"I don't think... I'll find the love I want... In this machine..."

This was a project I've been working on for about a year and a half. The goals were to improve my ability to make backgrounds--because if you know me (or have seen any of my past works/excuses) --they aren't my strongest suit. :3

So what I tried to do was make a mellow episode of a series that mostly only had over-the-top action scenes. This would give me grounds to strengthen an ability to make something beautiful to look at, as well as fun to watch.

To put the story simply: Ilu would love to be a conductor when she grows up. Likewise, her friends would love to be great artists, dancers, and even musicians. But the daily mechanical grind of their lives don't really lead to any real chances to find that love their searching for. By the end of the animation, neither Ilu nor any of her friends reach their goals--but based on Ilu's passion, they all get a bit closer somehow. And that was the kind of animation I wanted to make.

What you see here is what I'm honored to share with you.

(I'd love supportive comments just as much as the next guy, but if you have something critical to add, please--PLEASE--do so too. Thought-rich comments appreciated above all else.)

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The Don't Trip Series:

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Don't Trip

This is UNMEI

The Love I'm Searching 4

After much ado, it's finally finals week here at GTech.

Some things I've learned along the way:

+How to cause/survive a chemical spill (serious story)
+Desensitize myself to failure (sad story)
+Hit squirrels (sinister story)

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SCHOOL STUFF
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Honestly, for the three classes I'm taking, I stand a pretty good chance to pass all of them so long as I put in the work this weekend to study and review material. One class I'm taking called Spectroscopic Identification of Organic Compounds is probably kicking my ass the most only that it's a skill-based class, so you can study all you want but you only really get good with practice (which is always an issue of, "Did I practice enough to do well on the exam?"). The test formats tend to lick dick though too (Too many problems, too little time). But meanwhile, Organic Mechanisms final should hopefully go well (in terms of me being able to struggle for survival) and my Macromolecular Structures can be a good experience with good old-fashioned studying (provided I quit falling asleep reading the material).

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FLASH STUFF
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_*THE LOVE I'M SEARCHING 4

Lately this past month, I've been taking hour-long breaks to work on The Love I'm Searching 4 with hopes I can finish it before the month is out. The final scene is already animated, I'm just fine-tuning in between parts and filling in scribble drafts with actual character models. It's beautiful and destined for obscurity--but lol, I'm so proud of it--and no one ever sees the my Trip animations anyway. xD

Won't stop me from doing what I dig.

_*PROFESSOR LAYTON PART 6

There's been a great amount of love for the Prof. Layton series. I've seen multiple uploads on youtube, account makings on facebook, and even fan art on DA which moves me deeply. I'm very honored and appreciative. Thank you! I plan on making a Part 6 this holiday break to start the "second season" of Professor Layton and the Malignant Growth. As tough as it is to find time to work on them, I had the oppurtunity to try online VA sessions with TW this Thanksgiving past for a Part 6. Unfortunately, I worked him horse pretty quickly as we were working on a new character. xD

Goals for this season (in no particular order):

-Don Paulo
-Karl the Black Asshole Returns
-FUTURE LUKE
-Layton's Date

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Considering all the crap I've got next semester, I'll mostly be focused on very small projects for some time to come. :( If I use my time more wisely though, I shouldn't have an issue doing my research and animating at the same time though. But I need to grow more discipline. I'm using grad school as an excuse to grow as an person, and I've much work to accomplish.

Much love for everyone's patience and help. <3

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
504371

This was the most fun Prof. Layton animation I've worked on yet. It started off with about 2 hours of audio recorded, which then got sorted out to about 17 minutes. Then slimmed down by voting to about ten. Then finally, and with great griping, crunched down to about 5 minutes. The last bits were hard to get rid of because there were a lot of good lines and running jokes I wanted to include in this episode, but they would have made pt. 5 way too long--still, there's always future shots.

Also, after hearing the jokes +50x, they all became completely dead on a funny-level. I had to take a several day-breaks from this project just so it could sound fresh again. It's rough working when you're comedy-blind.

I'm glad I was able to carry out a lot of the motifs I had established since the first episode. Even though the art is my personal Lazy Style <3, it's my style all the same--and I like to make fun challenges for myself. One of the main fun-loving-goals was in the openings, where one supporting/main character will always enter a scene from out of the shot or from behind a door. Just simple stuff like that. Maybe next month I'll break that pattern... It'll be fun coming with a new quirk.

Lot's of puzzles this time around to make up for the sincere lack of em during pt. 4. Now that I think about it, pt. 1, my other Doctor vs. Layton animation had only a couple of puzzles too. Doctor vs. Layton scenarios usually call for a different kind of humor (than my Luke vs. Layton scenes) that's harder to pin puzzles too.

I also took the chance to try to animate with characters based more closely to the original character models--mostly as a surprise. I won't lie to sound cool, that quick scene took me all day and an extra morning to finish. xD I noticed that the color palettes of the originals are slightly different than mine since I just pulled my colors straight from the pre-assembled pallet offered in Flash. I also had to toy with the character outfits, especially Flora's, to make them match my versions since I drew those originally from memory. ...What else? Oh! No fingers! I hate drawing fingers. xD

Final note: The folks at "Whoever Translates Layton Games" finally gave Audrey the official name, Katie. This wasn't the case during pt. 4, so I had to make the name "Audrey" up. To help glide around that inconsistency, I just made Audrey her middle name that Layton calls her by. Maybe if they get more friendly (or caustic >:3) towards each other, he can start calling her Katie (the official name).

FINAL FINAL Note: I stopped bleeping out the cursing when it stopped being funny around the first curse in. After that, I found that they were too distracting away from the awesomely delivered lines. *(Favorite--> "What the f*** have I been doing on weekends when I could have been RAPING BRAINS???" powerlol)

Anyway, much love for reading all of this! <3 Hoped you liked it!

I head out for Georgia Tech this August to start my quest for a PhD in Chemistry. I'm in the process of trying to get a fellowship which, if I win it, will guarantee I won't be eating ramen and kool-aid until I get my doctorate.

But that's still two more months of non-stop chilling at home with mom. At first it was great to have a vacation away from school--but now I'm suffering mad Stress Withdrawal Symptoms. I find myself procrastinating over the *stupidest crap just so I can guilt trip myself into shameful bliss.

*see stocking up on ramen and kool-aid

Video Game Recap:

+I finally got to play Portal! It was a fun TWO HOURS! xD Good thing a sequels a'comin'.
+I finished playing Plants vs. Zombies--great game! Hugely addicting for sure! Best thing I've played this month.
+Now I'm going through my legally purchased copy of Fable. I hate being good--but I can't stand myself being bad. It's obvious my fresh pair of manly man balls since playing FallOut 3 have shriveled surely.

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PROFESSOR LAYTON pt 5
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I DON'T blame Tyrone for having a life outside of voicing my animations, and I understand all the stresses he's been under lately--but the guy is still a jerk! xD But! After ditching out of supplying me lines three times--I finally got the seeds of the next episode in this series.

At first I was planning on another Doctor/Karl/Layton episode, but a good opportunity to squeeze in a Luke/Flora/Layton scenario showed up during the recording session and I'll run with that while the idea is fresh. We'll have to record with mom in the living room (long story), so there will need to be a greater emphasis on well written tirades rather than flat out cursing--or even pretend cursing (which gets bleeped out regardless for that tough-sounding PG-13+ effect :3 ).

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THE LOVE I'M SEARCHING 4
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57-60% Complete

This animation keeps looking better and better. I've got the file size down to 13MB so there's a great chance I can slide in at about 20ish MB when all is said and done. I'm getting pretty ballsy with the effects too. I really don't think anything can stop me!

More screenshots to come!

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BABY: I LOVE YOU (aka Project BABY)
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So, Project BABY will be seeing some background story revelations by the way of Mai Darling is Busy reports like the one here:

Mai will keep posting reports as I continue to get closer to finally working on Project BABY and they'll make for nifty extras when I finally finish the animation.

So I just came back from Atlanta for the frist of many orientations at Georgia Tech, which is where I'll be suffering for what I hope to be a 4-6 year period as I get my PhD. Man, am I overwhelmed... and a bit excited all the same. I'm absolutely going to give it my best and good things always come when I'm in that state of mind. Hell, I didn't even start animating until my first summer as a overwhelmed undergrad.

I finished FallOut 3 none to long ago and am now just exploring around the world. My character is noble yet demanding of money to the degree that I find myself asking "What Would Baltheir Do?" before I commit to any challenge.

I'm also playing Fire Emblem for the DS--which is GREAT! It's kind of like chess in a weird RTS kind of a way. Maybe I SHOULD give Valk. Chronicles a chance after all...

F L A S H N E W S
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Professor Layton 4
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I've got about 3000 frames left to animate at about 30 fps. I want more lines from Ty though and I'll be seeing him tonight. I should work on not listening to the audio a thousand times before I start animating because then all the jokes wan and grow dull and I waste motivation on working on the project. But after this nice break, I've returned pretty nicely to this 4th episode. I think I'll be more motivated once Luke makes a return too.

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The Love I'm Searching 4
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I passed the half way point in February, but the file has gotten mad corrupted. So, I'm using back up .fla's to piece together a working file to continue from. The whole process takes about 3 hours, but it's just so troublesome when it happens. I finally decided to--FOR NOW--split the animation up into "slices." I'm thinking 5 slices should do it, each with 1/5 of the animation allocated to a stable and relatively much smaller .fla file. Doing this will even let me post some of the finished slices on my DA account so you guys can see bits of what I've been working on for so long. I'm really proud of this piece so far and how it's coming out.

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BABY: I Love You
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There are A LOT of songs with "Baby, I Love You" in it. xD

I've gotten some character models done and I have a pretty good idea of how I want the animation to start and finish. Middle parts are still kinda iffy in my mind. I won't officially start this project until The Love I'm Searching 4 is at 80% at least as to not spread myself too thin.

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Pick UP Act 3
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I'll only have 6 minutes to tell a compelling story that can completely describe what Blue Box is as a company, get Patrick back into the story, introduce a series of new characters, and still be interesting to newcomers to the Pick UP series.

It's possible.

But I can't attack this animation like a music video like I had for the first two Acts. I'll be drafting a script before i really start. Right now I'm brushing up on some indie films to develop a more poetic style of telling this story.

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Skaijo's Busy List of Things To Do:
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1. Prep for the $140 Graduate Requirement Exam

2. Synthesize a Tannic Acid / Brominated Hexane Polymer before Nov 20 or before my funding runs out (whatever comes first).

3. Pass Spectroscopic Identification of Organic Compounds.

4. Send out my $60 Graduate Applications and pray that some school out there excepts me... TT_TT

5. Animate.

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Things I've Already Done:
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+ Make sure Obama wins the Presidential Election

+ Laundry.

So Obama took the nomination for the Dem party a few nights ago! That's big news--especially hear in Atlanta. If I had to stake my claim to America, I'd say I'm def. California-based--with the exception that I was done with the Clintons after 2000. For crying out loud, we were almost going to form multiple legacies in the presidential office. We already had one (Bush and Bush Jr.), which could have honestly done better if the ever present effect of corruption (which effected both Dem and Rep admins) didn't effect the administration so vehemently. In fact, I actually appreciated some of the legislation passed these past 8 years such as the SMART grant, which netted me $4k for being a Chem major (but not so much the PATRIOT ACT which accurately gave me a -$50,000 fine on my bank account just because my street address wasn't verified).

So I'm willing to see a lot of gray in this situation.

So he one the nomination last night, but I feel kind of dejected. Why? Everyone talks about how this race was built on race. And that's fine--anyone's narrow mindset or outlook on life brings no clouds my way. But I'm still bugged. The White vote, the Black vote, the Latin vote--Hell, on CNN last night I actually heard them say the Native American vote.

What about the Asian vote? :_:

I guess it's all just peas in the pot, but it's still sad to not see the stereotyped voting trends of your fellow people on 24-hour news shows.

... ...

Maybe I'm just lucky. :D

Anyway, Kudos all around to all the Dem candidates. This was the first time I voted. <3

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GREAT MOMENTS IN MANGA
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I asked Tom to remove my animations yesterday from Newgrounds. Even though the we thought the animations were funny, they used copyrighted material to make them--which was brought to my attention yesterday when they were deleted from DA. There's no point having something that was made with such little effort carry such major malevolent mojo over my head. I don't want to be considered a thief of any sort, because I know what it's like to get your work stolen or misrepresented.

So I'm really sorry--whether I made a personal offense or not. Next time I use Ty's voice, it'll be with original art work done by me.

I love Yotsuba, and I'll do anything to help spread the word on the manga!*

*(Edit: Short of offending people and copyright infringement).

But seriously though, my apologies if I boiled any blood. Great Moments was just a way for me to pass the time hear in Atlanta with some goofy voice files I had backed up in my computer. Nothing personal, right?

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GUNBUSTER 2
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Did you guys know that the makers of FLCL made an official sequel to the old (but classic) anime Gunbuster? It looks MARVELOUS and has inspired me once again to Aim for the Top (pun, I'm awesome). Gainax animates their OVA's the same way how I want to do my Trip series (Don't Trip was almost entirely influenced by FLCL). The fast and furious approach to animating is just so cool. The story suffers, but you sacrifice to demonstrate a multitude of scenarios that are just FUN (plain and simple FUN) to work on. That's really all that animating should be about, especially as a hobby--the fun of it.

I recommend you guys wiki or check out Gunbuster 2 (also known as Diebuster, because theres no such thing as an anime with just one title. Yes I'm serious.).

I'm going to work around this animation to influence my work on my next big project. :D

*insert official DVD artwork (which I also didn't make btw, :P )

My animation (and pride and joy), This is UNMEI is finally complete! Check it out!

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GREAT MOMENTS IN MANGA:
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More to come? Most likely. Ty screamed his voice playing Rock Band at home. Which makes me want to go back all the more sooner (yeah right, I love it here in Atlanta. But I would take a quick vacation for Rockband. >:D ).

It's been doing very well on NG, which I have no control over. The last two came damn near close to robbing a daily out of other author's hard work. That would have been a real shame since newer artists take real pride in getting those awards, and I'm making them just to spread the word on a spectacular manga.

Honestly, I don't care what scores any of my animations get so long as I can continue to share them (and getting more people to read Yotsubato! is a definitive plus). I'm thinking of adding an additional warning aside from already calling my animation LOUD, STUPID, SHORT, and A WASTE OF TIME so that it won't get such a huge score in contrast to the work I put into it.

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NEW ANIMATION (The Love I'm Searching 4)
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Hm, I'm still planning it out mentally. But it's a story that takes place in the community I established in This is UNMEI. This one won't focus on Uli and her conquest against the always ominous tRip threat. Instead, it will focus on her little sister Ilu, and will be much more toned down. You see, I want to improve as an animator, and I figure my greatest weakness at this point is backgrounds. So I'm going to see if I can animate with an emphasis on backgrounds and fluid movement.

Its kind of weird, since this will my first major project that doesn't have violence in it. Will I be able to still entertain the internet demographic with no violence? We'll see. Either way, it's coming out. Please give me your support!

"I won't lose to rain"--so says the latest chapter of Yotusbato!

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SUCKY MANGA
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Is it just me or are the Naruto chapters getting really really good and the Bleach chapters getting more suckerier by the month. Gee whiz. There are way too mnay characters for me to keep up in bleach and they never seem to die--ever--EVAR.

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WORK BEFORE PLAY
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Hmmm... with a new school semester out I won't have nearly as much time to animate as I'd like. So I'm back to weekends and holidays for my animating sched--which is fine with me because I was just about sick of flash over this winter break. Oye, I'm glad it's just a hobby that I do for fun. I nearly go cross-eyed staring at my screen and listning to the same 30 second interval of music over and over again.

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THIS IS PROGRESS (This is Unmei--new animation)
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For those out of my personal loop, I'm making a sequel to Don't Trip--called, This is Unmei.

It's nearly complete! I just need some more touch up work and I've got some good friends lending me their artistic eyes. Currently, that's the only animating I've got on the horizon. :D

Plans: This is Unmei, Xxxxx Xxxxx Yotsuba, Campus Nerds: Nerdacon

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THIS IS UNMEI
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Not too early to announce this but This is Unmei is already over a minute done. Considering this is only a 2.53 minute animation, that's pretty good. Good chance I'll finish it within 2007--and it's looking to be the best thing I've animated yet. >_<

I'd post some more images, but what's the point really? They're all pretty crazy looking. I'll upload more after fall break.

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"Blankity Blank" YOTSUBA
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Because I can--and I should. <3

I'm still wavering on some really great ideas. The only problem is that Ty and I can't think of any decently good jokes to do with so many already popular series. That plus it makes the entirety of the project nearly 1000% easier when we already have music from the game that was previously cropped and sequenced like the one in MGY.

We'll keep knocking our heads.

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CAMPUS NERDS: NERDACON
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Nerdacon is coming around again and I need to make an animation for it. My plan is to put together a list of all the things that I love-hate about campus nerds and spam them to death. Literally. But without the spam.

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OTHER STUFF
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+I plan to update Pick Up: Act Two so that the audio can be improved for it's release on UGOPlayer.

+I may need a root canal. :(

+I'm the best Big Bang Beat Player in my city. (kick ass!)