Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/944397
23 KEYFRAME F E AT U R E 23 KEYFRAME F E AT U R E WINTER 2018 23 DARON NEFCY Bring a character to life. It took Daron Nefcy, creator of Star vs. The Forces of Evil, years to hone her pitch— literally. The first time she pitched Star in 2007 for the Cartoonstitute project at Cartoon Network, she was "super intimidated" because she was presenting to people whose work she admired, namely Craig McCracken (The Powerpuff Girls, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends) and Rob Renzetti (My Life as a Teenage Robot, Gravity Falls). Though the pitch didn't lead to a full pilot, the duo was encouraging and she felt that the experience helped build her confidence. When faced with rejection, Nefcy's response has always been to keep going and come up with other strategies. After Star had been rejected a couple of times, instead of being disheartened, she turned the concept into a web comic. She explains that sometimes it feels as if the characters just want to live. "So even if she [Star] Photography by Tim Sullens