An Interview With… Channy & Kimberly -

With the internet being a powerful entity that can bring people closer together from all around the world, it enables us to interact with other amazing people across the globe that we would otherwise wouldn’t have been able to without this now essential commodity in our lives. The internet has given birth to many wonderful things including Google, Youtube and Blogging which, all have enabled us to discover another part of the world and the people that inhabit it all from the comfort of our own homes. However I am not here to big up the internet but to provide Nintendo related articles from Nintendo themselves and their fans. My “An Interview With…” Segment continues to give fans an opportunity to talk about their Nintendo inspired projects, including videos, videogames and other products of their creation. Today I have the opportunity to talk with YouTubers Channy & Kimberly, creators of the fan made 80’s theme Starfox Zero Title sequence video.

Mike- Thank you accepting my interview request guys. It is a great pleasure to be able to talk to you and to chat about your YouTube Video and to see where you would like to go with your channel.

Channy: “Hello! Thank you very much for the Oppurtunity to chat about our latest and future Projects!”

Kimberly: “Yeah, it’s really great.”

Mike- You are most welcome. So I guess it is time to get to it. The name of your channel is Channy & Kimberly so it is safe to say that there are two of you?

Kimberly: “Haha, that’s right, we’re too lazy to create separated channels, so we just share.”

Mike– I don’t blame you, it is easier to share a channel and the workload then to have two separate channels and essentially doubling long upload times. So, What inspired you two to create this great little parody of Starfox Zero?

Channy: “We lived together in a small flat when we studied at Supinfocom in France (TV and Media School) and of course, we were and still be Geeks of Big N. After hard fights on the Rainbow Road, we searched for some Youtube Videos from the good old Mario Kart 64 and we found the great animated Commercial from Japan.

https://youtu.be/3FfGT1QbSEQ

It was so charming! As great Starfox Fans, we decided to revive the good old 80’s Look with the great Characters from the Shoot’em Up Franchise. The idea had to wait until End of 2015 (at the moment, we’re living in different countries, i’m in Denmark working as Line Producer in Viborg, Kimberly moved to London and work as Animator) and it was very complicated to communicate via Skype and to produce the Idea. At the end, we’re very proud of that small Opening after 3 months of hard work”

Mike- I have seen this video before, it is really good and makes me wonder why it never released to the west. It is hard to maintain contact when worlds apart. However, optimism, teamwork and the same passion helps keeps thing together. Are you both big fans of Nintendo, just Starfox or of Videogaming in general?

Kimberly:” I think Channy is more the Big N Fan, i’m also in with Xbox and PC. My big Love is Starfox. I think when i was 6 or 7, it wasn’t about the Characters, it was the great 3D which was absolutely amazing for me on the Super Nintendo.Later it was more about Falco Lombardi, i like Birds, and the catchy sentences from Starfox 64 blew me off, it was so cheesy :-D, but great! I’m also interesteid into the Planetes of the Lylat System , i would read for hours if there are more Information about them, like in Mass Effect 3″

Mike– I enjoyed Mass Effect 3, It had a lot of depth and story to each of its characters too. What was your first experience with Nintendo?

Channy:“It was Super Mario World for the Super Nintendo. I’ve played so much with my brother, i just wanted to be the 2nd Player, because Luigi is damn cool in green. (With Fireflower in Green/White, i love these colors). A blot of friends bought a Playstation but I always thought the pixels and colors were awful! So I stayed with Nintendo!

Kimberly:“Well, i think it was Super Tennis, i know, nothing special, but damn, i just wanted to be a Tennis Player like Gabriella Sabatini! Haha!

Mike- We all get into videogames somehow, there is no shame in it. What type of console do you prefer, Home Console or Handheld?

Channy:”Both.”

Kimberly:“Yeah, i think we own everthing from Nintendo, (no Virtual Boy) , but Console is great for Multiplayer-Action. It’s fantastic to sit in front of the TV and everyone is pushed from the Game. But PC is more individual, just think about Half-Life and UNreal Engines.”

Mike– I am a Home console gamer myself, never really took to handhelds, except the Wii U of course but that isn’t really a handheld. So where did you get the idea of making this video from and where would you like to venture onto next? Will you do another Title sequence theme or are you going to extend onto the opening scene of Starfox Zero?

Channy:“Like already mentioned, it was the mix between our work (Animation) and the great Games from Nintendo. We just wanted to connect the two passionate parts from us.”

Mike– Nintendo does hold a very dear place in our hearts. As you are probably aware of now, Nintendo have in fact created their own Starfox Zero Cartoon to celebrate the release of Starfox Zero. Did you know about “The Battle Begins” before you created this video or was it by pure chance?

Kimberly:” We thought Nintendo would never do a Starfox Anime, we already waited for 20 years 🙂 First it was a great shock, because we wanted to launch the Trailer on 18th of April, but then, while we worked on the last scenes, Nintendo launched the “Battle Begins” Trailer. We were shocked at the beginning, how could a small Opening win attention when Big N fires the great Anime everyone is waiting for? We’re still a little bit confused, but it’s okay and everything worked well. The response is still great but i think the Opening would receive more attention if we launched it a little bit earlier.”

Mike– Well, I see what you mean but I find they actually both work very well together 😉 I took the liberty of putting both videos together and uploaded the combined version to YouTube whilst still crediting both creators respectively which I mention in the end of the video in person. You can view it here if you like, I think you will find they both make a good fit 🙂 . As regards to your YouTube channel which you have just started. How do you plan to schedule your YouTube videos? Once a week? Once a month?

Channy:“We have some “Deleted Scenes” from the Opening 🙂 I think there will be more Cameo Appearences for the Fans. We will launch soon some of the Rough Animations which have no appearences in the Opening. After that we will start soon the latest Opening Project. (There’s a small hint in the Drawing ;-)”

Mike- I look forward to seeing them and thank you for the message 🙂 In order to create your videos. Do you use any particular video editing software? Which one would you recommend to your fans, if they were aspiring to do their own Youtube channel?

Channy:“I think you can work with every program you are comfortable with. We used the complete Adobe Master Suite and Nuke for Compositing.”

Mike– I would not know where to begin but I am sure that a few of our readers are quite familiar with those programs. Where did you get the idea to create your own cartoon parodies? Was it something you always wanted to do or did inspiration from a fellow YouTuber and animator help fuel your decision?

Kimberly:” Of course it’s a great Inspiration from all Animators on Youtube, especially Egoraptor and THE LINE, the pioneers of fast action Animation on the Internet.”

Channy: I actually didn’t watch YouTube so much. I got my first computer after I started my studies. Before that time I only drew on my notebook!

Mike- I love Egoraptors work. Especially with the Starbomb music videos, Smash Bros, Luigi’s Ballad and Regretroid are some of my faveourite parody videos. With Starfox Zero coming out within days of this interview, will you be picking up a copy and which edition will you be getting your hands on?

Kimberly:” First Print Edition, pre-ordered. :-)”

Channy: “First Print Edition,pre-ordered, we do not like to share, haha. Before we call it a day, we wanna thank Andres Vidro (for Compositing) from Belgium, “Kromosohn” (Great Re-mix from Corneria) and the “Clown from Clowneos Aires”, always a great Inspiration for us! Hope to see you soon in Valhalla Clown”

Mike– I got my copy just yesterday (April 21st) and am really excited to play it, I still haven’t got around to doing it yet. Well guys, thank you very much for participating in this review. I look forward to seeing more of your animations very soon. Don’t keep us waiting too long. For those of you who haven’t seen the video yet, you can watch it via the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teB_-fXuOls

If you would like to know more about Channy & Kimberly or would like to follow them and subscribe to their YouTube Channel, please feel free to click on the links below:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWjCAYhTGoqxrpTbCPYmVhw