Hello, I am Simon Tofield. And this is The Simon's Cat Story.
哈囉，我是Simon Tofield。這是《Simon的貓咪》的故事。
I've always loved to draw. As far back as I can remember, I've always been drawing.
我一直以來都熱愛繪畫。早在我有記憶的時候，我就一直在畫畫。
As a boy grew up in Leighton Buzzard, I loved to draw wildlife. I was especially interested in drawing birds. And I'd draw on any paper I could find.
身為一個在Leighton Buzzard(英國近郊小鎮)長大的男孩，我喜歡畫野生動物。我尤其對畫鳥類有興趣。我會在任何我可以找到的紙張上畫畫。
I got my first cat when I was nine years old. Her name was Shelly. And she was very shy, very timid little farm cat.
我在九歲時得到了第一隻貓咪。她的名字是Shelly。她是個非常害羞、非常怕生的小農場貓。
As I got older, I kept on drawing and drawing. Still wildlife was my favorite subject. But also I started to get interested in doing animation round about that time, too.
隨著我長大，我持續畫畫。野生動物仍是我最喜歡的主題。但我大約在那段時間也開始對製作動畫產生興趣。
I thought I'd teach myself to animate by creating flip books, which were basically big fat pads of paper, which I drew in from the back and worked my way forward. When they were flicked, they created animation. And I was hooked.
我認為我會透過製作手翻書來訓練自己做動畫，手翻書基本上是用紙做的一大本厚厚的簿子，我從它的後面開始一路往前畫。當它們被翻動時，它們產生動畫。我那時便上癮了。
Drawing was the only thing I can really do, so I became an animator. Back then, we used to sit at old wooden light boxes drawing on animation paper. I work like this as a commercial animator for about 13 years, mostly doing adverts for TV.
畫畫是我真正可以做的唯一一件事，所以我成了一名動畫師。回到那時，我們過去常坐在老舊木製燈箱前在動畫紙張上作畫。我以廣告動畫師的身分像這樣工作約十三年，大部分都是做電視廣告。
I thought I had better have a go at making digital animation. I needed to teach myself this new way of animating. I was still drawing hundreds of pictures but drawing them onto the Wacom tablet, straight into the computer.
我想我最好試試看製作數位動畫。我需要訓練自己這種動畫的新方法。我還是在畫數百張的圖，但把它們畫在繪圖板上，直接輸入電腦。
So I made my short film about my own cat Hugh trying to get my attention in the morning to be fed. Although I didn't know at the time someone copied this little film off my showreel and uploaded it onto YouTube. And by the time I saw it, and realized what happened, the film had become very popular.
所以我做了有關我的貓咪Hugh在早上試著引起我的注意好被餵食的短片。雖然我當時不知道有人從我的影片作品集複製了這部影片並將它上傳到YouTube。等到我看到它、並了解發生什麼事後，那部影片已經變得非常受歡迎了。
So in 2008, we launched the official Simon's Cat YouTube channel and the Simonscat.com website. The character of Simon's cat still doesn't really have a proper name, but in real life, I've got four cats: there is little Jess, big Maisy, greedy Hugh, and fluffy Teddy. And so between all four of them, they give me loads of ideas and stories for Simon's Cat.
所以在2008年，我們發表了官方的YouTube《Simon的貓咪》頻道以Simonscat.com網站。《Simon的貓咪》裡的角色還沒真正地有個適當的名字，但在現實生活中，我有四隻貓：有小Jess、大Maisy、貪吃鬼Hugh還有毛茸茸Teddy。所以在牠們全部四隻貓之間，牠們給了我一大堆《Simon的貓咪》的點子和故事。
People often ask me why don't we release Simon's Cat films more often. The truth is it takes about two to three months to make a Simon's Cat film. I first work on the story idea and then it takes most of that time to get the animation done. I've got a small team of very talented animators helping me now. I direct the episodes and then we work together to create the films. Although we're working on computers, Simon's Cat is all hand-drawn animation. It's made frame by frame and it just takes a long time to make each episode.
人們常常問為什麼我們不更常推出《Simon的貓咪》影片。事實是要製作一部《Simon的貓咪》影片要花上大約兩到三個月。我首先進行故事的點子發想，然後花大部分的時間完成動畫。我現在有一個非常有才華的動畫師小團隊幫我忙。我導演影片，然後我們一起工作來製作影片。雖然我們都在電腦上作業，《Simon的貓咪》是全部手繪的動畫。它是一鏡一鏡製作出來的，它就是需要花上很長一段時間來製作每一集。
I'm still drawing all the time, filling up sketch book with ideas for stories and gags. I feel really lucky to be doing what I love. And it's fantastic to know there's an audience out there waiting to see what Simon's Cat gets up to next.
我還是一直都在畫畫，在素描簿上畫滿故事和笑梗的點子。我覺得非常幸運能夠做我喜愛的事。知道在那兒有觀眾等著看《Simon的貓咪》接下來有什麼進展，是非常難以置信的。
- 「試著做」- Have A Go At
I thought I had better have a go at making digital animation.
我想我最好試試看製作數位動畫。
