Takeover Tuesday with AppleButter Animated
Q&A with Megan Jedrysiak and Jackson Ammenheuser, Co-Founders of AppleButter Animated.
Q&A with AppleButter Animated
Read time: 10min
Sprite Way Series | Studio: Protokulture, Animation: Jackson Ammenheuser and Megan Jedrysiak
Madison Caprara:
Hey, you two!
Why don’t you both give me a little intro to who you are? How did you find yourselves in this industry? What initially attracted you to the field?
AppleButter Animated:
We are Megan Jedrysiak and Jackson Ammenheuser, Co-Founders of AppleButter Animated, based out of Chicago. We love to skate, play soccer, sing karaoke, and eat food. When we aren’t doing those things, we like to experiment with animation production practices! Lately, we’ve been expanding our efforts in the motion process by taking elements of digital animation (graphics, motion, sound, automation) and presenting them in both physical and streaming spaces with our own machines and graphics.
We both studied Animation at DePaul University and jumped into freelance work right out of school. I wouldn’t suggest going straight to freelance to anyone today, but it luckily worked out for us. We were both initially attracted to the independence and energy of experimental animation, and loved that you didn’t need to wait for an art show, or a budget, or a crew. You don’t need to ask permission to do anything, just go animate!
Madison Caprara:
I’m assuming you both met in one of your Animation courses, or..?
AppleButter Animated:
We actually met in a computer lab at DePaul.
We would work on 3D animation homework together. It involved a lot of sugary snack consumption and Megan playing cool music videos. Eventually, we started dating, made a few projects together, and chose to continue doing so after graduation, mostly so that we could continue to eat snacks and watch cool music videos together while we worked.
Madison Caprara:
A pretty enviable meet-cute!
So, how did AppleButter Animated come to be? Was there a particular influence or circumstance that prompted you to start the studio?
AppleButter Animated:
AppleButter started right when we graduated university, seven years ago. We wanted to keep making our own work and gave it a shot! We figured that we could always jump ship and go to a 9-5 if there was a disaster. It was a struggle for the first few years, including a couple of side hustles, but we got there! We were hugely inspired by our friends Nick and Nadine, who run a two-person graphic art studio in Chicago, Sonnenzimmer. They seemed to have it all as a couple with a small creative business and art practice. We thought we would try the same thing!
GFXi | Client: GFXi, Animation: Jackson Ammenheuser, Design: Megan Jedrysiak
Madison Caprara:
A pretty courageous endeavor being new graduates!
How would you describe the studio’s style?
AppleButter Animated:
We like to make things fast, at least in animator terms. I hope that comes across in our style. There’s this idea that animation has to take forever to be good, and we just don’t believe that. Our work ranges in style, but almost every one of our projects takes less than a week to make.
We strive to make hybrid-style energetic work that leaves an impression and might make you double-take. We like to wait for ideas that make you laugh even if they’re not funny. Some of our best ideas emulate jokes in that way, or at least point to a punchline.
Madison Caprara:
I see that you specialize in short-form animation and interactive art. What draws you to the two?
AppleButter Animated:
We get excited about all things motion. Deep down, robotics and animation are extremely similar on a structural level: build a thing and make it move. Even Megan’s painting work breaks down a 2D image informed by motion in our animation practice. We are really attracted to that energy that you can give an object, space, or video when you make it move. There is a lot of power there, we hope to push what animation means way outside of motion graphics and the moving image ballpark.
Madison Caprara:
How does the studio work in terms of project selection, work process, etc.? How do you go about delineating tasks between the two of you?
AppleButter Animated:
We like to say that Megan is great at starting things and Jackson is good at finishing them.
That pretty much describes our pipeline most of the time. Megan has a much stronger art and drawing background, while Jackson studied the more 3D and technical side of creative. Megan will typically kick ideas off with research, drawings, boards, and styleframes, then we’ll meet in the middle to do design, motion tests, and development. Typically Jackson will do the final motion, VFX, and polish. There is a lot of collaboration and discussion at all points but that vaguely fits most of the time.
Madison Caprara:
That being said, what do you both look for when taking on a project? What has you giving an automatic, “yes”?
AppleButter Animated:
For commercial work, an automatic “yes” is a good producer! Having the budget, timeline, scope, mood, brand guidelines, all laid out before we even speak is the dream! When it comes to ad work, we care more about working with good folks and being treated with respect than working on the “sickest” projects.
For our artwork, we love to collaborate and interact with friends. Our animation work was so siloed for a long time, and we’re really over that style of making. We live for that back and forth of ideas between collaborators, even when it all goes wrong. Sharing the highs and lows and taking a leap together is what it’s all about.
Madison Caprara:
Speaking on collaboration, do you ever outsource talent for larger projects?
AppleButter Animated:
We try to do 100% of the work ourselves. We’re just not that type of studio that hires out other animation freelancers. If we can’t do a project for whatever reason, we try to pass along the work to friends! We enjoy working with musicians, directors, and writers of course, but for the animation work, we plan on keeping it between the two of us.
Madison Caprara:
And what has been your favorite project to date?
AppleButter Animated:
Our favorite project was a duo gallery show at Public Works Gallery. We pulled it off right before the pandemic. The show allowed us to try so many new ideas that would be exhibited in a physical space. World-building is inherent in animated films, but films are typically viewed in a 2D space. We were able to produce a more immersive world with our animation, paintings, and painting robot living together all in one space. That process and engagement from all the folks who showed up inspired us. We're hoping to push further into that space over the next couple of years.
Madison Caprara:
Well, the exhibition looked incredible! Readers can find it here.
Madison Caprara:
When needed, where do you go for inspiration?
AppleButter Animated:
We try to look beyond film for inspiration. Engaging with stories and visual languages as much as possible, and seeking out new experiences informs our vision. If we’re stuck or looking for something new, we go for a walk, develop recipes, eat a good snack, look at paintings, read books or comics, garden, and talk with friends. Looking at a problem from a wider view usually helps us understand what we’re really trying to get at.
Also, this isn't traditional inspiration, but whenever we need some energy in the moment, say a project is going poorly, or we lost the thread of an idea, we always pull up an old friend’s class film. He made it in a late-night daze for an experimental animation class. The assignment was misunderstood by most of the class and the professor was not happy during the screening, but this project was the cherry on top. It just went really wrong, including some major sound goofs, and somehow it went wrong just enough times to turn into one of our all-time favorite films. It brings back the wild energy we love every time.
Away From Keyboard Residency | WNDR Museum, Chicago
Madison Caprara:
What were some of the best decisions you’ve made vs ones you wish you could redo? As a studio or even individual artists?
AppleButter Animated:
Collaborating with friends and being a part of our larger animation and art community has been our most positive experience as artists and animators. We’ve learned so much working with great folks on personal projects and commercial ones. It opens up a field of possibilities from collaborating with one friend, to working with a group at a studio, to inviting a general internet audience to work with us on a robotic painting.
Our biggest mistake is the other side of that coin, which is initially believing that animation and art need to be this silo-ed sport. I think many could attest to the running joke of the lone animation martyr stuck in their cave. And maybe that’s how you like to work, but it doesn’t have to be that way!
Madison Caprara:
I’m sure some folks out there can definitely relate.
What advice would you give to someone thinking of starting a studio?
AppleButter Animated:
For people who generally want to step away from full-time employment and do their own thing, I would suggest doing your research, understanding your safety net, and talking to people who are where you want to be! For us, that meant talking to our studio idols about all sorts of things from clients to art galleries to day-to-day expectations. Jackson talked to his parents about helping us if we got into a bind, luckily we’ve avoided needing help. But it is important to know it’s there and recognize that we couldn’t have done this without that privilege. We also read everything we could about freelance, from books like The Freelance Manifesto, to online forums, and going to local mo-graph meetups and animation festivals.
Madison Caprara:
Are there any big upcoming projects in development we should be looking out for from AppleButter?
AppleButter Animated:
As spaces are starting to open again, we have a few space-based ideas we are pitching around that we love! One involves a DIY Smart CRT TV that would serve as an ongoing local animation festival with a vintage edge, think flipping through channels and classic commercials. We're working on adding a comparative graphic vision system to our painting machine, this process would compare the live painting to a graphic or photo, and update accordingly. And we’re excited about this new 3D smear style that we’ve been having a lot of fun with on Instagram.
Madison Caprara:
That sounds really exciting! After a year+ of social isolation, an interactive exhibit is particularly enticing.
Unfortunately, we’re reaching the end of our time together. It’s been really great getting to know a bit more about the two of you and your studio. Is there any closing point or piece of advice you would like to end our chat with?
AppleButter Animated:
Have fun! Speak from what you know, be open to learning and making mistakes, and be the kind of nerd that only you can be!