Say wha? Brett W. Thompson gives away free drawings and good times

Creative mind behind Fluidtoons is hosting an art show tonight at Cornbred Gallery. Your parting gift? FREE ART!

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  • BooRadley Scott Occhipinti via Facebook
  • Brett W. Thompson



Home from his day job at Google (you may have heard of it before), blissful, bearded local animator Brett W. Thompson sits on the couch of his Candler Park apartment eating homemade penne with broccoli. The walls are lined with frame-free art, and there’s barely room to walk across the floor, it’s so completely covered with art supplies and books. He’s pulled back his wild brown hair and maintains his broad smile, even while eating. Maybe it’s because he finally has a break, even if it’s a short one.

Thompson started animating out of boredom in his dorm room at Florida State. Since then his “doodling with Flash” has evolved into various projects in Atlanta, including the technical supervisor for WonderRoot’s Generally Local, Mostly Independent Filmmakers Night; has been the president of the International Animated Film Society in Atlanta for three years running; and he’s the founder of and artist behind Fluidtoons. Tonight at 8 p.m., he’s hosting the Fluidtoons Art Show at Cornbred Gallery inside Home Grown restaurant, which includes music by Cameron Stuart and Starlust & Bloom, a Hot Shit! Theater Company Puppet Show, free drawings and screenings of Fluidtoons animation.

When did you finish your first film?
I finished my first film in ’04, and Cameron Stuart was really instrumental in that.

How so?
Because, I was just messing around. I was using a mouse to draw, and I didn’t know anything. I didn’t know how to do anything except to draw. I didn’t even use layers. I was just messing around, kind of figuring it out. Doodling.

And Cameron and I were in this organization, the Independent Filmmakers League, which our friend Jed started, because he didn’t get into film school, but he wanted to still have a community. I was on film committee, which were the people who picked the movies to show at the Student Life Building and I managed to get us a date there. It was a really nice theater. I got us a date for a festival coming up to showcase all the independent people outside of film school at FSU.

I didn’t think I was going to make a film, because everyone was doing live action. And Cameron told me, “You should compile these and make something. These doodles, just finish them up and put them together.” And then I did that, and I got my friend Sean Jarrett to make noises with his voice.

Did you grow up watching cartoons?
Yeah. My parents didn’t want me watching a lot of TV, and they still don’t, really. God, we had this black-and-white TV growing up, and I remember watching Woody Woodpecker on that. And my dad loves Looney Tunes. My dad says Looney Tunes are the pinnacle of Western civilization or the best achievement, or something. Ren and Stimpy. I was really obsessed with Ren and Stimpy for years and years.

You come off as a really jovial, happy person. Why do you think you’re such a happy person?
I love people. I get excited about people. I like interacting with people. I like seeing my friends. I like taking pictures. A lot of us perform and stuff.

Yes, I notice you’re constantly taking pictures. What inspires you to take so many photographs of people and places?
Great question!! Mainly I want to capture and remember moments. I love seeing people and taking pictures of my friends, who are beautiful to me. I also really like thinking about composition and hunting for interesting images.

One of my friends, Nick Houy who lives in Brooklyn, says I’m a compulsive nostalgic, which I think sums it up nicely. I used to take a lot of notes in my sketchbook as well, but I haven’t done that as much lately.

I actually made a film of all the photos I took in 2007, which was shown at MINT. It consisted of about 13,000 pictures over 15 minutes. I would like to make one such film for each year, but obviously I am a couple years behind!