Sudden stream (Feb 11th, 2022)

[ORIGINAL VIDEO]

This stream was held on February 11th. Alina was reading donations and answering questions, while Dima worked on a scene from episode 3 of season 2.

This translation focuses on the most important/interesting parts of the stream.

Skip to the end of the page for a TL;DR!

[Alina and Dima set up the stream, get ready and greet everyone] 

[4:23] Episode 3
Alina: Alright, what should we talk about... Actually I know what you're all interested in, it's about when the 3rd episode will come out. Let's explain the situation, because as I understood, most people haven't followed the situation, which is natural -- if you just like the cartoon you don't necessarily have to follow the group's news. 

Here's the situation: we haven't made the whole season. I'm telling it just in case. We've only managed to make a few episodes, fully -- or almost fully -- and draw about 5 animatics. Animatics are like storyboards. [to Dima] Do you have an example of an animatic?
Dima: No, and it's for the best.
Alina: Roughly speaking it's like "Imagine", drawn in the same style. That's why we uploaded those 2 episodes while working on the 3rd. Since we tried to up the level of the art, backgrounds, details, compositing, and now we're also much more involved with the English version, our quality and our requirements are slightly higher now. That's why it takes us way longer to create the episodes, unfortunately or fortunately. 

I mean, try to compare the 1st episode of season 1 and the 1st episode of season 2. C'mon. Obviously it's still not perfect but the difference is pretty big, which is also the case for the time it takes to make the episodes. Back then we could draw in whatever quality, but now we draw as carefully as we can, and it takes us 3 times longer than if we kept the old level of art. So yeah, quality requires sacrifice.
[more about episode 3 at 1:42:51]

[7:47] Lif merch
Alina: "Do you plan on making more merch with Lif, other than the existing notebook? Good luck with drawing the scenes." Thank you very much. Of course we do, but since we don't have a dedicated person who'd work on merch and brainstorm about what to do with merch, that work once again falls on us, and we don't have enough time... [gets distracted by Dima] 

Sadly our work's very slow because we control everything. Of course we try to delegate some tasks, for example Cherry really helps us with VK stickers, and I hope will also help us with drawing merch. But generally the main brainstorming lies on us, we search for a printing company and all that. We wanna make a pretty cool piece of merch with Lif, but we won't tell for now, cuz what if it fails and you're gonna be waiting for it.

[9:33] Lydia's opinion on music
Alina: "Good evening. Will you show Lydia's development in future episodes? And if not please tell us: does she still love music, or does she hate it after everything she had to bear because of her father?" That's honestly a cool question. Lydia is an amazing character, but unfortunately we don't have enough time, enough episodes in the season. Of course we could make an endless number of episodes, but then it'd take like 20 years. Who wants that? That's why some characters would probably be developed in the comics.

About Lydia's opinion on music... Well, I personally think... [to Dima] Dima, you too...
Dima: Honestly I don't even... That's a good question.
Alina: Well, she definitely doesn't listen to pop or rap. Basically, she does listen to music...
Dima: She doesn't hate it.
Alina: Yeah, she doesn't. I think she might like jazz.
Dima: Nooo, no no no. Definitely not jazz.
Alina: Why not?
Dima: Because rock and metal came from jazz.
Alina: Uhh, Dima, that's not an argument at all.
Dima: Anyway, we're gonna be arguing about this for a long time.
Alina: I think logically she'd have unpleasant associations with classical music due to her childhood, but jazz and classical music are quite similar concepts...
Dima: No, absolutely not. I disagree. I think she'd hate jazz too.
Alina: Okay, then what music would she like?
Dima: Classical.
Alina: But man, that's so boring.
Dima: Well, yeah. Lydia may be an interesting character, but she's quite boring.
Alina: I just imagine that Lydia is one of those women who go to fancy restaurants. They definitely play jazz there.
Dima: No, good restaurants don't play jazz.
Alina: [confused] Dima, do you even know what jazz is?
Dima: Of course.
Alina: [astonished] I don't even have words! What do you mean? Fancy restaurants play jazz, it's like the most elite music ever. Or maybe like blues. But the whole point of this music is that mere mortals can't listen to it because they can't understand it. To love jazz you must have musical education, just like classical music, because normal people can't appreciate it.
Dima: I guess I thought of a different type of jazz... Guess I'm wrong.
Alina: What type? Remember the movie Soul?
Dima: Yeah yeah, now that you said it, I remembered about it in Soul. Yeah, you're right.
Alina: There we go.
Dima: Pardon, I was imagining it differently.
Alina: How so? I'm curious.
Dima: You know, the one that goes... [starts drumming]
Alina: Oh, like in Whiplash? [laughs]
Dima: Yeah yeah yeah.
[more about Lydia at 46:48]

[17:53] Ches' Q&A
Alina: "When's Ches' Q&A?" Good question. Generally speaking, Ches' Q&A should happen in-between the 2nd and 3rd episode. The problem is that we'll have to distract ourselves from the 3rd episode to work on the Q&A. Because, sadly, Ches isn't Glam. If Glam could just sit like that, waving his head, Ches... First of all, he'd probably smoke, or at least gesticulate somehow. He's a lot harder to animate, much like Victoria when she was digging around in her bike. God, what a pain that was... Glam was the best one, Dee too. But with Ches I'm not sure how long it'd take, probably two weeks at least. So minus two weeks of work on the 3rd episode. But it still needs to come out before the 3rd episode...

Here's what I think: we separated the 3rd episode into 4 parts, so when we complete the 3rd part, we'll switch over to Ches, and then a month after Ches we'll release the 3rd episode... So at this rate Ches will come out in about... 2 months?
Dima: I think a month.
Alina: Anyway, we're doing our best. But sadly January for us was unproductive due to sickness. Right now we're slowly getting it together, but I still try to work moderately so that I don't burn out again. That's why the process is a little slow, but that's okay, we'll pick up the pace.

 

[22:00] What's Dima animating?
Alina: [to Dima] Are you gonna explain what's happening in the scene?
Dima: Well, let me explain in short...
Alina: [checks laptop] Windows wants me to restart the device to update the system...
Dima: I have here a very angry Ches. Veryyy angry! He's all like RRR. [laughs] My pen even stopped working. Anyway, he's all angry like this... [draws a face] And says this phrase.
Ches: Lisa, goddammit!
Alina: [to Sergey] Can you hear it on stream?
Sergey: There's a delay.
Dima: And he says... what was it?
Ches: Lisa, goddammit!
Dima: I think everyone's now gonna ask...
Alina: [mockingly] Who's Lisa?! I don't get it...
Dima: I think this is her. [zooms in on a guy behind Ches] Lisa! [sings and laughs] He's mad about being treated this way!
Alina: Oh cool, we have 9000 viewers. Thank you for being with us. You're cool.
Anyway, while you're all thinking about who this Lisa dude is... [laughs]
Dima: [laughs]
Alina: Oh, Dima spat all over the tablet...

 

[26:05] Victoria stickers
Alina: "I've been reading the comments under the post with Victoria stickers all day. I hadn't laughed that hard at people in a long time. [TL Note: They're referring to VK's official post announcing the stickers, where a war broke out in the comments between the fans of the series and people who called the stickers ugly and "feminism propaganda"] The stickers are amazing, thank you so much!" Man, that's a wonderful topic. [to Dima] What?
Dima: I've wanted to say this many times, but we have the most awesome fanbase ever. I've been telling everyone about how...
Alina: Don't distract yourself, let me say it.
Dima: Wait, I just want to... [starts drawing] Let's say they release stickers with Uncle Styopa [TL Note: A reference to a Russian children's book Uncle Styopa], the audience goes "Eugh, eww, that's shit!" Then they release stickers with some kawaii girl, and they go "Eww, that's shit!" Alright. And then they release stickers with Victoria... "Eww, shit--" And then there's just this... [draws a huge hoard of fans storming the trolls] Completely crushed them. That was nice to see.
[29:40]
Alina: ... A lot of people who weren't familiar with the cartoon or the character saw these stickers, which, compared to other stickers on VK, are very different. VK has cute anime girls, but here, well... I wouldn't call her [Victoria] "manly", she's just fucking awesome. But she's different. Victoria's not a princess. And many people saw that as feminism propaganda. Many of them were criticized for not even watching the show, but I don't agree with that argument. Even if you didn't watch the cartoon, she doesn't do anything hateful towards men. People are just baffled at the fact that a woman is physically strong, that's it. That's enough for them to think that it's propaganda for man-hate. Such twisted logic, honestly.

And yeah, we've been sent screenshots of men being offended by this topic, blaming Victoria's stickers for the nation's birth rate dropping. [sighs] But that's okay, we care for those types of people too, that's why we'll probably make the "Rozhai!" stickers. [TL Note: The word Rozhai (Рожай) means "Give birth" and is also slang for "Hurry up/Think fast"]

 

[38:55] More comics in the future?
Alina: "Hello Alina and Dima, thank you so much for your work. Will there be a comic at the end of season 2? Similarly to "Goodbye". Also Alina, are your relatives Tatars by any chance?" No, Armenians.
Dima: Mine are, probably.
Alina: Yeah, Dima's are Tatars. [to Dima] Right?
Dima: I'm not sure, it's just a hunch.
Alina: [to donator] Thank you again for 500 rubles. About the comic. The comic is for sure the biggest material support for us; it's essentially the reason we stay afloat. That's why thank you so much again for purchasing it. Of course, if we were really into commerce we'd be like "We need more comics!" But man, we don't wanna make a comic just for the sake of making a comic. We want every comic to be on the same level, for the stories in them to be just as significant as in Goodbye, not some fillers. That's why we'll release a comic as soon as its time comes. And that will be...
Dima: Not very soon.
Alina: Sadly. 

But to be honest, even though Dima shat on this idea, I still really wanna release a comic about Dee's class. Because I liked it so much. I dunno, all the characters in his class were established so suddenly, they're all so interesting. I'd love to make an actual filler comic [about them], but we won't release it. Though, maybe you guys would be interested, and if so -- tell us.
Dima: Actually it'd be great to make some sort of a poll.
Alina: Yeah, instead of us deciding what you actually what. But man, that'd be really... Again, this comic would be filler, showing a day in the life of Dee's class, just to at least somewhat develop the characters. We just drew these characters and they all instantly turned out in character.
Dima: Yeah, you know that one kid who was watching the fly? Can I just say... We drew him sitting on the stand. [TL Note: He's referring to the post on Heavy's Instagram] And also in class he's like... How do you call these types of people?
Alina: Chill?
Dima: No no. Melancholic?
Alina: Yeah, phlegmatic kinda.
Dima: Yeah. The thing is, if you pay attention, when the teacher screams "Sit down!" everyone instantly sits down, but he's the only one who sits down slowly. [giggles] He physically can't obey such orders.
Alina: He's just really neat. It's very fun to talk about him, about Briana. Diana's also not a boring character, but I won't say anything. And her friend is also cool... Damn, everyone's really cool, I dunno! I'd love to develop them more but I'm not sure anyone except us would be interested. Also just showing how the class sees Dee. In fans' eyes Dee is a star, but in his world he's not really a star... Sure, Diana has a crush on him, but he's still not a "sexy boy". He's a pretty strange dude. Anyway, that's all about the possible comic. Maybe we'll make a poll one day to see if you guys are interested.

[43:05] Ches and Gorshok
Alina: "Greetings. Here's my question: Maybe I missed something, but was Ches drawn in Mikhail Gorsheniov's likeness? [TL Note: Mikhail Gorsheniov aka Gorshok was a lead singer and composer of a popular Russian punk band Korol i Shut] Good luck with making cartoons." Well, I'm not totally sure how much of Gorshok is in Ches, especially in the early stages when we'd just started developing him...
Dima: Let's say he has a part of Gorshok.
Alina: Well he's... He was definitely inspired by Gorshok.
Dima: Actually Ches is a mix of many different people. He's a composite character. We practically have no one...
Alina: [continues] Who'd be inspired by one single character.

But Gorsheniov is probably one of the more complete characters that make Ches. Probably, right?
Dima: Dunno, I'm not sure.
Alina: I don't mean 100%, but... Compared to the other ones, there is more Gorshok in him than the rest.
Dima: [unsure moan]
Alina: Alright, who would you say is as close to his image as Gorshok?
Dima: For example the one you don't like. Stupa. [TL Note: He's most likely referring to the late Russian rock artist Konstantin Stupin]
Alina: Well... I hope he has more of Gorshok still. I dunno... His story is pretty tragic.

[44:50] Similar drawing styles
Alina: "I'd like to know how you're able to draw so similarly. And yeah, get well soon Alina." Thank you so much. Honestly we don't really draw similarly-- although... [to Dima] I told you once that I tested Junk and Phinlana and both of them failed. I mean, even people who more or less know us, know our art, they still can't always differentiate. [to Sergey] By the way Seryog, could you differentiate which one of us drew the pictures on Heavy's Instagram?
Sergey: I don't remember. I gotta look. Sometimes I can guess by animation, which shot was drawn by Dima...
Alina: Well, by animation it's easy. Actually... I dunno, I think the styles are still different. That's all, no more comments.

[46:48] Lydia and chanson
Alina: "My husband argues that Lydia would listen to French chanson. [pauses] Would there be stickers for Telegram?" Damn, I dunno what French chanson is, but the word chanson bothers me. Chanson is thieves' music. [TL Note: Russian chanson is associated with prison and criminal practices, and is often called "thieves' music" (блатная музыка)]
Sergey: The Russian one is.
Dima: Actually I can see her listening to it, like... [sings a tune]
Alina: That's chanson? I just don't know what it is. I know Russian but not this.
Dima: She could definitely listen to something like that.
Sergey: It's not thieves' music.
Alina: Yeah? So only Russian chanson is like that? Culture level 80.
[48:05]
Alina: I dunno about chanson. If there was an example, I could tell you. But Lydia probably does like the French language.
Dima: Yeah most likely.
Alina: "Would there be telegram stickers?" Probably not. Firstly because we can't give them the same stickers due to the contract with VK, and secondly Telegram is... a wonderful platform that... generally doesn't really care about copyright... And in that regard we don't really want to work with them. It's like, why would they pay the original authors anything when someone could just draw the stickers for free and upload them there? Why pay if you don't have to? That's why I'm not sure Telegram's even interested in working with us. Telegram already has cool MF stickers that were made by pure enthusiasts. I use them actively by the way. That's why we probably won't, since Telegram isn't interested in cooperating. But who knows...

[50:27] Vicky's parents?
Alina: "What about Vicky's parents?" [shrugs] You want too much from us. We won't say anything on this stream. Wait for it, wait for it.

 

[57:12] Ches explains a strumming pattern
Alina: "I have a question regarding the song There Grows The Pine [The Tale of a Pine]. If it's not a secret, what's its strumming pattern on acoustic guitar?"
Dima: ... I don't know.
Alina: [in Ches' voice] I don't know!
Dima: [in Ches' voice] I dont know, it just plays by itself!
Alina: You must playyy!
Dima: Alright, it's like this... Tun du-dun du-dun... I don't know what this pattern is. Glam, do you know? [in Glam's voice] It strikes in the heart! [TL Note: Strumming patterns are called "бой" in Russian, which means "battle/fight"]
Alina: Right in the heart!
But really, how do you explain the pattern?
Dima: You just gotta figure it out by ear.

[1:29:07] Find a team
Alina: "Hello from Germany!" Cool! "Thank you so much for your hard work. Please accept this modest donation. How many people do you think you need in your team?" In a perfect world I'd like to have 3 animators that we'd pay to work 8 hours a day. Because, as our experience working in studios has shown us, it's better to have a small and cohesive team that works hard than a team of 10+ people where today someone gets sick, tomorrow someone burns out, then someone loses inspiration, the 4th guy disappears, the 5th something else... And you use more mental energy to control this team, to keep it organized, motivate people, critique them, praise them, because... And that's not even counting animation corrections, which would definitely happen. So you'd have to, in essence, be a teacher at the same time, since most likely it wouldn't be experienced, professional animators -- why'd they help us -- it'd be maybe some talented beginner animators with lots of potential, who'd need to learn about some technical moments or animation basics. And controling a team would take, I guarantee you, way longer than if we drew it ourselves. That's how it works. If we start assembling a team now, then it'll take us longer to draw the episodes and they'd probably be of worse quality, since the animators would have to find the style, so that's a very... 

For some reason most people are misguided when it comes to teams. They're like "Just post an announcement! We're sure many people would love to help!" But you must understand that, even if many people want to help, not everyone wants to work. Completing a scene is one thing, another thing is actually working 8 hours a day to help us. It's hard work, and not everyone likes it. That's why before you find responsible, talented people that won't bail on you in a few months, way too much time will pass. That's why it's too ambitious of a plan to have a team, sadly. Even finding like 3 people who'd fully help you is hard. Though I wouldn't be against it. Anyway, that's all.

[1:34:52] German fandub
Alina: "Thank you for the cartoon. From Germany." Oh, this one too. "My friends were asking me to redub the series from Russian to German. Your show is fire." Man, that'd be awesome honestly. I think German would really fit Glam.
Dima: We've actually been talking about how he clearly has a German...
Alina: He's like an Aryan, yeah. Gustav too.
Dima: And the name Gustav clearly...
Alina: Refers to that. Similar manners too.
Anyway, it'd be really cool to see it in German.
Dima: I'd watch it.
Alina: Me too.
The whole thing with dubbing the series in another languages is wonderful.
Dima: The most common one is, of course...
Alina: Spanish, yeah.

[1:36:55] Where does the show take place?
Alina: "Hello, thank you so much for your hard work. If it's not a secret, what country does the show take place in? The names and architecture seem American, but the school is totally Russian." We've said it before, but I'll repeat. We intentionally made a non-country, so there wouldn't be any political moments. It's an abstract country with composite arcitecture from many different countries. I mean, how could we not do a Russian school with Galina Huyovovna? Yeah, the school turned out pretty Russian, but...
Dima: It's just some provincial country, provincial town.
Alina: Yeah, clearly not a metropolis.

[1:38:59] Lif and Victoria
Alina: "AWAF from Poland. Thank you for such unconventional hard work that inspires us anew every day. Here's my question: Is it fair to say that Lif is closer to Victoria in character?" I wouldn't really say so. I think... [to Dima] Can I say who she's closest to in the family?
Dima: Not now.
Alina: I won't say it. That's all. But not Victoria. I think she's far from that type.

[1:40:42] Fan characters in the show
Alina: I should've made a list of topics to talk about in-between donations.
Sergey: I can add something.
Alina: What?
Sergey: I liked a question from chat that said "Why is Dee in the same class as Twilight and not Rarity?" There was a girl that looked like Twilight.
Alina: Man, you got it wrong. It's not a reference to Twilight, it's a reference to a girl that, a very long time ago, was shipped with Dee in the Spanish speaking fandom. She was drawn like that. So it's not Twilight Sparkle, it's that girl.
Dima: Wait, I'll even try to... [opens browser]
Alina: Shit, are you sure?
Dima: I'll just use Yandex. "Metal Family..." Oh god, what's all this? "Metal Family 34." [Alina and Dima laugh] A leak! A leak! "Metal Family Dee with girl."
Alina: There she is, there.
Dima: Where else... Here.
Alina: Anyway yeah, it was a long time ago. I think it was... I dunno...
Dima: See how she got an upside-down cross on her tummy, colorful hair, that's all hers.
Alina: Yeah it's not Twilight.
Dima: It was a gesture towards... Well, there's also another character, the redhead...
Alina: Not redhead, you mean the one with pigtails and pink dress?
Dima: Yeah yeah. What was her name?
Alina: I won't be able to remember.
Dima: She was also Hispanic. Anyway, we put some of the characters into Dee's class.

[1:42:51] Episode 3 when?
Alina: "... When's the new episode? Thanks guys." Well, by our estimates the next episode will come out... in 3 months, probably. Right?
Dima: I hope sooner.
Alina: I hope so too, but man, I dunno...
Dima: We're working on it. Even during the stream.
Alina: Yeah. We'll have a few other hard episodes, but I think that after the 3rd... The 4th is fine, the 5th is fine difficulty-wise, right?
Dima: Yeah.
Alina: The 6th... I keep forgetting what it's about.
Dima: I won't say anything.
Alina: Anyway, at least 2 of them will be easy, similarly to the 2nd episode. Not 20 minutes long like the 3rd.

[1:48:27] End of stream
Dima: There, I finished the frame. Next he'll probably swing his hand to the side like "Goddammit! We're having a rehearsal!" Yeah. And after he swings, he'll lock into this pose like this, and then I'll do the mouth separately. Something like that. That's all...
Well then. What if I press here?
Alina: Are we ending the stream? Then we have to say goodbye I guess. [calls Sergey]
That's all, thank you everyone for being with us.

TL;DR:

• Episode 3 with come out in roughly 3 months (around May).
• There will most likely be more cool merch with Lif in the future.
• Lydia still likes music and (probably) listens to classical, jazz and chanson.
• Ches' Q&A will come out in 1-2 months (around March-April)
• In the scene Dima's animating on stream, Ches screams "Goddammit, Lisa! We're having a rehearsal!"
• Alina is thinking about releasing a comic about Dee's class because she really loved the characters.
• It's confirmed that Ches' character is partially based on Mikhail Gorsheniov, as well as many other people.
  
• Alina explained that hiring a team of animators would take them way longer than actually animating everything themselves, so they won't do that.
  
• Glam might be of German descent.
• The show takes place in a non-specific provincial town.
• Lif and Victoria are quite different in character.
• The "Twilight Sparkle" girl from Dee's class is a fan character that Alina and Dima put in the show to pay homage to the fandom. A few other fan characters are in the show as well.