Once upon a time, cartoons had characters, now these characters of course had voices and the voices are what made them who they were, indeed, the voices are what brought them to life. But the cartoon characters themselves where always the stars.

Fast forward many a decade to our current time. Every time a new animated feature comes out who are the focus? Is it the characters? Ha ha, the characters arent important, no its the actors voicing the characters that are the stars. Thats not to say that most actors don't do a good job, but more so that the characters themselves are really just shells, nobody cares about the characters anymore, its all about the celebrity behind it.

This seems to be a trend thats followed threw to here. Now all you need to do for a cartoon to be considered good is to get another popular animator to put their voice into it, make sure you plaster there name all over everything and hey bingo, you got yourself a good movie. Better yet, to be a good voice actor all you need to do is make a funny voice. Emphasis, subtle character traits, personality? Pffft, thats not what makes a character come to life, nah, just give em a funny voice and you got yourself a winner. Bonus points for screaming and talking jibberish. After all, the characters dont matter, its the voice actor behind it thats the real star of the show.

Ofcourse this is all merely my opinion, and personally, i think the only good voice actor on this site is David Firth, with each character being a complete individual with tonnes of little details in the personality and voice delivery that everyone else here lacks, not to mention his reoccurring characters are always consistent. Tho i know alot of people here will argue the point because of the lack of diversity in his accents. Or maybe its just the fact his characters dont sound like anime dubbing which is the most i can say for most of the other "voice actors" here. Not that theres anything wrong with that, but not everything needs to sound like that.

So heres the fun part, what do other people here think.

Also here is me as a pirate, because im cool like that.

Because heres your chance. As ive stated in previous journals, im working on a music video with a certain other NG animator thats destined for TV. Most likely only Australian TV, but TV all the same. It just so happens that this video will contain quite a few crowd scenes and oppertunities for cameos. We thought it would be a good oppertunity for some fun. Sooo, all you have to do is simple, just get a pic of a character model or design or whatever, upload it to photobucket or whatever and paste the link in this journal. Its that easy. Depending on how many people send things in i cant garentee every character will get in, and we will no doubt be gravitated more to characters that are visually interesting, so keep that in mind. Just remember this isnt a competition, this is just an oppertunity for your character to end up somewhere they might not have ever got to otherwise. You have a week, so ill make another journal in 7 days time announcing who got in and whatever else, so in the mean time, start sending in your characters.

Also heres a picture of a guy stealing water melons, it didnt come out as well as id hopped and ive been too busy to draw much lately :(

And so here i was, thinking, as i often do. What does it REALLY mean to be a good animator. Now before i get bombarded with replies about amazing frame by frame animation at a sleek 24fps with great construction and blah blah, let me explain.

First of all i want to break it down into the types of animators that seem to be floating these parts, atleast the way i see it. There are animators, and there are film makers. Animators main focus tends to be, well, obviously on the animation itself, story, sound, writing, whatever, it all takes second place to the animation. These people as far as i can see tend to be interested in working in working at Cartoon Network or wherever, some want to have there own series there, others just want to do the bits inbetween. Either way they are more then happy to work for the man.

Then there are the film makers, these are the people that use animation as a tool, its merely a means to an end. The animation isnt whats important, but rather the story and characters behind it. These people (David Firth and The Swain being a prime example) seem to be more interested in just making whatever the hell they want, using whatever medium or style they want, to make whatever story they want. They tend to have no interest in getting into commercial animation and are more interested in just doing whatever they have to do to support there film making.

Ofcourse, then there are the subgroups withing these, which once again have further sub groups within them, and it goes on and on. But in essence, this is how i would break things down into the simplest way possible. But the reason i bring it up is for other peoples opinions.

Naturally from here i spun off into thought about people that make flash based entirely around known quantities in order to attain internet and sometimes even offline "success". An obvious example being the Awesome series. Which, Egoraptor claims he didnt intend to get as big as it did, and maybe he didnt, but i couldnt help but wonder what would have happened if he released "Awesome Grocery Shopping" or "Awesome Tire Changing" instead of Metal Gear Awesome all those years ago. Would it have taken off? I highly doubt it, so then what really was the cause for his success? Egoraptor? The film itself? Mr Fulp? Or the game behind it? Had he released his "awesome" dig dug toon first would the series be the juggernaut it is today? Who can say.

The same could be said of any animator that rellies on a known quantity to be noticed.

These are just questions im putting out there, and im interested in hearing peoples thoughts.

Here is a cute baby as thank you.

And so my trend of both baiting and switching continues.

Hello everybody. (Hello Gerkinman!)

So i released a new cartoon yesterday, you can find it here. You should go check it out and tell me what you think :)

Spaceman Bob and the Time Apple

But thats not what this blog is actually about, oh no, ive got something far more important on my agenda. Sometimes i find something so amazing, so brilliant, i cant help but share it with the world, this is one of those times. A game has just been released on the Wii Virtual Console, a game with a unique personality. Whats that word? Unique? Surely not, how could such a thing exist in the game world? Well, it just so happens not everything that comes out of Japan is shit. Indeed, i found this little gem.

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I had never seen anything so beautifully gay and unique in my life. Why arent more video games like this? Why arent there more flash cartoons like this? Why hasnt Del Toro made a movie out of this? These questions will forever remain unanswered. But one thing is for certain, nobody on this website will ever match its majesty.

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Im going to keep this quick and simple, im about 7 hours into the game and i have been playing on normal difficulty. Im already up to the space stage, something i will say nothing about, i will however devulge into the other stages. So here we go.

Cell Stage:
It was really short, about 20 minutes maybe, not all that many parts to choose from for your creature, but then again you dont really need many. The controls are simple, all the water effects and whatnot are pretty, infact i dare say its the prettiest part of the game. I ended up going with Carnivore, and it was alot of fun.

Creature Stage:
I didnt enjoy this stage so much, its probably my fault for not getting in on any of the social aspects of the game, i just went in and killed everything i saw. This was tedious and not all that fun, thankfully the stage doesnt last all that long. The only thing i really noticed about the stage is its really only there to let you run around and find parts to design your creature with, which oddly enough, become valueless once the stage is complete for anything other then just looks sake.

Tribal Stage:
This, for me, has been the most dissapointing part of the game, its an RTS to be sure, but its incredibly simple, one resource, one unit. Just build numbers and off you go. I just found it kind of boring, it felt more like a tutorial wacked into the middle of the game rather then a new stage. Also since i wasnt all that friendly in creature stage nobody wanted to befriend me in tribal, so no socialising for me :(

Civilization Stage:
This is where the fun really begun, this is where it all came together for me. We go from one unit to 3, all designed by the user, designing all your own buildings. Yes, this is where the fun really started for me, fuck the creature editor, the vehicle and building editors are where its at, i can actually see them being practical tools for my animations even, ive never been good at drawing cars for example, but now i can just build it in 3D, screen grab and vector, hey presto. The gameplay itself? This was the first part of the game since Cell i can honestly say i had fun, and alot of fun it was. I look forward to playing threw again a little more peacefully earlier on so i can try some diplomacy next time, since being the facist i had been had made this stage pretty difficult.

So uhhh, theres some thoughts? All in all, its a neat little package.

In other news, heres a new pic.

Most people these days know im a big fan of Pink Floyd and that they have been influencing my work a bit lately. But to most people Pink Floyd are nothing more then "Dark Side of The Moon" and the song "Another Brick in the Wall". Along with this there is also the fact that they collaborated with Geralde Scarfe on alot of there videos. Some of you may know him as the character designer for Disneys Hercules, but long before that he was (and still is) the king of politcal cartoons in England. So here is a short rundown all of Pink Floyds animated music videos, the first one Geralde Scarfe had nothign to do with, but everything after that was directed by him.

One of these days

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Welcome to the Machine

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The rest of these are from the film version of "The Wall". Sadly alot of the other animation done for Pink Floyd never left the concerts.

Goodbye blue sky

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Empty Spaces

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Waiting for the worms

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The trial

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Theres 2 songs by Pink Floyd id really like to make animations out of, both of them in this list, tho witch ones im not telling. I doubt ill ever get around to it tho.

Anyways, maybe next time i post ill have some real news, then again, maybe not, i guess we will have to wait to find out. In the mean time, heres some fanart i did based on Welcome to the Machine.

Because im going home to work on some freelance work. Yes indeed, ive had a rather large well paying animation job come in, why you ask? I dont know, i dont think im particularly worthy for such a thing, this thing being a music video that will be used in international marketing, i guess it just helps to know the right people. As i said, i dont think im particularly worthy, but ive asked a certain someone for help and im sure together we can make something special. Why am i telling you this? Because this is a news blog, and i consider it news. And ill no doubt be giving out progress updates over time.

What does it mean for my other projects is the real question. Ive already sworn to 2 collabs, one being quite a large task in itself. Along with that there were all my own shorts. I dont know what will happen, i guess ill just have to do a little bit here and there to get things done. Ontop of that i have some other people wanting some shorts done for their band, its all crazy. Hopefully at the very least ill be able to make some new Asparagus shorts, they are alot of fun and dont take a long time to put together, but we will see.

Also for those that missed it, heres a little something i released on Clockday, nothing special, just bits and pieces of Metal Gear related goodies, and by goodies i mean shit, because Metal Gear is a self indulgent load of shit, no offense to the fans.

Gerkin Gear Solid

And lastly, heres a picture of Skeletor i drawed all by my little old self. I did the front hand first, looking back at it i wished i did it the same way as i did his left hand... :(

Sometimes i wonder how this place really works. Then i wonder even harder about if there is a pattern for success here. I dont know. Anyways, i have a new flash out, as of now, strangely enough titled "Behind the Flash". I was excited about releasing this new cartoon, not because of the content, not because of the characters, but because after a 2 year hiatus "Behind the Flash" was the relaunch of the Nimbin Series and Universe, something i hold very close to me. As of this moment it is hovering at 3.17, not exactly the best that people are interested.

Behind The Flash

Maybe its because its short, maybe its because of the content. I guess it doesnt matter in the end, ill try another few episodes and then go from there. Its just frustrating when you spend so long working out a universe, working out the characters, so on and so forth only to find nobody really cares, i guess i should have learned that lesson with the first series of Nimbin. Im not the kind of person that complains about scores and the number of hits something gets, but it would kind of be nice to get some recognition some day. Even with "Break on Through", something i spent a few months on (on and off, and i know that it was by no means even close to perfect), it hit front page (which im still shocked by, thanks Tom) barely made a ripple in the community compare to everything else that was front paged around the same time. Why was that? I dont know. The Newgrounds community is as easy to predict as it is impossible. In the end tho it doesnt change anything, if i was doing this for other peoples enjoyment, for the pats on the back and the emails asking me to teach someone flash, id go back to what i was doing in 2004, tweening mario around. But thats not why im here, im here to leave a thumbprint, to remind people theres more then one way to make a flash cartoon, theres more then one way to tell a story, and theres more then one story to tell.

That said, upcoming movie news.

Hush: I started work on again last night, id be crazy to try to predict when it will be finished, but it should be some time within the next few months.

Nimbin: I have 2 shorts started, one almost entirely storyboarded (the animated kind mind you). No dates on these yet either. On the plus side they dont take all that long to animate.

John The Fisherman: My friend who was here when i was filming accidently took my storyboards home, i have no idea when they will arrive in the mail, but ill be starting that day.

And im in talks with someone about turning a 10 track EP he did into a 10 episode animated series, all done with sprites. My own sprites mind you, at the moment its more of a project for next year, but we will see what happens.

Now heres a comic by Gerkinman (the character, not me). Hes an internet celebrity in the world of Nimbin for his highly original and endlessly clever webcomic "The Video Game Comic"

When people think of Australians on this site i get the feeling they usually think of either Adam Phillips or Rubberninja. Adam Phillips is the only one of the 2 i think actually makes Australianish cartoons (Hitch Hiker being an obvious example), so ill stop talking about Rubberninja as of now. But after some digging i found 2 other guys i think are rockin pretty hard. As bold as it sounds i think Australia has some of the best writers on this website.
Ive been a big fan of Sexual Lobster since way back in 2004, but for some reason i never picked up on his accent, i always knew there was something about it, but it didnt know what it was. Im kinda slapping myself in the face now. Turns out he lives not far from here. But back on topic, ive never been a fan of dialogue driven cartoons, i always found it to be kind of a waste of the animation medium. Yet Mr Lobster has created characters and uses dialogue i dont think would work in any other medium. His animation is also really nice too boot. Everything he does feels distinctly australian, whether its the voices or just the humour in general, and people seem to love it, i dont understand why theyre arent more Australians doing this sort of stuff.
Now Cameron Clunes on the other hand i only just discovered recently. I dont know how i missed his cartoons up until now. While his animation is ususually rather limited, his dialogue never ceases to crack me up. And while only a few of his toons rather really Australian, his writing always carries the animation beautifully, which is incredibly hard to pull off.
I know there are alot of other Aussie authurs out there, so if you are leave a comment so i can go check out ya stuff.

In other news, heres a video of me and my friend who also happens to be named Daniel dancing like the big ghey faggots we are. Dancing is fun. Id love to make more of these sort of videos, theyre simple and just a heap of fun to make.

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And to finish things off, heres a cowboy...

Oh ho!

Bait and Switched again!

Anyways, time for some news, as i sometimes like to tell people about whats going on in my life rather then focusing on the negatives surrounding the flash "community". So what is this news i speak of?

Well first of all, Break on Through, my second "real" solo effort for this year has been released, and relatively well received. I dont know whether to thank The Doors for its success or the Newgrounds community. Ill let you people make up your own minds. For those who havent seen the cartoon yet, you can find it here.

Break On Through

And while keeping on that topic, last week i uploaded the second episode of my Ultimate Asparagus series to Newgrounds in its original format for the first time. It didnt do as well as i was hoping, but what can you do. I kind of like prefer the animation (if you can call it that) over live action style rather then the darker grittier style i used in "Episode 3: Whats that Sound" So any future Asparagus cartoons will be done the live action way, its just too much fun. For those that missed it the cartoon can be found here.

Oh Noez Land Shark

As for future projects, my next cartoon is pretty much finished, im just waiting on lines from Rina Chan, and if she cant get them to me for whatever reason i think i might ask SqueakyToad to take her place...as herself. So that should be fun and/or confusing. Look out for "Behind The Flash"... sometime in the future.

Also on the way, now Break On Through is done, is Hush. It will be my main focus. I have spoke about this flash a few times before, its essentially just a look at my day to day life, displayed in a cartoony and metaphorical way. For example my boss obviously isnt a robot in real life, but his in this.

And lastly, i have a short film storyboarded id like to have done in time for a local film festival. Its called John the Fisherman (after the Primus song, tho the song doesnt feature in the cartoon anywhere). Its just about an old man that goes fishing in the same spot everyday like clockwork, but never catches anything. It will be made the same way as the second Asparagus cartoon, with live action backgrounds. Ive decided to go with this format to keep the film feeling local and gritty, so hopefully that will come out nicely aswell.

On a completely unrelated note to flash, my pet rabbit was stolen from me this weekend. So that kind of sucks. And uhhh... thats all for now. See you again same time next week.

Heres a Frenchman i drew. :)