At the end of March, a video appeared in the online video space, aka Youtube, that piqued our interest – “Dragon’s Bride”. A little searching, a little digging and a little asking, brought us to two wonderful authors who, it turned out, had taken it upon themselves to create an animated comic, an adaptation of a Bulgarian folk tale. You can see the video at the end of the interview, and until you get to it, we’ll let you read what they had to say specifically about our site and dive into their gallery.
Hello and congratulations on the wonderful project “Zmeiova nevesta” that you surprised us with. Tell us who is behind it and who is AstroSheep.
Thank you! We are Daniel and Kalina, and AstroSheep Art is the name under which we publish our joint projects. We love telling stories in illustrations and short animations. Originally, we both worked as 3D visualizers in a company, where we met. Later we decided to leave. We didn’t have a specific plan, but we knew that we would do something with drawing. Finally, we decided to publish our drawings on a joint Instagram and Facebook profile. We started working freelance for different people and companies outside of Bulgaria, which forced us to gain some experience in illustrating children’s books, game concepts and animation.
How did it all start, where did the idea and most of all the ambition come from?
We had wanted to do a joint project related to Bulgarian mythology for a long time. We were considering making a book, a comic, a short animation, even a mobile game, but all the ideas required a lot of work and time, during which we also had to do paid work. We were lucky that we accidentally heard on television about the “Creative Initiatives 2020” program of the National Culture Fund. It gave artists from all fields a great opportunity to carry out their projects in the current pandemic situation. The topic was also suitable for what we wanted to do. In the end, we settled on an animated comic.
Why a Bulgarian folk tale?
The “Creative Initiatives 2020” program required that the projects be on a Bulgarian theme. We were very attracted to the magical world of Bulgarian mythology. So we decided to adapt a Bulgarian folk fairy tale. After a long review, we settled on "The Dragon's Bride", of course we modified it quite a bit, because old folk tales are quite cruel in places. We tried to weave traditional elements into the illustrations, such as Bulgarian embroidery and colors. We drew and animated everything in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere with Wacom tablets. We wanted to recreate the tale in an interesting and very colorful way.
You define your work as an “animated comic”. Can you help us unravel this definition – what is an animated comic, how is it different from the comics that each of us remembers in our childhood, is working on a similar project different, what is expected from the final result?
The original name of an “animated comic” is “motion comics”, which is a combination of classic comic elements, animations and sound effects. Large companies have been publishing such formats for a long time, but Bulgarian examples are few. The similarity with drawing a regular comic stops with illustrating the panels. Even with the planning methods, the process differs drastically, it is much more like making an animated film. All elements in the illustrations must be separated in order to be animated. And sound effects and music are also found and adjusted. In general, it is as if animation is being made, but with much less drawing. The final result is a comic in which the reader is much more immersed in the story.
And we invite you to immerse yourself in the picture gallery!
You said that this form of comics is not unknown around the world. Would you share with us and our readers which animated comics have inspired you over the years? And which are the paper comics?
There is no specific title that inspired us. In general, we like the animated comic format. From paper comics, we really like Blacksad, as well as Wormworld Saga, which is entirely digital. We also follow the magazine "Ko-Mixer", where many Bulgarian authors publish short comics.
And what do you do in your working hours?
We work on various projects and participate in competitions, mainly illustrations for children's books, character designs for mobile games and other illustration-related projects.
And of course I can't help but ask the traditional two questions. How did 2020 affect your team and what are your future creative plans?
We have been working entirely freelance since the beginning of 2020, but not because of the pandemic. We have also been working from home for several years, so this is not something new for us. In reality, the work coming from the Internet has increased dramatically, and the support from the National Culture Fund has also been helpful. After all, the pandemic and isolation from relatives and friends are negatively affecting everyone.
We plan to develop more on social media, to show more illustrations and more engaging material. Of course, to have more time for our personal projects.
Thank you!
Text: Milena Radeva
Photos and video: personal archive
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