Jazlyte took the time to break down some scenes from my most recent animation, and outlined what he would do to improve on it! The result is a video that I hope others can learn from, I certainly did!! Let me know if I should try to make more content like this

https://youtu.be/YFzDxhg25Fk

Sup newgrounds!

After over 2 years of slowly chipping away, I have a new short film to release to you all!

Here it is:

I want to try and create content more regularly, and maybe try to think of smaller projects that I can finish more quickly, so that there aren't such huge gaps between my content releases. Maybe switch gears and focus on art portal content rather than the animation portal.

I hope people enjoy the animation!

Sup Newgrounds, just decided that I would share my thoughts now that my latest cartoon has been released for a few days.

Universal Donor is actually my first EVER Daily First, despite all of the cartoons I've submitted over the years, I've only previously ever managed to get daily seconds. That's a pretty great accomplishment after such a long time in my opinion.

I have to say that the reason I felt inspired enough to make another cartoon, despite being so distracted with my work and other things for so many years, was attending Pico Day. When I finally had another chance to go to Pico Day again, I was absolutely blown away by how many artists and animators were still active in the community, and I felt overwhelmed with motivation to start animating again. The result was "Universal Donor", almost a year later. I think Newgrounds serves as a meeting place for animators to feed off of eachother and work together to keep making independent cartoons. Thanks to Newgrounds for continuing to affect my life during every stage of it, and never letting me forget that I am an artist at heart and that I need to keep doing this!

Sup newgrounds, first off, Happy Halloween! If you haven't yet, please take the time to check out my SPOOKY halloween animation Cadaver:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/605190

I wanted to take the time in this post to discuss the crucial role that collaboration has always played in my work on newgrounds. From House of 1000 Cats, to my most recent animation, Cadaver, collaboration has always been the key. Especially recently, with my time being eaten up so much by school and other commitments, the only way I can complete projects is to collaborate. I've never been the best artist, or animator. But my most consistent strength is my ability to ask for help when I need it.

House of 1000 Cats:
Back almost 5 years ago, and still my most ambitious project to date, in terms of scale. I was very lucky to have Afro-Ninja and Eronn on my team for this one. Remember how awesome the intro screen was, with the bloody metal, and the scene select? Afro Ninja was responsible for all of that. Not only was it functional, but it looked so much more professional and appealing than I could have made it. Interface design is a huge weakness of mine, but Afro Ninja has mastered the art. And remember the 'introduction' with all of the screenshots of previous flashes scrolling through? I simply explained the idea to him, sent him the screenshots, and he made it happen. It's important to realize that if I were to do this scene myself, I would have had to individually tween each screenshot one by one. With my lack of knowledge, this is the only way I could have done it. It would have taken me weeks, but with Afro Ninja's AS3.0 knowledge, he was able to make the entire thing in a day, and he made it look more precise and impactful than I could have. Not to mention Eronn, who animated the flashback scene and the dialogue between Tom Fulp and Justin Timberlake, scenes which I otherwise would have had to cut out completely due to time restraints. The flashback, in particular, ended up being possibly the most successful and important scene in the entire animation. Eronn did such a good job with it, and wasn't afraid to bring a fresh style into the mix. FInally, with newgrounds celebrities Luis and Mindchamber voice acting, the animation was further enhanced.

Pico Portal Party: This collaboration was Fleckogold's idea from the beginning. He wanted to assemble the best animators possible to have Pico represented in many different 'genres' unique to Newgrounds. That April I had a brutal exam schedule, and it was a year where my grades were particularly important, so I couldn't animate much. The collaboration was perfect for me, because it gave me the opportunity to make something small but not have it stand alone, and instead be seen alongside some great animations. On its own, my animation that year was pretty weak, but as a piece of the whole collaboration, it was greatly enhanced.

Pico Pinata Party: Again, Afro Ninja provided the title screens, buttons, etc. Again, he did a great job. The interesting part of this flash was the dynamic of the collaboration between myself and Hulalaoo. The way we set it up, not only made it possible for me to finish the flash, but it played a huge factor in the motivation. This again was a difficult year for me in terms of school, but the motivation I got from working with Hulalaoo was invaluable. Failure to complete animation was NOT an option for either of us, since we were both relying on each other for our animations to come together. This goes to show the importance of collaboration not only to improve quality, but also to encourage eachother to keep working and making time to animate.

Cadaver: My most recent animation, and another example of how important collaboration has been for me. Firstly, working with the musician Chris Yenney was incredible. I usually manage to find some really good stuff on the audio portal, but it takes months of sorting through crap, and it's rare to find a 'perfect' song. I usually have to settle on something that's 'good enough'. But to have a score that was perfectly synced to my work gave me more freedom as an animator than ever before. Not only that, but the fact that I HAD to get the animation done in time for him to score it put the pressure on me to stay on top of my time management to get it done in time. Finally, the inbetweening provided by Jaxxy (from Yotta Studios) made it possible to get this flash done. All I had to do was send her the keyframes, and she filled in the extra frames perfectly. Without this help, entire scenes would have had to have been cut from the final flash, or they would have just looked choppy, because I only have so much time myself.

I have always been lucky that when I ask for help, I manage to find people so perfectly skilled for the tasks I need, that the final results of my projects represent the strengths of each contributer. Newgrounds is an incredible hub for networking between independent artists, so that together we can combine our strenghts to make things that would never have been possible otherwise.

One type of collaboration that I've wanted to explore further is working together with programmers on games. Jungle Destruction with EviLudy was a great success, in my opinion, but I have been unable to find consistent, dedicated programmers to collaborate with since that project, almost 4 years ago. If there are any programmers who want to work with me, please contact me :)

How has collaboration affected YOUR work as an artist?

Sup Newgrounds,

If you remember when I posted a video from my friend's Youtube channel where he showcases his music, well here's another video from him:

Also, I'm going to have a flash out for halloween this year. I hope it gives you all a good scare. Here's a screenshot.

So Jazlyte and I collaborated on a Robot Day cartoon this year. We managed to land 2nd place! Thanks everyone for the supportive comments. We got a fair bit of criticism too which is always appreciated, and which we will consider when working on future projects. Maybe a second Robot Day flash for next year?

In other news, I've set in motion all the necessary preparations such that I am now fully committed to releasing a flash this year for Halloween. So basically, expect another flash to be released by me in October.

PS: I am in a very collaborative mood this year. If all goes according to plan, I should have a collaborative flash or two out with the remainder of this year. Anybody out there looking for a collaborator on one of their projects? Feel free to leave a comment.

Jazlyte and I tagteamed on a robot day flash. Check it out!

I haven't been making much flash lately, because I have been pretty busy with school and other things. But from now on I hope to keep pumping out more and more animations for newgrounds. I already have a storyboard for my next flash in the works, and Jazlyte and I are planning our next collaboration after that.

watch it here:
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/598916?upd ated=1

Also Jazlyte came up with the title, I'm not really sure what it means :P what do YOU think it means?

Here is a very talented youtube musician that I wanted to share with you guys. He has submitted a number of his covers onto youtube so far, and he brings his unique musical flair to every song he performs, while maintaining the essence of the original composition.

Here is his cover of Ron Pope's "A Drop in the Ocean", one of my favourites of his. Check his stuff out!

Sup newgrounds,

So I hope ppl enjoyed "Picoday Pinata Party", my latest flash that was released this Pico Day, which was a collaberative effort between myself, hulalaoo, and afro-ninja. We all worked REALLY hard on it and all the nice comments truly make it all worth it.

I'm sorry I haven't been responding to the reviews. I'll start responding now that I'm back home. I was visiting the newgrounds HQ for the past couple of days, and didn't have the time to respond then. So if you wrote a review expect a response soon!

To everyone from newgrounds that I met over the last few days, it was a real pleasure. I hope to see you guys around again at some point.

Sincerely,
Zombie-Pimp

I am releasing a Pico Day movie this year again. So far, I've teamed up with two other NG users.

Hint: One of them is a 79 year old Argentinian.