KevinLordi

EEnE Secret Santa Giftart 2017 - for Jenny 2x4

Merry belated Christmas and happy holidays!  This year the Ed, Edd n Eddy fandom arranged a Secret Santa giftart and fanfiction exchange, so here's the giftart I made for Jenny2x4 on Tumblr!  The idea was just to draw the characters each person chose and although Jenny listed Marie as optional, I had to agree with her that the world can always use more Marie fanart.  Hope you guys like it too!

As a little extra gift for you guys, I've whipped up some blank holiday card versions of this, in case you have a friend who happens to likes\ these characters and want to edit it for them or something.  Here you go:

Hoop Theme 2017 -take 2-

So in this version you'll notice that some poses have been altered, background details have been added... also some gags have been added, courtesy of notes and concept art from our esteemed patron, Daniel Beckman! Other sequences have been shortened for tighter pacing.  This is the version that I will be trying to animate in my free time.

(under the line is the same description as take 1)

_______

Next week I'll probably share my latest awkward Smashbits freelance work, but first I'd like to share something I'm rather proud of!  I've had several different theme song inspirations throughout Hoop-a-Joop's existence, but my favorite since at least 2015 has been the instrumental to Little Bitch by the Specials (or the cover by Big D and the Kids Table).  Unfortunately, probably due to the song's vulgarity, there is no karaoke version of it that I could find, so I had to go ahead and mangle the regular audio file as much as I could with Audacity.   Here's what I came up with once I got the music to be louder than the voices!   The lyrics are not important to the video.  Also, this is using the Big D cover.

Over the years I've done many different takes for Hoop themes, some I've already posted and others I should probably dig up and post another time.  After studying a bunch of classic 90s theme songs, I decided my past theme song ideas were too visually incoherent, so the goal for this draft was to have the film and animation production throughline to all the gags and cameos in the theme song, and then use that scenario to construct a snappy dash through all the weird recurring elements and mysteries currently planned for my TV series idea, Hoop-a-Joop.

I'm really proud of my most recent cut and am going to start animating it as prep for the Hoop-a-Joop short I want to make.  I may even see if the composer for that project could whip up a demo track for an instrumental version of this.  I read a lot about shows that get picked up for having their theme song planned out in the pitch bible, so while I'm not getting my hopes up that it would be that easy, it still seems like a good hook, especially if I really do manage to do that Hoop short in 2018.

Hoop Theme 2017 -take 1-

Next week I'll probably share my latest awkward Smashbits freelance work, but first I'd like to share something I'm rather proud of!  I've had several different theme song inspirations throughout Hoop-a-Joop's existence, but my favorite since at least 2015 has been the instrumental to Little Bitch by the Specials (or the cover by Big D and the Kids Table).  Unfortunately, probably due to the song's vulgarity, there is no karaoke version of it that I could find, so I had to go ahead and mangle the regular audio file as much as I could with Audacity.   Here's what I came up with once I got the music to be louder than the voices!   The lyrics are not important to the video.  Also, this is using the Big D cover.

Over the years I've done many different takes for Hoop themes, some I've already posted and others I should probably dig up and post another time.
After studying a bunch of classic 90s theme songs, I decided my past theme song ideas were too visually incoherent, so the goal for this draft was to have the film and animation production throughline to all the gags and cameos in the theme song, and then use that scenario to construct a snappy dash through all the weird recurring elements and mysteries currently planned for my TV series idea, Hoop-a-Joop.

I'm really proud of my most recent cut and am going to start animating it as prep for the Hoop-a-Joop short I want to make.  I may even see if the composer for that project could whip up a demo track for an instrumental version of this.  I read a lot about shows that get picked up for having their theme song planned out in the pitch bible, so while I'm not getting my hopes up that it would be that easy, it still seems like a good hook, especially if I really do manage to do that Hoop short in 2018.

Eds Road Trip B -sketch-

 Before I post some of my stranger animation projects in the coming weeks, I'd like to share another of my EEnE commissions.  This one was actually a two parter that I did gradually over a couple months for my friend, Zachary Higgins. 

The main request for part B was that I take my interpretation of the Eds from the previous commission and modify the Eds' clothes, hair and car to look like Zach and his friends.  Zach asked that I stuff their car with inside jokes and nostalgic items personalized to the trio.  Allow me to repost the pencil draft of this, where I listed most of the tweaks added to part B:

Zach also made sure to give me a few different reference images to pick their clothes from. Finally, here is the main photo I was sent for reference! They were on a roadtrip to Warped Tour one year and never wanted to forget it, so this commission was in honor of that trip's anniversary. Zach has even mentioned considering tattoo options for a possible part C!  Oh, how I envy these real life Eds!

Eds Road Trip B -Final w/ Shading-

 Before I post some of my stranger animation projects in the coming weeks, I'd like to share another of my EEnE commissions.  This one was actually a two parter that I did gradually over a couple months for my friend, Zachary Higgins. 

The main request for part B was that I take my interpretation of the Eds from the previous commission and modify the Eds' clothes, hair and car to look like Zach and his friends.  Zach asked that I stuff their car with inside jokes and nostalgic items personalized to the trio.  Zach also made sure to give me a few different reference images to pick their clothes from, so here's the first colored draft, in which Eddy has a hat similar to Bro's instead of red hair:

Finally, here is the main photo I was sent for reference! They were on a roadtrip to Warped Tour one year and never wanted to forget it, so this commission was in honor of that trip's anniversary. Zach has mentioned considering tattoo options for a possible part C. 

Eds Road Trip A -sketch-

Before I post some of my stranger animation projects in the coming weeks, I'd like to share another of my EEnE commissions.  This one was actually a two parter that I did gradually over a couple months for my friend, Zachary Higgins. 

The main request for part A was that I draw my interpretation of the Eds in the place of Zach's friends in a photo from a roadtrip they had made together to Warped Tour one year.  After hashing out who would be who and which settings from the show to draw inspiration from, I was able to draw it rather quickly! The idea was that part A is a version of this image with the Eds in the junkyard van, and part B is the same layout but with the Eds' clothes, hair and car personalized to look like Zach and his friends. 

Also fun, I initially sketched this out on paper, you can see a list of notes and designs for part B on the right side of the page:

Eds Road Trip A -Final w/ Shading-

Before I post some of my stranger animation projects in the coming weeks, I'd like to share another of my EEnE commissions.  This one was actually a two parter that I did gradually over a couple months for my friend, Zachary Higgins.  

The main request for part A was that I draw my interpretation of the Eds in the place of Zach's friends in a photo from a roadtrip they had made together to Warped Tour one year.  After hashing out who would be who and which settings from the show to draw inspiration from, I was able to draw it rather quickly! The idea was that part A is a version of this image with the Eds in the junkyard van, and part B is the same layout but with the Eds' clothes, hair and car personalized to look like Zach and his friends.   Fun Fact: Edd is in Zach's spot.

Before shading it, here's the flat colors version I made!  I just like to include it because it hopefully feels a little closer to the show.  I believe I eyedropped a lot of colors from 'Dueling Eds', because that's my favorite appearance of the junkyard van.

Smashbits #18: Cyril 2 - Days of Infamy (French Only) RELEASED ANIMATION

Sorry again for the delay, real life got really busy after last month's hurricane and this month's birthday, but I've caught my breath and here's a new animation I made in September!  Remember the 8th Smashbits project I posted?  The French one with a guy named Cyril?  If not, here's the link to the released animation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7ARL_7aQ4Y

It went over 1 million views in France, so ever since then Cyril has apparently been specifically requesting my services from Smashbits BUT until now they've just been giving him other people copying my style or reusing my art from the first cartoon, because I was busy for so many months with Disney XD and Hello Neighbor. 

But finally I got to do another French cartoon! They're fun because it sounds impressive even though I just need a translated script.  I also liked how there was sort of a Looney Tunes vibe to the first one, and since this one dealt with the sensitive issue of nazis, I thought it would be fitting to draw inspiration from my favorite banned Daffy Duck cartoon, Daffy the Commando.  Hope you enjoy!

To my patrons with extra access: see if you can spot the differences from my final animation and the version they released!

Birth of an Eddy

Hello!   I apologize for my absence, I lost power during Hurricane Irma 2 weeks ago-- I got power back within 2 days, which was ahead of most people, but I continued to be without Internet for a week and then was very busy with my next full-length Smashbits commission.

Fortunately I haven't run out of things to post yet, so how about I ease back into it with this sorta-sweet Ed, Edd n Eddy commission I did at the beginning of the year and forgot to share!   I got an email from my friend Chelsee requesting lineart of Eddy's birth, and fortunately I had already planned out a scene like this for Bro Show!  I wanted Eddy to be born at the end of episode 5, and this drooly baby + loving family + disco on the hospital radio would be like a horror movie from Bro's perspective.  It's more than a tad inspired by the scene in The Rugrats Movie where Tommy meets Dil in the hospital room.

So below is the original lineart I did, and above is the version that Chelsee colored!  Enjoy her accuracy!

Smashbits #14: Hello Neighbor Parody RELEASED ANIMATION

Update 8/30/2017:  Wow!!! So this is almost at 3 million views!  It passed 1 million on the first day and made 2 million within 3 days, which is both a new record for any of my animations AND a new record for Smashbits!  Even cooler to me, it's been trending in Canada apparently!

Wow, look what's finally been released, it's my Hello Neighbor parody that I shared with you guys a few weeks ago!  So proud to see it's already near 100,000 views on the first day.  I haven't watched this version yet but I'm interested to hear any improvements in the audio!

 Hellooo Neighbor!  Here's a parody I was assigned, it was written and voiced by Dexter Manning (who you'll probably recognize as Jesse from my Minecraft videos), and is based on a game called Hello Neighbor about you moving into a new house across the street from a neighbor character who is programmed with artificial intelligence that allows him to outsmart and catch the player.  It was very hard to find consistent information about the game's designs because it seems like the game is still in development and changes in each new iteration, so I tried to make this just feel like its own new iteration with a few details from different versions.  It features my attempt at a new style that is a little more stop-motion inspired and allows me to focus on putting funny faces on what are essentially puppet bodies.  I hope you enjoy! 

Smashbits #16: DISNEY XD - Giant Cop FINISHED ANIMATION

For my second Disney animation I was assigned another fake commercial, but this time there would be no green screen, meaning it would be purely my direction.  This was very exciting, but also intimidating because the audio they sent me was so rough and they gave me the contract with less than a week before the deadline.  But when I returned from my Long Island trip, I discovered that Giant Cop had aired and I was blown away by how good it looked on TV and how much funnier it was with the improved sound design.  I do not have that aired clip just yet but I will try and record it from the Disney website if possible.  For now, enjoy these production clips!

This scene happens 18 minutes into episode 9, and is Parker's response to playing a game about a giant cop with a tiny partner.  I was not given that context, so I was surprised how well my clip fit into the actual episode!  The hardest part of this clip was definitely the opening background, it was described to me as a helicopter pan and I spent most of the production time doing different drafts of that, super zoomed in, and then had to make the rest of the direction simpler without losing my style.  They loved it!  Fun fact, this was when I first found out Parker's last name is Coppins, but I thought it was a joke credit because he was playing a cop.

Smashbits #15: DISNEY XD - Park Parker TELEVISED ANIMATION

Here's my first clip from Parker Plays on Disney XD's DXP block!!!  It happens around 7 minutes into the first episode, which turned out to be available for free on Youtube:  https://youtu.be/393TiRtCQtg 

Hopefully I can find my other televised clip as easily as this and get that recorded too!  It seems like episode descriptions get jumbled up in later episodes so I'm not sure if I'll ever see the edited versions of my other two clips for the show, but I'll be sure to upload my files for you guys.

Have a good night!

Smashbits #15: DISNEY XD - Park Parker FINISHED ANIMATION

 For my first Disney animation I was assigned a fantasy sequence for a green screen commercial.  It appears 7 minutes into the first episode and is Parker's response to playing a game about building an amusement park.  I was shown video of Parker Coppins performing as a carnival barker and told to animate a park around him, with very little directions beyond that.  Unfortunately I do not think I'm allowed to share the raw green screen footage, but I am able to share what I contributed to the scene!  In the version that aired on TV they had to break into my file and rearrange some of the pieces (I know they messed up how I animated the squid), but I don't have access to that yet, so for now you will be able to watch the parts I did! My animation focused on cartoon kids reacting to Parker in the foreground, and otherwise was mainly just background stuff, but it's still a full minute of my animation that got to be on TV.  :D

Smashbits #14: Hello Neighbor Parody FINISHED ANIMATION

Hellooo Neighbor!  Here's a parody I was assigned, it was written and voiced by Dexter Manning (who you'll probably recognize as Jesse from my Minecraft videos), and is based on a game called Hello Neighbor about you moving into a new house across the street from a neighbor character who is programmed with artificial intelligence that allows him to outsmart and catch the player.  It was very hard to find consistent information about the game's designs because it seems like the game is still in development and changes in each new iteration, so I tried to make this just feel like its own new iteration with a few details from different versions.  It features my attempt at a new style that is a little more stop-motion inspired and allows me to focus on putting funny faces on what are essentially puppet bodies.  I hope you enjoy!

Hoooo boy, so this production backstory may be a bit confusing:  Of the projects I am about to release over the coming weekends, this is the one that I started first... but it is also the last one I finished.  To some extent those delays are to be expected... it is the length of a full TV cartoon, an experiment in a new style, and a Youtube cartoon that would obviously be lower priority than the Disney work I've already announced.  

This animatic was completed on April 18, meaning I started this around the middle of April, but before long there was word of Smashbits being unable to pay its freelancers, and so it was suggested that I take a break. During that break, I had a creative breakthrough and storyboarded a new Hoop-a-Joop short!  Those storyboards will also be shared soon, but are probably my proudest project among this new batch.  Anyway, around a month later in May and coincidentally the same week I finished my Hoop boards, I received a call from Smashbits about the Disney project, once again delaying Hello Neighbor.  I should also note that Disney was surprisingly low-budget as well, so Hello Neighbor had to be lower priority for budgetary reasons as well.  Hello Neighbor went back into production between each Disney project, making the last half of its production kind of a nonsensical blur for me, haha.  It was meant to be finished at the end of June, but was delayed until Tuesday of this week, so... early-mid August.  But it's finally done and I'm starting to move onto easier projects!  I was hoping they would post the Youtube version yesterday but apparently they had another video in the pipeline, so I'll just upload the animatic and my copy of the full animation today!  Hope you all had good weekends. :)

My First TV Credit!

So I got my first cartoon shorts on TV this year!  The channel is Disney XD.  It's a live action show called Parker Plays.  It's part of a brand new gaming block that's essentially Disney's answer to Adult Swim (I saw digital blood in the first ep!) and they got a real Youtuber to make a sketch show with similarly little direction.  I have actually watched a few full episodes and personally enjoyed it, but if you're only interested in my contribution, it's important to know that MY scenes are at least three 1-minute fantasy sequences sprinkled far apart over the first 14 episodes.

 So far I know my first short is a green screen commercial in Episode 1 almost exactly at the 7 minute mark, a cop show parody in Episode 9 around the 18 minute mark, and I believe my third short will be in episode 14.   My clip in Ep 1 had to be edited a bit to fit the green screen footage, so I'm a little disappointed with that, but my cartoon in Ep 9 was exactly the way I directed it and I could not be happier with how it turned out!  Hopefully I can find a way to access clips of the final cuts of my cartoons, since I usually only have rough audio to work with.  Sound design really makes a difference.

I was told a fourth short might make it in, but it was for the pilot so we'll see... remember this animation I did: https://www.patreon.com/posts/smashbits-7-7631330  It turns out Smashbits was submitting it to be part of the pilot for Parker Plays, without telling me!  And now it's the main thing saving their company while they fight a difficult legal battle with a client who didn't pay them, so I'm pretty proud!  If that pilot never airs, at least we'll always have my clip!  

I'm like 3rd or 4th party along the chain of production companies so I must stress, I am not an official Disney employee and receive virtually no direction, haha.  I am given 1 week to animate something weird with little-to-no description of the context.  Twice they gave me a project practically past-due.  I didn't even know what show I was a part of until I found out the company I was freelancing for and did some Googling!  It premiered on my Nana's 87th birthday, yet I had virtually no idea it was even about to air because I animated my first short for them no more than 3 months ago.

The unfortunate thing is that me and Smashbits were not credited, but the higher-ups say that was a mistake and that it should be corrected by the time my cartoon appears in episode 14.  Hopefully it's a credit for me and not just Smashbits, but the only thing that's really important is putting it on my resume... and now I actually have a bite from applying to a studio!  It's very difficult to hear back from any TV studios when you don't live in California, so I'm very proud.

So I hope you guys are excited to see the behind the scenes material on these Disney shorts!  I'll be sure to give you the full production story on each one as those come out.

New Stuff on the Horizon!

Hello again, everyone, I'm so glad to be back online!  As I mentioned last time, I was buried under a mountain of projects that I couldn't wait to share with you, but unfortunately that was not the only setback... I also started running into several technical difficulties with my laptop!  I lost a lot of production time and any hours online had to be strictly focused on animation, so I'm very sorry for missing messages and not being able to post during that time.  But I'm able to post this because it's okay now! I visited my family in New York at the end of July and they generously gifted me a new laptop, so I'll be backing up my work from the old one throughout this week and getting ready to show you the goods!  I will most likely start with my highest budget Smashbits project yet, which I just finished last night and believe is meant to come out this Saturday?  If not, the final cut will be out later this month.

It's been a pretty busy summer.  I only went swimming one time and so did my phone so I had to replace that, and for my own safety I had to replace two tires this week.  But it's also been very exciting!  As I hinted in my last news post.... I got my first cartoon on a major network TV show and now that it's aired I can tell you about it!   I'm going to submit a second post that will share the details on producing that, but for now I'll start with the basics: I've been doing occasional 1-minute fantasy sequences for Parker Plays on Disney XD!

What's really cool about this is that with my first TV credit, I finally stand a chance of looking legitimate to studios I apply to.  And now for some breaking news... I have actually gotten my first studio test since 2012!!  I have signed a non-disclosure agreement so I'll have to wait to say more until I get my results, but I'm very excited.  It's for a freelance character design position so if I pass I will most likely be able to do my part without working in CA, like a normal commission.  The more TV credits I get, the closer I am to actually being able to pitch my cartoon ideas, so here's hoping for the best!

Speaking of my cartoon ideas, I mentioned in my last post that I had storyboarded a new Hoop pilot, and while I haven't been able to start the final animation yet, I have gotten a lot of good feedback on the storyboards and am considering the possibility of additional independent shorts in the Hoop-a-Joop universe.  Music on the pilot short has a head start, and I will most likely share some of these storyboards after sharing my various other projects with you over the coming weeks!

In case anyone missed this link and wanted to see more art from me, I have been posting a backlog of my digital sketches to my art blog Mondays at 10am:

 https://thatsdisturbing.tumblr.com/ 

$5+ patrons also have access to a behind the scenes blog, so if you fall into that category, be sure to log in and check those private posts for the link and password!  I don't have scheduled posts for the private blog but when something's too spoilery for the public blog it usually goes there!

Happy Summer, Everybody!

Hello!  I wanted to give an update because I saw we had some new faces who may not be familiar with all the places I post art.  I have been swamped under a mountain of projects, but over summer I'll have some cool new things to show you from all that work.    Mostly freelance as usual, but higher budget than normal.  One of them was actually a short sketch for a major TV network, hush hush...  

I also had some time off in the past month and started storyboarding and talking to a composer for a short film idea.  It would serve as an introduction to the main Hoop-a-Joop characters, making it my first completely original animation project since Those Friggin Ferrets in 2014.  It is actually sort of an adaptation of a thing I tried to animate when I was 12 so it's cool to see that come full circle.  I am not sure when it will be completed since I will likely continue to split the production time with my freelance work and currently-unreliable dayjob, but the first pass of this short's storyboards are already completed and it is mostly silent so it shouldn't be too complicated to create.

In the mean time, I have finally started setting up a queue and posting my big backlog of sketches to my art blog:   https://thatsdisturbing.tumblr.com/

I want to keep it mostly spoiler free for now, but I intend to get into all sorts of art I've forgotten to post over the years.  I currently have 1-3 posts scheduled each Monday until the end of July and will continue to add more to the schedule.  Eventually I want to get around to scanning my numerous sketchbooks and sharing some of the different stages of my original ideas with you.  There will be fanart too of course.

$5+ patrons have access to extra posts with links to a private art blog where I get into more spoilery aspects of my personal projects (mostly characters with plot-specific arcs or depictions of origin stories).  For those members I will make a reminder post in a few minutes with the link and password so it's easy to find.  I don't think I've had to post anything spoilery recently but there is a bunch of stuff already there.

Smashbits #13: Minecraft Ep 5 (Mature Warning) Released Animation

   (I believe they put awkward intro-ads in these episodes, so please skip past that, I'm pretty sure everything that sponsors them contains viruses)   

So this is more or less my final Minecraft episode!  Once again I'd like to warn viewers about the offensive contents as I do not write the dialogue, and explain that my main tasks as Art Director for this episode were: Storyboard Direction, new backgrounds, new characters (except some monsters), props, and face animation.

However, I am not in control of how the faces are imported into the animation and I need to say I have noticed several mistakes in this episode...  Several faces are too big to fit properly on the heads, some shots include overlapping face symbols that block the face animation I did, I'm not sure they used the actual faces I drew for my final Olivia scene, certain props I designed are redesigned, other symbols are missing entirely (like when Jesse inexplicably scales a building but is meant to be building a ladder as he climbs it, or when Jesse runs away from guards but no guards are animated even though I included their designs in the direction), a fight scene got cut entirely, Milo floats away to lead them to his hideout but heads in the opposite direction of the signs I drew, all the terrible running loops (those all seem to be crudely ripped out of other episodes, with Petra's erroneously including lip sync-- these shots were even meant to be zoomed in so we wouldn't need to see their walk cycles!!! I was keeping it simple and they made it complicated so it came out worse: animation lesson number 1), panning backgrounds that I had set up for them are now zoomed out so shots bleed together awkwardly...

Basically, I'm pretty disappointed that my last episode came out so poorly because it's been out of my hands for weeks now. But Smashbits is currently in a legal battle because their client isn't paying and pay has been delayed for many of us freelance animators, so I understand they're probably cutting corners until they're stable again.  The good news is that that's given me more time to think about my own projects and I am considering making a silent short film and getting back to some of my music video projects.  I was also starting solo work on a new Smashbits series based on Hey Neighbor before this situation began, and I can guarantee you that it will look better than this!

Smashbits #12: Minecraft Ep 4 (Mature Warning) Released Animation

  (I believe they put awkward intro-ads in these episodes, so please skip past that, I'm pretty sure everything that sponsors them contains viruses)  

 I'm only credited on this episode because I designed the main characters, but I like the other director's approach to the style a lot, and I just found her Tumblr:  

http://kat-vs-art.tumblr.com/post/158814442849/guess-whats-here-i-did-majority-of-the

Smashbits #11: Minecraft Ep 3 (Mature Warning) Released Animation

(I believe they put awkward intro-ads in these episodes, so please skip past that, I'm pretty sure everything that sponsors them contains viruses)

I'm only credited on this episode because I designed the main characters, but I like the other director's approach to the style a lot, and I just found her Tumblr: 

http://kat-vs-art.tumblr.com/post/158548966829/minecraft-story-mode-animated-parody-3-is-here-i

 I think this may actually be my favorite episode!   I love the part where Gingerbeard just spins up into the air with no explanation.

Smashbits #10: Minecraft Ep 2 (Mature Warning) Released Animation

 (I believe they put awkward intro-ads in these episodes, so please skip past that, I'm pretty sure everything that sponsors them contains viruses) 

So as I had previously warned, I've been assisting on more of these needlessly offensive Minecraft cartoons.  What's interesting about these new episodes, though, is that I am working in even more of a studio capacity than usual!  For episode one, I did all the art and animation, while writing and audio was left to Dexter Manning and some mysterious other folks I'm not usually put in contact with.   From episode two on, I'm collaborating with several other animators!

I am the Art Director for this webseries!  Sort of a weird title for what I do, because I didn't realize I was directing at first.   I started working on this episode in January, probably before I was even done working on the Smosh video.  I was introduced online to another Smashbits animator, Seth Whitehurst, and I assumed we would just do our own scenes separately.  Instead, we realized that he prefers to do body-rigging animation (which I didn't know how to do for episode 1) and I prefer to do frame-by-frame face animation, so we concluded that I would direct most of the shots and draw most of the backgrounds (I take over when the robber girl shows up), all the character designs (except some monsters, but I also did a bunch of props) and then do all the faces.  Unfortunately, the deadline came up faster than we could animate, so Chris Durgin took over for me--  my faces end when they start talking to Ellegaard in front of the brick wall.  I have also heard through the Tumblr tag grapevine that a woman named Kat helped on this episode as well, so perhaps she filled in for Chris Durgin?  

From what I hear, Kat is the art director of the episodes I haven't been involved in, which so far are episodes 3 and 4, which I will try to post tonight as well.  They still give me a credit as art director on those episodes because the style originated from me, which feels nice!  While those episodes were being released, I've been wrapping up the 5th episode, which will most likely be the final one I'm involved with.   It has not been released yet, but should be soon, so get ready!  Today, they have me starting another series, which will begin with an 11-minute cartoon entirely animated by me!  It's based on a game called Hello Neighbor.

I don't have convenient animatic files for the new MCSM episodes I've contributed to, so next week I'll compile a gallery for my patrons, with all the backgrounds, character designs and other such art I've produced for this series.  Thank you all so much for supporting me over the years!  I feel like I've made a lot of progress since I got into freelancing and I'm so grateful for your help.   Have a happy Easter and I hope spring's treating you all well.

Smashbits #9: Smosh VR Golf FINISHED ANIMATION

Here's something I was working on in January!  I did the bulk of this animatic and the beginning while visiting my parents in New York.  It was a bit hectic trying to get this whole thing done in a schedule of about 20 days, but I managed to get it done with only a few cut corners and complications.   I am not super familiar with Smosh Games, but I used to be a big fan of the main Smosh channel during my high school years, so it's an honor to be associated with them in any capacity!  And it's nice that one of these freelance projects was for a group I've actually heard of before.  I'll let you know if/when I actually see this released on their main channel, haha.

Sorry for the pause before sharing this, I meant to put it up as soon as it was done a few weeks ago, but then I got right into starting Minecraft Boring Mode (which is what they seem to be calling it now that it's a series) Episode 2.  Minecraft Ep 2 has a slightly more complex production schedule than my usual projects because it's actually not solo!  Myself and another Smashbits animator are splitting up the animations so we can focus on our strengths.  I'm still the director and main designer, but I'm focusing most of my energy into making the face animation more entertaining, while the other animator focuses on the body animation.  I can't wait to share that project when it's finished!

Smashbits #8: Cyril (French w/ Eng Subtitles) RELEASED ANIMATION

 Over July-August, after a break from Smashbits and before the Minecraft animation, I was asked to animate a short let's play animation for a French Youtube channel.  I was given an English script to animate to, which still explained NOTHING about this game, haha.   During production on this, I was interrupted for a week by an emergency non-animated side project for Smashbits, which I will probably share on the private blog next week (since this is the last animation I have to share before I complete the next one), so I ended up finishing it a little rougher than I originally intended. BUT it actually went over a million views and they asked Smashbits to do more in this style (though I'm not able to contribute due to being busy with other projects) so I'm proud of it. 

Smashbits #7: The Painting FINISHED ANIMATION

In September, early on in production on the Minecraft animation, I was assigned an emergency project that was so overdue they were going to give me a roughly $800 bonus to finish what would normally be one of their lowest paying assignments (a 1-minute let's play animation).  The catch was that it was due in 6 days, so I had to work as fast as I possibly could and cut all corners in my path.  The results may not be pretty but in the end I kinda fell in love with the cartoon...  It is just a relentless tidal wave of facial expressions, and I haven't made a cartoon that rapidly since I was in high school. It was like getting back to my roots!

Happy New Year's Eve!

Smashbits #7: The Painting ANIMATIC

In September, early on in production on the Minecraft animation, I was assigned an emergency project that was so overdue they were going to give me a roughly $800 bonus to finish what would normally be one of their lowest paying assignments (a 1-minute let's play animation).  The catch was that it was due in 6 days, so I had to work as fast as I possibly could and cut all corners in my path.  The results may not be pretty but in the end I kinda fell in love with the cartoon...  It is just a relentless tidal wave of facial expressions, and I haven't made a cartoon that rapidly since I was in high school. It was like getting back to my roots!

Happy New Year's Eve!  To welcome 2017, I'm making the Animatic post public, have a good night!

Smashbits #6: Minecraft Ep 1 (Mature Warning) Released Animation

Ho ho ho, MERRY CHRISTMAS!  Here's a yuletide letter about what I've been up to, leading up to this video:

This is the released animation for a freelance cartoon I was hesitant about sharing, due to its crudeness.  But considering I worked on it from August through November, and that it's the first 10 minute cartoon I've made in a few years, and that it's pretty popular now, maybe you guys would be interested!

This was technically the cheapest I've ever been asked to animate, but due to the length of the video, it was my highest profit so far.  I was given the audio and a script including most of the gags. In my first draft of the storyboards, I tried to crop out the pig's pooping so it could be more of a sound effect gag but they insisted it be visible.  I also pointed out that the narrator should just rerecord the dialogue since he guessed a character's gender wrong and stumbled over a few words, but they actually enjoyed my animatic's gag at the narrator's expense.  I did the animatic in a very limited by-the-books manner (the characters were already designed so i was just plotting expressions) but knew I'd have to add a lot when doing the final animation to make it entertaining.  

In the end, I tried to give it more of an "ugly but self-aware and full of adrenaline" type of style, something akin to South Park.  In addition to beginning the animation and designing the characters and backgrounds, I started training to animate sprites for a German game developer.  Then on top of that, the last week of September, Smashbits needed me to stop and animate something else in only SEVEN DAYS.  So the production timeline on this Minecraft thing kinda went crazy off track and I had to compromise my lip sync standards a little to get it in on time-- they were very kind and extended the deadline each time, but, by the end, my drawing hand was cramped to hell and I needed to get ready for my honeymoon in the last week of November.

So the style and humor in this video isn't completely to my taste, but I hope somebody likes it!  I was quite surprised to find out that the video had actually exploded past 2 million hits in under two weeks.  The reaction videos pouring in from all over the world actually made me like this animation more, haha!  I'm told to expect an Episode 2, and I'm kinda excited to experiment further with this cheap style. But don't worry, I've got a few other things to show you over the next few weeks...

Welcome to Glip Creek!

A commission for atomicmosaic, a Peach Creek AU set inside The Glippo Show!  Based on the screenshot below, which is one of my all-time favorite gags.  I wish EEnE had shown the characters in more styles!

By the way, I finally put my public art blog together: http://thatsdisturbing.tumblr.com/

And to all you $5+ patrons, don't forget to check the private tumblr, I'd like to keep updating it weekly!  Feel free to ask me if you can't find the password.  :)

Smashbits #2: Little Mac Released Animation

My favorite (and highest budgeted) Smashbits commission, based on the classic video game, Punch Out, has finally been released!  I animated this back in February-March.

Smashbits #5: Walking Dead Auditions Released Animation!

Happy July 4th, another one of my Smashbits freelance cartoons came out!

Smashbits #4: Dead Rising Released Animation!

One of my Smashbits freelance animations finally came out!  I haven't watched this yet to see if they changed anything, but Erica tells me they came up with a new background music mix.  From what I understand they didn't rerecord the voice so the narrator's pronunciation errors are probably still in there.

I meant to say this with last week's Smashbits post, but for these non-music video commissions, they usually send me a document that has the script on the left and a list of shot suggestions for each sentence on the right.  I don't get to rewrite the dialogue, but I often simplify their ideas to match the budget and try to punch up visual or text gags.