Trevor Carlee @trevorcarlee Interview Questions

OCS guest interviewer @Tenplus2012

OCS: Name/Twitter Handle/project website?

Trevor Carlee / @trevorcarlee / www.trevorcarleeart.com

OCS: A little about yourself?

I was born and raised in Baltimore, MD. I went to Marine Corps boot camp six days after I graduated High School and then a few months after boot camp, I shipped off to Okinawa, Japan where I spent the rest of my four-year tour. Then I came out to Los Angeles to pursue my dream of working in “the industry.” I’m married (13 years), a father of two and I just turned 40. That’s my life in a nutshell I suppose.

OCS:  Is animation a hobby or part of your profession?

Both? I’ve been working professionally as an editor/producer for about 15 years. While doing that job, I’ve also worked as a motion graphics artist on the side. So there’s always been an element of some kind of animation involved in my profession. But I recently got serious about character animation and that’s when I decided to make my Buffy: Into the Slayerverse animation.

OCS: How did you get started?

I’ve been dabbling with character animation here and there mostly out of curiosity, but last year I officially decided to dive in head first. I had previously committed to improving my 3D skills by doing an art piece for every episode of Buffy and Angel (I’m currently in the middle of season 5 of Buffy and Season 2 of Angel). Centering my learning around my favourite show of all time was a good motivator to keep me going. So I tried the same with animation and made a little animated short in the style of Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse but with all things Buffy. It was a fun challenge and launched me into this whole new world.

OCS:  Why Lego animation instead of the other options?

I actually do animate in other styles, but I really have fun with Lego. It’s a fun challenge figuring out ways to have characters emote and move with limited mobility. Also, despite the challenge of translating to Lego, it’s actually a lot faster to animate. A lot less joints and realistic physics to keep in mind - so I’m able to knock out a lot more animations in a shorter period of time.

OCS:  What software/s do you use to generate the clips?

My main software is Blender (a free open-source 3D software). That’s where all the animating and rendering happens. I also use Photoshop and Procreate to design the character outfits. I build the sets in free software called stud.io and mecabricks.com.

OCS:  Is the animation wholly computer generated or is there a stop animation component as well? Ie) Do you really have the WN Lego minifigures?

Haha, I wish I had a lot of the stuff as real parts, but no. It’s all computer animation.

OCS:  Is there a particular type of scene, from a series / movie, that is better suited for Lego animation?

I’ve noticed more movement usually makes for a more interesting Lego scene. If it’s just two people sitting there talking, you can do a little to improve it, but it’s not really as compelling for these short little clips. I’ve also noticed scenes that require nuance in things like finger positioning and whatnot can get difficult to translate (i.e. Spike’s “Out For A Walk Bitch” line)

OCS: Can you summarize the process of creating the animation including lighting and soundtrack?

Usually, I just find a good in and out point for a clip, send it into Blender and then I build out all the elements I need (sets, costumes, props, etc.). Once everything’s created, I bring it all into Blender and get everything into position. Then I step through the big motions with the characters and the camera. Once the main blocking is done, I start working bit by bit to animate everything. Once all of the animation feels good, I drop an HDRI (High Dynamic Range Image) into the scene to light it. This usually lights the whole thing for me as it acts as a kind of global illumination (this is the best kind of lighting for Lego scenes). But some scenes have very specific light sources depending on the context of the clip, so for those I’ll go in and place individual lights here and there for accents.

THEN, once everything is all good and perfect…I duplicate the camera and create a vertical version of the video. Which isn’t necessarily a ton of extra work, but I have to kind of adjust all the keyframes to be appealing in a vertical frame (for things like IG Reels, Tik Tok, etc.)

Re: soundtrack, I usually just use whatever is in the clip. However, sometimes I’ll have to do tweaks because I don’t want my animations to feel like they cut off in the middle if the music isn’t finished. Which is a problem I had with the Warrior Nun animation. The music was kind of buried under the sounds of the demons moaning and it also didn’t sting out when she raises the shotguns since that’s not where it ends in the show. So I took it into this website that strips out dialogue from music and then I scored it with some royalty-free music that had the same pacing and sound as the score.

OCS:  How much time does it take to create a 15-SECOND clip, from concept to finished product?

It kind of depends honestly. I’d say on average about a day. It depends on what’s needed for the set, how many characters, how much animation, etc. For instance, my Barbie Trailer Lego animation took me about 4-5 hours because I was able to grab the car and desert from the mecabricks library and the characters weren’t moving around a bunch. However, the Willow vs. Giles “Test That Theory” animation (which was about 30 seconds long) took me about a week or so because I had to create the entire Magic Box from scratch, the characters were shooting magic, and everybody was getting tossed around. It was a lot haha

OCS:  Are there any limitations to the software?

Like any software, there are times where I’m like “WHY CAN’T YOU JUST DO THIS THING!?” But for the most part, Blender can do almost anything.

OCS:  You’re also a fan of “she who hangs out a lot in cemeteries”. (BUFFY for those who don’t have the complete monster box set at home) What is your favorite episode and why?

Oh boy. It’s so hard to choose a favourite. Some of my favourites are Once More With Feeling, Help, Helpless, Normal Again, The Body, and Conversations with Dead People. Although I will say Becoming Pts. 1 & 2 has a spot near and dear to my heart. It’s like a whole movie! I really love that finale. Also, Innocence is incredible, and it’s the first episode of Buffy I ever saw.

OCS: Is the series still relevant today for new fans?

I definitely think it’s relevant today. There’s obviously stuff that doesn’t age well, but overall the themes still work really well in my opinion. I even have a podcast with a friend about it called Another Buffy Podcast. In case you can’t tell, I can’t get enough Buffy haha

OCS: Would you consider animating seasons 8+ of Buffy, which went straight to comics?

Funny you should ask, I just started the process! It’s taking a bit to get off the ground since I also have to work. Once my Patreon grows a little bigger, I can have more time for things like that. But yes, that’s definitely part of the plan :)

OCS:  What drew you to the Warrior Nun series?

Unfortunately, it was because I saw the two fandoms (Buffy and Warrior Nun) fighting on Twitter haha (I don’t remember what the argument was about). I was kind of like “I feel like we can all just get along, no? Let me just check out this Warrior Nun show…” One episode was all it took to hook me.

OCS:  How has your interaction been with the fandom?

It’s been lovely. I just randomly tweeted that I liked the first episode of Warrior Nun and it blew up with thousands of likes and hundreds of retweets. And everybody was just excited (and mad about it being cancelled). Everyone wanted to know my thoughts as I progressed. It’s been great.

OCS:  Were you expecting this kind of response to your animation?

After just tweeting “I watched Warrior Nun” got such a big reaction, I had an inkling that doing a Lego animation might also catch some eyes. But I had no idea it’d go that big. That was fun!

OCS:  Any plans to keep doing WN animations?

I took some notes for Warrior Nun scenes I thought would be good in Lego so I definitely plan on doing more.

OCS:  Anything else you are currently working on?

Just a bunch of animations of all the things I love. I’m thinking of setting a milestone for my Patreon where once I reach X amount of patrons, I’ll animate an entire episode of something in Lego form…probably Buffy.