That’s it. That’s the post. @phantomarcade !

I was away from my compu for a bit, but i wanted to swap out my last blog post so:

Pretty good 2024 in general. Got to knock out a few more countries on my european travels and released 11 pieces this year, which seems pretty standard. I didnt do any games however, so i'm looking forward to carving out time in 2025 to make a game of some sort.

My favorite piece from this year was Pico Day at the NG Office. Had fun making it, and there's alot of nuance and character interplay. Something I want to continue to do next year.

In my travels this year, i flew to Vilnius, where i was able to re-unite pico with his Lithuanian cousin, who's kind of a big deal in the recycling scene.

A few months later, Brandy hosted the Pico Day event in NJ, probably the most ng people i've ever seen in one place:

Later later in the year we did the TooManyGames thingie, got to hang out with the staff some and drink stuff.

After my NG fix, i flew out to the Azores to relax. I've been there before, but hadn't explored the north east part of the island which was purdy.

Near the end of the year, I flew to Croatia for xmas stuff and country 27 in EU. I also got to catch up with my longtime NG friend Luka, who's made a bunch of stuff on here, I also met him in past London meets, pico days, etc.

And that's it really. Have some more travels arranged for next year. Hopefully I can visit Greenland, its a bit more difficult to get to than I was expecting, but I'm stubborn so...

I managed to squeak through and finish my Halloween short.

It was originally going to just be a little gif, but then i kept adding stuff to it, and then i was like this would be cool with sound, and so i tapped Teravex and Magibauble to help a brotha out.

Kind of a tedious animation in hindsight. All keyframed and all luv. Here's some preliminary work below:

This was my initial rough, when it was just gonna be a gif. I start all my animations at 12 fps. I ended up changing how BF interacts with getting hit in the balls by the cork. But the idea is still there.

Now its comin together. In this version, the frame rate is 24fps now. I thought itd be fun to incorpate GF spilling booze on the server, much like she does when the site goes down. Thought the ng office would be fun. I eventually got rid of the beanbag chair and the beer can became a pumpkin in the foreground.

Now we're getting somewhere! GF almost done, at this point i am starting to change how bf reacts to the cork, still not sure what, but i didnt want him flying across, i wanted to play off the blue balls moment of the game.

After that, i just went all in and just went nuts to get it done, I would say from the version above till yesterday, i worked on it nonstop. It reminded me of the old time trial days, where i knew i had to get it done.

Teravex and Magibauble came in clutch with very little direction, im kinda awful at that but i'm lucky that people are able to take my vague direction and come up with something perfect.

Enjoi

Happy Madness Day!

I managed to finish a madness thingie that i woke up at 3am to submit for some reason. Its in an art portal near you.

I had stopped working on it for awhile and then when i got back from vacation i was like ok lets go and knocked it out.

I might start a new gif next week, i'm gonna just take the day off today and consume all the content coming in.

Other stuff:

I was in the Azores two weeks ago. It's like a series of Portuguese islands in the middle of the atlantic ocean. Kind of like a tropical Iceland... It was my second time there, I was back there in 2018 and its kind of a weird place because not much ever changes. They still don't have uber / lyft, the venues i went to back then were still around etc. I explored a different part of the island this time (the northern coast). We also took a boat out to an islet, which i didnt know was a thing. Its uninhabited nowadays. They tried to grow wine grapes there years ago and it failed so they turned the only building into locker rooms now. It looks kind of like cgi from an aerial view, its like an island with a giant hole in the middle with really shallow water. The water was actually cold so nope on swimming there although some people did.

I've been working a way to work on my gifs at work... i havent gotten in trouble yet so itll continue...

I'll be in Croatia later this year, never been there yet and that will wrap it up for this year i think.

Hello Autumn!

I had to read through my last news post to figure out what I can post about.

busy summer so far! This past weekend we had some ng folks from TooManyGames con in town. I am a bit bummed I wasn’t able to go to the office visit on Sunday but it is what it is. Photo dump below of that and the pico Day in NJ which was awesome.

I managed to finish a game with BoMToons we had been working through for ages. The ax throwing one I mentioned on and off at different podcasts etc. While you’ll need to fly over to Lisbon to play it, I’m quite excited to see people interact with my art in that way. Kudos to him for including me in such an unusual application.

One reason I was on a mad dash to finish it. We are heading back to work 5 days a week soon (later this month, although we are suing the city so who knows). Previously I’ve been going back to office two times a week. But I wanted to clear through any projects that would seriously hurt from not being able to be worked on during home office so.

i have some small projects coming out throughout the summer so stay tuned.

Pico Day NJ : some of my favorite people ninjamuffin, magibauble - he had a recent animation come out if ur into Zelda.

caught up with ZJ and Krinkels. Didn’t know anyone even owned an Anusboy t shirt anymore. Huh.

there’s been so much new fan ng merch lately it’s been a lot of fun to see after the long shutting of the ng store when I worked there. Fun pins by Mindchamber.

kind of a regular thing now at meets where people provide swag. Some custom for the event like the pico Day sticker in there. Also nightmare cops bust was impressive (not swag)

mindchamber had a working mindchamber mask which was really cool.

I didn’t take much fotos at TMG but got some swag. The stickers are from Tyler

there was Crazy Taxi outside of the convention center. I didn’t know he was giving people free rides. I was heading out anyways but still cool.

newgrounds spot was lively. We got shooed out pretty fast after our block was over so I got separated from the group and I got a offered a free ride closer to home so I took it and missed out on night shenanigans. Probably the most annoying thing of this convention is how far away it is.

on Saturday we skipped TMG to hang out with my old coworkers + Connor Grail. This was at the Barcade in center city.

Couple more people joined us later for an ol fashioned bar crawl (squidly & mech mantis)

that’s about it!

First and foremost, I released my Pico Day thing yesterday. I didn’t feel right holding it hostage for another two weeks. So f-it. I am pleased with the feedback and reception it’s gotten so thank u 🙏

I was interested in exploring multiple moments happening simultaneously in that animation. I wanted to feature newish characters in the ng universe. I think the piece works better with music but the 50x50s don’t have a ng account. Maybe when they do and upload that clip I can attach it to the bottom of my gif. If you’re curious, the mp4 version is on my Twitter. Which I often unplug depending on how burned out I feel. But this account is a constant atleast.

I have a summer gif I’m going to start working on soon.

If you are going to that giant NJ Pico Day event, I’ll see you there. I’ll send my luv to the Dublin Event the next day. It wasn’t in the cards to fly out to it but it’s in good hands i think. All the meets have been lately. It’s a giant weight off my back that the community itself is taking the helm at doing what it does best. Collaborating. I consider these events collabs in a way. Because I’ve seen people come home from them with fresh ideas and new people to collaborate with.

Ok bye ✌️

Spring is upon us. Time to refresh my news page.

Brandy recently announced the Pico Day Meet, you can find details in the link.

It's open to everyone and they will be showing some of the work on this website on a giant screen which was a highlight in Toronto meet last year.

If you are able to make it to New Jersey (gross) I do highly recommend it. Plus you can meet some of the creators of the animations, which is kind of cool. I'll probably be there, I currently have my passport in renewal mode, so I cant commit to the Ireland meet happening the next day, but if my passport shows up and it's not outrageous, i might take a red eye flight from the pico day event and wake up in Ireland the next day. Kind of insane but it's tempting...

As far as art stuff goes, I've been kicking around a new loop, still have a ways to go, but I'm happy with it so far.

I recently (yesterday) got back from Lithuania. One of my rando trips i take around this time of year. It was pretty fun (but cold).

I think the highlight was spotting a red haired character they use in their recycling containers. I figured maybe it’s Pico’s unknown cousin. I felt lucky I had a pico sticker in my bag from a past meet so I left it behind.

Time to get back to work! I think my next trip is to north Macedonia probably idk. I have raise funds again. In the meantime I’m back working on stuff.

here’s some fotos:

Haven't made an update in awhile. Been a bit busy since my last post, but I have been meaning to get back into the swing of things as my travels wrap up for this year and I get back into work mode!

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ART NEWS

With the launch of the new Art Portal, i was able to create a gif that could lay side by side with the preliminary rough. This was something I've always wanted to do, and I did do on some of my past gifs, but not side by side like you can now. I think there's a beauty in seeing the finished product but also where it began!

This is neither of those phases but rather an in-between process gif i didnt include, I dont usually work in pieces like this, again i'm just trying different things out, my focus this time, i was wondering if doing it in pieces i'm able to keep pico's head consistent even though its constantly changing into a new angle as he bounces around:

I've been doing all sorts of tweaks and explorations with my work this year. For instance, the soccer gif I made is done in 3s and at 30 fps. I have no rhyme or reason for some of my experiments, I just kinda say to myself what if i tweaked here or there. Makes it kind of fun, and also keeps you grounded in that you're always learning.

I FINALLY opened up my fla for the ax throwing game I've been shelving. I was recently motivated by the work Nick has been doing for his ax throwing company and while I've been itching to finish that up, I just kept getting side tracked.

It's a little bit rough getting back into a project that's been on hold, because you have to regain your style and mood that you were applying when you last worked on it. For this particular game, the sprites are huge and they use a 2px sloppy outline, that is a bit tedious and not anything like the current style I'm currently in (4px stroke with pillow shading). Here's a rough visual.

These sprites have very little shading, as they become distracting when its projected onto a textured wall, so miniminal and clear shapes are more important here. (Also chunky sprites that someone could throw an ax to).

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OTHER NEWS

I went to Boilvia a few weeks ago, I hadnt been back in over 20 years. Needless to say alot has changed (mostly for the good) maybe the political landscape always being in peril is the not so good part.

20 years ago, these cable cars didn't exist, so to see this web of modern cable cars whisking you through the mountainous city was something new, its super convenient, and I'm told some of the longest in the world. There have been no accidents yet so.

Something that I DID find familiar even from 20 years ago, is how many knock-off things there are in Bolivia.

Like Simpsons is still really popular, so restaurants will create knock off versions to lure people in. Like this fake Krusty burger place:

This one is kinda fun i guess

I had to look up this character but yeah they have a pizza steve place also:

I think i'll probably get back to my Europe travels next year, but it was cool to go back home. I'll try and not make it a 20 year gap next time.

Maybe.

Wrapping up August with another news post. We were at the NG office over the weekend shooting some footage for some documentary / extra content for the Madness project that Skell studio is working on.

Having missed the last few events in LA (Madness trailer screening , Mutt & Chops screening) it took Hans flying over here to finally get back to hanging out.

I've also not been to the NG office in years. I wasn't able to go after Too Many Games, and other opportunities that popped up. It was refreshing how much more NG art has started to adorn the walls.

It was kind of neat to see my old desk again, there is a before and after in the fotos below.

My desk circa 2011

My desk area 2023!

Some stuff never changes (good thing)

Dammit Cam....

This was one of the interview areas. Hans wanted a couple different locations within the office for variety, so while I did my interview on the orange couch, some others had different spots around the office.

I didn't know these were still around. I think they might be from 2009 or something?!

Troublemakers

Mindchamber was working on some Hank figurines. Kind of a neat proof of concept, where the arms can be swapped and interchanged with other weaponry etc. I'm curious what Swain's painted version will look like.

This was my side project, Bic lighters has this design your own section, and I was curious if they would reject my Darnell drawing but they went on and printed it. I thought it'd be a sticker but its actually part of the lighter itself so its just a smooth thing. Don't smoke btw, but if you do, Darnell approves.

That's it for now, I feel like I've been busy every weekend since the end of June (I have.). I even missed the Sublo and Tangy event in NYC a few weeks ago, but I am hopefully getting back to work on stuff in September.