Repercussions of Evil had a DAMN GOOD run, and I totally underestimated it's entertainment potential. It raked in my first weekly award ever, and it's gotten me pumped to try even harder for my upcoming projects.

But, I'm getting the same vibe I got with Zone of the Awesome where I have that kind of lingering guilt that I should've done something more original. There's not a whole lot of ways to do that with Peter Chimaera's story, but what I'm saying is maybe I shouldn't have chosen that as the source material at all. It's over-analyzing on my part, as usual, but 2011 is in desperate need for ORIGINAL crap.

Still, I can't just link "Phobotech's" page to any possible client to check out my work because I'd basically have to explain a lot of bullshit in order to keep it from being confusing to the "every man." Hope that they've seen Watchmen to even understand what's going on in "Rorschach's End" or hope that they're Star Wars nerds to like "Threepio Takes a Bath" or hope ....fuck if I know to even enjoy "Dick Neck." ...it's not exactly job-getting material.

But you'll know it's my alt when you see it. After all, it's just my name.

Coming up next!

-Hogabeast and I collab on a WAAAAY overdue Starfox parody, coming very soon!
-Then, I'll hit up Sapphire to help me out with the also overdue Lady Noir animation that never made it to the collab. This one's completely original, people.
-Immediately after that, Hogabeast and I aren't wasting any time to knock out our Star Wars collab, expected to be the longest flash I have yet to animate.

With the Star Wars parody being my last planned parody, it gives me all the time in the world to knock out more original material...and I hope it'll do nothing short of blowing you all away...

...no homo...but hey, these two parody projects are gonna be fun no matter what. Even if I did spend the second and third paragraph bitching about not doing original material, Adam and I are good friends, soooo I might be able to let these big-ass projects slide.

Film at Eleven.

-G-

...When you watch my flash animation! Vote Five and enjoy my dramatic interpretation of Peter Chimaera's "Doom: Repercussions of Evil!"

-G-

First off, I scouted my first scout in the Art Portal! Meet DrClay and give some of his early work some love! I see potential and an eye for detail in this kid, so I'm going to try and be there for him as an artist helping an artist. That's really what this scout system is for, right? Either way, if this Art Portal is going to thrive, we gotta help each other out. I'm hoping to do my part starting with DrClay.

I'd like to say I'm nearly 100% healed from the motorcycle spill on October 11th. Wrist and thumb have barely mentionable moments of discomfort, and my right knee still kinda hurts when I feel around the knee-cap, so I stopped doing that. lol

The name of the game is production speed; ZoA and DN:O each took many months to animate, and that's just flat-out unacceptable from my perspective now. It's like, yeah, they were the most complex things I had ever made move when I had worked on them for the first time...but nearly half a year for a three minute skit? WHOLLY unacceptable.

Much of the delay was because I didn't even touch the flashes for weeks at a time. After knocking out the Warhammer 40K skit in less than 48 hours, and having similar time constraints with my stop-motion assignment for it's deadline and the Threepio skit so it could make it to Robot Day, it's high time I start knocking out three-something-minute long skits in a matter of weeks, or ideally, less than that.

...but dammit, do I get distracted. Learning to stay focused on these projects seems to be my biggest challenge. Hell, in a matter of hours, I drew Iczer One when I should've been tackling some of the frame-by-frame in my latest animation project.

I just feel like I haven't done enough, and as November chugs along, I feel more than ever like I gotta hustle....and here I am writing a lengthy news blog and...y'know...not working. Goddammit lol

Though I suppose I have my reasons; school being the biggest one of them. At the moment, I'm taking Advanced 2D Flash Animation which isn't teaching me shit about 2D flash animation, just nifty tricks CS4 can do and Actionscript bullshit that's way over my head. I'm also taking Adobe Illustrator. Damn that pen tool...but slowly I'm learning how valuable it is.

Next year I'll be revisiting 3D rendering and animation classes, as well as video editing, and anything else I can learn about 2D animation, or even musical composition so I can create custom scores to my animations, not unlike what Happy Harry sometimes does for his flashes. As far as Newgrounds is concerned, it's my personal goal to gain more exposure on this site. I know I'm capable of producing something better than what you've seen so far. I can talk all I want about it, but I'd rather show you :D

Personal goals for next year:
-Earn a Daily 1st on a solo submission.
-Earn any Weekly Award on a flash submission.
-Earn front page feature on an art submission.
-Begin work on an original, Art Portal exclusive Web Comic.
-Begin developing portfolio-worthy animations for a demo reel. Expect more original work after the initial volley of parodies Hogabeast and I have been plotting.
-Try to make something I'm proud of monthly at the very, very least. (Art or Flash)

After a year and several months of riding, I had my first spill on the V-Star the night before last night...I've spent all day pretty much just resting.

In the left lane, giving a little extra gas to beat a yellow light, some dumb broad from incoming traffic crept slowly into my lane trying to enter a parking lot across the street. Being stupid, I "slammed" on my brakes, which locked up the rear wheels, forcing my bike to do a bit of sloppy dance.

Inertia basically won as I was thrown from my now sideways bike, slamming against the pavement. I was wearing a full-face helmet, leather jacket, pants, and good biker boots...but I learned nothing from falling laws from Shaolin several years ago, and the main points of impact were my right palm, chest, right knee, and right ankle. My bike never connected with her car, thankfully.

I got up on my knees, crawled over to the bike and assessed the situation after the emergency personnel propped it upright; the bike's fine. A few new battle scars and a very slightly bent handlebar (riding straight, the left hand is a little lower and the right hand is a little higher). But there's a reason bike's aren't made out of flesh, because I was banged up but GOOD.

My right palm and thumb are all road-rashed, and my wrist is sore as hell. Can't really make a pinching motion with my thumb, and my wrist seems to be the focal point of my pain.

Ribs are pretty sore from slamming onto the concrete in a near belly-flop. Area of my back in-between my shoulder blades is pretty sore now, too. Hurts to cough, hurts to sit-up.

Walking with a limp, knee is pretty road-rashed. From my knee to my ankle, it just feels really sore. For a while, I couldn't lift my toe with my boot on, but even as I type this, that's feeling better. I'm mainly concerned about my wrist; if I can't draw, I'm fucked.

*sigh*...so, I'm basically recouperating. Taking a dive onto the pavement is not fun. I'm shooting to finish "Doom: Repercussions of Evil" by Halloween, and soon after I'll be knocking out the next Hogabeast project: the Starfox parody.

I gotta focus on speed. Animating and getting this shit done swiftly! On top of that, I could realistically be getting money from local bands for fliers! Keep an eye peeled for them in the Art Portal as they finish.....

...Why did I have to acquire an injury at a time like this!? *groan* Film at Eleven. yowch.

-G-

Prioritized to go up next: The Starfox Parody by hogabeast and I! Adam debuts as a character voice actor by playing Fox's Dad!
But I have literally got armloads of animation projects up next...one of the more crucial to finish in time is finishing the Caveman flash.
I also have to wade my way (quickly and efficiently!) through many, many, many, MANY original flash ideas. The sooner I get them done, the better!

Up Next is "Doom: Repercussions of Evil" my animated unabridged dramatic telling of Peter Chimera's popular piece-of-shit fan-fic, including a link to the Know Your Meme article where I first discovered it! This is currently a school project, so expect it before...

"Like Father, Like Fox" hogabeast and my long overdue flash parody based around a simple Starfox 64 line. And then to break up the pace, we got a few originals:

"How Cavemen Love" was a school project TWICE before, and you've already seen the soundless Caveman preview probably. What's holding me back on the project are pending school assignments and a lack of non-copywritten music...I could hit up the audio portal, but I don't know where to start for a prehistoric jungle theme. I'm debating taking up musical theory, learning keyboard, saving up money for gear, and composing original soundtracks myself...I have the ability to come up with musical ideas, but not knowing how to read or write music, much less play an instrument, I'm at a loss.

After that, the voice actress of ADA in Zone of the Awesome and I have come up with an original series idea, called "Christi & Gingi" ...we'll let you just see for yourself when it happens.

Also, I need to hurry up and hit up Sapphire to reprise her role as Lady Noir for my long overdue original segment, which was supposed to be in the Lady Noir collab.

And finally, it's becoming a matter of urgency to animate a music video for a very talented local band, The Phuss. The visions I see when I hear their music only get more and more vivid, and it's time to bump their ass up into the spotlight so I can...oh I dunno...get PAYED to be creative! :D

And that's just the tip of the iceberg! Not to mention possible participation in collabs, NG holidays, and maybe throwing in Dick Neck: Awakening in there blah blah blah, all talk and no work to show for it. FILM AT ELEVEN!

I caved in. For the first time in my life I've pre-ordered a game, and I think with the timing of this post you guys have an idea of what game it might be. Can't wait to practice eradicating some Zerg!

I just registered for Fall semester after an entire summer of basically getting drunk and playing video games a lot, but it's not a loss in any way;
-Robot Day came out of the blue, and after a little deliberation with my cohort, Adam, we decided to take a skit out of our Star Wars Collab idea and turn it into a standalone short. Surprisingly, it did very well, even though it got utterly screwed out of a Daily 5th award because of some bullshit spam. Still, I can't be too harsh about it, because the animation was very brief, rushed (completed in a day and a half), and featured copyright protected music (which even screwed it out of $30! DAMN! lol).

So even though the Daily 5th got jacked, I can't really complain because it exceeded my expectations by a long shot. As short as it was, I still learned a fuck-ton working on it, being the first flash where I saved various body parts and made use of tweens so I didn't have to redraw the entire character for every movement. It seemed to work better at some parts and worse at others, but again, I'm learning when it would best be implemented...no doubt something I'll bring into things more often in future projects.

But getting screwed out of the $30 because of the U2 music has got me re-thinking things in the musical department; do I hire musicians to do a score, PMing around the Portal, hit up some local music, or do I take the time to learn how to play keyboard and do what a few high-tier animators on this site do and compose my OWN soundtracks? How hard would it be to learn? How expensive would it be to do on my own? I'll take it as I go, but it's a consideration because at the moment I'm not musical savvy in the slightest...but I have the imagination to hum out original tunes.

But enough about Threepio and the lessons I learned from it; looks like this fall I'll be taking Drawing I and Digital Sound. My brother's a certified audio engineer, and really knows his shit, so he may be able to help me out with the latter course, and I don't know what to expect from Drawing I, but I really, sincerely hope the homework doesn't consist of drawing DVD stills ALL. THE FUCKING. TIME.

It's constantly triple digit heat outside, so I haven't been exercising...even though I have this P90X program in my possession...the goal time to start is in the Fall.

So, Fall...I've been waiting for too long.
-Start back up in school.
-Restart the P90X program.
-Establish a quota for NG animations
-Change the oil on the motorcycle.

...Hmm...some good shit! Here's the project line-up I'm looking forward to:

-Starfox Parody is coming soon!
-Caveman flash is to be completed after that.
-"Rape" commercial
-Lady Noir short
and, seriously, much, MUCH more. Many of them original submissions, so I'm intentionally being hush-hush. Not even touching the animation portion of the Star Wars collab until January, and I've decided it may be around that time when I'll start hitting up EyeLovePoozy and YoinK discussing what's to be done about the Dick Neck sequels.

I'm also rejuvenating a curious interest in making comics. A good practicing platform to do that may be a free web-comic continuation of Zone of the Awesome here on the Art Portal, if nothing more than to just dick around and practice, and progress the story along to the only scene in the original game's lore I have interest in animation...the epic finale.

Someone pissed in your popcorn. Film at Eleven.

-G-

First of all, Happy Robot Day everyone! I hope to never miss a Robot Day from here on out...after all, I got a chub for mech's. (WHEN THE FUCK IS ARMORED CORE 5 COMING OUT IN THE STATES.)

I'm hoping to start back up in the Fall Semester to knock out Adobe After Effects, Illustrator, and a funny third thing (to be decided) but I know now that taking three courses is a comfortable work-load being just busy enough, and still have time to knock out animations.

It's been over a year since Hogabeast and I came up with our Starfox parody...and here we are, and I knocked out my Star Wars themed Robot Day submission in about two and a half days. This is getting ridiculous...I also need to knock out my Caveman animation, originating from a storyboard mid-term A YEAR AGO, and the ideas for animations just keep stacking and stacking...

...hell, at the rate of schoolwork I got going, I may be done with community college by next summer. I need to start churning out animations monthly or bi-monthly. Hell, WEEKLY would be pretty kickass, but that's unrealistic.

Anyway, go and drop some love on Threepio Takes a Bath! Meanwhile? Film at Eleven.

-G-

The college decided to inform me class for this semester was canceled the day before it began. Not like, "cancelled for the day" ...as in, I'm expecting a refund at the end of the month.

On the bright side, this spares me more time over the summer to really go into hyper-mode and knock out these animations.

Additionally, a good friend of mine provided me with the P90X workout DVD sets, and I'm excited to get to work on that too....it's probably going to kick my ass, but I think it'll be worth it.

Also, of all the fuckin' luck, the tire on my bike is flat AGAIN somehow, and this really pisses me off. I don't want tires that'll last a week any more than I want dealerships trying to fuck me over with overblown prices.

These are annoyances and nothing more...but damn, I'm annoyed.

Time to get whipped in shape!

.
/* */
Film at Eleven!

-G-

I'm actually really diggin' these new 140x90 icons for flash submissions. Going through all seven of my submissions, screen capping cool looking scenes, and making it work as an icon in Photoshop re-instilled a sense of pride with my work here.

I mean, I don't know if you guys realize this but EVERYTHING I've ever done in flash has been shown here on NG. No lie, that flash test was the first thing I've ever done, and that Caveman preview is indeed the most recent. I'm pumped to get out three or four great flashes for you to watch before the end of the year. After that, EVEN MORE to come.

I'm going to balance working on the Starfox flash and the Caveman flash in hopes to complete one of them by fall. Either way, both of them are far superior to anything I've done before ALREADY. Take a look for yourself on how my frame-by-frame has come along in the Caveman preview, but I'm being intentionally hush-hush about the Starfox parody.

When it comes down to it, though, little news post updates like these just won't suffice anymore. You guys will be demanding more and more for results and not just talk. I'm no politician...I'm striving to become an animator; this is something I want to do for years and years and years to come...and the only way I'm going to get better is by doing more of it. While I gaze lovingly at the submissions I've completed (Yes, even Rorschach's End) I feel they're a tad lonely.

Time to step it up! Film at Eleven!

You can check my last Pews Nost on how last semester wrapped up, but this semester I'm going to try and balance my time with summer activities, school, and knocking out NG animations.

Because I almost overloaded last semester, I'm balancing out by taking a class outside of my certificate program that I know I'll need if I get into the field. My one Adobe Illustrator class would meet up twice a week anyway, so I think that would be a sufficient load while I concentrate also on flash animations in my own free time.

The NG Animations will be imperative more than ever now, though; I drive my Dad around to his voice-over sessions (he's 70 and a prominent voice actor, you've heard him on radio and tv commercials, games like Deus Ex and Prey, and even in movies like Forest Gump) and whenever we're talking to the producers about me going to to community college for animation, they always ask "Do you have a demo reel? I'd like to see it."

...Shiiiit...I gotta hustle on flexing some animating muscles. I'm probably not going to get a job off of Dick Neck and ZOA.

Moreover, I keep coming up with ideas for animations way, WAY quicker than I can knock 'em out. Most of them are original, too, so it's just a matter of finding time to dedicate solely to animation. Somehow getting in a routine like "from here till there on these days, I animate, no exceptions"

I got LOTS of work to do.

---------

Your feedback on the Caveman preview has been outstanding! Doubts I've had have been confirmed, and features I'm proud of have been praised...all that's left is to FINISH THE DAMN THING!

You guys won't be disappointed. The goal is to knock out three solo submissions before 2011...I hate that it's likely to be 1 1/2, but I gotta push myself for speed while maintaining quality...that would ensure a job in the future.

My professor taught me It's like animators have this triangle with the points, "Good, Fast, and Cheap." The client can only get two at a time.

So if it's Good and Cheap, it won't be fast. If it's Fast and Cheap, it won't be good.

I'm hoping to get mine good and fast, that way it WON'T be cheap. :P

Film at Eleven!

-G-