Ashley Nichols on developing Far-Fetched

What happens when you accidentally unleash a chaotic, canine creature into the world? The animated pilot for Far-Fetched, co-created by Ashley Nichols and Dave Capdevielle, will help you find out! This indie series follows the adventures of a young woman and her purple dog as she navigates the challenges of adjusting to adulthood — all while uncovering a world where science is at odds with monsters and the supernatural.

Ashley Nichols first came up with the main characters of Far-Fetched at the age of 12. Years later, she revived the characters and began crafting a story around them. Now she’s working on developing Far-Fetched into an independent series, to be released on YouTube. Ashley is also known for her work as a cleanup lead on the Hazbin Hotel pilot and the Lackadaisy short film. We caught up with Ashley to learn more about her career path, her animation inspirations, and the making of Far-Fetched. The following article is an excerpt from our livestream discussion in May 2022.

What was your career path into animation?

Ashley: I am a huge internet child. I started on DeviantArt drawing Danny Phantom fan art. But I wanted to get into animation, and I figured that working on fanart that I was passionate about was the best way to learn how to animate. So I transitioned to sharing fan animations for Steven Universe on YouTube.

Eventually I started looking around on Twitter for animation jobs. I wasn’t looking for anything fancy, just people who were like, “Hey, I need an animator!” I scurried and cobbled together a little reel and responded to those people, saying, “please hire me!” To be honest, I had no idea what I was doing, but a couple people were foolish enough to hire me, which got me through the initial gate!

Since then, I have mainly worked on online projects, mixed in with some industry work for a DreamWorksTV show called Too Loud, and some work on Animaniacs as a cleanup artist. Those two projects were incredibly cool, but my heart does truly lie with online, indie animated content. In sharing this path into the industry I’ve just revealed my greatest, darkest secret. I have no formal animation schooling!

How would you describe Far-Fetched, for our viewers who may not have seen the teaser trailer for your pilot?

Ashley: We sometimes joke that Far-Fetched is just Scooby Doo meets Resident Evil. It’s a horror comedy show about a young woman named Rue, who accidentally releases her own chaotic canine creation named Kira into the world while also joining a band of late-2000’s musical misfits to fight for survival in a town where science is at odds with the supernatural.

Kira, this weird purple dog, thrusts Rue into the world of the supernatural. Of course, it doesn’t help that the leader of the band Rue’s joined wants to film in abandoned campsites that are infected with monsters. 

The series is a bit of a nostalgic take on surviving the late 2000s. But we also explore the idea of being a late bloomer adult who’s trying to figure themselves out, while life just won’t stop. The series includes monsters and horror, but we’ve also weaved in comedic aspects. Horror and comedy go together really well, for some reason.  

How long have you been developing Far-Fetched, and how have the concepts, designs and characters evolved throughout the development process?

Ashley: I have been thinking about Far-Fetched since I was a kid. Rue started out as a pretty different character. Her name was originally Vicki, and then it was Lucia, and eventually she became Rue. So she’s evolved over the years. But Kira has stayed basically exactly the same since I was 12 years old! In fact, I still have drawings of Kira from when I was 12 or 13, and you can see in them how little Kira has changed. She’s always been my little sparkle dog.

I drew these characters a lot as a kid, but then lost interest for a few years. In 2015, I started thinking about them again, and decided to bring them back for fun. I began playing around and thinking about what their story was. From 2015 onward, their story was a side project I had, which was constantly evolving. Working on it gave me a lot of comfort, and it was fun and nostalgic! 

These characters have stuck with me over the years, and to be honest, I don’t know why. Since they are such staples in my mind, it made sense to develop them into a project. The project originally started out as Hell Puppy and over time evolved into Far-Fetched.

What inspires the style and design of Far-Fetched, and what kinds of animation techniques are you using in your production pipeline?

Ashley: I was a huge Danny Phantom fan when I was a little kid. Other inspirations of mine have been Deviant Art and anime. I think you can see the influence of my love of all those in my work today, including in Far-Fetched. 

The Far-Fetched team loves to suffer apparently, because we’re hand drawing the series, frame by frame, rather than using rigs. I know many productions these days rely on rigs to speed up the animation process, but to be honest, I haven’t learned how to do rigged animation. So I’ve stuck with what I know. Part of the reason might just be that I’m a huge fan of hand drawn animation. 

Since Far-Fetched is hand drawn, we are trying to keep the frame rate reasonable. Playback speed is 24 frames per second, but the amount of drawings that viewers are probably actually seeing are 8 to 12. I try to constantly remind my team that yes, we want the series to be beautiful, but we also don’t want to burn out. So I tell them to always save on frames whenever they can. It’s all about finding the balance of making sure the animation looks as smooth as possible, with as few frames as possible. 

You worked on a number of ambitious indie productions, including Lackadaisy, Hazbin Hotel, and Ollie & Scoops. What drew you to working on those productions? 

Ashley: Like I mentioned before, I’ve always just been a bit of an internet child. So I always have a pulse on indie animation productions. I was a huge fan of Lackadaisy, as well as Ollie & Scoops. For example, I love how Ollie & Scoops is reminiscent of a lot of old-school, 90s cartoons. 

I had worked with Nico Colaleo previously on Too Loud. I knew first hand how fantastic he is at showrunning. He’s super kind, and great to work for. So when I saw that Lackadaisy was hiring, I knew I had to get involved. These indie productions were so fundamental to shaping my interest and my dreams, so it was a no-brainer. 

Working on indie productions has been really formative for me. It’s how I learned how a production pipeline works, and also how to communicate with people and organize a team online. I’ve modelled the approach to making Far-Fetched after my experience on Lackadaisy. For example, we all work collaboratively through Discord servers. We have channels for different things, like animation cleanup, as well as fun channels where we just bond with each other. 

Fable and Tracy from Lackadaisy have been incredibly supportive and kind and whenever I have questions about production. They’ve helped me figure out the pipeline for Far-Fetched, and given me tons of pointers on how to improve. 

Do you feel that there is growing demand for shows with genre, themes, structure and characters outside of those typically featured in studio productions?

Ashley: Absolutely. I think a lot of us are tired of seeing the same, safe things on our screens. But studios continue to greenlight those projects because they know there’s an audience for it. To be honest, I can understand why they don’t hop on projects that are a bit weird, and haven’t been seen before. They can’t be sure of who will watch it, so it’s too much of a risk.

Nowadays, there’s resources available that make it possible for people like me and the Far-Fetched team to create stories that would never be greenlit by a studio. I think it’s great, because we’re able to create diverse, interesting stories about specific experiences that maybe just some people can relate to. And we can play around with wacky concepts about, you know, time travel, space, monsters, and abstract things. These diverse stories can be so much more enriching than seeing the same superhero series for the 50th time.

BONK! You’ve been attacked by a new animatic clip, freaks. Voices included! #FarFetchedShow

This is a snippet from the full scene. You can see the whole thing by joining our money hole down below! pic.twitter.com/tYDhuRcM48

— Far-Fetched (@FarFetchedShow) November 21, 2022

What was the most challenging aspect of creating an independent pilot?

Ashley: Everything! I’m joking, but in all honesty, there are many difficult aspects of making an independent pilot. The biggest challenge I’ve found is funding. Making sure we have enough money to ensure our team is well paid is a constant roadblock. And it’s a crucial one to overcome because we want to pay our artists fairly. We’re basically coming up with the funds as we produce the content, which is a little scary, but we like to live fast and loose. 

Another challenge is communication. Learning how to communicate to your team what you need from them, and making sure everyone is comfortable, happy, and not overwhelmed. This is a continuous learning process, but it’s worth it to make sure the team is able to do their job in the easiest, best way possible.

Do you have advice for other artists interested in creating their own animated pilots?

Ashley: Making an animated pilot is one of the coolest and most fulfilling, awesome things that I’ve gotten to do. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. But I’ll warn you, it’s stressful, especially if you’re gathering funding at the same time as production. I feel a lot of stress about whether or not we’ll continue to find the funding needed to finish the project. 

My advice for anybody interested in launching their own indie production is to start small. There are tons of people out there with amazing stories to tell, and I want to see them, but I would say, don’t rush into telling them. Begin with making a webcomic, or make a minute long short with a friend. 

It takes time and patience to slowly build up your audience, and build up the funding you’ll need. And in the meantime, you can grow your skills. That way, when you start working on your pilot, you’re ready! As someone who dove straight into a pilot, let me tell you, I should have started smaller. I’m very lucky that Far-Fetched has worked out as well as it has so far. 

ICYMI, we shared our studio’s animation & clean-up guide on our P@treon! We hope this resource is useful for people interested in making their own indie animated projects and for those wanting to learn about the process! #FarFetchedShow

Gain access to the guide below! pic.twitter.com/VXAmK5p5hq

— Far-Fetched (@FarFetchedShow) February 14, 2023

• Interested in seeing more from Ashley Nichols and the Far-Fetched crew? You can follow AshNicholsArt and FarFetchedShow on Twitter and follow the production on the Far-Fetched website.
• Interested in animating characters for your own independent production? Artists can download a 21-day free trial of Harmony Premium.

The post Ashley Nichols on developing Far-Fetched appeared first on Toon Boom Animation.