Marc Dole founded Hatchling Studios in 1999 and the Portsmouth company's first-rate, computer-generated work has become part of the next generation of Web site design. And that's just the beginning. Dole and his crew have just finished "Toll," a six-and-a-half minute animated feature that the company will use to secure investors for its first full-length feature film.

SV: What is the best part of being an entrepreneur?

DOLE: Getting to see your dream come to life, being able to build up something from nothing and to find the hidden talent in this area and, believe me, there is a lot of it. We are attempting what many people consider farfetched; to make feature-length animated films in New England.

SV: How did you get to this point?

DOLE: It's kind of like the evolution of the industry. As technology has become cheaper, everybody and their brother can stay in the game, which makes the competition very intense. Our advantage is that four years ago we started to push character animation (in Web site design) and we've remained ahead (of the competition). I was recently out in Los Angeles and I was talking to (film industry) people about making a short (animated film) and they were telling me how difficult it was putting together a team and developing a pipeline. I told them to work with us; we're already there.

SV: What has been your experience with investors?

DOLE: That's been really tough. What we're doing is non-traditional. We've had to retool our business a couple of times, mostly to make us seem more like a service-based company. We are producing our own content and willing to do work for other companies. We have signed on to work with some high-profile companies and we are working on two television shows. It's been difficult to explain what we do to investors who don't understand what we are doing. We do television, Web site design and we want to make full-length animated films. We are very good at entertainment and integrating that in all different levels of the company. But we've also been very lucky to find a few of what I call bluecollar investors - people who had started their own companies. They see us as doing what they once did. We got a very large check from someone who understood what we're doing.

SV: What is it like dealing with the movie industry?

DOLE: We were told that we couldn't do our planned movie for less than $45 million when we had budgeted for less than $30 million. We re-tooled another business plan and then "Hood-winked" came out and people saw you could do something special with two to three talented people. Now we have three agents who want to represent us because we can make a full-length animated feature for under $30 million. If we were in L.A. we would already have a deal but we've found that artists want to be here.

SV: What has it been like to finish "Toll?"

DOLE: I brought my sleeping bag into work. Most everyone involved, including me, have not had a day off since Christmas.

SV: How do you see Hatchling Studios in five years?

DOLE: Hopefully we are talking about making our second film.