Q. Hi, would you like to introduce yourself?
Greetings brochachos, it’s your goodboy GloryBoy! creator of Dogtooth Angel Zsaciel and midi rock! I do a little bit of everything. I animate, draw, produce, sing, edit, and I’m adding 3d in slowly but surely! You know how it is 🙂
Q. How would you describe Dogtooth Angel Zsaciel for someone who hasn’t heard of it?
Hanging out with friends as a working adult. If you want a comparison to something, it’s FLCL meets Midnight gospel meets The book of revelation.
Q. What are some of your main artistic inspirations when it comes to DAZ?
Ok, so one, the idea of a prosperous life. Having a christian upbringing, I’d always hear it in prayers and birthday wishes, so I wanted to explore that from many different perspectives, both christian and secular.
I also grew up with a big fear of the end times. at a family get-together in 2011, they sat us down and made us watch a video on YouTube about this girl called Angellica whom Jesus took to heaven and hell, before telling her about the rapture. They insinuated the moonwalk came from demons moving backwards. A boy got run over and sent to hell because he wouldn’t stop watching Ben 10, Bakugan and Pokémon, and that really freaked me out to the point where I threw out my Pokémon pearl cartridge.
The idea of the rapture and the book of revelation terrified me, but over time that fear dissipated and was replaced with a fascination at how absurd that part of the bible (and the bible as a whole) gets.
I thought it would be cool to do a loose retelling of revelations and make this bizarre cartoon about an exaggerated, climate-catastrophic version of our current reality and how people find faith and fulfilment living in such a world.
Two, I feel really stuck. I’m a UK-based 2d animator who grew up watching anime, and no one makes stuff like that over here. All my opportunities have come from the US or Japan, and they’re not long-lasting or available in big quantities.
Shifting careers or studies feels almost impossible because everyone is struggling with the degrees they chose, and are shifting likewise, so every opportunity feels competitive and down to the wire.
I’ve also grown up a loner. I used to have really bad social anxiety and fomo. These experiences and ideas of community and family kinda factor into the series dilemma: Zsac wants to spend time with Lucky, Jaspar and Murphy but his priorities as the dogtooth angel conflict with that.
Q. At the moment you are working on the pilot/episode1. How big do you envision the series to be?
I wanna push for a 16-to 20-episode season. I think somewhere in between those amounts of episodes would be enough to tell the story we want to tell.
With us being indie, it looks like a big pipe dream, but I’m hoping my vision can make a way for us.
Q. How far into the production of episode 1 are you right now?
We’re in the middle of pre-production. We’ve got people boarding, people helping on vis dev and character designs. I’m hoping to get everything organised so we can get into animating before the end of the year.
Q. After episode 0 you got a lot of positive feedback leading to a kickstarter campaign that failed to reach it’s goal. How did you feel going into the camapaign and is there anything you would have done differently now?
I felt really insane. On Instagram specifically, it blew up overnight on Christmas day, and my following shot up from 900 to 12k. That being said, I would have done so much differently.
I was working almost nonstop from mid-October till Christmas eve trying to get this thing done, and then after Christmas I was trying to scrounge up the Kickstarter page and gather all the illustrations and animations I made. Not to mention my following was still growing, and I didn’t have enough eyes or investment yet in the project. Episode 0 was literally only 2 minutes.
I would have taken a break. I would have spent longer preparing to market the campaign, built more followers, made an email list, etc. Post-campaign, my dad said I should have used Gofundme instead-maybe I should have considered my options more.
At the end of the day, I really appreciate the growing community that was making fanart and animations, and people who came around to even volunteer as animators on episode 1. I appreciate Zalay for helping make those videos during the campaign. He is literally the unsung hero of the campaign.
Q. How are you looking towards funding for the project in general?
Corey LeVier (voice of Joss and social media manager) and I have recently been trying to push the Patreon as a means of funding and a way to let people support the project and see bts material.
I am also considering my options locally. There are a few grants I wanna try and apply to, arts council and BFI being two of them, but BFI‘s criteria states that they’re looking for UK-based directors and producers, and the majority of my team are international. I also tried applying for film London’s flamin fellowship, but I was unsuccessful.
Q. Has there been any specific production hardships?
Other than the campaign failure, not really, per se. If anything, I just feel like I’m doing everything. If there is something I can do, I will do it and figure it out, but because of that I’m kind of everywhere.
At times, it’s kinda refreshing jumping around because I can avoid burnout, but I also feel pressure that I’m not getting things done quickly enough.
I find it really hard to ask for help, both because I have always carried a diy approach to creating and I just feel like I’m bothering people. I think it’s a personal thing.
Sharing the work with others is helping me a lot though!
Q. Outside of DAZ you’ve also worked on some other projects like Loki IRL, Agent Elvis, and Punch Punch Forever. How did you get in those positions and what did you do on those shows?
Strangely enough, all of those positions came from posting my animations on twitter. Pan, Speedoru and Judy Lung, a recruiting coordinator from Titmouse, all contacted me through DM:s.
On Loki irl, I did some flashy animation of Loki towards the end of the fight. On ppf, I animated Gogo punching the shit out of her opponents. I also got a couple of cuts brewing for the next episode.
On Agent Elvis, i did fx animation on episodes 4, 5, 6, 7 and 10, if I recall correctly.
Although I remember those weeks being so stressful with the deadlines, I look back at that time with nostalgia, and I wish I had that opportunity to work for an extended period at a studio like Titmouse again. And in person too.
Q. Who else are working on DAZ with you? What do they do?
Amongst our animators, we have Postboy, creator of Burning Ranger Silikon, Bucket lad and Night of the boozeless beats, as well as Momopatchi, creator of Mo-ke. I’ve also brought on animators from the community and friends I’ve worked with on past shows, such as Dewi Hartono, Lucas Bedate and KIWAdntr.
On the VA side, the main cast includes Wald Edwards as Zsac, Zack Mannheimer as Lucky, Alexander Cedeno as Jaspar, and Nick Senny as Murphy. Nathan Knight voices Michael and Samael.
Our writers are Z and Eli Dettlaff. I love our meetings because they share the same passion for the project but aren’t afraid to challenge my ideas when I’m undercooking or overcooking something.
On the music side, I brought on my producer friends Adlai Reinhart and Elijah Bradford, while mytoasterismoist joined as a sound engineer and voices Helen.
Q. Where can people find and support you online?
You can find me on Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok and YouTube as @ggloryboyy_ !
Leave a Reply