q: When can we expect Beyond the Fog: Episode 8? Could you give us the title as a teaser?

A: The title itself is under “Beyond the Fog: Advent”. This itself will be the conclusive episode to the series that was originally scripted, though I’m hoping to get it out by the end of 2023.

Q: We step into a world that gives me vibes of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign in the series Chaotic Heart. How did you go about building this world? Which came first; the setting, characters, or story?

A: The characters actually came first in this instance. Kai and Indigo - witch and hat respectively - were one of my favorite new characters to draw in 2017. From there, I had the characters down, and then a story of them fighting another enemy came about from a bunch of doodles.

Q: Chaotic Heart has a lot of characters. My favorite though is Indigo. Where did the inspiration behind the cat come from?

A: The inspiration actually came about out of happenstance. I thought of a character that was clairvoyant with eyes at the back of a character’s head. Thus, indigo was called into existence. Cappy from Mario Odyssey only furthered the validation for the character after that point.

Q: When The-Super-Flash-Bros were here we talked about the iconic series Another Day. You would bring us your own wholesome series with Solace. When asked why they made the series, the answer was for fun. What made you want to make Solace? Is there a part of you in these characters in this series?

A: Solace came about on a trip across the waters to Mexico in 2018. During the trip, I found the classical works of Ralph Vaughan Williams and attributed a new rabbit character to the music. The entire trip was me spilling out the ideas for the character in drawings and doodles. From there, other characters came about and stories were conceived.

Q: My favorite series by you is absolutely Mix 'n' Match. The first episode is one of the funniest things I've ever seen on Newgrounds. Where did this idea come from? How did you come up with the characters Mix 'n' Match? When can we expect the next episode?

A: Mix’n’Match came about during a halftime break at an Orlando basketball game in 2019. I had a note pad and a festering idea of a mouse baker, so putting pen to paper created the primitive design of the character Mix.

Q: A philosophy behind writing is that if you have great characters, the stories write themselves. Do you believe this? How do you come up with your characters?

A: I believe it greatly since the characters are the main characters we follow around most of the time. This itself shapes the environment from our perspective and can create compelling, intimate stories.

Q: When Monocrom was here we talked about his project A little ghost story. He described his writing as old school, using a notebook with events and a pen. When the event was completed, the event was crossed off. Once all the events were crossed off, the story was complete. You on the other hand have done work on four series, with a fifth one on the way. Are there any similarities with this method in your writing? How would you describe your writing process? Is it the same for all the series or are they different?

A: The way I get around to writing multiple stories at a time comes from my lifelong aspiration to tell new and original stories. In the wake of the 2018 start of my first original series, I started to practice constantly and fail a bunch with writing. The fear of failure was definitely a hurdle to cross, but I put that fear to the wayside after constant practice in my writing. This spans for all and future series too.

Q: What can you tell us about the upcoming series Bear-bot?

A: This upcoming series will definitely be one of my ambitious series, but I’ll say that it’ll be a very action-oriented series with combat galore.

Q: With working on Bear-bot, you will be writing, animating, and directing a total of five series. What makes you want to take on such huge workload?

A: This work ethos actually came about by happenstance with my ambition to be a constant learner. Taking a lot of facets in my day-to-day (reading, music making, cycling, work-life balance scheduling) helped with fostering a positive, efficient, and healthy mindset for art. There’s a lot I can say and aspire to talk about on this matter, but I will say that it comes about from constant disciplinary practices in and outside the field of art. You have to make the time for it over time to be motivated to tackle a lot of passion projects.

Q: What advice do you have to give the different writers and animators of Newgrounds that you wish you knew when starting out?

A: Drink water, I suppose. Keep the mind sharp any way you can!

Q: What can we expect from 9Hammer in the future?

A: A lot more new stories, art, and music. I don’t have any plans on stopping this momentum.

We now come to the questionnaire invented by French talk show host Bernard Pivot, and adapted by my idol James Lipton.

Q: What's your favorite word?

A: Intrinsic.

Q: What is your least favorite word?

A: Overrated.

Q: What turns you on?

A: Books.

Q: What turns you off?

A: “Hey Nine! Are you afraid of 7?”

Q: What sound or noise do you love?

A: The sound of an A add9 chord.

Q: What sound or noise do you hate?

A: Nail tapping.

Q: What's your favorite curse word?

A: “Damn”. Alternatively, “Dayum”.

Q: What job or profession would you most like to take rather than your own?

A: I would likely go for a modeling job. I find myself modeling mundane objects in my room, so something of that nature would be nice.

Q: What job or profession would you least like to take?

A: Call Center job.

Q: If Heaven exists, what would you like God to say to you when you arrive at the pearly gates?

A: It would be akin to a one-word response from a discord user in a DM: “hey”

At the start of this interview I stated 9Hammer is one of the hardest working animators here on the site. I still stand by that statement. To see how much he puts into production of each series is incredible. With each one being a small tidbit from high school, or evolving small little doodles into something grand. It astounds me. I remember when he announced he was working on Mix 'n' Match, which would be the fourth series he would be doing. When researching this interview, he was working on his fifth, while still putting work into the other four!? 9Hammer is an absolute machine.

The Interviewer is a part of Dohn's Desk Productions

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