update + weird science collab

Fuck.

So I may or may not have forgot to update my blog for a whole ass month. To be fair, I'd say it's more important to focus on your life than a blog that nobody reads. But fuck it, here I am. Anyways, here is what happened for the past month.

The Weird Science collab is out! After 2 months of work and procrastination, the collab just released a couple days ago! Upon release, Newgrounds gifted us the Daily 2nd trophy for that day, as well as the "Underdog of the week" award. I don't know what the fuck that means, but thank you anyways Newgrounds, it's an honor! The collab is currently at 500+ views and is still going up, the support we've gotten is crazy! I can't wait to make more collabs like this!

Of course, I didn't do it all by myself. I got a lot of help from Zteagh Lock with hosting the collab, because god knows I couldn't do it all by myself.

I also really wanna thank Scene-Kid Lock for keeping me motivated through the whole thing. There were times where I felt unmotivated to make the project, and he gave me something to look forward to! Seriously, thanks for everything.

And of course, the parts turned out amazing. Every single one. Genuinely amazing stuff everyone did, I couldn't have done it without all of you.

THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!

Aside from the collab, I've been also making a lot of animation for my animation class... obviously. I've been doing pretty well in that class, so I mostly have free time to do whatever I want. Here is an animation about Tony Hawk Pro Skater, enjoy.

I also made this one to test readability in a cartoon. Apparently, the rule is that you have to be able to read the text on screen three times before it can move on to the next scene. I didn't have any ideas, so I sort of half-assed it and just had the dude pull out a sign.

Then there is this one that I am really proud of, which is just a guy yelling in anger because they dropped an ice cream cone. I just love the expression and the smears, they turned out pretty solid. I only got one complaint, which is a pretty good sign if you ask me.

And then my favorite one I've made so far is this animation right here, just a quick little short about a guy with a top hat and a ball. I think the timing needs some work, but I just like how the ball smacking the dude's face played out, it's just kinda funny to me. Also, everyone laughed at it, so I think that is also a good sign.

This is also one of the few animations that I was required to plan it out on paper. So, here's that I guess.

 

By the way, if you're wondering why the animations look so sketchy, that's because I am using a different animation program called Krita to make these, specifically at school. Ironically, I used this program before to make my very first animation on my computer 2 years ago, so I guess we've come full circle.

Using Krita as much as I do though, I realized why I had abandoned it in the first place; It isn't very fun to use. It is way too laggy and crashes all the time, and is WAY too complex for my liking, and just isn't fun to use at all. I much prefer Flash.

Like hear me out right; In Flash, how do you make a motion tween? Go to the frame, right click it, select create Motion tween/Classic tween. 

How do you make a motion tween in Krita? Go into the Layers tab, select Add, then select Transform Tool, open the dockers menu and add Animation Curves into the workspace, THEN create a keyframe from where you want it to go and end. And don't even get me started on easing.

The multiple brushes are cool I guess, but I'm only going to be using two. Cool to have options I guess. I'm not dogging on anyone using Krita, it's honestly really cool for an open source program. But it just isn't for me.

Aside from all of that though, what have I been doing outside of animating? Well... skateboarding! Yeah, I have grown a lot of interest in it, and have started skating again at my local skatepark with my friend. I enjoy it a lot, and I hope to improve my skills a lot more. I also plan to make a documentary about my experience with skating and all that jazz, it's going to be a lot of fun to make!

I have collected some more records and DVD's too, and some really good ones as well! For the records, I picked up Plastic Beach and The Wall (two of my favorite albums) and Men at Work's "Business as Usual", which is really good as well. But on the DVD end of things, I picked up Ghostbusters, Jurassic Park, and the Red VS Blue Blood Gulch Chronicles Box Set, my favorite one by far. I wouldn't go out of your way to buy one currently because of... you know... Rooster Teeth. But if you happen to find it at your local video store or something, definitely pick it up ASAP. It is absolutely worth your money.

I am also looking forward to Jakey's new album ROMCOM coming out tomorrow! As I am writing this, it currently isn't up on Spotify, but I can't wait until it is! I have been waiting so long for this album, and it has me hyped. I'll let you guys know how it is.

Oh, and I picked up an Xbox 360 S! It's really fucking cool, and I am playing all the games I missed out on due to being a Nintendo fanboy my entire life. I plan on playing the entire Halo series (up to Reach), and Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3, but I also plan on playing Grand Theft Auto 4 and 5. I've already played San Andreas and Vice City, and they are stupid fun, but I've always wondered what the next gen GTA's are like. I guess I'll find out when I get them.

As for the games I want to pick up, I really wanna play the Skate games. I've heard they're really good, and I want to see how they changed the skateboarding gameplay in contrast to Tony Hawk.

I also want to play Guitar Hero on the 360. I have some of the games on my Wii, but it is obviously quite limited because of the Wii's hardware limitations. I have always wondered what the games are like on the 360, so I plan to get Warrior's of Rock and Guitar Hero 5 on the system, the games I haven't played yet.

I think that's it! I'm gonna try to update this blog more, but I can't promise anything. See ya later!

-Jonah G.