=== FUTURE PROJECTS ===

And that's how everything went quiet for a few years. I'd like to make up some lame excuse to justify for my inactivity, but I won't do that. Instead, I'll make note of everything I consider to be progress. The T-Shirt designs for example, or just about any project I got started on but never finished, the photoshops I made to impress people on the forums, and the rare occasions where I entered art competitions.

Being diagnosed with aspergers was a life-defining moment for me. From that moment forward, I tried to make sense of my life and took my observation skills to the next level. I made graphs and charts, often writing about problems I was facing in life. All of this served as a versatile tool to help me be more social and blend in with "normal people", but it proved to be quite useful in other areas of my life as well. I made lists of my favorite fictional characters and found out what they had in common, and by dissecting my favorite stories, I found out what made them so interesting. I once made a list of everything I've ever been passionate about, and noticed there are many ways to combine these things.

Of course I also checked a lot of content made by other people as well, but I discussed most of that in the Underdog phase already. Like I said before; all of these inspiration sources showed me glimpses of something much bigger. Something only I could create! I had no idea what this could be though, so I got stuck, until I had my great turning point. I rewatched Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni - with a couple of friends this time - and learned that Hinamizawa actually exists in real life. My mind was blown. This was the first time I heard about real life locations having been fictionalizated, and something inside me snapped. I got really obsessed with the little town of Shirakawa-go and had this amazing drive to do something similar. From that moment forward, my boring hometown was a huge source of inspiration for me.

About two years later I saw the Scott Pilgrim movie and started reading the comics. It was amazing how many references Bryan Lee 'O Malley managed to combine within his books, all the while telling the story of his life. The story was unlike anything I read before. It was silly, yet informative, containing some pretty cool life lessons. All the characters had interesting personalities, each with their own character developments. I also loved the atmosphere, slice of life aspects and the iconic drawing style. There's probably a lot more I could write about these comics. Scott Pilgrim has affected me on social and artistic levels. I decided to expand on my drawing style, and worked on a booktrailer for my buddy Writersblock. It got daily 3rd and a frontpage feature; the most succesful work yet!

So yeah, that's where I'm at right now. Most recently I've been reading The Last Call, by Vasilis Lolos. I bought it instantly after checking the first few pages of the first book. It has an undeniably awesome style. It was actually him - not Egoraptor, Oney, Adventure Time or Golden Boy -  which inspired me to get some extreme expressions going. Also, Catie Wayne's silly face challenge on youtube might have had something to do with this.

As for my workstyle, not much changed. Except I had been collecting images for reference, and this was quite useful! Later on though, I found myself needing images to "feel" a certain type of atmosphere I was trying to convey. Atmospheres, instead of styles or shapes! Also, I'm using one computer for both my art projects, audio projects and remaining hobbies. I'd like to create seperate work environments in my home, starting with a small art studio. I've been meaning to create my own comics, and I'd like to finally get started on that.

So, what's new? Where do things go from here? Recently I set up a tumblr account, so that's a good start. A generous person also gifted me his old Wacom Tablet and it's been pretty useful so far. But I would actually like to finish off by recommending a couple of things to myself. First of all; nothing good ever came from working without a concept idea. The only full-length music video I ever finished was Back To The Front by Kingbastard, but that's because I knew where it was heading from the start. Plus I promised to finish it, but look at how long it took me! Next; do commissions or enter a collab. I also have the know-how to organize a collab of my own, so I don't have to hold back anymore. Here's another one; upgrade to better software. I am currently working with Flash 8 and I feel like I'm missing out on some of the new options. Either way, it would be useful if I ever plan on hosting a collab. I might want to consider using After Effects as well. Other advice I'd like to give myself is to observe different animation aspects. If I want to get better drawing facial expressions, I should observe the works of Egoraptor, Oney or some other great artists here on Newgrounds. I've mentioned these before, but I should really observe Golden Boy and Adventure Time too. I might want to rewatch Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan and Great Teacher Onizuka for the same purposes. Dialogue is another aspect of animation I could really improve on. To be fair though, great dialogue is a rare find! Egoraptor's visuals and voice acting cover up for his awful script. Actual great dialogue doesn't need any of that fancy stuff. Great examples would be the works of Appsro, sexysexybicycle and LazyMuffin. Comics and movies are a great reference for dialogue as well. Lastly, I'd like to see myself get more creative with surroundings by adding loops. Admittedly, not every scene should have loops in them, but some of them can look very stiff without them, especially in a still scene. Waving hair, rustling leaves, bustling crowds, etcetera. It could really bring things alive!

• Reasons To Create: Revival. I craved another project after being inactive for such a long time! Also, I was messing around with a new style and really wanted to put it to the test. It was still under development though. Daily mundane stuff also started to inspire me, so that was nice.
• Creative Developments: Eventually I realized my non-anime characters weren't capable of showing much emotion, so I expanded on my style and got rid of the vacant eyes. I also added more detail to their outfits and facial features, which gave them personality. Last but not least, I spent time on my backgrounds for once. I'm not sure whether I learned anything new there, but I did focus on the right things this time.
• Outcome: Not bad, my first frontpage feature! I previously thought that trailers didn't get much praise, so it was very surprising to see that happen. Each day of one month I would design a different character from the book, and the following month I would do the same, sketching one scene from the book a day, so I really took my time. It was pretty hard work afterwards though! I think I got the formula right this time, so I'll just have to keep at it.

"I think it's important to stay in touch with those sorts of people, if only for good company, or if for collaborative/motivational purposes. There are a couple of writers I'm attempting to stay in close contact with, specifically so we can motivate each other to achieve our goals."

- Writersblock

Don't hesitate to reach out to people you've never talked to. DanPaladin asked me one day if I'd like to make a game with him and now we have our own little empire.

- TomFulp

"Your favourite characters and stories that you parody now used to be just like you and getting out there. So go for it and don't care about what people think. The right people will dig your groove."

- WooleyWorld

"It's all about gaining a backlog of stuff that gets views, paying gigs, keeping the social collateral working in your favor. It can be hard to lose sight of your successes in the windowless room. that's why Pico Day."

- VicariousE

If you have the goal in mind, it doesn't matter what any of this other shit is; it will propel it towards there. You can't plot this out. All you know is that you have a destination that you're trying to aim for, and then everything you do (hopefully) will push you in that direction.

- RicePirate

    "I wanna be able to make stuff and not worry about the money that it costs to do it."

- Oney

"I can tell you why you feel like you had a crap year. Its because you were trying to make content for everyone but yourself. You were all so obessed with views and how many subscribers or followers it would get you, that you forgot to make something you genuinely cared about or were passionate about."

- Gerkinman

[INDEX]

1. A FRESH START
2. THE FIRST STRUGGLE
3. THE COMFORT ZONE
4. THE UNDERDOG
5. FUTURE PROJECTS