artistunknown 2016-11-01 10:30:36

I like to try to celebrate every anniversary, though I guess every single one isnt' as important, especially with a series that doesn't update all that frequently. Still, it reminds me of how long I've been doing this, and how much I've improved.

Thanks for taking the time to check everything out, Cyberdevil ;3

artistunknown 2016-11-01 13:49:42 (Updated 2016-11-02 00:59:53)

Mmm, I do have something special planned for the 10th anniversary. It's gonna be hard to pull off, but boy will it be glorious.

And yeah, 1 episode a year is a good pace, but the only way I could realistically pull that off now is by basically working on nothing but the episode for the entire year. I'll work on finding ways to get them done faster though ;3

Also, I really do appreciate your continued support. Definitely helps me keep going.

artistunknown 2016-11-02 07:12:29

The only time I tween anything is when I'm having a symbol move across the screen, so things like walk cycles and stuff, but within the symbol it's still all frame by frame. I have been considering trying to do a mix of fbf and tweening for animation though, 'cause it's good to save time where ever possible as long s it doesn't sacrifice quality.

I don't currently have any other work. I've been trying super hard to make this my work though ;3

Of course I'm not really in a situation where I absolutely need to get a job either, so being able to just work on cartoons and stuff without worry is pretty great.

And yeah, taking an entire year to make an episode was probably an exaggeration. Doing the math, if I worked as fast as possible, I could theoretically get a 9 minute cartoon done in 3 months, but I've never worked on a long cartoon from consistently from start to finish, so I don't really know. I think episode 6 took about 8 months of actual work, but I didn't really keep track. I'll be sure to see exactly how long episode 7 takes. I had originally said a year, since the length of episodes isn't consistent and some episodes are more complex than others, so they could take a LOT longer.

It's good to hear that you do enjoy following the FrogMan series. Recently it seems like people haven't really cared for it, so that definitely makes me want to keep on working on it.

artistunknown 2016-11-05 07:21:32

Man, I wanted to respond to this sooner, but I moved on saturday so I was busy/kinda forgot, lol.

Yeah, FBF is definitely more time-consuming, but once you get the hang of it, I don't think it's too hard. Getting tweens to look good seems really hard to me, but I'm sure it could be the same as FBF, it's easier when you get the hang of it. And yeah, I've seen some really well-done tween stuff that almost looks like FBF, so I'd definitely be interested in trying to recreate something like that.

Yeah, it is pretty ideal, but I would ultimately like to be able to earn enough to live off making my own stuff, or just get a job as an animator in general. Obviously I'd much prefer to be working on my own stuff though, 'cause I've got way too many ideas to get out.

Yeah, I can see how keeping track of time would negatively effect some. I only ever really keep track of how long it takes me to do things at certain times, though it does seem like I actually end up going faster when I'm timing myself, since there's pressure to go as fast as possible. At the very least I'd like to keep track of how many days I spend on a project.

Yeah, I definitely still enjoy FMTS, though sometimes I'm unsure of what to do with it. For the longest time I had been considering rebooting it since it had been so long since the last episode and I knew I could make the first few episodes so much better if they were remade, but I already had so much of episode 6 done at that point that I decided against it. I'm still considering it though. I really would like to see FMTS all the way through, 'cause there are a lot of meaningful stories in it later on. If I could get episodes out more frequently, people would probably care more. It'd certainly keep it more fresh in people's minds at least. I have considered splitting episodes into parts to get them out more frequently, but since they're meant to be a 1 part thing, it's kinda hard to figure out how to do that without having to re-write it as multiple parts. I guess I could also make all the episodes of a season first and then release them on a schedule, but that'd take forever to actually pull off.

And yeah, people do like simple, familiar things. There's nothing wrong with releasing a parody every now and then to appease to the masses and maybe draw in a few actual fans, but that does take time away from the projects you actually wanna work on. That's why, whenever I make a parody, I try to make it something I actually like and would want to put the necessary time into.

And yeah, I like being different to ;3

artistunknown 2016-11-08 11:10:23

I just don't have a lot of stuff, so moving doesn't take too long :p

I have tried tweens that follow a path. I'm not sure if I've done them correctly, but it does look a bit better than just tweening in a straight line.

I've always thought of starting a production company to get all my ideas made, but that would take a lot of money to pull off. Still, things would actually be realistically doable at least.

In the long run, I don't know what's gonna happen with FMTS. I'm not sure if episode 7 will get done any time soon, but I've had the voice acting for it recorded since 2014, so it's all a matter of just storyboarding it and then animating it, though some or all lines may need to be re-recorded since they were recorded long ago, and we can definitely do better now. What IS certain though, is that I'll be making more FMTS shorts. Before I moved, I managed to record my part of the voice acting fora few shorts, and it shouldn't be too hard to get the rest of the voice acting, and so far I've got nine more shorts that can be made. I'll try to work on them whenever I don't feel like working on anything else. The next one was supposed to come out this month, but that's not happening due to a lack of time. Soon though ;3

From what I've seen, parodies definitely get a LOT more views (and therefore money) than original cartoons, and depending on what you're parodying, you could get an insane amount of views and make a good bit of money off a single parody, and if you're making one of those every week, that's quite a bit. Of course, when you're making a parody every week, they tend to be of a lesser quality, and I would never stoop so low. Plus, I don't have enough parody ideas to make one every week :P

For real though, there are a few animators on youtube that pump out poorly made parodies at a very frequent pace, and I imagine they're making quite a bit. I can't help but feel a little jealous of that, but I would MUCH rather try to make a living by making original stuff, while making a parody every now and then, so my fans would actually be fans of my work instead of some garbage parody I made.

artistunknown 2016-11-10 13:55:47

Yeah, getting sponsorships is another way to go I suppose, but I'd imagine you would still need a decent size audience to even get a sponsorship.

Those seem like ideas that have potential to be something more. I've still got a few fully fledged ideas for parodies left, and I might as well try to get them out as soon as possible so someone else doesn't do them first :p

Yeah, if you're making NOTHING but parodies, then it's definitely going to be hard to get an audience that's just likes seeing stuff from you, instead of an audience that just likes seeing parodies. That's why I would just focus on original content and make a parody every now and then, to get the extra views I need to keep going, 'cause it usually works out, well, in the sense that parodies DO get more views, but it's not like I'm making enough off youtube to actually get paid. Almost though ;3

And yeah, I'll definitely keep doing what I'm doing, 'cause I love doing it!

artistunknown 2016-11-11 06:44:21

Oh man, that sucks that someone managed to do your exact idea before you could. That does sound like something that should've been an obvious parody though, so I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner! lol

I'm fairly sure I'm not supposed to disclose exactly how much I make off youtube (terms of service and all that), but I'm about half way to being paid. I was making more money on newgrounds until they got rid of video ads, and since then I've made basically nothing except for a few cents from my last few cartoons from portal ads. It's quite a shame really. I get way more views on here (usually), but that's probably just due to the underjudgement process, but then again, you can pass at an insanely low number of votes now, so who knows. I've still been posting my stuff here despite not making anything for the last 7 months, because I still love newgrounds and wish it the best. I wish I was capable of helping newgrounds take over the web. Maybe when I get my filthy youtube money I can put some of it toward a supporter upgrade ;3

artistunknown 2016-11-11 18:30:19

I've got some dumb obvious ideas for parodies too, that I don't think have been done yet. Maybe I should get them done too, before someone else does lol.

Yeah, it really sucks that video ads went away when they did. I was not very active last year, and my most viewed submission was M rated so it couldn't earn anything from ads anyways (though it did win $200 so I guess it made way more than it would have with ads anyways), and then when I became active again earlier this year, video ads just went away.

Yeah, it's a real shame that viewer activity is still dwindeling, though I'm part of the problem 'cause I haven't really been actively watching things on newgrounds for a while, but I've been pretty busy too, so idk.

And yeah, I guess I am still doing stuff for the site. I link my newgrounds everywhere, but I don't link my youtube anywhere on newgrounds unless I need to link to a specific video for whatever reason, so there's that.

artistunknown 2016-12-31 05:54:02

yea