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Old School Meets New Wave

Nineteen-year-old Wisconsinite Grey Gerling isn't your typical flash animator. Exploding onto the flash scene just this year, introducing an interesting new style, he has already released 10 shorts and earned numerous awards for his work. Let's see how he got started.

"I'm a late comer to the flash community, I only got involved with it in the last year. I was always fascinated with animation since I was 5 or 6 really, things like Liquid TV rubbed off on me at that age and very probably set me on this course. I dabbled a lot with very primitive things when I was younger, but only picked it up seriously after the awfulness of film school drove me to teach myself how to animate in order to stay sane/survive there."

The main thing that sets his animations apart is his use of traditional art materials rather than digital vectors. Gerling says this evolved from a technical limitation, rather than any conscious decision. "Lack of access to technology when I was young and the fact that I'm rubbish with computers (save for editing software and some very basic knowledge of Flash). The advantage of paper, personally, is the freedom it grants me as I can't draw with computers to save my life, plus I'm not crazy about how my stuff looks done digitally. The main disadvantage here being the ungodly amount of time it takes to do everything by hand. But I find the commitment extremely rewarding in the end."

Gerling hopes to make a decent living from his work someday, but at the moment supports his schooling in other ways, "I'm employed at an office/work study job through the school, but in actuality, I spend all my time at the office working on various animation projects of my own rather than actually do any company work. Hooray! It's almost like I'm getting paid to animate."

"When I graduate (or sooner) I really want to start living off of my work, much the way HomestarRunner and others have done. I honestly want to be doing this the rest of my life. It was sort of my ambition from the very start, and nothing else gives me the satisfaction animating does."

And he's certainly on his way. Just recently Gerling revamped his website, and has plans for future additions. "It wasn't a huge change, but now everything is prettier and more detailed than it was before. I'll definitely be adding much more to the site including a games page, more content, better designs for certain pages, etc."

Gerling leaves us with this final thought. "I'd really like to thank Danielle for always encouraging me and for constantly believing in me. Also thanks to Patrick, Sulek, and Mike for supplying me with awesome tunes...In terms of advice, the surefire way to get out there and succeed is to be original and go with your gut. If something is heading in the right direction, you'll just know if you listen to your instincts. Don't let anyone else drag you down. And practice! Lots."

Be sure to check out Grey Gerling's website and Newgrounds userpage.

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