A small but fierce studio from Bandung, Indonesia has been making waves with their badass products on Blender Market (tropical plants, mystical temples and, of course, monsters!) as well as their recent participation on the Project Gooseberry trailer. Who are the guys behind the epic Monster Bug and what do they have in store for you next? We talked to them about their motivation and plans for global takeover.

---

Q : First things first: why are you guys called Kampoong Monster Studios? What is this terrifying monster all about? 

A : Kampoong means "village" in Bahasa (the official language of Indonesia) so Kampoong Monster literally means The Village of a Monster. A monster means any creature that is usually portrayed as hideous or freakish. We wanted to show that not all monsters are bad, especially monsters that come from Indonesia's mythical lore.

Q : What project created by your studio are you most proud of? 

A : The Project Gooseberry teaser! We were lucky enough to join the Blender Institute and 11 other studios around the world to make this teaser and we learned so many important lessons. 

Q : What's the last thing that got sent around the office that you all geeked out on? 

A : VR Device and Cosmos Laundromat BlueRay - yeeeeayy! 

Q : What's the best piece of advice you have heard and repeat to others? 

A : The best among you is the one who gives benefit to others. 

Q : How excited are you for the new Star Wars? 

A : It seems promising, we will watch it for sure :D 

Q : You are based in Indonesia and I see you guys put on a lot of trainings. What made you start that and why do you continue? 

A : Indonesia is a country with great potential for animation. However, at the moment most of the animation content comes from outside of the country. Individual content makers are slowly rising up, the obstacle is finding legal 3D software to use. 

A few years ago, most people were not aware of software pirating, but now, more and more people are converting to open-source software. Needless to say, our studio solution for Indonesia is Blender! Blender is free, open-source and being developed ongoingly. It is suitable for Indonesia's learning development. Our hope in the future is this: by teaching lots of people Blender, there will be also lots of legal contents rising up and the quality of Indonesia's animation will improve. At that time, Kampoong Monster will have its army to conquer the world... mwahahaha!!! Just kidding. :D  We believe that if the animation industry in Indonesia is improved, it will give Kampoong Monster a better environment also. 

Q : And finally, what do you have in store for 2016? 

A : Definitely Blender Add-ons. :) We are now working on scripts that we think will be of great use to Blender users. We are also preparing more 3d models, a shader pack and a video template.

---

And we are excited to see what the Monster hits us with in the future! Check out their studio website and their products currently on Blender Market, or follow them on Facebook.