Simon Tofield’s cat, Hugh, has become a world-wide You Tube celebrity. In two years his appearances in various clips have been seen over 82 million times by cat lovers. He has also written two books, Simon’s Cat and Simon’s Cat…Beyond the Fence.
What has made Simon's Cat so Popular?
According to Simon, it’s the slapstick, old fashioned comedy values which give Simon’s Cat such popular appeal, as well as the real-life element which makes Hugh’s mischievous antics so recognisable to cat owners. We're delighted to know that it’s not just our cat who:
- Wakes us up at a ridiculously early hour wanting to be fed and doesn’t let up pawing at us until we give in and get up.
- Takes up an extraordinarily large space for such a small creature, on our half of the bed, so we end up crouched in a corner.
- Knocks things like the remote, our glasses and the telephone off tables just when we need them, and then pinches our place on the sofa when we go to fetch them.
- Chases around the room after flies, paying no heed to any breakables or disruption he is causing.
- Sees how many baubles he can smash and how much tinsel he can pull off our Christmas tree.
- Lies all over our paperwork as soon as we leave it to answer the door or the phone.
What Tofield does is gives his animations just enough exaggeration so that we can laugh at the ridiculousness of them while recognising the feline characteristics which are so endearing for us cat lovers. We can certainly relate to how our cats have us twisted round their paws!
How did Simon’s Cat come about?
Simon Tofield is an illustrator and animator from London. One day Simon decided to have a go at making the transition from traditional paper animation to the computer and thought it would be a good idea to use his kitten, Hugh’s antics as practice material. (Hugh had been jumping all over him to wake him for breakfast that morning!) He began to animate Hugh’s movements on the computer. Before he scarcely knew what was happening, Hugh’s clip was on YouTube and had received 3 million hits. Simon’s Cat was born.
Simon explains on his YouTube interview that he draws each image using a Wacom tablet and pen - when it’s played back 25 frames per second it will move. Unusually, the animation is done before the sound is added: The miaows and other creature noises are also made by Simon. It takes around six weeks to create a minute and a half of animation, and one week to do the sound. What patience!
Simon now has four cats, Hugh, Maisie, Jess and Teddy.
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