Whudda Rush!

Oh god it's been like a month since I last did one of these.

So much has been going on I can barely even remember it all. Class has been a lotta fun and thankfully not SO much full of work that I'm still able to get animation on my film done. I'm currently doing key drawings for it, with redlining by Audrey and some background work by Dave Smith. Might need some more help, so I'll make posts about that later on. Meantime, I've also been working on a pitchbook for Jim Arnoff's class for Animation Career Development, as well conducting interviews for school, including one with Jay Snyder of Edgestudio and "The Regular Show" creator JG Quintel. The interviews were both a lotta fun and I'm putting everything I've got into the pitchbook.

I'm working just about EVERY day on my film, with the exception of last Saturday and Sunday night, being too exhausted from New York ComicCon/AnimeFest after getting back those two days. What a weekend that was, seriously. I know people had their complaints and troubles with the two cons being fused together, but I have never more enjoyed NYCC or NYAF than this weekend. So many groups of friends all there, Mike Luckas with his Artist Alley table, LOTS of people from my school all over the place, some actors I've worked with such as Lucien Dodge, Dave Lister and his friends, the One Piece Podcast crew and the amazing Uncle Yo! who not only got me my badge for the weekend, but gave a great performance along with Kroze, who also was cool enough to get me in on an interview with Bruce Timm for ComicsOnline. The biggest highlight for me was the Capcom panel where Megaman Legends 3 was given lots of new details (look for me in the corner of the panel room in that video!) and I had the esteemed honor of speaking with Keiji Inafune, one of the minds behind Megaman's creation. It was unforgettable, especially speaking in Japanese for a couple sentences; can hardly believe I pulled THAT off. So yeah, incredible weekend.

In between work and conventions (Youmacon is my next one coming at the end of the month) I'm glad to say I'm getting out more than a couple times a week. Doing this thesis film is fun but it's good to just have a social life. despite the expensiveness and annoyances of college, this is one thing I'm happy to have. For Newgrounders, I know a lotta people are wondering about NiN10Doh! to the 64th Power. The short answer is, it's on hold until the last remaining animators finish their stuff. I've got about 3 segments left to get before it's all done and then Richie and I will hopefully be putting it together. I was hoping it'd be out shortly after I got back from AnimeEvolution, but we've got lives to tend to in between this project, so you're gonna have to wait a bit longer. Sorry 'bout that.

Now In Session.

S'been about two weeks so far...

Moved back into the city, got my cramped little dorm room with all my crap together and ready to take on the world...or something. I'm lucky that I've only got about two days of class (3 classes in total) and the rest of the time is spent doing thesis stuff. My first this year was with Rob Dress, who's worked on TONS of stuff and teaches "Creating Memorable Animated Characters", which I'm taking alongside Zach Bellissimo 'cuz I JUST CAN'T GET RIDDA 'DAT BUM. My other main class is "Animation Law & Career Development" taught by Jim Arnoff; this one EVERYBODY in the graduating year is taking, so you can bet there's a lotta people in the classroom. Both teachers are esteemed gentlemen and I really feel like I'm getting a lot out of my last year so far, even from this first week and a half of class.

While NOT doing class-related stuff, I've been animating my ass off on my thesis film. The thing's rounded out to be around 6-7 minutes in total (with credits) and I'm hoping to finish all of the rough animation by the end of September. Most of the production time will be spent doing the final, cleaned-up animation, of which I'm happy to say I've got Dave Smith and Audrey Kare helping me out with. I've got until April, so let's hope I can pull this bad boy off in between homework and what-not...speaking of, as I type this, I'm just about to rush off to an interview at Edgestudio for an assignment. Wish me luck!

What I love most about living in NYC again is that, as lame as this kinda sounds, I feel like I truly have a regular social-life of some kind. I get out on a constant basis, exercising (...sorta), surrounded by good pals and overall staying very productive on everything. There's the whole...money thing, but hopefully some freelance gigs coming up will change that, if they don't run me dry on top of the others stuff I'm doing. Oy. What can ya do.

Stay with me, folks!

Summer comes to a close...

Less than two weeks 'til I go back to school...

I move back to NYC the weekend of the 4th and have my first class on the 8th of September. I've only got a few classes for the Fall semester, so 2 days during the week of classes and the rest of the time off...of which will be spent doing thesis work. I've just finished going through a re-write of the script, re-did the storyboard and am recording some new dialogue with my actors, Corey Holland and Chris Zito (as well as myself) for the animatic. My next deadline to turn material in is September 10th and I've got plenty to get done within that time frame...

Good news and bad news about NiN10Doh! to the 64th Power. Certain segments and new job opportunities for many of the artists on board the project are making the animation process a bit longer than I had hoped. We're in the middle of doing compiling regardless though, since Richie Zirbes and the crew at the Newgrounds office have come up with a brilliant scheme to have the entire collab be one submission for the site instead of having to slice it up into two parts. The overwhelmingly good response from the people who were at the preview screening let me hope that you guys will hang on for a bit longer.

I'm really hoping to put a cap on the new collab soon because it looks like I'm gonna have one the busiest years of my life as far as work goes. I've cleared my plate with side projects for a good while, but there's a good chance my thesis won't be my only workload. I'm happy to say I've gotten more job offerings in a row in this last month than I ever have, so I may be doing some freelance stuff in conjunction with what I'm already doing. It'll be a doozy, but if it's any help to pay for next semester's tuition, I'll take what I can get. There may be some other BIG opportunities waiting for me next year if I can stay on top, so here's hopin' for that too.

I also wanna start using my blog for discussion on different aspects of making cartoons. I just had an interesting discussion with a few friends regarding the use of backstories in animation and I wanted to try making a post about it, but wanted to gather more info. Stuff like that. Maybe if I can come up with some neat topics I'll try and do some of that in the future.

Oh Canadaaaa...

So, I freaking love Canada so much. Seriously.

First off, AnimeEvolution was one of the best conventions I've ever been to. It had absolutely everything I love about these things in surplus, there was no negativity in the air whatsoever. Good friends, really nice fans, talented artists, hilarious actors and other guests, incredibly fun panels. My god. I had some great moments on the panels I went to and was a part of as well. Did a dramatic reading with LittleKuriboh and the gang from TeamFourStar early on Saturday and the +18 panel we did late that same night was also a blast...and I was delightfully surprised that I was actually kinda funny during it, from what I was told (I thought I was gonna be the most boring). There's probably videos of the panels on YouTube if ya look for 'em.

The highlight of the weekend however, was the preview screening for NiN10Doh! to the 64th Power. I could NOT believe my eyes seeing such a gigantic line of people waiting to be let into the panel room where we would be screening it. Despite the fact that we had to re-set up all of the chairs in the room (due to a dance happening prior to the screening in that room), we had to wait for the video projector to be given to us all the way from another building AND we had difficulties setting the damn thing up to work with my laptop...we had a room filled with probably two to three HUNDRED people. I managed to talk for 20 years (finally, that use came in handy) and kept the audience entertained until we were in business. On top of that, it wasn't even full-screen, let alone FINISHED since the animation is still being worked on for several segments of the project...they loved it. They were dyin' and I had a bunch'a people rushing up to myself and Audrey talking about how much they enjoyed it (and my other works)...even signed a couple autographs in the process!

So yeah, I'm really excited for the final version to be released, hopefully by the end of this month. I'm glad everyone who showed up enjoyed it and laughed so hard at our stupid jokes about how funny it is that mushrooms don't make people grow taller in real life. Hurr hurr hurr. There's a distinct possibility of the project having to be split up into two Parts that will be on the front page both at once, since apparently the Newgrounds office's most powerful computer doesn't have the power to withstand all of the drawings in these segments in one Flash file. Props to Richie and the crew for tryin' to pull it off the day before I left. We'll see what happens.

ANYWAY, been spending a couple days after, still in Canada. Got toured around a million places in beautiful Vancouver city, took a billion pictures of said million places. This entire city is so incredibly inspiring. No joke, I've suddenly come up with so many concepts for my animation and game ideas, it feels great. I think I definitely needed this break to get myself prepped up for thesis year. Re-writing my script a bit and shortening the length of my film after some not-so-great feedback on the animatic. Watched some positively influential stuff to help me out, including the Scott Pilgrim Movie, which I totally enjoyed (not more than the comic, but enjoyed incredibly anyhow), also I really liked the animated short...and stuff. Feelin' better than I have all Summer...and this Summer's been pretty damn good.

Still plenty to come. Stay with me, folks.

The Return to Otakon.

Last weekend was QUITE a ride.

I haven't been to Otakon in Baltimore, Maryland in about 3 years. It was the first convention I ever went to back in 2005 and I've gone to TONS more ever since then. It was blissful trip down memory lane for me to be back on the Baltimore city streets and trekking around the convention center when I was still in High School. So much has happened since then, the con itself felt both like it had changed and grown, but still held the same sentimental value I always liked about it. Wasn't without its fair share of bullcrap, but ANY convention experience comes packaged with it unless you go completely on your own...and that's no fun! I was in good company, between my friends from SVA who made a killing at Artist Alley, the Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged gang who made a killing at the Dealer's Room, the crew behind the One Piece Podcast and some of my actor friends, I thought it might be a task to divide up so much time to so many groups of people. But, it ended up being a glorious experience. I laughed my ass off every night with my roommates, had some tasty chow, picked up some free swag, even networked a bit with the three measly business cards I had left. Safe to say it kicked ass.

Con season's almost over, all's left is AnimeEvolution up in Vancouver. I think it's okay to mention here, so I'll announce that the screening for NiN10Doh! to the 64th Power! at AE will be on Saturday night at 8:30 in Panel Room 2. There might be time for a brief Q&A but most of the time will be dedicated to the screening itself. I'll also be at the Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged Panel, same day and same room, at 11 in the morning. I'm beginning to get back completed segments from the animation team and they're lookin' fantastic, not to mention hilarious. Downside, I'm pretty sure some of the segments will be WIP; at the very least in animatic form with the complete audio, or possible uncolored/yet to be cleaned-up. Either way, we should have the full-length collab to show even if it's not 100% finished. The final version should be put on Newgrounds before August is up.

My time for vacationing is nearly up, with only about a month left before I head back to school. This upcoming Friday, I'll be heading to NYC to hand in the first bits of material for my thesis. My storyboard's done, the character voices are recorded and cut together for timing, the designs have been set and I'm currently working on the rough animatic. Tryin' to stay ahead of the game, since this baby'll end up probably running about 7-8 minutes. It'll take a LOT of hard work, so I'll do my absolute best.

Stay tuned for more!

Super Freakin' End.

So after 4 years of my life, Go! Go! Parody Rangers comes to a close.

The Feature Movie is all done and brought an ending to the series. I've been surprised, definitely looks like the most polarizing thing I've ever submitted to Newgrounds as far as people's enjoyment or disgust of it goes. I thank all of the people that still managed to get a laugh or two out of it and I appreciate the reviews and criticism left by the people that didn't enjoy it.

I think it's worth stating that the script, voices and overall concept of Part 3 are...well, outdated. The script was written back in 2007 when I hadn't nearly the improvements in writing and animation I have today. I think the original purpose of the Movie was that I wanted to try doing traditional animation for a Feature-Length project and try to improve my ability in the process. That ended up being accomplished, but more because of school as opposed to Parody Rangers. My reasoning for wanting to finish it NOW, 3 years later when clearly it doesn't quite hold up, was because I still genuinely care about these characters and wanted to give them a proper finale. Though the production had its up's and down's behind the scenes, the fact is that I wouldn't know nearly the amount of amazing people I've met the past 4 years were it not for Parody Rangers 1 getting Front Page'd all that time ago, so in that regard I don't regret working on the project.

Since finishing the Rangers Movie became more about closure for my OWN sake more than anything else, I honestly didn't expect really ANYONE to find it funny anymore. I'm glad the people who've followed the series enjoyed it for what it is, but I was also a bit afraid it would make it seem like I was going through a relapse and suddenly losing all of the development of my skills as an Animation Artist. My friends and peers seem to understand it's a product of the past, that only just so happened to be finished NOW due to other things having to take priority over it. As said at the tail end of the Movie, thanks all of you guys for stickin' with me.

Now that it's out of the way, what's next for me is to finish up NiN10Doh! to the 64th Power, which I think will better serve as my temporary goodbye present to Newgrounds. 64 far better reflects not only what -I've- learned about writing and animating the past few years, but the improvements my friends that I've been working on it with have made as well. I hope you'll all look forward to it when it hits the portal. Here's a little preview of what's to come:


By Dave Smith.


By Pierre Jackson.


By Tyson Hesse.


By Myself!


By Audrey Kare.

Still been doing Thesis Work as well, finished the storyboard and ready to move onto the next stage. Only another month and a half before the final year starts.

NiN10Doh! to the 64th Power!

My public, I must apologize. I've lied to you.

I've made, yep you guessed it, another video game parody. I've been working on it for the past year in secrecy with a whole group of my friends...and y'know what? I'm proud of this thing, no matter how ridiculous it is. I'm also really happy to announce that it'll be shown on a big screen in front of a ton of people at a convention coming up. Here's the official announcement from AnimeEvolution's website:


“NiN10Doh! to the 64th Power” is the third installment in a series of spoofs on all things Nintendo! The previous two collaborative animations, “NiN10Doh!” and “$00pah NiN10Doh!” have reached wide success online, raking in millions of views and are well-known for their impressive animation quality, stellar voice cast, and out-there comedic style. The collabs are set up in skit-comedy style with various vignettes parodying a collection of Nintendo games, each with a different look and feel based on the talented animation artists that work on them.

The newest collaboration, will feature spoofs of the Mario Sports Series, Metroid, Bomberman, Starfox 64, Punch-Out!, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, F-Zero and many, many more of Nintendo’s beloved video game titles, from the mainstream to the obscure. The voice cast of “To the 64th Power” include special guests LittleKuriboh (Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged), Kajetokun (Over 9000), HappyHarry (Saturday Morning Watchman) and Matt Mercer (There Will Be Brawl) amongst tons of other hilarious voice actors.

These animations ain’t for “Rated E for” everyone, but see for yourself why they’ve become such a hit and be there at AnimeEvolution for the first look of NiN10Doh! to the 64th Power!


There ya have it. After its premiere at the con, the full thing will be submitted to Newgrounds for your viewing pleasure. Big thanks to Tom and the NG crew in Philli for being so gracious as to sponsor the team yet again.

Last year, I had a crisis regarding $00pah NiN10Doh! where I became so conflicted as to what I should be doing. Caught between "Ugh, stop doing parodies, they'll never serve any purpose and they make you look like you're completely unoriginal." and "Ugh, stop whining and just make what you want already, don't care about what anyone else says." I eventually chose the latter. Flat out, my animation team and I just plain LIKE to make these cartoons. Just about everyone involved has their own original characters and stories that they continue to work on and eventually bring to fruition, but we also really like video games and it's pure, dumb FUN to make cartoons about 'em. Everyone's working REALLY hard on this and the final product will show, trust me.

So, to avoid "the fun being spoiled" and me even having to THINK about people complaining, I kept the production of NiN10Doh! to the 64th Power a secret. Definitely helps add to the surprise, but also I simply wanted to just...make the damn thing and put it out. You either enjoy it and get a laugh or two, or you don't. The end. That's all I have to say about THAT matter.

However, in a way it all works out. While I won't say, as I did after $00pah NiN10Doh! came out, that "THIS IS THE BE ALL END ALL, MY FINAL VIDEO GAME PARODY EVARRRR", NiN10Doh! 64 and the final part of the Go! Go! Parody Rangers MOVIE are going to HAVE to be my last Newgrounds project for the next year. Reason being, my thesis must take full priority and I do NOT want to work on anything else animation-wise while I'm doing this project. I'm putting 110% of my creative ability into the film for my thesis and don't want to risk anything getting in the way of it.

That said, 64 may end up being the last of the NiN10Doh! collabs for as while, if not completely. All of the team, which I'm honored to have worked with again, have been moving on to bigger and better things, myself included, so we simply may not have the time to DO another one even if the itch comes back. E3 certainly brought some temptations. But who knows, maybe in a couple years and we're all bored, another might surface. In the meantime, anyone going to Vancouver this August for AnimeEvolution, be there for 64's premiere and I'm sure you'll get a kick out of it.