I've pretty much been on Flash sabatical ever since junior year at high school this year, not only due to the fact that my workload has been crazier than normal, but because this year I've been focused on improving my art skills and really getting serious about my art. I've been taking a commercial art class at school, so I have plenty of art pieces, some of which I've uploaded already. So far I haven't been scouted yet, and I'm not going to ask or beg anyone to do so, but I will say that I would really appreciate it if someone scouted me.

I'm glad Newgrounds has an art portal now. I've been wanting to submit something for a while now, but never had the time or ideas to make a new flash. Now there's the art portal, something I actually came prepared for. Aside from my art class projects, I have a new colored pencil drawing in the works and my mom's boyfriend is paying me to do a logo for his boat, so I hope that goes well. Anyway, expect more art from me in the near future.

Yup, it's a post alright.

I'm not sure why I bother writing these. The blog section on newgrounds gets very little attention if you haven't won an award. I guess I just write them for me. I like to write. People have always told me I'm a good writer, but it wasn't until maybe two years ago I started taking writing into consideration. Now I love doing it, unless it's for school. You know how it is.

Anyway, I just got back from Boston after taking a three-day class at the New England Institute of Art. I had absolutely no idea what to excpect for this course, especially since I kept not listening when my mom was telling me about it. During summer, I think I lose a bit of judgement as to what I should tune out and what I shouldn't. But apparently, there wasn't much to hear, other than travel dates. Really they told us next to nothing about the class itself.

Basically, the class was an into to Flash. Not really something I need, as I've been teaching myself flash since 2005. Needless to say, I had most of it down. Everything except the dreaded walk cycle. I never got the hang of it, and it's the reason I cut my characters off at the waist when possible. Being the one thing I had trouble with, I was determined to learn all about it. What I came away with was not only the best walk cycle I've ever made, but some of the best animation quality I've ever done. It was worth it just for that.

I was also able to use a tablet for the first time. I've always drawn with a mouse, which has worked fine, but being able to have something so close to an actual drawing experience made a crazy amount of difference. Too bad the ones we used in the class go for anywhere between four and five hundred dollars. Great, yet another thing to add to my list of expensive elecronics I can't afford.

All in all, I had a great time and learned a few new things in flash and even some of the history of animation, one of the only interesting types of history there is if you ask me. Still though, I'm glad to get back to Portland. However, now in a few hours I'm going up to my dad's house in Orono, a small town about two and a half hours from here. While I don't mind going, less than a day back home seems short for my second two-hour ride today, full of wishing I'd buy DS games more frequently and not really knowing what I'm going to do once I get there. My dad's house doesn't have flash, so my latest project will be delayed at least a week before I can get it finished and submitted. The actual animation is completely done, and all I need is some time to finish the credits and a few other small details. I'm really proud of it and can't wait to submit it, hopefully before school starts.

Maybe I'll post again while I'm over there, but for now, I've got to get packing.
-ThePatstar

Greetings to all my fan, and welcome to my second post!

First of all, I regret to announce that my origional deadline of July 30th for my next flash(and the potenial beginning of a series) will probably, at this point, not be met. Here's why:

In this scene I've been animating for like a freaking month, I've put a good deal of attention to detail in my animation and visuals(or at least more than I have in the past). I started this scene egarly awaiting the point in which I'd be able to finish it.

Unfortunately, I did not consider how long it was, and the fact that I was now working for long periods of time on single frames. As a result, the production time of this scene was outstretched far beyond my prediction. At one point, after putting in a fair amount of effort, I stupidly decided to see how much longer I'd have to go until I'd finish it. I found out that I was only less than halfway there.

Things went downhill from here. I began to debate with myself about whether or not this scene was worth it, or if I should just cut it. But I decided to continue, since it was the only way I could think of to incorporate a certain character I wanted in the flash.

The character's name is Warp. He's a fast-moving, fast-talking robot who looks funny. Unfortunately, when I showed it to my mom, she said he talks too fast and couldn't understand a word of what he was saying. I felt like I could understand it well enough, but the more I listened to his computer-generated speed voice, the more I thought maybe it was too fast. Great, another thing to worry about.

He's also really hard to animate. At first I was thinking, "Hey, this isn't so bad," but it got more complicated and I feel as though maybe I'm doing a sloppy job animating him in the later part of the scene. Lately I've only worked on him a little bit at a time, since my patience for this scene is running real low. At this point, I have no clue when it'll get finished.

So, I've concluded that the side effects of attention to detail are as follows:

Longer production time (obviously)
Lack of motivation
Maybe doing a sloppier job at the end
Paranoia about certain flaws in the project
An overall much better product (plus I get all those other things too! Yay, endless funtime!)

The way I see it, there's really no way to get rid of those side effects(except that last one) untill it's done. So, I guess I'll take my remaining scrap of hopefullness to the open flash project in the other window and get this overwith. I'm actually almost done with this scene, so wish me luck!

Until I post again,
-ThePatstar

Also, here's a screenshot of the scene. I'll probably post again to talk about the story and details.

Welcome, one and...possibly more than one? to my first ever news post.

First of all, for those of you who enjoyed A Pikmin Story submitted during the summer of last year (or the ones just checking it out now since I mentioned it), no, I'm not dead, just real lazy. I've been working on the first flash in my new series for some time now, and I'm still working on it.

In case your eyes bypassed the subject line completely, I am writing this to set for myself a deadline for this flash. During the production of A Pikmin Story, I did not have any kind of deadline, therefore spent way too much time doing next to nothing. I've concluded that the only way I'm going to get this done in a desent...deecent...dicent...good amount of time, is to give myself the D-word.

My deadline for my next cartoon will be July 30th...yeah, that'll work.

Now that that's overwith, I promise to work as hard as possible so my excuse for not finishing it then will be something other than the fact that I'm lazy.

Well, I'm going to work my ass off in a panicy frenzy wondering what the fuck I just did that for. Maybe I'll post again, but until then, It's Flash time.