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It's been so strange for me. I left my ps3 at school so the only time I play video is during the time I shouldn't be playing video games. But I just got modnation racers and dead space so that's about 100 trophies right there. I'm also planning to platinum drake's fortune and will try to snag some from resistance 2. Then LBP 2 is coming out so that's like 70 more. I have heavy rain trophies to get so that's like 40 more. Yeah I have a lot of potential trophies for me to get. And that's not even counting all the psn stuff I will get. GoW collection, sly collection, I haven't even gotten shatter yet. I feel like I'm going to double my trophy count in the first two months of this year!

I'm going with species specific fireworks targeting.

I was thinking about one of Newgrounds past April Fool's Jokes, turning everything on the site into Kevin Bacon. It was a great joke.

I've been watching T.V recently and noticed that on the new ads for Google T.V, they have Kevin Bacon dressed as an old man looking for videos about himself in much the same ethos as the joke was put on this site.

The Ad in Question

Is this a coincidence? Do you think Kevin Bacon inspired Newgrounds or did Newgrounds inspire this ad? It seems too convenient to random chance. What do you think?

News Story: IT COULD HAPPEN TO US!!!!

just for good measure

ditto for Coraline.

Henry Selick directed The Nightmare Before Christmas, not Tim Burton

At 12/24/10 05:04 PM, SmilesTheMonkey wrote: I have. I drowned over 9000 people back in the day by dragging them into lakes. Another fun thing to do was delete track so people riding the rollercoasters would fall to their deaths. I barricaded the exit shut by erasing paths and blocking it with rides. Oh, the nostalgia.

Yeah, I'm replaying now because I never got the open expanse sandbox level. I'm sure I can erase a nice sized population on that level.

I'm usually very careful when doing it though. Usually I only kill those who have spent all their money and have therefore exhausted their use to me.

I am a merciful god.

Who here played it for the sole purpose of transforming your park into a concentration camp after you completed the objective? I know I did.

Is it possible to play Echochrome II without the Move? I'm not willing to invest in the move yet but I just gotta get me some more echochrome

So I really regret leaving my ps3 at home since thanksgiving. Hopefully it means I passed my classes.

Hey so podcasts aren't for everyone and usually pertain to someone's specific interests. I'm interested to see what people listen to. I never believed that I would have the patience to get into a non-espn podcast but I've recently really gotten into Podcast Beyond from IGN. The guys on the ps3 side of ign really know how to put together a conversational podcast. I don't have a psp so some of the show drags for me but I think that the guys are funny enough so that it doesn't matter. Also, the songs at the end of the show are the best.

Sometimes... I just know I know better.
Common sense, rationality, utilitarianism, self-sacrifice, patriotism, idealism. These things form my opinions, and I know they are what they are; my personal opinions. It is not often that I speak about specific issues because in the end I don't care how I or someone else feels about an issue. What I care about is that someone thinks about an issue the right way. There's a lot someone can teach me by sharing their opinions but when I get to the heart of the matter, I feel like there are some political truths you cannot deny.

I'm sort of disillusioned right now by the current state of politics in this country so please enlighten me in some way.

Truth: In an election, any attack on one's opponent regarding a non-political issue automatically reflects worse on the candidate than the opponent.
Why: Elections are meant to be run FOR a candidate, not AGAINST a candidate. Let other people decide whether a non-political issue is relevant to a candidate's viability. It is up to an individual candidate whether or not to address this public concern. But these public concerns are not the concerns of the other candidate's campaign.

Sorry if this has already been noted, but music that has a copyright should still be fair game if you contact the artists or their legals or whatever and ask for permission. It'll teach us how to be professional about what we do here at the very least. And when we get denied, then that will show us how an artist feels about their stuff being flaunted for free across the internet.

It is difficult to say that Harry Potter is simply a childrens book, and not just because it appealed to so many non-children. As the series progressed, so did the maturity of the books. By the end, Harry Potter pushes into the darker areas of high fantasy and most resembles young adult fiction.

In most cases, in order for an author to write a children's book, he or she must reinvent their own style. in a way, the author does talk down to the reader, but of far more importance is that the author caters to a new kind of reader.

I don't want this to become about 3d movies but I was absolutely mesmerized by the character animation in Tangled coming so close to line art. Just watch the mouths in that movie, they're so expressive and in a way that is highly 2d inspired.

I mean I guess I was more thinking of why it seems like a huge percentage of the threads on here are zombie-related. I'mm guessing it has to do with what fixates the teenaged mind. the violence yeah, that's probably it.

Sorry it just seems like such a random topic to get so popular. What is it? The blood? The action? the themes? allegory? what?

At 12/1/10 05:38 PM, turtleco wrote: I think that as far as technical beauty I can think of several movies that leave disney in the dust

first off, The Theif and the Cobbler (the recobbled cut, not the shitty miramax release) it was amazing, and surpasses anything to do this day in sheer beauty, and its not even finished! It in fact never will be. The re-cobbled cut is still worth a view for astounding animation. Next on the list is le roi et l'oiseau or just search king and the mocking bird on youtube. Its a creative and beautiful movie, funny too. There's also triplets of Belleville is pretty. Iron giant, falidae, gulliver's travels, etc. To me the later disney movies aren't even that visually impressive, they are just musicals, and caused a plague unto animation.

then there's a whole different section of movies that are just different all together, such as fantastic planet, hedgehog in the fog

then there's japanese films Akira, studio ghibi films, grave of the fireflies

3d films

dreamworks films

don bluth films

lastly theres animated shorts, the windmill, the little house, flowers and trees, the ugly duckling, WWII propaganda films, ub iwerks films, peace on earth, the paramount superman movies...

I could go on forever about all the films that are higher quality than the post Walt Disney, Disney corp. films.

Your points are definitely noted. The Thief and the Cobbler and roi et l'oiseau certainly qualify as the most laborious animated productions. I'd have to see a print of the Triplets of Belleville to be able to judge just how good that animation is, though it certainly is remarkable. Falidae is nice but definitely relies on twos more than it has to. Akira and Studio Ghibli, all those makers of the greatest kind of anime, still show weaknesses that plague that kind of animating. Even miyazaki knows that to do animation on the scale that disney does it is beyond what his studio is capable of.

We can always nitpick how certain scenes in one animation are better than others, but from a presentational point of view, the whole matters far more. The way I see it, its scale that lifts Disney past its competition.

was this an advert?

Yo gum, just sent mine to you via WAVE. I didn't want to lose the formatting so I sent it as the doc file. I doubt you'll find many technical errors on it anyway. It's pretty much been stripped down bare by my prof (you should see the markups, it's crazy).

I was just watching the Lion King and it occurred to me that from a technical standpoint, I could not think of a feature film with better animation. I would have to do a more focused comparison with its most formidable competition (aladdin, beauty and the beast, pocahontas, hunchback of notre dame) to be sure but the dynamicism, color, and depth of the characters in the lion king is mind-boggling in most scenes.

What do you guys think? I feel like it would be hard to call any feature outside of Disney better "full animation" just because no animation company outside of Pixar, Dreamworks and precious few others has the man power and money to create something like that.

god narf be all up in dem titties

At 11/18/10 09:36 PM, ThePortalGuru wrote: I believe that titles should be something to be come up with after the story's finished, so for now, it's an untitled project. Some criticism would be greatly appreciated.

That's fine, though if you have a good idea of what the plot is going to entail, it's never to early to start. There's no shame in having a working title.

=================
Chapter 1

I approached the coach quickly. The horses reared at the sight of my hooded figure. Rain poured heavily down on my black cloak. As I stepped in, a strange sense of foreboding became prominent within me. The man inside greeted me with a cold smile. I waved coldly back. He too bore a hooded cloak. His hood obscured his features, making him difficult to identify. "Mr. Tensal, glad you could make it. I was beginning to think you wouldn't show up," said the hooded man. "Well, here I am," I replied. "There you sit." The driver started the horses. With a lurch, the coach moved steadily forward. "Have you ever been to Chrevlmoore?" the hooded man asked. "This would be my first time," I said. "Might I make a suggestion?" he said, "Keep your distinctions between reality and the macabre very clear." I looked quizzically at the man. "For now, though, I wouldn't pay that much mind."

Time seemed to slow down as the castle grew in the horizon. The sky appeared to darker than it was when we first set out. I fell asleep, hoping it would make the remaining trip go by faster.

So grammatical rule of dialogue apply. For each new speaker you have a new paragraph. Without paragraphs it also makes it impossible to tell who says, "there you sit." I'm assuming it's the driver since there's no comma after "I replied." Stylistically, I take issue with awkward phrasing like "became prominent within me." there are simpler and clearer ways of saying that. Also, "the castle grew in the horizon" needs to be revised to something like "grew against the horizon," "appeared to darker than it was when we first set out" should be "appeared to (be) darker than it (had) when we (had) first set out." Another stylistic critique is that you use a lot of adverbs. "a cold smile. I waved coldly back." Is both repetitive and useless as a description. Why don't you describe how a hooded figure waves coldly, how this particular person waves coldly. This is called giving him a character tag, a structural description that develops the physical presence or personality of the character. Like you could say "He gave me a cold smile. I waved at him as though trying to physically wipe the expression from his face." That was a bad example, you can think of a better one.
One thing I liked here was the driver character. I like how you describe him giving the narrator a cold smile, yet the rest of his features are hard to discern.

Wish I could do more, but I'm tired. Good luck with this!

Okay story rests at about 12,000 words right now. The feedback I got on it is that it's well paced and plotted so at least I have a good base to start off from. My final draft will be done on Dec. 3 at which point I'll be able to send it via WAVE.

Two critiques

First, the crotch moves two much. I think it starts out too far back.
Second, the hips are awkward.

This isn't a full walk cycle, but what you have so far would work for an old man's walk since its very stiff at the knees.

At 11/6/10 12:28 PM, PBass wrote: LegendaryFrog. To me, he used to be the one animator to rule them all.

Same, LF made we want to try out animation for the first time. Once I saw Adam Phillips and "Bitey of Brackenwood" though, that's when I decided I wanted to be "an animator" It's been the continued influence of my fellow newgrounders that has convinced me to try to pursue a career in this.

The best way to learn animation is through watching animation you like and want to try to emulate. It's also important to learn how to draw well.

At 11/12/10 09:50 AM, Sacros wrote: u know, it was a joke i wasnt coming back...this is my forum after all, but if we are talking about perspective dont change the subject , specially with a chunck of text saying nothing

if theres one thing i hate about newgrounds is poeple like you who go around discrediting peoples posts by saying something really stupid and unrelated. we dont care if your ego is amused when you come in here and post a wall of text on how someone is wrong, spare us that, please, thanks

Back on topic:

ive found you get the effect we are talking about with a 18 lens in a camera, ive tried it and it works. of course its always best to draw the thing yourselves but its always good to know this things for reference

The reason it was unrelated was because I was addressing you specifically. I'm done with the thread because I've responded to the aspect of it that interested me. If you address me again on this note, please do it by pm.

At 11/9/10 02:36 PM, Verraqueous wrote: i'm pretty much just getting into animating. i don't have a tablet of any kind so i'm pretty limited on what i can do.
i've worked with sprite animation and stick figure animation. "worked with" as in simple tests, like running and jumping, short fight scenes, etc.

i really want to start making bigger projects like my own series. but i've noticed that animation style (stick figure, sprites, fullbody) means a lot to the viewers. and the style may end up being the success or the failure of an animation.
or would the whole outcome of the animation matter most(camera angle, action, plot), regardless of the animation style?

let me know what you guys think (:

I have no idea what the guy above is talking about. I'm assuming you're talking 2-d animation and not 3-d.
With sprites, the thing that matters most is storyline and originality. For instance, having mario fight a whole bunch of baddies is boring unless it's done in a really original way.
On the other hand, what if you created an alternate mario universe, where mario has defeated bowser, driven him and all the baddies into hiding while Mario become a ruthless dictator of the world he has saved. Peach becomes his concubine, the toads become his slaves and are forced to gather mushrooms to feed his bloated and greedy mass. And the central plot is a reversal of roles, it's about the bad guys and their mission to rid the world of the worst dictator to ever live, Mario.

Just saying, that's how you work sprites.

And I feel like you might already know the answer to your question. Of course, there are so many successful animation styles that I cannot rightly say that a style must be specifically this. But people are very receptive to a host of styles and what matters most is that the animator can employ his style to fit with what is going in the animation. Most importantly, does the animator know how the style will affect the viewer. This is why a guy doing chibi-anime style can have really dark humor in his cartoon, because he understand that people will find cute character ripping each others head off hilarious. Compare that to a very gritty style, where the viewer will concentrate on how the cartoon is more like a action movie.

At 11/11/10 05:47 PM, Sacros wrote: can we avoid the discussion weather if sakupen is a good animator or not? i didnt respond to inserttoolongusername on purpose, heres what i think, if you are not better than someone, you CANT say that someones work is "decent", period, im not better that sakupen so i cant say anything bad about him, specially if his animation makes my ass laugh out loud unlike many others, like the guy above said

*closes browser to never come back to this thread since the only thing i wanted was discuss how to handle perspective*

*eats pie*

Understandably then you won't read this. But I can't help but let future posters to this know that what you've just said is completely ludicrous in several ways.

First, talking about the techniques of other animators and whether or not they are effective is directly related to the purpose of this thread since it lets the OP in how he can proceed to develop his own style and workflow. It's immensely important for everyone to understand that every great artist came after another great artist, and that although we each create a product we can call our own, we learn far more from the work and critiques of others than we do just from ourselves. This is true of all creative mediums.

Second, how am I supposed to know that your silence meant you weren't going to respond. When you're not talking face to face it's impossible to take silence as a call to change the subject.

Third, everyone is entitled to opinion and to give criticism, no matter what their personal skill level is. Of course, don't you think it frustrates me when some newgrounds nobody gives me a negative review of my flash ? Doesn't the guy know how hard I worked on every little frame of that thing? The fact is he might not, but that doesn't matter because as an animator I can work my ass off and still misstep, and figuring out why the flash didn't work for the reviewer or if its worth fixing it for him. that's the most valuable feedback I can get.

Fourth is, of course, calling someone "decent" is a positive remark. What you're taking issue with is the fact that he called the animation of flash you find FUNNY just decent. He isnt' commenting on the flash as a whole, just one component of it. Also "decent" implies comparison, so ask yourself what might he be comparing sakupen's animation for?

There I'm done.