Congratulations to our latest Tongaler of the Month, CC Pixels! While the husband-wife duo of Margaret Condol and Jeff Capili have been working together for years, you're probably most familiar with their work under the Tongal handle “Maggie Condol.” In April, they won a Tongie for their incredible 3D animation Tony's Nightmare for LEGO and Marvel. Here we'll find out how they work together, where they find inspiration, and how they create these masterpieces at record speed.
Sarah Donze: Did you both love to draw as kids? Has animation always been a part of your lives?
Maggie Condol: My dad and brother are amazing artists, so I grew up loving art and drawing. I loved watching cartoons, I still do!
Jeff Capili: I was always the class artist when I was younger. That kind of made me hate being artistic during those times because it meant extra work for me like doing designs for the class billboard and other decorating tasks that I didn't really enjoy. I was more into sports than art when I was younger, and even in college where I spent most of the time rock climbing than doing my plates. It never really occurred to me until years later that animation would be a major part of my life.
SD: Are you self-taught or did you go to school for animation?
JC: I took up Visual Communications in college and I actually had an elective subject for animation. I never took it seriously and ended up attending that class for less than five times the whole semester. The only reason I passed was because I submitted the final project but mostly I'm self-taught and just watch animation tutorials online.
SD: Pretty impressive! Do you enjoy watching animation as much as creating it?
MC: We more than enjoy it! I think we're pretty much obsessed. Haha. We're always watching films and searching for animation clips on YouTube.
SD: What was the first thing you animated? Do you still have it?
JC: The very first thing I animated is a stick figure drawn on the pages of my history book. You flip the pages and you see the stick figure moving. I remember choosing my history book because it was thick!
SD: How did you get your start in professional animation?
JC: I was invited to join an animation group back in 2007 and started as a character artist. They needed an extra animator so I thought of giving it a try. We were working on a 2D film at that time and that's how I started in this field. Since then, anything we want to do we learn on YouTube.
MC: It's just with Tongal that I got into animation. I was working for the District Attorney before and resigned.
SD: How did you find Tongal? What has been your favorite project so far?
MC: I came across Tongal when I was searching for ways to earn money from home. The project then was for the LEGO Hero Factory Web Series. Jeff was just starting to learn 3D at the time so we thought it was perfect. Even though we didn’t win the Pitch, we knew we had a great story and wanted to prove ourselves in the Tongal community, so we went for the challenge! We submitted a Wildcard and that was our first win!
JC: Our favorite projects have to be LEGO City, LEGO Hero Factory: The Next Saga, and McDonald's Fish McBites. We love the LEGO City project because of the challenges it brought. There were so many models and sets, and we had to simulate water in a way that it blended with the rest of the characters. Hero Factory The Next Saga is also our favorite because it gave us another chance to improve on our previous work with Hero Factory and McDonald's because the dancing Fish McBite was crazy!
SD: Are there particular artists’ styles or genres that inspire you, even if they work in media besides animation?
JC: The Nine Old Men of Disney animation are my inspiration. They really brought animation to a whole new level! Their discoveries became the foundation of the animation that we see today. I love Pete Docter's works also. He's the director of Monster's Inc. and Up. The way he builds up the story to a satisfying and moving ending amazes me.
SD: Animation is an ever-evolving field. Is it easy to stay current on the latest trends, software, and technologies?
JC: The principles of animation have always been the same, but the software and the technology are the ones that are ever-evolving, always updating, and that's why we know we need to keep learning. The amazing thing about participating in projects on Tongal is that we learn and earn at the same time!
SD: We hear you are raising a new crew of Tongalers over there. Is animating turning into the family business?
MC: Our 9 year old son also wants to be an animator. He is learning the basics on paper and pencil right now, but is quickly moving into stop-motion and very interested in our new green screen.
SD: Let me back up for a moment. How did you two meet? Was it animation that brought you together?
MC: It wasn't animation that brought us together. We were actually best friends in high school and then 14 years later we got married.
JC: She had a secret crush on me when we were in school...just kidding!
SD: How do you split up the work on a project?
MC: We pretty much brainstorm any ideas and work on the story together, then Jeff turns our ideas into life! We work together on the ideas and storyboards, and sometimes our son pitches in as well! We use his LEGO toys to help us build the models when they aren't available.
SD: Do you have a team working under you? The speed and quality at which you work is usually only found in big studios and created over months and months!
MC: There are a lot of stressful, sleepless nights working on two computers.
SD: What about the SFX and VFX?
MC: That's all us too! We'll record the sounds ourselves or make them on the computer.
SD: Do you work in other media?
JC: Most projects we do are exclusively animated, but we are now trying out animation combined with live action. We still have a lot to learn but it's been really fun. We're looking forward to practicing on our new green screen.
SD: I think the Nine Old Men of Disney would be happy to hear that. Your respect for the craft is definitely part of the foundation of your success. Outside of Tongal, what are you working on?
MC: We're working on our own personal short called "Tala" which is a Filipino word for a star. It's about a boy who helps a fallen star go back to the sky. We're also going to be doing the animation part for a live action short film "Suits and Ammo." We're pretty excited for that!
SD: Keep us posted on that please! Do you have any advice for other Tongalers or aspiring animators?
MC: Always do your best and always improve. Don't be afraid to fail and when you do fail, approach it as a consequence for doing something new. Failure can be an opportunity for growth if addressed properly.
JC: My advice for aspiring animators would be to learn the basic principles of animation first before learning the latest software. It can be exciting to learn the software right away but without the knowledge of the basic principles the animation wont look and feel right.
SD: Fun fact or surprising hobby?
MC: I love to cook and bake. I even took up culinary arts in college.
JC: I used to be a member of the Philippine team in Sport Climbing and joined the X-Games in 2007.
SD: Daily must-reads?
MC: Uhh, I'm not much of a reader but I do browse my horoscope every now and then.
JC: Anything that's on the homepage of Yahoo from the latest celebrity news to sports.
SD: Favorite movie?
MC: That's hard. I like a lot of Disney and Pixar movies but I'll have to go with Finding Nemo. That movie gets to me every single time.
JC: My all time favorite has to be The Green Mile. I enjoy most of Tom Hank's films including Toy Story 3. That movie's ending made me cry!
SD: Thanks Maggie and Jeff! We can't wait to see what you'll create next on Tongal!
