+If you have love to share, I'll send it right back at you harder. Brace yourself.
+My Asshole Filter is on HIGH. Shitty attitudes will get banned, blocked, and forgotten instantly.

+I don't read reviews scored below 8.
+I don't respond to reviews below 10.

+If you really have a constructive issue with my work, you're taking life too seriously. Still, you can always ding me with a PM to start a dialog.

So says Skaijo.

Stuffs

Just been busy with research. Work has been the kind of thing where every 3 good days is followed by 2 bad ones, followed by a lazy half-day. :3 Progress.

More work done with BABY since that'll need the most time in the long run. Saw my fam last month and didn't bother with voice acting--I just enjoyed having them near. <3 I can always phone it in. :)

New school semester is a'loomin up. Must not cry from anxiety. Strong lady. *personal hug. Focus.

I made a promise to stay off the internet (outside of school use) for 30 days to focus on my studies. I completed on that promise and earned +2500 discipline pts. along the way, which I cashed for a hardcore weekend of procrastinating. OMG, that was like 5 Narutos, 5 Bleaches, 1 Yotsuba, 2 UFC Events, 4 episodes of 30 Rock... the list goes on. Long story short, Christmas came early. Oh--and PORN--but yes, a festive, festive X-mas, and how.

Now that it's finals week at college, I don't expect to post much of anything, though that's not to say I haven't been busy. I finished the preloader for BABY: I Love You, which may not sound like much until you see how freaking awesome it is. I know BABY will be a big project with a huge file size (aiming for 25MB), so a nice preloader that dynamically explains the entire story lead in to the animation will be a nice addition.

Oh, and how could I forget, I finished the audio for the entire animation. Being completely closed off from the internet but sill wanting to be productive gave me a really unique idea to try nabbing SFX from my favorite shows and then carefully, carefully dissecting legions of anime DVD's to find the right VA clips of emotion driving outbursts. I've noted that for animations like these, you can't really write Shakespeare into 3-second yelps--but the Japanese voice actors convey the emotion I need perfectly, and the fact that I'm making this for an English-speaking audience gives me a nicely creative angle as to how I can still get the more definitive points across.

Summer's on it's way, HOPE I DO WELL IN MY CLASSES. Other than that, I'm gravy. :3

And of course, get some animating in.

But first, a quick update on school. I just had all of my midterms here at GTech. I need to pass all my classes to survive until next semester. :3 So far I'm very much on track. My greatest issue is improving on a poor midterm grade I received when the class average was a 63 out of 100. I've met with the professor many times and have scheduled and opportunity for me to improve me class standing. Until then, I'm holding off on doing any research until my all my classes are done. I'm planning on working with lignin, should anyone care. xD

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BABY: I Love You
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As you guys can tell for my latests posts, I've settled on an art style for my latest major project, BABY: I Love You which is kind of a mix between the style I used with The Love I'm Searching 4 and vectored objects/background patterns. I think it has a really distinct appearance that not only makes the presentation more unique but also highlights the work put into the backgrounds collages.

I'm switching the story a bit for something easier to grasp in the animation too. Basically...
BADASS Co., who manufactures the world's most power-housed and custom "hardcore" 'bots (mecha'bots, fem'bots, etc.) hates the fact that they're being driven to bankruptcy by the likes of Darling Tech and their line of "casual" robots--that admittedly don't even really do anything aside from having nostalgia value and consistently being the cheaper option (--though, when you think about it, who really wants to get caught owning a fem'bot???).

Still D. Badass, owner of BADASS Co., decides to put his inventory to good (evil?) use and literally crush his competition--namely Mai Darling, former wife and the current head of Darling Tech. The only one who can save Mai Darling is her daughter, Ima Darling, who like most of the Darling robots, isn't skilled at crap. But with the help of one of Mai's robotic rejects, maybe Ima just may be able to save the day... or not.

I'm actually storyboarding this before I start the animating process which means that there's is going to be some ridiculously awesome, well-coordinated, action seen in this project.

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Professor Layton pt. 7
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No promises since I won't have any face-to-face contact with TW until the summer (hopefully). Though a premise is pretty much established on my part. Also, since I declined to complete on Epically Huge Cereal Eating Hamster, I got the opportunity to recycle a lot of jokes that were in that project and incorporate them into Layton 7 with a characteristic spin. All and all, I've got my .doc of lines ever growing. :3

That's really it. I wanted to say that I really appreciate the love everyone has offered to me since last update. It's been really moving to come to see so many pat on the backs offered. That's very sweet. Thank you very much.

"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.