Interview With...Jim Schwertfeger, Creator Of "Minecraft:The N00b Adventures"

Minecraft has spurred a new wave in machinima media. Being able to run it on almost every rig, youtube has been spammed by "Let's Play's", Mod showcases and tutorials and animations based off it. Among all the crappy cobblestone, you occasionally find that precious diamond ore you've spent hours looking for. "The N00b Adventures" is that ore. With over a 5 million hits, it's safe to say it's a pretty good show.

I was only introduced to "The N00b adventures" a week ago, but fell in love with it almost immediately. The comedy voice acting, the suprisingly excellent and accurate animation of the minecraft world and the numerous reference to pop culture and "Mine-culture" made my sides hurt. So I decided to get in touch with the creator (Youtube name falconer02).

1. Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Jim Schwertfeger and I am a 2d/3d animator (among many many other things).

2. Why do you do it?

I always liked to make things move on a computer and in front of a camera ever since I was a little kid. When I first got Adobe Flash, I put a lot of time and effort into learning the animation part of the software.


3. When did you get the idea to create the series?

Well originally I did a short parody of Minecraft called "CSI: Minecraft". After I threw it on the internet, Machinima contacted me and asked me if I could do a series about Minecraft.
My friends and I have a private server that we occasionally play on and we built a lot of stuff. A lot of hilarious things happened, so I take a few of the experiences we all had
and turned it into a story.

4. Do you do the voice work or do your friends help?

Both actually! My friend is a guitar teacher and has a lot of sound equipment. Since there are multiple characters in the series, my friends help out a lot so I am very fortunate.
I also get a lot of people asking to do some voices for the series, so I'm really hoping to atleast get a couple of them in it in the future. I'll also add that a few people have
translated it into Russian, German, and French and they've done some amazing work themselves.

5.When you do the work, is it in a professional environment or do you just wing it in front of a microphone?

It's a bit of both. I write the script out ahead of time and do a few revisions before we voice act. Once we jump into the studio to record, we all tend to add our viewpoints to it and it always makes the script funnier and livelier. Since the team is so small, we have a truckload of fun doing the voices.

6. How has the reaction been to the series?

Surprisingly well received! I was really worried when I released the first episode and it didn't get too many views. Once episode 2 was released, it really took off. I get a lot of friendly emails from people telling me to hurry up with the next episode, so that's always a good motivator.

7. Does the fanbase influence it?

Very much so. Infact it was originally going to be 3 episodes, but since it's been so well received (and with Minecraft constantly being updated), we've rewritten the story and extended it. I always look at people's comments on Youtube and Newgrounds. If they say what they think should happen in the future, I sometimes intergrate it into the next episode if it can fit within the script. For instance I got an email saying that people tend to only do animations about Creepers, but they never show monsters like the Spider Jockey. And thus the Spider Jockey was thrown into part 5 as a "mob leader".


8. Do the characters reflect the voice actors?

I think in a few respects the characters reflect all of us. Mainly Fart Garfunkel and Gaylord Steambath since those characters were actually created even before the series was ever thought of. My brother (who voices those 2 characters) was the host of our private server and thus had Operator privileges. He would constantly grief us over our voicechat with that "royally flamboyant" voice he can do.


9. Do you know if Notch has seen your work?

I am unaware if he has and I do worry a lot and hope he likes it. However I do try to promote Minecraft as a fun game even if it is pretty obvious that I've exhaggerated a few features of the game here and there. He's done the world a favor by creating and constantly adding to a great game and I really hope I've helped promote his work.


10. Can you tell me any spoilers about what happens to Noobly and Fart Garfunkel?

SPOILERS

Well if the next episode isn't out by the time you read this, they get killed off by the Enderman, Gaylord Steambath griefs Snake to death, and that's the end of the series. The next part is less than 30 seconds long! Including the credits!

SPOILERS OVER

(I'm not sure if he was joking or not =S )


11. Do you have any other upcoming projects?

There are a few planned that aren't Minecraft-related. Jake Lizzio (youtube user "Jaykzo") has created a few game-related songs that need some visuals, so I'm going to try to make a few things for that. I also wanted to do something Team Fortress 2 related and then do the conclusion to an independant animation called "Circuit Skirmish 2" that I've put off for a long time now.

12. What's your favorite part of the whole process?

The voice acting is probably the most enjoyable part. The stuff we come up with has us laughing for hours. I'll probably post a video in the future with all of the outtakes just so people can see what I mean.

13. Most important, do you enjoy your work?

Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. Animating is EXTREMELY time consuming and one can get very antsy while trying to complete a scene. 5 seconds of animation can take hours to get done depending on the complexity. A few of my friends have watched me animate and asked me "How can you stand doing this!?". But once it's complete, my brain always pats itself on the back and I'm always happy to see people enjoying it. It totally makes it all worth it.


Links for the show (In Order):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On-KKibDoD4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrwxFSrB22Q&feature=watch_response

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1BGIJAobU4&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CexGbBZTPg&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHbuMQl9aKM

I'd like to say thank you to Jim. So thank you to Jim.

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