Hey everybody!

Hey everybody!  Lots of happenings!  BIG post!

Personal Stuff

Prankster Planet

The show I worked on for Primal Screen premieres tomorrow!  I had a lot of fun working on the show and I LEARNED SO MUCH.  It helps when you've got a fantastic lead animator like Mr. Justin Hamrick (thanks again man).  Here's a promo for the show:

Make sure you check it out tomorrow!  Check your local listings, but where I am, it premieres at 9:30pm on Blue Ridge PBS HD.

UPDATE:  The first episode is online!  Check it out here: http://to.pbs.org/laMbpu

Weird Korey music video

I've got the Flash rigs mostly done, so now I'm storyboarding the video out.  The most complicated parts are going to be the very beginning and end (well, it has the most acting).  I've posted the animatics up on my Tumblr, but here they are for you.

Here’s a small clip of the animatic of what I’m changing in the beginning of my music vid.  At first, there was just a clumsy cut to all the clips of the characters.  Now, I’m going to hook the beginning and the end of the vid together with the Cat in the Hat making Korey go INTO the book and then meeting up with him at the end.

Here’s the animatic clip for the end of the video.  I didn’t add camera moves…  but there are camera moves!  The arm jab at the end was a last minute add.  Does it work?  I added the logo cards as well.

I want to get this done so I can add the animation from this and from Prankster Planet to the new demo reel.  I'll update you as that happens.

GoAnimate Stuff

Harry Partridge's GoAnimate cartoon and my thoughts...

Just in case you haven't seen it:

I posted in the GoAnimate forums that I would blog about it...  so I'll say a little something here.

A day or two after he posted this, Harry added a disclaimer to his video saying that he was indifferent to the website and he wasn't going to "go postal on someone who wants to use some gimmicky animation software".  Well, if this is honestly a joke, I kinda feel sorry for him.  It seems that the subject was an "elephant in the room" among Flash users and he smashed open a hornet's nest.  The comments have been to both extremes, calling Harry "brilliant", "heroic" and "amazing"...  as well as "insecure", "snarky",  "gone off the deep end" and some curse words I won't say here.  There have been response videos made and comments back and forth...

I've had some harsh words myself, calling Harry a "grumpy elitist" on Twitter, but I don't think that's accurate and I take it back.  I think what this really is...  and not just from Harry, but from the Newgrounds community as a whole, is more akin to conservative extremism...  and that's absolutely acceptable okay in this specific case.  Who among us animators hasn't learned from Frank and Ollie or Termite Terrace...  and wished animation production could be more like that again? (it really should)  However, you can't ignore that Geico commercial that used Xtranormal...  or that I messed around and got into a freakin film festival with GoAnimate.  SOMETHING is going on...

The main argument from them has been that GoAnimate isn't an appropriate tool to teach animation.  To that, here's one of my posts on Cartoon Brew:

My sister’s son is interested in animation and how it’s made. He’s 9 years old.  So, I did what you guys are saying. First, I took him to a film festival where a friend of mine did a demonstration of Maya. He said “That looks so hard” and he got discouraged. Then, I sat him down myself with Flash and a Wacom tablet. He understood a little better, but his skill level and his taste in what he wanted to see didn’t match up, if that makes any sense, and he got discouraged again.  It was GoAnimate that made his eyes light up and get excited. It’s GoAnimate that’s making him pull out that sketchbook and draw and “storyboard” what he wants to do in it.  Would I be happier if he were a prodigy and instantly understood Maya and Flash and could draw classically and all that? Yes, of course I would. But, while he’s beginning to practice to draw and learn, GoAnimate is that fun animation toy that he can use to keep him excited and I can pat him on the back and say “good job”. I don’t see anything wrong with that.

My stuff

My Easter card to the GoAnimate community.  It got over 10,000 views in two weeks.

Well, I've had a few of my cartoons there pass the 10,000 views mark and i'm averaging above 2,000 views a day, which is pretty cool for a little site like that.  The usefulness of that fanbase will come in handy when I start producing completely within Flash, which is going to be very, very soon.  Maybe I'll post up at Newgrounds!  How funny would that be!  ...actually, that's been my plan all along, hehe.  I'm already thinking of shorts, getting my series off the ground, as well as some possible teamups, including those Reverse Enginears guys maybe perhaps!

 --

I'll keep you informed as things progress!  Cheers!

Hey everybody!

I pulled a HUGE April Fools joke on the community at GoAnimate!  Check this out:

That crayon colored Sonic is available in the community section of the GoAnimate Studio too, haha!

It got a mixed response, like I thought.  My favorite response was from user delt38: "THAT WAS MESSED UP MAN! YOU HAD ME ALL EXCITED AND STUFF. YOU'RE EVIL JUST PLAIN EVIL."  Haha, oh man!  Most folks thought it was hilarious though.  It's only been up for a week and its just passed over 6,000 views, 200 recommendations and 80 Facebook Likes as of this writing...  that's pretty huge for GoAnimate.  

So, I created this peace offering.  I made a quick little vid showing the full Sonic flash rig.

This one's got over a thousand views.  They love their Sonic, don't they?

I felt kinda bad since everyone seems to really want a Sonic available to animate with, so I did ask SEGA over Twitter about some sort of permission rights.  They said no.  So, I guess that's that.  Lawsuit bad.

Oh, and I started a Tumblr!  Check it out here.  Don't worry, I'll still post here...  the Tumblr is purely for art and animation.  But I'll post stuff here too!  Here's some rigs from my music video project.

I'll post more as things develop!  Cheers!

I’ve put my personal projects on hold to focus on the work for Primal Screen, but I’m gonna have the time soon to focus on one more personal Flash project to fill the demo reel out. That’s right, my demo reel!  I’m really excited about finally making one and all suggestions for music are welcome.

More updates as they come folks!  Cheers!

Hi guys, thought I’d share another batch of storyboards from the ol’ festival film redo. 

This is the sequence where an unsuspecting kid runs across an abandoned coat in the playground, puts it on and becomes the villain Raincoat.  As I discussed over at the Jamari Animated blog (which I think I’m gonna shut down and make a private blog for donors), this way, when Jamari beats him, he’s not beating the kid specifically.  He’s beating the “sin” that held the kid captive.  It also gives the character the backstory that Miss Karen wanted to see.  What do you think?  More boards as I get them drawn.

Hi everyone!

This is a long overdue update, for BOTH blogs, sorry guys.  I am still working on stuff, I promise!  There’s just a lot of positive things happening to find the time to sit and blog….  For this post, to save time, I’m combining my usual blog post with a Jamari Animated post, hope you guys don’t mind.

The BIG News

For those that don’t already know, my GoAnimate shorts “The Wolfman Trailer” and “Them Bones” are now OFFICIAL SELECTIONS in Hollywood Shorts’ 4^th Annual African American Shortfest at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, CA next month!  Here’s the official announcement here:

http://blog.hollywoodshorts.com/2011/01/shortsfest-official-selections-announced-1611/

Except for GoAnimate CEO Alvin Hung’s presentations at Comic-Con and Tedx, this is the first time GoAnimate created short films have been showcased in a major film festival.  In case you missed them, here are the shorts to be included in the festival:

I’m SO shocked I made the cut and SO honored, thank you so much Hollywood Shorts.  I really thought that Jamari Animated would be my festival debut, but this is great, I’ll take it!

Only problem is…  I can’t afford to go.  A good friend suggested I start a Kickstarter page to raise the money to go, so…  I sent the idea to Kickstarter for approval.  We’ll see what they end up saying and I’ll keep you all informed.

Jamari Animated

I’m still drawing away on my big festival film.  Here are the new roughed boards for the end of the opening sequence.  I’m gonna have to work a lot rougher and a lot faster….  GOTTA get this thing out of pre-production.

I’m an Associate Producer!

I’m proud to support the YouTube sensation Pogo with his international World Remix project.  At the time of this writing, I’m one of the lucky 88 Associate Producers helping to make this happen.  Check out the Kickstarter video!

I'll be back with updates on Buffalo Force, the Weird Korey project and my Tribe of Noise project.

Cheers everyone!

Hey everyone! 

Wow, its been a long time since I’ve made a blog post!!  Well, I’m back with a quick update with what’s been going on.

My Christmas card featuring Natalie Brown

Some of you may remember my Christmas card I made last year in defiance of everyone making those “Elf Yourself” videos.  Well, Natalie Brown sang the song I used.  Ever since she saw that card, we’ve been good friends.  I used another one of her songs again this year in my new card.  I made the singer character a redhead like Natalie this time!!

Here is the 2009 card, Jingle Bells and the 2010 card, Give Love on Christmas Day.

GoAnimate.com: Jingle Bells by Chaostoon

GoAnimate.com: Give Love on Christmas Day by Chaostoon

Tribute to my Dad

Thanks to everyone who has sent all the wonderful messages about the passing of my Dad.  He suffered a heart attack and a stroke last year and developed congestive heart failure this year.  He is no longer suffering so that is a blessing.

Here is the tribute that I made for him.

Projects

I know, I know!  I’m working on it! 

Look for new updates on Jamari Animated, Buffalo Force, my team up with Weird Korey and more.

Updates as I get them guys!

I know a lot of you were looking forward to something special from me for Thanksgiving.  ....and I was planning on something great!

However, God had other plans.  I want to thank everyone who sent their well wishes upon the news that my Dad passed away last week.  I'm sorry everyone, but I just haven't been in the mood to work on my cartoon.

Instead, I'm going to re-release my holiday cartoons.  You may remember that my Dad was the voice of Santa in Jamari and Bralyn's Christmas Special, winner of the GoAnimate Christmas contest last year.  That will be re-released as well as my Jingle Bells music video on Friday.

Thanks again for your support, and I promise, I will be back.

Hey everyone, quick update on what I’m up to.

Well, I have a very unique problem.  I was working on a lot of personal projects… but lately my time is getting edged out for bigger and paying projects.  I WANT to get that personal stuff done…  but I like money…  and I like the opportunity I’m getting…  I promise, it WILL all get done.  Here’s some of what I am doing though.

Buffalo Force

I’ve been storyboarding on a project, working with Stan Webb and now my good friend Erik Jachode!  It’s based on an idea that Stan has had for a while.  It reminds me of Star Troopers.  I’m not sure how much I can post from my work, but I’m sure I can post what got taken out of the boards.

I’m storyboarding a flashback sequence in which the main character is thinking back to the beginning of the war with the bad guy.  Well, the script wasn’t too clear about how she was supposed to act… and I boarded her as a complete ruffneck soldier…  and she’s supposed to be just a normal girl at this point.  But, here’s some of the inappropriate boards of Oasis, hehe…

Here’s a link to the Buffalo Force website.  Let it sit to see special little sequences.  I didn’t animate them.  www.buffaloforce.com

I’m working on another project with Stan too…  more on that as it develops.

Them Bones

I had to make time to create a Halloween cartoon.  Them Bones is one of two ideas I had…  this one is the simpler one.  I’ve always liked Alice in Chains and I’ve always thought Them Bones sounded like a Halloween song…  so I made a music video.  Other than making the logo in the beginning with Flash, the vid was totally made using the tools in the GoAnimate studio.

More later!  Cheers!

Hello everyone.

Today is my one year anniversary on GoAnimate. 

When GoAnimate followed me on Twitter and I checked out the site, I thought this would be the perfect site to teach my nephews about how cartoons are made.  Little did I know how much more it would become.

 This site became a family project, a source of self esteem for my nephews… and it’s also become part of my online identity.  I’ve been honored, spoofed, showcased…  I’ve gained a faithful audience of followers…  I’ve contributed animated characters that became social media events… but best of all, I’ve met some amazingly talented and unusually kind and caring friends.

Thank you for watching and commenting and recommending and liking.

Chaostoon