"It was BIG...SCARY...AND PINK!!"

"So is Patrick's bellybutton, but I ain't scared of that neither!"

Working on an SDF model of Robbie the Rabbit from Silent Hill 3 right now. I make so many unsettling cartoon rabbits, whether it's Imabunny or Big Bunz, that it was only natural at some point I take a stab at Robbie--figuratively-speaking.

I made this little cartoon in back in 2020, back when I HOPED that year would be the most anxious I would feel about an upcoming US Election. I mean, that year had COVID lockdowns, police brutality followed by Black Lives Matter protests, the rise of extremist groups like QAnon and Proud Boys, killer hornets or whatever, Final Fantasy VII Remake NOT being a faithful remake of the original...it couldn't possibly get worse than that, right...? Heh-heh...WRONG!!

I also improved at Blender 3D animation rather drastically since this video, but that goes without saying.

But yeah, if you live in the US, are over the age of 18, and have already registered to vote, remember that early voting is going on right now and to make your voice heard sooner rather than later (the last day for in-person voting is November 5th). Doubly-so if you live in a so-called "Swing State" like Mr. Fulp--stupid Electoral College, making the fate of the nation and the entire world (regarding climate change) depend on the opinions of only 5 or 6 of the 50 states.

Also, PLEASE try your best to avoid political discussion, most if not all Americans have made up their minds on how to vote in this Election since, I dunno, January of this year, and as the video above demonstrates, I get IMMENSELY stressed out by US politics as a whole, especially what it has turned into ever since, where being an absolute dickbag to more than half of the US population turned out to be a successful, winning strategy (again, stupid Electoral College overriding the Popular Vote). All I ask is that I can finally go back to the days where I can more easily ignore the pointless "culture wars"--they won't go away entirely, of course, but there's a huge difference between a "nobody" sad sack on YouTube complaining they made Angela less attractive in the Silent Hill 2 remake (that remake actually turned out pretty good, btw) and the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES causing mass shootings over his opinions on the latest overly-sanitized Hollywood and/or Disney Remake. I have already sent in my ballot, and so has the rest of my family, so it's a waste of energy to somehow change my mind after the fact, anyway.

On the lighter side, I drew a pup in my sketchbook today. Unlike the rest of the nation, my sketchbook understands me and calms me down...

I think I got carried away in the process...

It started out as a simple practice drawing of Donald Duck's head. Then I was like "What if Donald Duck was a snake? What if he was a snake coming out of a wicker pot? What if he was summoned by a snake charmer? What if I was the snake charmer? Now I want to draw 'The One Piece is Real' meme yet again. But wait, how much more ridiculous could I make Chopper look if I DIDN'T follow the reference image exactly this time? What if Luffy misinterpreted 'is real' as a clue that the One Piece is actually in Israel? What if I drew the rest of the OG Straw Hat crew without reference as well, how stupid would they all look? Now I want to draw Nami as ugly as possible, further adding to the conspiracy theory that American artists always draw attractive female characters in Japanese anime to be uglier and fatter. I still have this big, gaping plot of blank space between snake-Donald and the One Piece bastardization comic, might as well fill it with a fat man wearing an (extremely) little coat like I usually do in such situations. Finally, he has 7 legs supporting his girth just because I feel like it, do I need a justification for EVERY character design decision I make??"

As you can see, my "stream of conciousness" drawings are more like a babbling brook of a slow-motion train wreck crashing into a dumpster fire filled with clown cars full of Republicans during the current hurricane season.

3 episodes in, I'm becoming increasingly impressed with how the writers on this show manage tone shifts so well--usually just silly and comedic in the first half of the episode, while pulling off a shift towards a more emotional and grounded when things get darker in the second half of the episode, somewhat reminding me of Pixar's best early movies. Sorry if this isn't the sort of "in-depth" review you were hoping for, but it seems like immediately after turning 30 I've come to realize that life is too short for me to complain about entertainment that I don't like, and especially that I shouldn't nit-pick entertainment i DO like unless I am at least paid for nit-picking something that overall did its job amusing me and the flaws are easy to overlook. I found it good in my opinion, I was entertained, end of story.

I'm kind of glad the series is also available on Netflix now, in addition to YouTube. Perhaps the only real reason I have been putting off watching this latest episode, even trying to convince myself the show is not as good as I thought it was, is because YouTube itself has become an absolute pain to even browse (even with an ad-blocker, I think it's become glaringly obvious Google is going to great lengths to slowly-but-surely make my ad-free experience of the site as much of a living Hell as the ad-riddled version of YouTube) and it is quite clear YouTube's increasingly-unhinged addiction to ad revenue isn't benefitting my favorite creators in any way, despite their best attempts at guilt-tripping me into paying for YouTube Premium in hopes that those insane subscription fees somehow trickle down to my favorite creators. Nothing like watching my favorite animators being forced to tone down their humor because YouTube's algorithm automatically assumes animation (and increasingly literally every other type of content) should be more ad-friendly and made for children--then as a reward their P.C. content is bombarded by mobile game ads where simulating domestic violence "for fun" and 20-minute political smear campaigns deliberately designed to be as triggering as possible (did I mention YouTube is particularly awful on US Election years?)

YouTube becoming as ad-riddled as the average piracy or porn site is even harmful to casual viewers--the FBI actually recommends average Internet users install an ad-blocker and VPN because many of these ads nowadays can install malware on your computer or phone simply by being displayed on the website--you don't even have to actually click on the ad anymore for the trouble to happen! Yet YouTube is literally showing messages saying that using ad-blocker is stealing from them (oh, and your favorite creators, I guess), knowingly defying the recommendations of wealthy democratic institutions across America and Europe (especially more regulation-heavy Europe) and putting their own loyal users' hardware in danger by convincing them that stuff that makes their YouTube experience more pleasurable AND more secure is somehow the worst thing in the world. Sadly, this isn't just a "YouTube" problem specifically, and I am SO happy that Newgrounds is "small" enough to survive solely on a few monthly supporters like myself, eliminating ads entirely outside of the ad for the website itself you get when logged off.

But yeah, I recognize the team behind The Amazing Digital Circus has mentioned on multiple occasions they are a "YouTube-first" production and still see YouTube as the lesser of evils compared to streaming services and cable TV run by greedy, creativity-killing Hollywood studios like Disney and Warner Bros, but it's nice to be able to watch their stuff on alternative services when YouTube itself is starting to drive me insane, just in case. I wish more indie productions would be like Zeurel's Monkey Wrench and at the very least upload on Newgrounds in addition to YouTube, it goes a long way in slowly weakening YouTube's monopoly on Internet video streaming services to at least have other places to watch your stuff besides YouTube.

I am turning 30 today. I would say today is my "Birthday," but unfortunately SOMEONE (Cough hack cough cough @TheMiamiDeSantos hack cough wheeze oh there goes a lung) finds the concept of birthdays somewhat problematic, so I'll just say I'm the special 30th anniversary edition of myself that costs $700 and no longer comes with a disc drive or stand.

I think this classic Simpsons clip explains the situation here perfectly:

Technically, I'm pretty sure Homer's canonical age in The Simpsons is 34, so I'm still a baby! I'm still with it! Gen Z and Gen Alpha totally aren't getting sick of me constantly quoting classic SpongeBob and Simpsons while bragging my generation of TV cartoons was a million times better than what they get today! Heh heh heh...(sobs)

Work at my day job has been picking up pretty drastically this past year, yet I still I want to find time to do art on my days off (or lunch breaks in the case of the art I do or start on my portable phone), so I've been kind of reviewing the reactions to the variety of Art Portal submissions I've uploaded over the years to see if I can narrow my focus a bit to one art or rendering style, instead of trying to be good at EVERYTHING (and therefore a master at nothing). It seems, at least in the last couple of years, my 3D renders in Blender or Nomad fare a bit better on average in terms of higher views over time plus much better reviews (above 4.5 Stars on average) compared to my 2D illustrations and concept art, especially once I got better and moved away from low-poly N64-like art towards medium-poly, Pixar or Dreamworks-like sculpted models.

There are, of course, exceptions where I put a ton of effort into one single illustration and get rewarded accordingly, but otherwise I've been putting a ton more effort every single day in practicing at least an hour a day on improving my 3D modeling and sculpting skills (especially with apps on my phone like Valence 3D, Nomad and Plastic ensuring I can do that even on days where I have no access to my laptop and Blender), plus all the art that has actually earned me Front-Page status for the day (whether it is for a group collab or even my own personal solo projects) was 3D art rendered in either Blender or Nomad, so I think it would be best with my increasingly-limited free time to focus on perfecting my 3D modeling skills rather than, again, trying to be a Jack-of-All-Trades, getting passable at a massive variety of disparate skills, but not becoming truly great and polished at any one of them.

I'll still try to make full-blown 3D animations for the Movie Portal, because while the crowd for that side of Newgrounds seems much harder to please, it is immensely more satisfying for me to make my 3D models come to life with 3D animation. Also, if I'm being honest, once all the assets are modeled, textured and rigged, 3D animation is FAR less time-consuming than 2D frame-by-frame animation, while allowing more flexible and lifelike rigs and movements than 2D puppet rig animation much of the time, so that's another reason I may shift my focus strictly towards 3D art these days.

I imagine this might be a bit disappointing for those of you that actually prefer my 2D stuff, but I can still upload WIP 2D sketches of my eventual 3D models and sculpts as Blog Posts--my ideas do start off as pencil sketches in my sketchbook before I touch a computer and start transferring the 2D sketches into polished 3D models. Obviously it's not a good idea for me to upload mere sketches to the Art Portal, but let's be honest, you might prefer my livelier, loosey-goosey gestural pencil sketches over my sterilized final 2D illustrations.

On a related note, if you want me to make a 3D model or sculpt of your OC and I have the time to honor that request, feel free to send me a character sheet of your OC. There are only a couple things to keep in mind when creating such a character sheet:

• Only use flat colors, no shading, highlights or textures. It makes it easier for me to choose colors when I texture the model.
• Show a front, side and back view of your entire character in a generic T-Pose or A-Pose. At the very least, draw your character at a 3/4 front view and a 3/4 back view. The point of this is that it makes it easier for me (and 3D modelers in general) to notice details on the character at all angles and more accurately recreate the thickness and proportions the character is supposed to have in 3D space.
• I can do "sexier" OCs if you want, just be aware it will take longer since I don't feel comfortable working on anything remotely NSFW (Not Safe For Work) during my breaks at, well, work on my phone--work on sexy models will have to wait until the weekend when I can work on it in private in Blender + the rest of my family is out of the house for the day. I will also automatically rate my Art Portal submission of the final 3D render M for Mature to discourage minors and normies (or at least people who are not in the mood for fetishized art that day), even if it technically only deserves a T for Teen rating.

So yeah, TL;DR I'm specializing in 3D art for my Art Portal and Movie Portal submissions, now, I'll still share WIP 2D sketches in Blog Posts like this one, and don't be afraid to suggest OCs of yours for me to turn into 3D models or sculpts if you happen to catch me during an artist's block, unable to come up with new or sufficiently-appealing character designs on my own.

Also, new cartoon from me on Friday (or Saturday, depending on your time zone). Hide the children...

I know explaining my 3D workflow to 2D artists can be a bit confusing, so let's start with the render engine I use, called Eevee:

As you can see, Blender Eevee has nothing to do with the adorable and popular Pokémon, Eevee, other than being inspired by its name. Well, I suppose it has more to do with Eevee (the Pokémon) if you are rendering a 3D model of Pokémon Eevee using Blender Eevee.

Hope this helps! And ignore the unoriginal "Deez Nuts" reference, not all my jokes are winners...

So lately I've been FINALLY addressing my backlog of random games I got on Steam Sales over the years using my portable Steam Deck. The Steam Deck is an amazing and wonderful device, well worth the money I spent on it, but I have noticed playing games on it that some games are better for the relatively-small, 800p screen than others. Freedom Planet 2 and its sharp, pixellated visual looks and runs absolutely fantastic on the Deck, and even at the insane speeds this Sonic-like indie game reaches, the visual clarity ensures I never accidentally die in the levels just because I struggled to figure out what is the foreground and what is just a background detail. Meanwhile, I re-downloaded Sonic Generations (the original version from 2011, not the upcoming Sonic X Shadow Generations remaster), and even though I've always found that game to be a bit on the easy side, I found that I keep falling off the stage and dying even in the early levels just because the extra amount of detail and textures on everything was distracting me, and the overall visual clarity and contrast was much lower, probably because it was originally made to be played on massive HDTVs or excessively-large monitors. I prefer to stick with the 3DS version of Sonic Generations if I want to play that game on the go, naturally the handheld-only version of that game is easier to make out on small, low-resolution handheld screens.

Which brings me to my main question: How much time do you spend watching Newgrounds or YouTube on a small phone screen, as opposed to a large tablet or computer screen?

I ask because, if it turns out you watch my animations (such as my recent "Whiny Dodo-de-Do" cartoon) mostly on a tiny phone screen, then it means I'm probably wasting too much time manually painting in textures on my characters and props Substance Painter-style (I actually use Nomad on my phone) that you will never even notice or care about. In the VFX industry, this phenomenon of wasting significant amount of energy and time on details no one will even be able to see in the final animation is politely known as, uhh, "pixel-fucking." If it turns out you're NOT watching or looking at my stuff on massive 1080p or 4K monitors, then it would frankly save me a ton of time to just focus on bold colors and strong, easy-to-read silhouettes instead, similar to Freedom Planet 2 or the 3DS version of Sonic Generations, while giving me more time to work on the story, animation, and other stuff that is far more likely to entertain you than 8K photo textures.

Heck, it would mean I can hang on to my current hardware MUCH longer if I don't have to worry about making sure I have the latest GPU for "triple-A" textures and resolutions, and when I do have to upgrade, I don't have to spend as much (barring some war or pandemic causing rampant inflation again on even cheap office laptops, of course). It would ensure I better live up to my pro-environment ideals even when animating in 3D.

Texturing is my favorite part of the 3D process, though, and if I don't spend absurd amounts of my free time optimizing large photo textures, I will probably spend that much time instead hand-painting textures like how textures were made in the PS2 era, especially for Blizzard's World of Warcraft, so if you do, in fact, generally watch Newgrounds or YouTube cartoons on large, hi-res monitors or TV sets, then it's not a problem. But I thought I should ask anyway and tailor my workflow on future animations accordingly.

I guess a good test would be this test render I shared recently in another news post. Can you see the normal map microdetail on the buildings way in the back without zooming in significantly? Or the scratches on the metal pole of the bus sign? I actually can't on my laptop screen, unless I zoom in a ton.

P.S. This news post is only rated "M for Mature" because of that "Pixel-fucking" term. That's it. That's all.

I took a bit of a break here for no other reason than to give myself more free time to watch the Olympics, I love sports, especially the long-distance running and cycling events. But I've finally been broken all the AI-techbro commercials, weirdly-mean-spirited Nike commercials, and of course the schmaltzy fake-inspirational commercials and introduction to athletes that either win drama-free (the US Gymnastic team, specifically Simone Biles) or actually end up losing horribly in their big event, defeating the purpose of the inspirational videos shown before (basically everything else). The Kamala Harris for President ads are cool, though, in my totally biased and partisan opinion. The Summer Olympics have basically become my once-every-four-years reminder as to why "traditional" cable TV is dying and pretty much only watched by Boomers nowadays.

But anyway, I'm ready to get a different and more genuine form of inspiration from the creative and out-there stuff that seems to regularly flood Newground's Movie Portal, even if I still squeeze in some time in the next week for the Olympic events that I actually want to watch and the Closing Ceremony.

I have been still chipping away at some pre-production for 5(!!) short animations I would like to start officially animating once the weather cools down and putting out sometime in 2025, so it's not really even a hiatus so much as a break from time-consuming-but-less-productive stuff like answering questions in the forum or taking the extra time to actually type reviews and praises for artwork and Movie Portal submissions that I especially resonate with.

It's a tricky balancing act, because I do think part of the reason my art does surprisingly well on Newgrounds and no where else is because is because I engage with the community a lot and form online friendships here, something I couldn't do on the website formerly known as Twitter, YouTube or Instagram due to the sheer amount of toxicity and political doomerism those websites seem to encourage--not to say the NG community is perfect, but it sure beats the all-too-common situation on most bigger social media sites now where you'd watch a funny, harmless video of a dog being cute or an especially funny and lowbrow OneyPlays episode, only to then scroll the community comment section see it is poisoned with unrelated vitriol of people calling each other racial slurs over their differing opinions on the Federal Reserve or something. On the other hand, I've gotten a LOT of pre-production work done all by myself by taking a break from being social, though of course I've been rather lonely the last couple of days as a result.

ANYWAY. How about a little test render I did for one of my future animations, titled "Punk n' Gunk Meet Gregorio the Has-Been," to hold you over until I have something more substantial to show? All assets are custom-made by yours truly this time in Valence3D (iOS app), Nomad (also iOS) and B4Artists, no pre-made stock assets this time!