New TOME Short + MAGfest + Happy Holidays!

Almost ready to say goodbye to 2012!

I hope everyone had a Happy Holiday and a great year. I think it turned out pretty well, all things considered! There's further heights I want to climb to in 2013, but I'm satisfied with everything I managed to do in the last twelve months. Hopefully you guys are too, and look forward to what else I've got in store!

Before we say Happy Birthday to me on the 31st and goodbye to December, I managed to put out a new TOME short called "Minigame Madness" which I'm quite proud of. It takes place between Episodes 05 and 06, but holds up pretty well on its own as a fun little venture. I wanted to do something centralized on Flamegirl, so Liz and I came up with a fun little side-story involving her and her friends, as well as a few clever or not-so-clever app games. We JUST managed to hit 6000 likes on the official TOME Facebook page, so thank you everyone for your support. I hope you guys enjoyed the short and it ties you over for a bit until we get Episode 06 done. It's a bit over halfway finished and I'll be pulling major crunch-time on it throughout January.

HOWEVER, my first order of business with January is going back to my favorite convention, MAGfest! I'll be heading out there with the folks from BlueCoreStudios who'll be premiering their Sonic the Hedgehog feature film starring Jaleel White as the voice of Sonic! I did some work on the movie as well, so keep an ear out for me if you're at the screening! I'll also be there for my 3rd "Voice-A-Palooza" panel, hosted by Wes Johnson (voice of many characters in the Elder Scrolls series) where we'll be improv'ing a video game concept created by you, the audience! There's also gonna be a TON of super-talented Newgrounds & YouTube animators who'll be there, all of which I'm looking forward to seeing! As I've often said, there's not another con that's filled with more pure unbridled fun than MAGfest.

That's about all I've got for now, but once again: Happy Holidays to all and a very Happy New Year to everyone who's followed and supported me this past year!

NNNYLOCKE! + Nylocke-related things.

GOOD AFTERNOON TOME-NAMI FAITHFUL.

Okay so first off, Happy December! My fav month of the year, the cherry on top of 2012. Happy Holidays to all! Be sure to keep up with the Newgrounds Advent calender this month, particularly this next Wednesday, December 5th, when Kirbopher, Nylocke and Rockoon from TOME all celebrate their favorite Holidays! Speakin' of Nylocke, there's a lot of important Nylocke-related topics to talk about!

Considering how his color scheme looks like Christmas up and barfed all of him, it fits pretty well, so I AIN'T COMPLAININ'. First and most importantly, his fantastic voice performer, Martin Billany, as well as his lovely wife Marianne Miller, are gonna be doing a very special livestream "Card Games for Charity" on Saturday, December 8th. There'll be a ton of awesome guests joining in every hour, all for the purpose of raising money to help out those affected by Hurricane Sandy. All of Martin's charity events have turned out really well, but this one's gonna be bigger and better than any before and you should totally be there! A few friends of mine from the area were very heavily affected by the hurricane, so any help would be greatly appreciated. Any amount is welcome. :]

I'm currently working on a lot of TOME stuff, between a couple of the usual freelance projects. However, since the show's resurfacing with Episode 05, I really wanna move to the next level in 2013 with the show by all aspects. Before the year is up, I'll hopefully be releasing a new short that will take place a little bit after Episode 05. In the meantime however, I've already been making some good progress on Episode 06, which focuses a whole on...YOU GUESSED IT. NNNYLOCKE! MASTER OF FINALLY GETTING THE SPOTLIGHT. (As if he didn't already constantly own it.) I'm still working a few things out in production with it, but stay tuned, there's gonna be a very cool piece of audience-participation on this next Episode. I've got a few conventions in February of next year, so I'm aiming to have 06 ready for showing by that time.

AND LASTLY. Thanks to the fine folks at Level Up Studios, plus the fact that these apparently sold very well at Youmacon last November, the Nylocke "WHOOSH!" T-Shirts are now available for purchase from their site whenever you want! I also wanna pan interest on future TOME merchandise, or even just other T-Shirts. If there's a demand for it, maybe we can do it!

Thanks a bunch folks and stay with me! Happy Holidays!

TOME Episode 05's Release + Back from Detroit!

Here I am!

Oh my GOD this weekend was amazing. Before I dive into anything else, lemme thank a bunch of people. I'd like to thank all of the wonderful friends that made it out to Detroit this past weekend to have such a fun time I know we'll never forget. I'd like to thank the staff of Youmacon for being so accommodating and having this event to bring us all together in the first place. I'd like to thank everyone who came to my "Flashstravaganza" panel on Saturday to check out the premiere of TOME Episode 05, as well as those who bought our first piece of merchandise for the show, the Nylocke "WHOOSH!" t-shirt, which apparently did very well!

I've returned home and am trying to jump right back into work. Last night we released TOME Episode 05 on Newgrounds and thus far the response has been VERY kind. I really appreciate it and hope everyone enjoys this episode, even people who haven't been fond of the series thus far. This one in particular I worked really hard on and have been looking forward to doing it since before I released the first episode. I won't say anything more than that, lest I spoil the surprises in store, but please check it out and spread the word!

While Hurricane Sandy was happening last week, just before I left for the convention I spent several days working on a few new videos. "Martin Taunts 2", which we also showed at Youmacon, will be up on Newgrounds exclusively. I've also done a couple other little minor things I think you guys'll enjoy, so look forward to seeing those on my YouTube channel soon! Still working on a million other things, too. Stay tuned.

Two New Cartoons @ Youmacon 2012!

 Hey folks! Here's my schedule for next weekend at Youmacon!



Youmacon 2012 - Detroit, Michigan
November 1-4 2012 - The Renaissance Center & Cobo Hall
http://youmacon.com/


FRIDAY
8 PM - Panel Room A - Cobo Hall
- LittleKuriboh's "Naruto Spoof" Panel 18+
*NEW CARTOON PREMIERE* - Martin Taunts 2

SATURDAY
3 PM - Panel Room 1 - Renaissance Center
- Kirbopher's Flashstravaganza!
*NEW CARTOON PREMIERE* - TOME: Episode 05

4 PM - Panel Room 1 - Renaissance Center
- Balancing Act: creating an Animated Short

6 PM - Mini Main Riverview Ballroom - Cobo Hall
- "Wha-Chow!" Live Recording 18+
*LIVE PERFORMANCE* of Super Mario RPG: Waltz of the Forest

SUNDAY
3 PM - Panel Room A - Cobo Hall
- LittleKuriboh's "Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged" Panel


Also, be sure to buy an exclusive Nylocke "WHOOSH!" T-Shirt at the Level Up Studios booth in the dealer's hall! Big thanks to Fred Wood and Sean Handyside for makin' this happen in such a short time.
http://www.levelupstudios.com/

New Projects + A Couple 'o Cons

Nothing major, but gotta few new updates!

First off, TOME Episode 05 is on its way out! The new installment will be released at the beginning of next month. The animation is complete, so all that remains is the sound design and compositing. In the meantime, to celebrate Halloween coming up soon, I'm harkening back to an ol' tradition of drawing the main cast of TOME in costumes for an illustration that will be released this month! This week, each of the five main characters will have a bunch of options for you to vote on, at the official TOME Facebook page. Cast your votes on what you wanna see Alpha and the gang dress up as!

Also, speaking of Episode 05, I'll be premiering it at this year's Youmacon 2012 in Detroit, Michigan! I've grown to love this con for the last few years and this next one's gonna be HUGE. No set schedule yet, but I can confirm I'll be doing my "Kirb's Flashstravaganza!" and "Balancing Act: Making an Animated Short" panels again! As soon as I know the times and days for them, I'll release an update with the schedule. During the Flashstravaganza this year, we'll not only be premiering the new TOME Episode, but we'll be joined by many of the cast and crew including Martin Billany, Bryon Beaubien, Dave Smith, Liz Losey and more! Not to mention, we'll be concluding the panel with a live performance of "Waltz of the Forest" by myself, Blake "Shadyvox" Swift and Musical Mike Patterson! Again, more details and an update video will follow once the con schedule's been released.

Additionally, I'll be at New York Comic Con this weekend with a TON of people; too many to count. Not gonna be doing anything in particular this year, but if you see me, feel free to say hi!

...oh and I guess I did some stupid cartoon in like, a day. S'nothing, really. Blame Mack.

'DATS ALL.

So much stuff you don't even KNOW.

No I mean really, you don't even know.

Aright so I've been up to quite a bit this summer. After my last update, I got very busy with a freelance gig for the Suffolk County library. I've been quiet on the blog front for a few months due to the grand majority of what I've been working on has had to be kept secret. Some of it is still under wraps, but there's a couple things I can talk about now.

First off, the good folks from Studio Nasu and Otakon, the first anime convention I ever went to and STILL attend almost every year, are teaming up to do a side-scrolling beat 'em up game called "Crisis Heart Brawlers: Clash at Otakon". I'm working on the game as an animation clean-up artist and we've opened up a kickstarter about a week ago, which has already gotten almost half the goal's budget! There's some really great prizes for those who donate and every little bit helps! If you wanna help make the game great and get something extra special out of it, please help us out and donate! The people behind the game are trying to cram in as much awesome stuff into it as possible, so I can say for certain it'll be worth it in the end.



Several projects I've voiced in have come out now too! Dust: An Elysian Tail, an incredibly fun game created by Dean Dodrill is out for XBLA, featuring a HUGE number of talented actors from Newgrounds, including several I've worked with personally. Deven Mack Jr., the game's casting director, was kind enough to slip me a cameo that I won't spoil...go buy the game on Xbox, it's amazing!



I also was fortunate enough to work with Mike Sinterniklaas and Stephanie Sheh on the Berserk CG-animated movie that screened at SDCC and will be releasing to DVD soon. I'm scattered throughout the film as various soldiers...mostly dying ones. I got my arm chopped off and my balls shanked out. It was great.



Lastly, and this one I've been waiting to talk about for a while: I'm voicing the lead character "Pablo" in the very adorable children's learning program Curiosityville. It harkens back to stuff like Leapfrog and Jumpstart, but it's all online and easily accessible. If you've got any little ones that might like it, show 'em!



Those're only just a few things I've got cooking right now. I'm working on a music video as a commission for a certain well-known performer on YouTube, which is currently in its animatic stage and will be kicking into full animation as soon as the final song is mixed. I've also been developing lots of new stuff, some on my own and some with the help of others. Amongst all this though, I haven't forgotten about TOME. As with the other secretive stuff, I can't say anything just yet about TOME, but please be patient and keep an eye out for future announcements! Also, thank you everyone who subscribed to the official TOME Facebook page, as we hit over 5000 likes this Summer, which is incredible. I can only hope as things progress, the following with continue to grow with it.

Stay with me, folks!

TOME Episode 04 and what lies ahead...

Took way longer than I thought, but it's done.

TOME Episode 04: "Fraggedquest" is released to Newgrounds, as well as the Traveler's Guide just for archival purposes. Thank you EVERYONE who helped put this episode together. I got wa too ambitious with it and it ended up being way longer than I expected, but I genuinely think it's our best one yet. Also, I apologize for any glitches in the animation and sound. I'm going to try and get the YouTube version completed next week and some of those issues will hopefully not be a problem anymore. Thanks for understanding and I hope you enjoyed the episode for what it is.

So people are probably immediately thinking, "when does Episode 05 come out?!" Well, the next step isn't that simple. Believe me, I'd LOVE to keep just making the episodes as I had originally planned and continue through the series like normal, however, that's probably not what's going to happen. While I appreciate everyone who's enjoyed the series so far, and even the people who weren't fans of it that offered critique to help it grow...the fact is, the show hasn't done well enough to immediately warrant continuation, nor is it helping me progress as an artist, as much as I was expecting it to. I love the story and characters; the prospect of going further with what I have planned and the appearance of new plot elements and characters is still an exciting thing for me, just as it must be to its fans. However, I need to make the next step in my career. I'm now over a full year out of college. The biggest things to my credit of noteworthiness are my contribution to Skullgirls, a bit of odd voiceover work here and there, and the ONE festival screening I had with Balancing Act that resulting in the freelance gig I'm currently working on. TOME, unfortunately, is not something that has done well enough for me to survive off of monetarily, nor has it caught on big enough in its popularity for IT to survive...at least, not yet.

Rest assured, I don't want to simply abandon TOME at this stage. I knew Episode 04 was going to be a checkpoint and I knew early on into production that there was a possibility of it being the last, hence why I went with a different story concept instead of my original script for Episode 04 (which has now been bumped up to 05). The next step I want to take with the series is something on a much bigger scale. I can't go into much detail, because what I have planned is still in very early stages and absolutely NOTHING in confirmed yet, but it's more than simply upping the quality of the animation. Down the line, I might even need your help. As soon as I have ANYTHING that I can share publicly, I'll let you know. In the meantime, I have a lot of work to do. My freelance gig needs tending so I can get it done within June and I may have another music video gig coming up soon. I'm not goin' anywhere yet, so keep it tuned.