To those who are attending the Pico Day meetup in New Jersey this May, I'm very happy to announce that my senior film will be screened there! Many thanks to @brandybuizel for including my film in the event's lineup, I definitely feel very fortunate for this opportunity!

Rat Race is my 2D animated senior film for Pratt Institute, it's about the habitually late Reese the rat who scrambles out of his way to get himself to work on time. With the help of some pals like @gorbogobmin , @chimpshrimpin , @killah_d0lphin(Instagram) , and with a great score made by @sleepfacingwest , it's a project that I can surely say I'm most proud of.

The film even has some traces to my own Newgrounds experience from throughout the years (And some special thanks to the website during the end credits). One of the supporting cast is a character from a flash game I submitted to Newgrounds' first ever Flash Forward Jam back in 2021.

I'm so hyped for Pico Day 2024. I'm looking forward to catching up with the folks I met at the previous Yestercades meetup, and also meeting some new faces too. I'll see you all there!

Yo! Long time no news-poast! A few weeks ago I uploaded Hyper-Breakers: Caffeinated Chaos Pt. 2, the last to a three-part story I've chipped away at.

It's probably my most ambitious animation yet, and I'm very happy I was able to get it done! It was nothing short of a miracle that I was able to wrap this whole thing up during the summer, with days before my senior year at school began. Thanks so much to everyone who gave this one a watch!

Reflections

I get the impression that many people on Newgrounds want to make their own web-animated series. I see tons of "Episode 1's", "2's", and "3's" on the portal whenever I go to check it. Whether that would be someone wanting to build up their idea into a ultra-polished network-ready pilot, or if one wants to capture that same down-to-earth magic Eddsworld achieved. Whichever, I hope my few notes on how I made these shorts it is of some help to those people looking to make something, whether my work and mindset is taken as something "to do" or "not to do", haha!

Part 1 (and early ideation)

Part 1's where I first got my feet wet with making a full animation with voice acting and such. I started thinking about making my own series of animations when I saw some of the stuff people were uploading around 2017. And of course even before that time I was watching the Eddsworld cartoons for years. The main characters, Aaron the cat and Todd the dog, really are my first OC's. I just exited my drawing-sonic arc (thankfully), and still had that look floating in my head. I doodled two characters, a cat and a dog, and made them the focus of whatever story I was gonna make.

(My very first sketches of the characters of Caffeinated Chaos, my drawing skills were uh... pretty rough...)

For the plot, I tried to draw from what I was familiar with. I'm from New Jersey, and one of my favorite stores to visit is Wawa, so I based the plotline around a late-night visit to a convenience store. I started to flesh out the story from beginning to end, how I would introduce the characters, what would happen in the end, and all that stuff. Now during that time, my high school would always host a film fest at the end of the year, and I wanted to finish this in time for that. I began animating animating from all points throughout the story, making backgrounds, thinking I could handle the work.

I had all these moving parts but I failed to seriously consider one thing. I had no experience doing something of this scale at all. I've made flipnotes, walk cycles, animation tests, but I've never made a complete short-- let alone a 3-part series-- up to this point. As expected, I burnt out and fell flat on my face. I wasn't happy with how it was coming out.

So I started over.

The deadline for that film-fest passed, and my pet cat passed away a month before. I took a break for a little bit. After, I made the decision that I was gonna tackle each section of this animation one at a time. Oddly, the first section I decided to animate was the middle of my story. My plan was to show the conflict of the story, and if I was up to it by the end, move forward and complete the story by animating the characters' introduction and resolution afterwards. So, throughout my virtual freshman year of college I chipped away at this in the background. I cut scenes, and even recorded dialogue up to the very end.

In the end, this part got completed. I had to ask myself: "Do I want to finish this?"

My stubborn ass decided I was gonna see this damn animation to the end.

Part 0 (and Getting Frontpaged)

So continuing with my backwards production, the next part I tackled was the introductory beginning. I had a lot of ideas for this part storyboarded, and some early animation too, within my unfinished attempt at the series. I punched up the dialogue, redid the storyboards, and began animating from there. By this point it's a few months after Part 1 was uploaded in June, and I'm a sophomore now. I prioritized my schoolwork, so the greatest bursts of work would be done on vacations like winter and Thanksgiving breaks. Once the summer vacation began again, is when I made my dash towards the finish line.

Almost exactly one year later from Part 1, Hyper-Breakers: Caffeinated Chaos Part 0, was uploaded to the portal in early June 2022. And to my surprise... I received my first-ever frontpage award! It felt awesome to see something I made get featured!

I think what makes this entry stand out against the other two is that I really focused on comedy. In my mind I was gonna save the action for the finale, so I tried to jam-pack this entry with visual gags. Gags like a boom-mic falling into frame, a character getting swooped-up by a giant bird, and a guy crashing his new ̶D̶o̶d̶g̶e̶ ̶C̶h̶a̶r̶g̶e̶r̶ Chodge Darger.

Compared with Part One, I was able to improve the artwork more, included painted backgrounds, and have a much snappier-pacing. More generally, I think I've improved the greatest with this entry.

The Finale/Part Two

(Link at top of post)

The finale, Part 2, is the longest and most advanced of the entries I've made. I was always intimidated by all the work I would have to do when I got up to this point. However, this was helped immensely with turning my organization up to eleven. I did various things like:

   •   Have an organized folder structure for the animation on my drive

   •   Write up an outline document to outline full story before scriptwriting

   •   Separate scenes into separate files, opposed to condensing all the work into one project file.

   •   Keep an excel sheet to track my own progress on roughs, ink and paint, etc.

One thing that this taught me is that taking time and having steps to organize things, paradoxically leads to less time overall working on a project.

On the whole I'm most happy with part 2 out of all the entries. I learned a whole lot about organization, and my own skills in animation. I was quite scared about doing a whole fight scene in this animation, as I had never animated one before, and it wasn't really something I could be more relaxed and limited on, like the opening act. But in the end I think ended up doing some pretty smooth work for my first go! Looks like all that time spent watching Sakuga MAD's was worth it.

The Takeaway: Having Something Completed

In the end, I have three animations I could call a complete work. Though I'm sure the series can come off awkward, rough around the edges, and downright "what the fuck is going on in here", I consider this a personal success! I had a creative idea and I took the damn thing all the way to completion! So I guess my advice isn't really on what are good things to have in a series, but more so that it's gonna be a project that one should prepare to be in for the long haul.

Each part of this series had around a one-year turnover from the point of starting animation. What I hope people gain from doing this work as I did, is becoming more efficient and familiar with each routine. For me, every Hyper-Breakers cartoon was either longer or more detailed than the previous. But in spite of that, I was able to do a greater amount of work for each successive animation, and still have it on schedule.

Even better... this is all the more prep and exercises to get me ready for my senior project. My senior animated project has to be 4 minutes, and is a mostly solo production (besides voice work and music, in which other people are helping). So with the work I've done up to this point, I think I'm in a good spot!

So, even though this might come off as cheesy...

Thanks to @ozone, @tacopug, and @ntilcheff for being class acts on the Animation Forum

Thanks to @gorbogobmin, @chimpshrimpin, and Paperwoodchuck for standing by my side and lending a hand with this project

Thanks to everyone who watched my silly movies

And thanks to Newgrounds for being the best art site ever!

And uh... at the end of these newsposts I always put a link to my WIP thread in the forum or uh... something like that... Here ya go...

https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1469915

Damn, 7 years already? I've always kicked myself for forgetting my past anniversaries on this site but I've made sure to set a reminder this time around!

How I first came to know Newgrounds is a bit fuzzy to me, but I've absolutely been familiar with the name since I started using YouTube around 2006. I was always watching flash animations that had the NG logo at the beginning or had the cool preloaders. Around 2013 I was mostly on the site using Skincraft making Minecraft skins, but soon I really started to get interested with the site's history and significance. I made an account as a spot where I could put stuff if I ever got around to making things and the rest is history! It's crazy to think that I've been on this site since the end of the more quiet era that started around 2012, through the Tumblr influx, and through the FNF craze. I'm really happy to see how this site has bounced back since that time I first joined!

Being able to take part in this site's community has been loads of fun and more than worthwhile, and I still got tons more I want to share. Here's to seven more years!

Edit: I got up this morning and saw I got picked as user of the day! LETS GOOOOOOOO!

Well it's that time of the year again, where Christmas celebrations pass and make way for the New Year parties that are starting up. It's also time for me to write a year-in-review post!

Starting the Year - The Animation Forum

The first few months were pretty quiet upload-wise. Most of the time, I was putzing around in the Animation forum responding to poasts and uploading WIP bits. (pssst! My WIP thread in the animation forum is here!)

I actually encourage a lot of the animators here to create similar threads in the animation forum. It's able to get your work out in some fashion, and it's a great way to talk with others for feedback and the art of the animation process in general! I even extend this to people just interested in animation, the animation forum can sometimes hold some interesting discussions... when it's not threads of people asking what software to use.

Daily Award and a Couple of Shorts

Around May I was able to upload two shorts which I had worked on throughout my just-finished sophomore year at Pratt. For sophomore-year work, they're pretty rough, and I let my flash animator sensibilities leak out haha!

After I uploaded Soda Cup Blues, I was able to snag Daily 4th place, my first of any kind of movie reward! That was a great feeling knowing some people got a kick out of something I made.

(P.S. The original name for Soda Cup Blues was actually Soda Shenanigans, I changed it because I thought too many of my works used alliteration!)

Getting Frontpaged!

Bar none, the biggest and most exciting accomplishment this year was getting frontpaged!

The animation is part of my series Hyper-Breakers, a kind of loveletter to this site and my upbringing on internet flash cartoons like Eddsworld and others. To see it get frontpaged was nothing short of amazing, and I'm so very thankful.

I even made a celebratory drawing of all the characters having a cook-out!

I'm using this winter break to churn out some more work on the finale to the Caffeinated Chaos story, here's a couple of panels from the storyboard:

I've always been a bit embarrassed by how long it's taking me to finish this one story. However, perhaps it's just discipline and confidence. My dad tells me for most folks it comes with age, but it's always something one can work on in the present. And, for someone just starting my twenties, it looks like I have a long way to go. But things certainly aren't bad now! In fact, I consider myself very fortunate!

Thanks a ton, guys.

Collabs

I took part in a few of the site's events this year, the Faces of 2022 Collab, Sketch Collab 2022, and the annual Secret Santa.

For the Faces collab I drew Foneycone's Spusky Gus, from the Dogs without Leashes series.

(This was also my first proper upload using an experimental fx-filter I made in Opentoonz to give an analog animation-cel appearance. The effect was lost in the game version, but I think is more prominent in this hi-res version!)

The sketch collab I had a lot of fun with. I animated a quick back-and-forth scuffle between my characters from my Flash Forward Jam game. My part starts at 2:34.

And to round it off, for the Secret Santa event I drew Crayonjackie's character Janet.

Forward to 2023!

I'm definitely looking forward to the new year! As for resolutions I guess I just wanna put out more stuff and get more organized, lol.

What's up! I wanted to say thank you to the guys at Newgrounds and all of you for my animation, Caffeinated Chaos Part 0, which got frontpaged!

The morning after I put it up on the portal, I checked my phone and literally shot out of bed 'cause I was so surprised when I saw that badge on the movie! Thanks a ton to Tom and the staff, and to those who gave it a watch. It means very much and I hope I can entertain you guys in the future.

Originally, this newspoast was to be put up a couple months ago-- Caffeinated Chaos Part 0 was uploaded back in June-- but I wanted to make sure I got a drawing done for this occasion. In the words of Squidward: "Well, here ya go"

You can check out the full-res version on the art portal here:

I have no ETA for the finale of Caffeinated Chaos as of now, unfortunately. The idea of a good nap this summer was too much, and I got a bit distracted from this ha ha. I'm also back in the groove with my studies. Right now, I'm punching up a final draft of the script. (P.S. - The student pricing of the Final Draft screenwriting software is a steal)

I do have some storyboard panels from an ancient prototype of the finale I'd like to share, they're my favorite. They're done by my pal @Gorbogobmin, the voice of the pink dude Flex, among others. I don't think there's too much spoiling here...

In Other News...

100 Followers

After I uploaded Caffeinated Chaos something else happened... I passed 100 followers! By a bit now it seems, so this post is overdue in that regard ha ha. Thanks to everyone for helping me reach this milestone, it means a lot :)

Birthday

Oh shit I'm 20 now. I went out and celebrated with the boys, cool stuff. I still have one more year until I can have a drink but hey, a new decade of my life begins. Things are looking bright and I would not trade what I've got and been able to accomplish, thanks to God.

That's all for now, thanks for tuning in!

Yo! just checking in for the month.

Apologies for the lack of stuff uploaded. I hope to get into a productive habit soon though, and I do try to log in on my page often.

In the mean time,

please accept this hastily-drawn notecard doodle:

This past week has been pretty intense, from wrapping up my finals to seeing myself in a few projects here on the site. I'm really stoked to have had my follower count triple in a little over a week, so i'd like to welcome you all who are new here to my corner of the site!

Recent Stuff

Tankmas

I was very lucky to participate in this year's Tankmas AVENTure as one of the artists. Many thanks to Splatterdash, GeoKureli, TheDyingSun, and all the others involved.

My piece used two of my characters from my Flash Jam game as the ones who were supposed to deliver the catering for the Advent party. There was some miscommunication, and they ended up at the abandoned mansion where last year's event took place!

This is probably one of the few instances Frederick the Fennec and The Don Weasel work together, perhaps he's just paying off his debt?

Sketch Collab

I'm very pleased as well to have taken part in Newgrounds' Sketch Collab for this year, organized by Ozone and Nick Conter. Those guys did an awesome job supervising the collab!

My bit begins at 2:50, it was inspired how my Dad tells me that he would have a stand off with our cat to get a chair, the cat always won.

Future Stuff

I hope to use this vacation I'm on now to hammer out some more work on stuff I want to get on here, like Hyper-Breakers.

I also have a work-in-progress thread that I update on the Animation section of the forum.

https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1469915

Aight, thanks for tuning in. Merry Christmas to you all!

Woah I haven't made a news post in a while...

Hyper-Breakers

I've been working on a series I hope to contribute to the site, Hyper-Breakers. It follows Aaron the Cat and Todd the Dog as they fight their way through a summer vacation. The first part I got uploaded a few months back, Kiwi Store Brawl.

I got set on doing this 'cause I wanted to have a vehicle to tell all the crazy stuff and BS my friends and I come up with, also the prospect of making a series sounded really fun. The original idea was to make something with Regular Show's casual situation-turned-crazy, mixed with the serial-style and action of DBZ, all condensed into 2-3 minutes per bit. I know, sounds like a big task but... it would be really cool.

I still have my original Flash files from an old take on this, they were never completed as I quickly overwhelmed myself before even uploading anything. I thought it'd be interesting to attach a comparison of stills from the same scene with the old flash and my current reworking of it.

Original unfinished Flash (2020)

Rework in Opentoonz (2021)

This bit of advice @ozone gave to me on the forum has stuck with me.

Hey, here begins the start to a long journey!

Frederick the Fennec Commission

Earlier this year I asked the highly talented @sleepfacingwest to compose a theme for my goofy-looking character Frederick the Fennec, and he delivered wonderfully!

Though Frederick was originally conceived as a side-character for Hyper-Breakers, I've wanted to make stuff about him ever since I stuck him in my Flash Jam entry. He also beat Aaron and Todd to be uploaded in an animation first!

School and Studies

I've been pursuing 2D animation as a student at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. I'm really trying to hone my skills with the classes I'm taking. Last year was a stay-of-execution from moving away from home, but now I've gotta keep up with the pace of the city.

Work-In-Progress Thread on the Animation Forum

I have a thread in the animation forum where I sometimes put exercises and in-progress bits! You can visit it here:

https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1469915

That's it for now, stay tuned!

I was one of the users who participated in last month's Flash Forward Jam. My entry was Delivery Defense, a game that plays like laserdisc games from the 80s with a few of my characters.

The artwork for the game was very rough, and this was the very first Jam I participated in. But on the day the results came out, I was very surprised and excited when I saw that I managed to snag 3rd place for "Movies with Interactive Elements". I'm very thankful to @tomfulp , the judges, and everyone who played!

I first heard about the jam back in December when the initial donation by @Dungeonation was made, and I read that it would be heavily based in Actionscript 2. At that point I had little to no knowledge of the language and programming in general, but since I doodle a lot in Flash 8 I thought it would be a great opportunity to learn and experiment.

After a few ideas I settled on a game that works like those laserdisc games, like Dragon's Lair and Cliff Hanger (One that, surprisingly, uses footage from the Lupin III series) where a movie plays, and the player needs to respond to prompts to progress. I'm currently studying to be a traditional animator and I thought it would be a simple enough concept to learn to program.

Flash's "actions" panel and some online documentation actually made some basic interactivity very easy to pick up, and I was able to cobble together a basic system very quickly.

The sudden boost in online delivery apps over this pandemic I thought could be involved a little bit with the story, I've been ordering from them a lot lately, probably more than I should. So I plucked a character of mine, Frederick the Fennec, a goofy looking fox whose design was inspired by 60s cartoon characters, and made him a delivery driver for one of those services. The angry restaurateur I'll call Mr. Weasél, a character I originally envisioned as a con-man before this game, but I guess is now a mob boss too. I made a storyboard where Frederick gets into a situation where he gets chased by goons, and has to evade them.

The finished animation was completed within four days. I mean its rough-looking as hell but damn I was so happy I was actually able to do it.

I'd actually like to share some storyboard/animatic-ed sequences that I had to cut to reach the deadline, they might be hard to read so I'll write a short description underneath:

Frederick flips off the goons, but drives over the divider. The player has to react to a prompt so he avoids the oncoming car. With his car leaning to the side, he gets up and the madman kicks it back upright.

On a side note, I tried to make his car in the game look like a Triumph Spitfire.

This is would have been the most climactic sequence of the game and I was a bit sad to cut it. Frederick flies out of the smoke of an explosion and rolls off the highway down a cliff. Falling, he has to climb up his car, and reaches the goons' van and has a stand off with one. He goes in for a punch, and knocks the guy off. The soda can bit and the falling-off-a-cliff were kept, on the upside.

I never would have though so quickly my silly game would get 800 views. To me as an artist, whose illustration isn't even the best, really shows how much of an awesome community and platform this site has, thank you guys so much.

And to add: Flash/Animate is an incredibly powerful software, and I hope it can maintain some kind of relevancy going forward with the help of Ruffle.