Interview: SIMON'S CAT Creator Simon Tofield

Ask anyone.

Everyone knows who SIMON'S CAT is.

People who aren't into cartoons know who SIMON'S CAT is.

Not a lot of people know about his creator, Simon Tofield. Now that Mr. Tofield is on tour in the United States, The Washington Post's Michael Cavna interviews the popular animator and cartoonist. 

MC: [I’ve read that] it takes you, on average, about six weeks to create each “SC” animation. Could you walk us a bit through your creative and technical process, from start to finish? What’s the most fun, and what aspect is the most challenging? 

ST: It’s actually closer to seven weeks of animation and one week of sound work. But because the films are all different lengths, this can sometimes be less or more. Normally the films start life in my sketchbook as a funny idea that might come to me anywhere -- I even draw on the train. If I still like the idea later, I’ll flesh it out as a series of drawings, a rough storyboard, putting in more details and funny things that could make the story a bit richer. And if I still like the idea, then it will go into the animation, which I do in Adobe Flash. The hardest part is definitely coming up with good ideas. And the most fun part is when a film is done and hopefully making people laugh!

Read the entire interview here.

The latest adventure, "Screen Grab:"

Related: Simon Tofield demonstrates how he colors a page from his book SIMON'S CAT VS. THE WORLD.