Tommy Dreyer is a young animator from the USA.  We caught some of his films on YouTube and thought we should ask him some questions....

Hi Tommy, thanks for talking to us - how did you get into animation?
I was born and still live in Georgia, in the United States. Me and my friends are deeply interested in making films, and actually entered something together in a local competition just recently. I enjoy photography, the internet, walking, animating, and drawing.

I've always considered myself as someone who sees something amazing, and wants to do it them self. Such as back in 2005 or 2006. I believe I was scanning through Youtube, or some other internet stream site, and came across some claymations by someone under the username: knox .
(More formely known as Robert Benfer.) His films were hilarious, usually starring abunch of misfit claymen who get themselves into absurd, random situations. Anyway, I oogled over his films for a long time, and eventually found his website. This is were I would find out about about Stop Motion Pro 5. He had listed it under his "What I use"
or something along the lines of that. I wanted to try it myself, and went to my dad begging to download the free trial. After that, I spent the next couple days or so immersed in making films with blobs of poor excuses for claymen. After that, I started looking on youtube for inspiration, and came across a large group of lego films made by someone named Blunty.
(More formely known as Nate burr) I thoroughly enjoyed his films, watching every last second of them laughing out of my seat. In one of his videos, or in the description, I think he hosted a link to www.brickfilms.com,(although now I go to
www.bricksinmotion.com ) which is a community dedicated to the art of stopmotion animation with LEGOs. I joined their website, posting several of my films for feedback, thinking they were the best films in the world. I was astonished when they told me how much work I needed to work on it, and tried to follow every last aspect of their suggestions hoping for
their approval. Long story short, I eventually upgraded my software, made my own little studio, and have enough LEGO to make some pretty large sets. I would say i've improved a great deal, but i'm no where close to as amazing as some of my favorite brickfilmers. Including: ZachMG, Smeagol, Lord Of The Lego, KG, the list could last pages.)

What are your recent productions, who are they aimed at, where might people see them?
My recent films have been really short, kind of tests, almost. Mainly because i've had a great deal of school work recently, and haven't been able to make any longer films.  So, I probably won't release anything too long until Summer. I'd say my films are geared towards people in favor of random humor. I haven't really made anything that's meant to be taken seriously, excluding some school projects and a couple of failed films. All of my films are uploaded to my youtube account, and if you want to keep a close watch on what I may be releasing, click the subscribe button at this page:
http://www.youtube.com/user/tomtom0919

What hardware do you use?
Actually,  I just recently got a laptop, from which I will do all of my future projects on. This will provide alot of flexibility while animating, and will allow me to record lines without getting embarassed infront of my dad. For animating, I use the quickcam 9000, which is an extremely high quality web camera. I use a standard headset you could probably pick up at your local office supply store, and a wacom drawing tablet for editing frames.

I notice you are using flourescent globes - is there a reason for this?
I've noticed the light they give off seems more natural in comparison to standard bulbs. I still don't have too much of a problem using normal bulbs, but I try not to use them excluding some of the tinted ones. Such as a dark blue or purple color for a dramatic or night-time feel.

How you use SMP in the production - how does SMP help you make your films?
I've always found SMP to be the one stop motion animation software in my  personal experience that does everything I tell it to efficiently. I can't recall one time I've had a problem with it. One of my favorite features is onionskinning.

I cannot tell how you much this feature will improve how accurate your animation looks. Another one my favorites, the greenscreen feature, is extremely accurate, and not something you would may expect to be just one of those novelty basic editing effects that look terrible.

Can you tell us a little about how you make the imagery in your work? How do you make the special effects like the blue blast?  They look great!

Thanks! Up until very recently, i've done almost all of my effects in windows paint. It's an extremly simplistic program, but it gets the job done most of the time. Now I plan to use Corel Painter and a Wacom drawing tablet for more accuracy and to avoid having a slightly pixelated effect.

What is next for you and your animation?
I'm not entirely sure, I kind of want to take a break from brickfilming, (animation with LEGO) and maybe try something different.  I've even considered creating a short using animal crackers. *laughs* But I can guarantee you'll be seeing alot more films from me this Summer.

Where can people see your work?
Almost any film i've ever made is available at my youtube account located here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/tomtom0919

Thanks Tommy!  All the best from the SMP team.