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Forgotten Christmas

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Created by Johnny Voruz. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!


Created with Moho 12, Clip Studio EX, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Audition, Adobe Premiere.


Music: Auld Lang Syne (Vocals) - Jingle Punks https://youtu.be/dvJrKXQbqK0

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Remember watching these back in high school! Glad you got to finish it off man

Sirschmoopy responds:

The cool thing is I didn't do anything my man. This was made by Johnny Voruz who helped remake the series and then for christmas last year gave this video to me as a present. It's fan fiction too wholesome to not make canon.

Hey Rob,

Just want you to know I am appreciative of all your work, but these cartoons in particular. First watched them in school while I was supposed to be working. I remember watching them over and over again at home because we had dial-up and it was damn near impossible to load much else.

I often think about this show. It had a measurable impact on my sense of humour going into my teenage years, and was a constant companion. As time marched on I came back less often; the explosive growth of YouTube and the online culture in general meant there was so much vying for your attention you can't possibly have time to watch all the new material let alone spend time rewatching things! I stepped away from it all for a few months and spent time contemplating what it is I actually wanted to spend my time doing. In this state of pompous self reflection I remembered a single line that was like a distance bell through the fog: "I get off the train."

I grinned, logged in here and spent the evening watching the classic series again. It's not the same as it used to be, or more accurately, I'm not the same. But nonetheless it brought with it the feeling of simplicity that comes with being a kid. It let me unwind for an hour or so and just enjoy being. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

I've lurked in your stream on and off since then, dropping in to see how you're getting on, contributing when I can. I know you're retiring this particular project, but I appreciate what you (and Johnny) have done. I wish you the best of luck in whatever you do next. And every once in a while, when I need a little pick me up, I'll come back and watch a few episodes of Unforgotten Realms.

Maybe that's melodramatic, but as I get older I find myself less embarrassed to express to people that I appreciate them. All the best,

- TWF

Sirschmoopy responds:

Early on in my career I came up with a saying


"Nostalgia is the bane of creativity"


Because even back in the day... people would constantly tell me my previous work was better then what I'm currently working on even with the original Unforgotten Realms. When I changed the art in epi4, people complained. You can still see some of those complaints here on Newgrounds, but there were so many people annoyed with me on the forums too.

I struggle to fight for peoples time and attention now more then ever. It's not enough to create just a "weekly" 5 minute cartoon. I gotta be a community manager, stream a few times a week, go to conventions, all the while thinking of the next new project cause the lifespan of things can be as short as a few weeks or months. If I had the power, i'd have hired some a few fans to taken over shows like this and just voice em honestly so people could keep doing nostalgic work on it. I believe this so much that it's why I gave Johnny Voruz exclusive rights to the show. He was a super fan of the show and helped bring it into the future. I wish I had given him the rights years and years ago cause then maybe he would of kept it going.

I wish I could of kept doing this project, heck I wish I could have kept working on almost all my projects, but I have never been in a position to have enough power to focus purely on what I want to make vs what the current internet audience wants. I'm really trying hard to carve out my niche and I thought I was almost there, but with 2020 I feel like I'v fallen down a flight a stairs and am back at the start, only now I'm no longer young enough to work 7 days a week.

Thanks for loving this show my man. I'm glad it's one of those things that you come back too when you need a pick me up. For me it's another "failure" of something I could not finish on my own. I feel defined by projects like this.

I made an account just to write this, man i used to watch this with my buddies in middle school, im 27 now, and this was just a crazy timestamp to stumble across, hopes all well, when people talk about "golden eras" I often am reminded of when newgrounds and the like were the kings of the net.

thank you for creating some of the wonderful art of an era i enjoyed.

Had to log in just to say I love you man.

I have no money to contribute but I'm and old time NGer and this warms the fuck out of this old heart. I grew up on this shit. Some generations had radio, some had TV, I had the internet and NG. I tried my best to make animations to emulate my idols but I never quite hit the mark.

I hope you start doing better and know that if you reach out your fan base will always be here for you.

Thank you for making my childhood magical. I played real DnD for the first time a few years back and I'm super addicted now. I'm gonna have to go back and rewatch for some new material haha hope you don't mind ;)

Peace and love

Well... That was quite a trip down memory lane. And a critical hit of nostalgia and a little sadness.

I wasn't a real huge fan of Unforgotten Realms, but watched an episode or two. But the short works so well to describe that feeling of, for a lack of a better word, saudade... That melancholy when looking back to the things that we did that devoured our time and we enjoyed and cherished.

I'm approaching my 30s and feel quite old already. After some time, with a friend we got together to begin playing TTRPGs again. We created a channel on Twitch and we stream live playing. But it's hard to find the time to prepare the game and even to play, but also just to find people to play with and in the past everything flowed so easily. I think that the end of the video, right before the joke about the Christmas present, represents that feeling perfectly.

Sorry, just random rambling. I'm honestly glad that you came back with this gift. I might as well just check all the UR episodes for some nostalgia binging as soon as I have the time.

On a side note, that's one awesome adventure for Christmas!

Kudos on being able to keep developing your ideas and not letting them rot in oblivion.

Sirschmoopy responds:

I'm 33.

In High School because of my newgrounds cartoons I got paid by a company to animate cartoons online. After a few years of that they stopped paying me and I was let go. I had a fanbase from all the URealms stuff so I became a streamer 8 years ago right as twitch became twitch. I developed Minecraft Minigames that started to take off and let me grow again until I finally had enough power to make my own Tabletop Roleplay show just like these cartoon and you can see all the episodes and fancy cards I made at urealms.com


Then last year I really felt my age. I couldn't plan and prepare the show like I could and had completely burned out. I knew I had to end my show, but I refused too and just utterly melted down as a person last year. I announced I couldn't do URealms anymore and once again I starting looking for another path.


I had decided to put all the art I made into the public domain at Christmas and so an old friend named Johnny, inspired by everything I had created over the years, made me this Christmas Special to release on January 2020. There is a lot of sadness in this because there is just a lot of sadness in the pursuit for art. I have poured my heart in soul into making stuff for 13 years and I think what honestly made so many of the fun little projects I made or worked on so good was simply I was just trying to make something I would enjoy. This year I'm just trying to relax and work less and if that's not enough to pay my bills, then I have enjoyed working on stuff for so long Independently but the stress of being a struggling artist might be too much for me these days and it's time to move on. I loved making these cartoons for people, I loved it more then I loved myself until about last year when I realized I had been grinding since High School and I'm still hurting as a person to do it. I'm glad you appreciate this old art my man.

Credits & Info

Views
2,843
Faves:
19
Votes
163
Score
3.63 / 5.00

Uploaded
Jan 1, 2020
9:06 PM EST
Software
  • Photoshop
  • Clip Studio Paint
  • After Effects
  • Premiere Pro
  • Audition
  • Moho Pro 12