My name is Nick Pflug. I was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, but was raised in a small town just north of the Big Easy called Covington. I currently live in Memphis, Tn.
2. What medium(s) do you work with?
My medium of choice is digital, 2d animation. When I fool around in my sketchbook, I use graphite and watercolor mostly. However, I've been drifting more and more to digital painting when I make doodles.
3. Tell us about your technique/creative process.
When approaching making a new animation, I do something completely unartistic. This is usually jogging, cleaning the house, or some other menial task. By clearing my head of any perceived notions of what I want to make and doing things that require little thought, my brain just wanders, and it's from this most of my ideas spring. For example, my BFA piece, "The Amazing Hot Dog Wizard," came to me while I was cutting the grass. I then ran inside once the idea struck, scribbled it down before I lost it, and then began to build it.
Theme, in my opinion, is the first thing that must be tackled when you create any kind of art, let alone animation. How do I want to enact on my audience? After they see my piece, what do I want them to walk away with? From that comes the characters, the story. Once all of that world building is finished I develop the aesthetic- what the world and characters look like.
Once the general look is solidified, it's time to start storyboarding. Blocking the shots takes a while, since the story needs to flow in such a way that once I get to the editing process much farther down the line, I save myself time by having a concise vision. After storyboarding, I import the images into Storyboard Pro, time and edit the frames, and construct a rough animatic that helps with the framing and timing of the final piece. Next, I create the backgrounds in Photoshop. I do the backgrounds in different layers, and then import those layers into AfterEffects to touch up and set up a base for the animated characters and props to enter. I then go into ToonBoom Animate Pro, create rough key frames, then create inbetweens for the key frames. I usually do this roughly in order to get a clear idea of the motion and momentum of the scene. I then clean up the base animation, and color it. Once the animated character is good to go, I export the .mov file to AfterEffects, where I place the animation in it's respective background. Once a scene is completed, with character, effects, and backgrounds, I export from AfterEffects to Final Cut, where I edit. I create the soundtrack in Apple Logic Pro, import the mp3 to Final Cut, add sound effects, and then once every scene is in sync with the sound, the piece is finished.
4. What is your background (education, career, etc.) and how does it contribute to your art?
I'm graduating from the Memphis College of Art this semester with a BFA in Design Arts with a concentration in Animation. MCA was absolutely crucial to how I view the production of an animation- in our program, we are challenged to create personal work in which we create every aspect of the animation from the ground up. We're talking everything from designs to animation to soundtrack. By the end of the program, I was a jack of all trades, and can work on basically any aspect of an animation from start to finish with confidence. This has given me confidence and flexibility in my own work. Of course, I have also learned the basics of animation itself, from momentum to secondary action to squash and stretch. The education I received at MCA, while certainly not centralized like some schools, was extremely thorough.
5. How did you learn about this position?
Through meticulous research and my good lucks! Also, the internet.
6. Tell us about your larger body of work.
The majority of my animations deal with problems stemming from personal insecurities I felt as a teenager, and how I overcame them. "The Junk Room" is about a janitorial robot spurned by his peers due to his assigned protocol, but by the end of the piece he is able to enact his revenge. "Genesis" deals with long-distance relationships, how hard they can be, and how rewarding they are once the challenge is overcome. "The Amazing Hot Dog Wizard" deals with insecurity stemming from others with seemingly superior talents, but by the end celebrates what makes each of us unique.
I feel that the best work is work that isn't afraid to touch on these feelings of insecurity. By embracing it, we can overcome it, and celebrate who we are as individuals. It's a universal theme, and I feel it speaks to whoever watches my work.
7. What are you currently working on?
My BFA piece, "The Amazing Hot Dog Wizard!" Also, I am working on a few openings for some TV shows for WYPL Television, thanks to my internship at the Memphis Public Library.
8. How has your work changed over time?
In general, I feel my overall aesthetic, understanding of space, and human movement has improved drastically since I started animating. Also, I feel my work thematically has matured with me as an artist.
9. Tell us about a seminal experience you’ve had has an artist.
The first time a character I created walked on screen, I knew right then and there I was on the right life track. After that moment, of experiencing almost god-like power bringing something from my head to life, I've been addicted to this work.
10. Who is your favorite artist?
Oh, man, tough question. Well, as an artist, I think it's limiting to have just ONE artist that is a FAVORITE, but if I had to pick only one, it would probably be illustrator Darwyn Cooke. His work is at once deeply nostalgic, hearkening back to mid-century graphic design. Plus, he writes some the best graphics novels ever produced- Justice League: The New Frontier is my favorite pice of graphic art, period. As far as animation is concerned, I'm a sucker for Ghibli films.
11. If you could work with any artist (past or present) who would it be?
There are obviously pie-in-the-sky answers to this: I'd love to work with Walt Disney, Miyazaki, and John Lasseter. But as far as my skill set is concerned, I think that I'd get the most creatively out of working with either Pendleton Ward, the creator of Adventure Time, or Alex Hirsch, the creator of Gravity Falls. Television shows are my dream job.
12. What is your favorite artwork?
Like I stated earlier, Justice League: The New Frontier is my favorite graphic novel, and it's artwork is some of the best I've ever seen, let alone in comics. My favorite animation, though, would have to be The Little Mermaid due to just sheer power of the work. Glen Keane's animation in that movie is incredibly beautiful- hair is one of the hardest things to animate, and the fact that the majority of the film is underwater, it becomes even more of a feat. To list one more, I'm a huge fan of the Ghibli film Princess Mononoke- it encapsulates everything I adore about that studio's films: incredible aesthetic, fantastic scoring, a unique premise peppered with a bunch memorable characters, and a theme that most animation studios would be afraid to ever even think about tackling.
13. What inspires you?
Outside of the work of my peers, I'm inspired by the experiences of my everyday personal life. Whenever a funny situation or heartbreaking story comes into my life, I begin to think, "How can I turn this into an animation?"
