An Interview With ACBeam

Background

A little context first.

So as I said in my last post, I planned to do Terantula next before the plans fell through. Since I wanted Insanity's input on the article, I stopped everything and waited for them to finish the work that was holding them up. After a few months I realized keeping my promise wasn't worth it and that it'd be better for me to look for something new in the meantime, so my plate was basically free.

During those months in an at-the-time unrelated venture, I reached out to talk with another animator I respect, unsure if he'd respond.

Fortunately, he did. 

Like most fans of his work, I had a LOT of questions for ACBeam, and was pleased when he graciously answered every one. I cut off my questioning after a while, not wanting to bother him any more for what was basically just a chat with a fan, but his willingness to reply left me wanting to ask more. Yet, I'd end up leaving it at that for the time being.

Some time later while trying to think of something to do, it hit me: What if I did a formal interview with ACBeam? Getting to interview such a famous figure in the community would be amazing and I had a perfect place to post it devoid of any other projects (for the better part of the year by that point).

Plus, I can speak from experience in saying that the fanbase behind his character, Bog, is alive and well.

It was settled. All that remained was to reach out to ACBeam and pop the request. Of course, I was unsure about the whole thing, but I really wanted to take the chance that he might want to do it.

The following night, I got a message.

Fortunately, he did. 

The Interview

The interview lasted just over two hours. During those two hours we spoke about a range of topics, from ACBeam's beginnings as an animator to his experiences in the community, and, of course, Bog.

The following is an unedited transcript of our interview:

Me: Alright, thank you for coming and welcome to the interview. First of all, how’s your day been so far?

ACBeam: chill

Me: Nice. I've got a series of questions with me about your experiences as an animator, as a community figure, and surrounding your character Bog. Once again before we begin, let me know if at any point you want something stricken from the interview, otherwise everything will be recorded exactly as it is typed.

ACBeam: yeah all good

Me: Alright then. First, what inspired you to start animating in the first place?

ACBeam: honestly dont remember, probably some flipnote studio animations on the ds

Me: I see. You know, I really shouldn't be surprised that Flipnote ended up creating as many animators as it did.

But in that case, how did you get your start animating?

ACBeam: yeah on the ds pretty much

Me: Nice!

You know, I never really spent time on Flipnote Hatena. What was the community like there? Or were you just animating for yourself at the time?

ACBeam: it was a long time ago so i dont really remember, yeah i just watched what was popular and would make my own stuff and post casually

Me: Fair enough. So how did you get into the Fluidanims/Stickpage community from there?

ACBeam: i saw a lot of stick animations on flipnote and i was curious to see if they existed somewhere else other than on the ds

i googled it and found stickpage

from there i saw all the popular animations at the time and it made me want to do the same thing, so i learned about what programs they were using, etc and started animating on the computer

i mightve found out through a reference to an animation from fa/sp on a flipnote 

Me: Interesting, and from there the rest is history?

ACBeam: i guess so lol

it was a difficult transition for me i remember

it took me like 2-3 yrs before i started seeing any improvement at animating, in flash esp 

getting used to using the tablet at first was tricky as well, it was very uncomfortable 

Me: Ough, yeah, I can see how that'd all be a struggle. During that transition, did you have any inspirations that helped you keep going and push through it?

ACBeam: yeah mainly terkoiz, miccool and plasmaghost's animations, but everyone that was popular at the time in fluidanims really 

i got very frustrated but it just made me more determined to do it

there were animators that would harshly criticise your work, being brutally honest about how terrible your anim is 

my first barrier was getting one of them to say "hey this is better" or w/e

it felt amazing when i was first able to do that

because i knew i was starting to improve and that it was worth the struggle 

Me: Wow, that's pretty inspiring! How about now though, are you still animating?

ACBeam: i havent really had the time to

ive been busy with work/life

i dont have as much free time as i used to

Me: Yeah, that's fair, though if something changed and you had the free time to start animating again, would you?

ACBeam: idk really, probably not because im not really inspired by the new stuff that gets released nowadays and thats what kept me going

Me: Ah, so you've been keeping up and aren't impressed with what you see in the community today?

ACBeam: i peek in every now and then and i dont really see anything interesting

Me: I see. I can relate, to an extent, but I do find myself finding something that catches my interest every now and then, particularly on the duels side of things.

Speaking of which, what was your experience participating in RHG/Duels like?

ACBeam: it was a lot of fun from what i remember

Me: Anything in particular you remember about it?

ACBeam: the best part is seeing other people animate/ interpret your character and do it their way

whilst you do the same with their char

Me: Oh yeah! As a viewer, that kind of thing is fun to watch. "How will (animator) do (character)?" is a question I ask myself all the time. You got some people who make an effort to be faithful to the other character while others do more or less their own thing. Both make for a good experience if done well

On that note, what would you say is your favorite rendition of your character, Bog, from another animator?

ACBeam: probably pbs

Me: Oh? How come?

ACBeam: just pbs style and the gesturing he did for bog was true to character for me

Me: I see. I'll come back to that, actually, so keep that in your head. [Note: I had planned to ask a question related to how new animators might best handle Bog, but we ran out of time.]

Now we're moving into the Bog questions. Full disclosure, I asked some people I know who are big fans of your work for questions they wanted to see answered and they mostly fell under this category, so there's gonna be quite a few of them 

First of all, how did you end up creating Bog?

ACBeam: it came from an rhg char i had created named acbot, it was a robot and it had a bog like char inside of it

inspired by miccool for the way he named his stuff with 'mic' infront, and mr pix by geo for the way he could transform and all that

i guess i got bored of the char and changed it a bit, changed it to acbog and wanted it to be more smiley and bizarre, ive always been into weird/creepy chars in media from when i was young 

i always found zelda games weird and uncanny, creeped me tf out a lot as a kid 

and id gravitate towards weird chars like if im playing tekken, im gonna pick yoshimitsu

Me: Interesting! Again, I can relate to an extent, though it tended to be just weird characters instead of weird and creepy ones.

But I bet you weren't expecting to create the definitive creepy character in the RHG/Dojo community, were you?

ACBeam: that was kind of my goal really, i knew it would gain attraction because of what the char is, i just wasnt sure if i was capable of executing it well enough

i knew it would blow up (if executed well enough) because i understood the demographic well enough

since id been in it for a while by the time i made bog v malus, i spoke with friends about it and they knew it too it would blow up

Me: Again, very interesting. I think it's safe to say that you executed it "well enough"

So how do you feel about the success and impact Bog had on the community?

ACBeam: its bittersweet i guess

its cool that people like the char i made, on the other hand i can only take so much credit for its success

since other animators also contributed to bogs success, even more than me i reckon

Me: Yeah, I can feel that. Speaking of which, how do you feel about Gildedguy's animation featuring your character? Both the animation itself and what resulted from it 

ACBeam: yeah the animation is good, what do you mean by what resulted from it?

Me: I mean, how much it cemented Bog's popularity and how many people have that as their first (or only) exposure to Bog

ACBeam: it is what it is lol

i used to feel a type of way about it but now it doesnt really bother me

Me: Fair enough.

Last one about this topic, I promise. I remember you having your own (unfinished) version of that fight. Is there a story behind that?

ACBeam: nah not really, i made something and couldnt be bothered to finish it

Me: Ah.

I remember bringing up something to you a few weeks back, this fighting game called Fatal Art that includes Bog as a playable character. I know you're not affiliated with it, so what do you think of his appearance there?

ACBeam: i dont think much of it tbh

Me: Oh, ok. I should've expected that honestly.

This is one I know a lot of fans are dying to know: Just how powerful is Bog?  How versatile are his abilities and what's his maximum potential like?

ACBeam: 🙊

Me: I'm sorry, are you getting tired of these? I only have one more strictly Bog-related question, I promise

ACBeam: lay it on me

Me: Is there any chance of Bog returning in the future to duel or has he run his course as a character?

ACBeam: 🙊

who knows

Me: Alright

Again, I'm sorry about that. I was afraid of making it too much about Bog, but I wanted to get all of the fan questions in too.

From here on there's some Bog mentions, but it's going to start transitioning back to general questions

ACBeam: i thought it was over lol

Me: Sort of

ACBeam: i wanna continue i just gtg though

so i can do a few more

Me: Ah, alright

I'll pick the most important ones then

Is there a non-Bog animation of yours that you'd like people to see?

ACBeam: in the works?

Me: In general

ACBeam: nah not really

Me: Okay. If you could have done anything differently during your time in the community, what would it be?

ACBeam: talked less animated more maybe

Me: Ah, gotcha. And before we end this interview, are there any parting words you'd like to leave for the readers or advice for new animators?

ACBeam: i guess my advice to new animators is, if youve been working on something for a long time and put a ton of effort into it and you have to do mental gymnastics to convince yourself something is good- dont lie to yourself

if its bad, its bad figure out why

sometimes the truth hurts and thats the only place where you can grow

Me: That's some good advice

That's it! Thank you so much for your time and sorry for keeping you longer than you expected

ACBeam: thanks for the interview

glad i took part

Me: And I'm glad to hear that

Closing Thoughts

And that's basically it! This was my first time interviewing someone on my own and it was both a fun and intimidating experience. I hope it didn't show too much. I did have a few more questions, but we ended up leaving them out for the sake of time. That being said, we did get through most of them and I'm satisfied.

Once again, I'd like to extend a huge "thank you" to ACBeam for agreeing to do this and seeing it all the way through. I'd also like to thank Reinky B and Yupster for suggesting questions and Dokuzu for reviewing my question list. I appreciate it.

As for what's next for this blog? No clue at the moment. Maybe more interviews? I certainly wouldn't be opposed. But for now, no hints this time. We'll see it whenever it happens.

Thanks for reading and Rock On.