Via jam organizer @BrandyBuizel:
Summer Lovin’ Jam Winners!
We received over 100 submissions to the Summer Lovin' Animation Jam, where participants were tasked with creating a 4-8 second animation loop set to the Audio Portal song of their choice that made them feel those chill summer vibes. “What’s your favorite way to spend an endless summer?”
Whatever makes YOU happy; share that experience with us this summer.
Some of our favorite picks are making it into a full length Music Video Collab featuring ”summer breeze” by @Droid; more details at the end of this post!
Our judges panel consisting of @Awful-Ike @BrandyBuizel @Cymbourine @Derpidraws @Droid @milkypossum and @TomFulp took everything into account when reviewing your work: the art style, the activities presented, the song pairing, the entry’s individuality, and how well it loops. Here are your winners!
10th Place - $30
First off we have a three way tie (each of whom will receive $30 courtesy of Tom Fulp, I love that guy)!
@Goji, we love the visuals and your song choice is absolutely perfect. It was a bold choice to do a submission without any characters (except that lil’ manta ray, he seems like a nice guy) and it paid off. Don’t know how or why you thought of a submerged picnic bench, but you really epitomized the feeling of serenity with this entry.
@Tiny’s got Worthikids vibes to their art style in a charming loop of traditional summer fun.
@SoyYanyo’s entry was actually their first upload on newgrounds! We’re very happy to have you on the site and your art is wonderfully quirky. Chillin’ by the pool, toes dipped in the water… not many entries tackled nighttime and the atmosphere you created makes our hearts smile :)
9th Place - $30
@P-PAMda has a rockin’ color ballet and so much going on. I’ll admit it takes a couple loops to fully appreciate the shapes and clever transitions throughout, but a loop that engages you for several watches is kind of a successful loop. Check out their second entry as well (Brandon prefered the second entry, so the other 6 judges bullied him).
8th Place - $30
@marshminator made a picturesque still for an indie anime I’d wanna see! I found myself yelling at the scream to make that Stegosaurus in the water blink. BLINK DAMMIT, BLINK. I know it’s probably some form of Nessie or Plesiosaur, buuuuutt shut up and you can have $30. Nice Stegosaurus/10.
7th Place - $40
@KibbySupreme actually had two entries as well (check out their second entry). The background is gorgeous in both, but the fun, spontaneous movement of the Coatl Bird really set this piece apart as our favorite of the two.
6th Place - $50
@MicroBihon has everybody on the rooftop move at different intervals, each character has their own personality in their idles and the gentle use of wind makes the whole scene feel cohesive between the huge gap in buildings. Great work, this was one of Tom’s favorites!
5th Place - $90
@DynamoToon delivered something serene. Adeline’s looking a little lonely to me, but I suppose you can love your alone time just the same on a sunset beach. If you can’t tell by the next few entries: our team of judges have a serious bias towards entries with impressive color palettes!
4th Place - $120
@Helmyir heard “animation” and went hard crafting three slick scenes of sharing summer with their friends. We’ve received a ton of entries from different friend groups incorporating each other's OCs and personas, but they just did it the best. The animation is fluid when groovin’ on the patio, then snappy when bumping on the tubes and it looks like a lot of fun!
3rd Place - $150
@SAMI-OURS you are amazing and we still can’t fully tell if this is 3D or some 2D puppet wizardry, but we love it! Your style is so wholesome, it’s precious. I love that the musicians loop at alternating intervals and the dancing carries out for the full 8 seconds of the loop meaning the visuals never get old (their song choice “Hand In Hand” has literally become one of my new favorite tracks on the website).
2nd Place - $180
@cynicallysly carried the theme of “chill summer vibes” on their somber and relaxed shoulders. There’s something about a calm sunrise to really put a moment in your life into perspective. The colors and nostalgic filter mesh so well with their chosen music track.
1st Place - $250
@Luis is a monster that absolutely swept the competition and it’s kinda bullshit. I suggested to Tom that we reinvest the prize money into cloning research so we may recreate the perfect pixel-animator for future generations to enjoy. I mean seriously, this man caught covid and then he started making this; it's practically cheating.
There were dozens of solid entries and cutting the list down to only 10 out of 111 was legitimately frustrating. Brandon’s personal favorite didn’t even make the list (so please browse the tag “summer-lovin-loop” and give the other entries some love), but these 10 entries were the very best of the best of the best!
Pay close attention to your Newgrounds DMs in the coming week because @BrandyBuizel will be collecting the mp4/mov files for some of your submissions (if you haven’t already sent it to be converted to WebP) to add it to the Endless Summer Lovin’ [COLLAB]. @Droid is currently working on an extended version of “summer breeze” so that we can fit as many entries as possible <3
Thank you all for animating, composing, and rating these submissions with us. I hope you loved your summer!
Banner by @Awful-Ike and @BrandyBuizel
Other News
Artists: Our Cult of the Lamb Art Contest is in progress!
Animators: The Big Boy Rumble Tumble Animation Jam is in progress!
Game Devs: Our API now supports Cloud Saves! This allows players to save their game data to their NG account, so they can switch between devices without losing their progress.
@PsychoGoldfish has also created a new Unity implementation of our API, fully documented with code examples and a demo you can steal from.
Stepford's Mobile Game Jam wrapped up last weekend, check out the entries!
Last week we celebrated our 21st Clock Day!
Catch up on the Best of July if you missed it.
