Interview No. 98

Interview By: The-Great-One

[ PART 1 | PART 2 ]

Q: We now come to what I believe is your best work and that is The Ballad of CrippleKane. This truly is a beautiful movie from beginning to end, with amazing animation and a very fun western story to tie it altogether. What was the inspiration for this and the process you took in creating it? Also how did it feel to be nominated for the Newgrounds Tank Award?

A: Man, this project for me was a pillar in my life. I started it in... 2008. I had been going to an animation school in Emeryville near Pixar. I had left everything in Spain to move to California and pursue my dream of making movies. I signed up to this school that had a social program, for the first year you do all Liberal Arts classes to get them over with and for the rest of the years, its all just core animation classes. I was about to finish my first year of Bullshit classes when I was kicked out of the school out of no where (it's a long story). Basically I didn't sign one measly paper. So, while I went to animation school, I never studied animation. Maybe in the end that's good, because I never would see my self animating professionally.

Regardless, I was in a really low point in my life. I stopped making Kane I was mentally and emotionally lost. I also couldn't bring myself to animating Kane cause I had gotten to the part right before they board their horses. And I had no clue how to animate those fucking things. After about a year of not touching that animation. I finally got myself on my feet and decided to face this thing. Every friend who had seen what I had so far told me I needed to get it done. And they were right. With the help of ZekeySpaceyLizard in one shot. The one that reveals the cliff up ahead before Kane bravely jumps over it. I literally sat down. and said to myself "Hans, you're not getting up for anything out of this chair until this movie is finished." And for about 14-15 hours straight I was stuck in a trans. I literally didn't care about anything. I literally didn't even get up to shit or piss. NOTHING. I was animating shots left and right in no order on top of my animatic.

Until I got to a point where I was scrolling through the timeline looking for another shot to animate. And I kept going and going... and going until I reached the end... And I realized in disbelief "I'm done". I'm going to go ahead and admit this, but I cried. This was big for me. This brought back so much energy in me. I had been in an all time low in my life. I clicked submit on Newgrounds and walked out of the door. I was living in Berkeley at the the time. And I walked all the way to San Francisco. and then I walked some more into the night. I didn't sleep. I walked until it was morning, and I didn't sleep I kept walking and walking into the next night, and didn't sleep. Until the next morning I walked all the way back home read some reviews and crashed on my bed. I think I slept through the whole day and into the next morning.

Newgrounds has always meant so much to me. It was where I've met the best people in the world. The kind that restores your faith in humanity. The kind that settles the wonder of how or why we've survived so long as a species. And to be nominated by the site was a very big deal for me.

Q: Not Of This World! is a student film made by you. You stated that it was hard to execute, what gave you troubles when it came to making film? Could you tell us about its story? Also did you gather any inspiration from The Twilight Zone?

A: After Kane, I decided to go back to school and joined the Academy of Art University in San Francisco to study Film. There is where I shot "Not of This World". We were shooting on black and white super 8 film. And in that class every time we did the test shots that followed our final project I had done something different wrong every time. We'd sit there shoot our test footage for practice. Wait one week to get the results and everything came black for me. We;d do it again I'd learn my mistake it'd come back after a week AND AGAIN my footage was black! So the final project day came. And I was so nervous. But I really wanted to shoot a Sci Fi style thing.

I'd always loved the 'Twilight Zone' and this was my chance (maybe only chance) to genuinely make it look and feel like the show. My brother and I made a crazy costume. Mainly spraying a bunch of stuff silver. We had gone location scouting a week before we shot. When i'd flown in from San Francisco, I'd seen through the window of the airplane these GIANT marshes below. They looked pale white and full of squiggly rivers. We drove there to check out this place. There was a park right next to it, you weren't allowed to walk on that place cause it was a salt marsh. But we could trek along the edge. It was perfect.

We went to shoot the project there, I was already nervous that what we were going to shoot wasn't going to come out because of the test footage in class. I didn't tell my brother I needed him to be up for this, he was already wearing this dumb clunky costume and had to run around a lot and shit. But we get there and it is SUPER foggy. There was this absolute absence of light. And for these film cameras you need a LOT of light to get a picture AT ALL. We were literally waiting some times for the sun to peek out of the sky in occasional cloud holes and then immediately "GO GO GO SHOOT!" Another thing was, we had a 2 minute film, and only 2 minutes of film to shoot with. Every shot absolutely counted.

Sadly the twist wasn't captured well. Inside the mask is supposedly an Aliens face. I'd bought this super detailed rubber mask. The idea was the astronaut was an alien inspecting our planet. But whatever I guess it at least looked cool. Right?

I was just happy we got an IMAGE out of it. I'd apparently done everything wrong possible during the test footage moments, but learned from all those mistakes. I was so nervous that whole week after we shot the film. Cause with this old stuff, you don't know if what you're getting is good or not. You have to work with you gut.

Q: One collab I am quite interested in is entitled 'Contact'. It started out small at the Newgrounds Office, but how did it end up growing more and more from there? Also were you there for Pico Day this year and if so then will we be expecting another piece of work?

A: This is a very reoccurring thing at meet ups. So much talent there and somebody always wants to make something together. In this case I wanted to make something at tank awards. Me and Oney were dong a drawing battle on a note book. We came up with a theme both drew something then looked at each other's pictures. The theme I think was something like Perverted Alien Probe. He drew this alien with dicks for arms and vaginas and stuff and I drew two red necks but raping an alien while one filmed it. And I thought wouldn't it be funny, this epic sic fi thing where on a news real someone reveals human's first contact with aliens but unfortunately the aliens landed at some bumb-fuck backwards ass state and got raped? That'd leave a bad impress of us on the aliens.

This whole thing started to grow when some of the many talent at the Tank awards heard and wanted in. We eventually came up with the idea that the aliens are invited to a talk show to be interviewed, but they just went to warn humans of their plans to get revenge on them. meanwhile humanity is just preoccupied with asking them their stupid questions ignoring the aliens emotional state. We mainly came up with this so different people could have a role in this project. It was fun. But I never would have finished animating this thing without the help of PsychicPebbles and Oney.

Q: I'm gonna be blunt with this one. What is Africa Dudes?

A: Africa Dudes I think started off with Egoraptor and Stamper exchanging these dumb short of african style dudes talking. They eventually made a collar and asked to join in. Which was a mistake cause I couldn't think of anything really funny. And I feel like I just added a lot of dumb fluff to it's painfully long run time. But then again, a lot of people involved in africa dudes might feel the same way about their parts. My personal favorite was El Cid's part.

Q: The T 'Intro' certainly does get me excited to see this crime film/noire animation. Will we ever be seeing this as a series on Newgrounds?

A: The T was a project I was working on for a long time with my brother. We were writing a Detective series basically. With a twist to the idea. It originally came about when MTV was interested in animated stuff and asked me to come up with some ideas. That fell apart and I was left with this cool Intro. I love making intro's and credits and stuff. You can notice even my shortest shit has credits mainly cause I like making title sequences.

I had considered making the series on my own with shorter episodes. I even wrote the first episode, got the voices from Egoraptor Tomamoto and Stamper and made an animatic of the bigger part of the episode. But I was starting to put a pacing and visual flow of everything I realized a mystery works best with a longer run time. Cause you need to hang on certain bits long enough for the audience to sink their teeth into. Or at least torture them with the lack of information in the story that ends up building up to a satisfying conclusion. It almost felt like the first episode was just going through the motions of a mystery rather than providing a good mystery.

I still really like the idea for The T and am keeping it in the back of my mind for the opportune moment to develop it.

Q: You have one game with a history behind it's creation and progression and that is Ace Pilot. What all can you tell us about this game?

A: Man, Ace was going to be something completely different from the get go. My friend Justin Pruitt approached me about 5 years ago after I made "It's a Halo Thing" we started off geeing out about Halo 1 and how much we didn't like the direction Halo took in the future of it's sic fi. We'd have long Skype sessions talking about what we like/ dislike about games and movies.

One day he showed me this game he build on game maker. And told me of this idea called Ace Pilot. He and his friends wanted to make this game in flash, and put a little story to it. That where they asked me to come in. The credits in Ace story go to Me, Justin and a guy named Stephen Rouse. Stephen had written the first outline of Ace. Which involved an arrogant space hero out to stop Kim Jon Ill and his galactic conquest. The story and jokes had a lot of reference jokes. Some that even I didn't get. So I suggested what if we make it 100% original space adventure story.

After bouncing back ideas, talking about the characters, world and story. We narrowed it down pretty well and I saw an opportunity to suggest something I'd always wanted to see. James Bond in space, but funny. I always loved james bond movies. Especially the old ones. I liked that as smooth and slick as bond could be the movies were still pretty campy. people argue that that's just how the times were, but I disagree. The writers just had a sense of humor. And the wit in the dialog although smart, was also with a bit of a humorous nudge. I wanted to give it a go to bring some of that life in our own way.

Ace Pilot was the first character I had to redraw over 500 times before I got him how I wanted him to look. And all that came completely from me and Justin nailing who he was. We wanted him to be unique but familiar we needed to balance how gruff and how elegant he looks. And to be 100% honest, I am so happy with how he looks. I almost feel like I didn't design him. Like He's existed in the cartoon world for a while and I just sort of stumbled into him. All that thought and design work paid off.

As clunky and rough of a start it was for the game series with the first game. (Reasonably so) It was Josh Sole's first game he ever coded. We learned a lot with that first game.

Our idea is to have a game series where the gameplay from episode to episode will be context sensitive to the story. For instance. Episode one is more getting to know ace. More sketch comedy mission based space battle fun. Episode two, without giving spoilers, will be a point in the story where ace is super rage driven and pissed. So the gameplay will be more combo based, linear shooter. So Episode 1 is like a 'Asteroids' on crack. and episode 2 will be a 'Galaga' on crack. We're very excited about Episode 2. In one end, every game is a fresh start game design wise. But also, episode 2 is really the first turning point in the story from the over arching story standpoint. SHIT GETS REAL!

I'm excited to see how people react to that.

Q: When it comes to a good few pieces of your work, one person you tend to work with a lot is Chris O'Neill, better known on Newgrounds as Oney. What can you tell me about your history with him, how did you meet and what is your connection?

A: I met Chris when he made Disturbed Johnny. He had considered making a sequel and asked me about doing his voice. We kept in touch and so about that, until he dropped that project. Eventually he asked me to do the voice for his Grand Theft Awesome Egoraptor parody. I was totally up for doing a zany Russian voice. What was funny about that is, since I didn't own an Xbox 360 until 2009 he had to explain to me why all these jokes were made.

But really, after that we sorta drifted apart. No spite no nothing. I guess we've sorta followed our own paths. More passively helping each other out and such. he's just there for me when I ask him to be I guess... That's all about to change though. Hahaha! Chris is gonna be stuck with me basically. (inside joke)

Q: If there is one thing about your movies that I like is that despite the style being similar in some cases, the overall quality of each movie you bring out is different each time. Your article Audience Dominance is about the directors being not creators, but brands, and the audience not viewers, but followers. In this article you state...

"All in all, the minute an audience's opinion dominates the creative process. It's no longer a show, it's a church lecture. People just hearing what they want to hear and can almost word for word predict what that artist is going to present. Creative people then have to resort to cheap shock value or cheap tricks to create any sort of surprise or wonder in their work when this happens. Which has less value in its experience."

Upon reading it the question is then, where is the line that separates the viewer and the creator. If the viewer asks for something, then how should the creator respond?

A: The line that separates it is this. The creator always has to ask themselves "Is this what this story needs?". Whether it be Tim Burton adding curly trees. Whether it be Quentin Tarantino having every one of his characters talk so much. While these things are part of the charm and style to each creator, those things could be out of place sometimes. And if they are just forcefully applied, a movie quickly turns into the creator's jerk off material.

I'm never going to be the person who is exclusive enough to say "curly trees are bad" or "a lot of talking" is bad. But everything has it's place and time. What place and what time that is is too big of a question to get into. That's just contextually sensitive to the piece and it's up for the smart decisions of the creative person in charge to feel that out.

But they have to see themselves outside of their own project. See themselves as serving the story. giving it what it needs. when they start only give what they want, it spoils the piece to me. or at least that moment in the piece. It basically doesn't feel natural and takes you out of the movie.

The new strategy now is, get people to religiously follow you as a creator that way any time the story breaks like that and makes you think of it's creator they won't see it as a bad thing, they'll just be reminded of what they love to follow. But the truth is, the piece is the audience IS getting taken out of the story. thats the most fundamental law of narrative entertainment. To not be taken out of it. That's why they dim the lights. That's why they ask you to be loud in the theatre.

Q: As I read more articles from your blog, it shows that you have studied animation and film. Have you ever thought about making tutorials to teach others here on Newgrounds?

A: As mentioned before, I was kicked out of animation school before I could even start learning animation. If there's anything I know I have an eye for that I could teach in tutorial form it's not in animation. I'm not good at all. I think I'm okay at pre production stuff. Either writing, composing shots, pacing, basic design. I am doing that through my blogs. But I hope to start some video blogs soon. I think audiences today would rather hear me in the background as they are doing something else then sit down and read through my long ass borderline rants.

As proven in this interview, I take a long time to explain things some times. Hahaha! Hopefully, it's to fully inform people, but it could very easily just be exhausting.

Q: What can we expect from AlmightyHans in the future?

A: I am in the middle of moving to Philadelphia at the moment. I'm planning on creating lots of shorts with Stamper and Oney. I'm really excited to work with live action stuff, as well as animated shorts. Ace 2 is going in production in July. But what I'm most excited about, which I'm developing as we speak, is a full season of an animated Ace Pilot Series. 20 min episodes and an estimated 14 episodes. I'm not worrying so much on how I will go about getting this thing made. But I at least want to write the fully developed scripts for the first season.

AlmightyHans story is one I have not heard before. I have many stories since doing The Interviewer, but this is one that intrigued me a lot. I don't mean that to be an insult or to sully other interviews in the past, but the emotion that Hans has connected with Newgrounds and his works, while still being very humble. It truly does amaze me to see an animator of his stature respond in a calm collected manner as if his works are not on such a high par as others are. All I can really say is that I want to see more from AlmightyHans. To see where his steps in life will take him next and to support him on his path would truly be an honor for this interviewer.

[ PART 1 | PART 2 ]

Interview No. 98

Interview By: @The-Great-One

Today's guest is an underrated animator here, yet many people know him. His works aren't as big Newgrounds household names here, but they are still recognized as they should. From his works on Valentine 29', Africa Dudes, Ace Pilot, and The Ballad of CrippleKane, which was nominated for a Newgrounds Tank Award. His story has taken him to many different places and he has seen more than probably any other animator and more than the average Newgrounds member, he is none other than Hans Van Harken, also known on Newgrounds as @AlmightyHans.

[ PART 1 | PART 2 ]

Q: How did you find Newgrounds and why did you join?

A: It must have been 2000, I was 10 years old. It was a rare thing, but my brother invited me over to his friends house. There, his friend had a computer with internet in his room. We had a Windows 95 with no internet at our place. When we entered his room he was playing this game on his computer where he's point and click down a hall way to move this little panicking red haired kid with a green shirt. I was blown away already. The only thing I played on a computer was 'Load Runner: the legend returns" and 'Rayman'. My nintendo 64 and super nintendo were my only experiences to games. But then the next thing that happened blew me away.

The little red haired kid shot the pink haired punk in the face and blood started gushing out of his face. I really liked the comic violence. It was something I was always into. Not real violence but exaggerated violence. And the most violence I had scene in a video game up until this game was the Metal Slug arcade machines when the blood wasn't censored white. Something about making violence over the top pleased me. Normally you fall and scrape your knee as a kid, it sucks and it's painful. But when violence is over blown and made to be funny, it sort of relieved the misery of it for me.

Two years later, my parents got divorced and I moved to Barcelona, Spain with my mom. For the first time we got a lap top with internet connection because she wanted to keep in touch with her family back in Mexico and U.S. I discovered the internet. And I started searching all these things. I used to love going to the library and opening books and reading bits and pieces here and there, but this time it was the biggest library and on my fucking desk. This was a big deal, since in Spain, I had nothing. It was me, my mother, a small couch with a stereo system instead of a TV in front of it. It was a one bedroom and I slept on a bed that rolled out from under my mothers every night.

I started getting in the mood for playing games and I tried to remember what that game was my brother's friend was playing. I didn't know about search engines so I just punched in a bunch of details like "kid shoots school game with red hair and green shirt" after an hour of searching I finally found it. "Pico? Yeah that sounds about right!" that naturally lead me to newgrounds which lead to the most important discovery of the internet for me. Community. I started watching cartoons and playing games. I had no TV no console, this was my entertainment in my young life in Spain. The best part was. I could leave and read people's comments on work. I realized I could get a response from the creator. I realized... that I could get a response from MY work.

Q: How did you get into art and animation?

A: I can't think of a memory where I wasn't into art. And I can remember vivid memories from when I was 2. At least when I tell them my memories, my family let's me know I was 2 when that was.

I've always drawn pictures, but more importantly, put little stories to them. i wasn't just drawing to see a picture, In my brain I was imagining a little story in what not. When I entered first grade, I had this really cool teacher who made photocopies of this paper she drew a bit cross over that divided it into 4 squares. Whenever we'd be done with assignments she'd give us one of those little pages and told us to tell a story in those 4 panels. I'd always be excited to finish a test early to get one of those and make some story. It was awesome. That was the start of my love for making comics.

At age 6 I started this 'series' of comics that lasted until I was around 12. It was called "Spike" and he was this dinosaur that everything bad happened to. I was always making those damn comics. they were usually a page long and consisted of 12 panels. And it was always like Spike with a themed sort of misery. Lost in a desert thirsty as hell and his dinosaur 'friends' who always fucked with him would create a flash flood and drown the poor bastard. Like Mr. Bill but a poorly drawn dinosaur version.

Q: As an animator I'm sure you have had inspirations. What roles do Tom and Jerry as well as the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote from Looney Tunes play in your creative process?

A: All those cartoons were part of that outlet of violence I liked. It all brought this humor in failure. Nothing was funnier to me as a kid than watching this poor coyote spend all this time into making an elaborate thing only for it to back fire. Then my favorite part would be watching Coyote walking away humiliated but all smashed up like an accordion. It was bitter sweet to me.

Because I grew up in a super guilt filled Catholic environment, I always felt bad drawing blood and anything sexual as a kid. So I chose that loony toons style violence. Big bombs and anvils sorta stuff.

Q: Your first Newgrounds submission would be Sneek. Something very basic no doubt. Where did the idea of this come from and looking back on it as well as its second episode, are you still proud of them?

A: The idea came from all that Tex Avery crazy Looney stuff. Also from that 'Spike' comic series I made. I couldn't figure a way to animate spike how I wanted it to look so I went for that detached limbs look. That was very popular in those days of Flash. Like 'Madness' and 'I love egg' and so many other things. And because I had never taken any animation classes, my only experience for animation was Stop Motion and I really liked Rayman. I decided to go with it.

I literally animated all that stuff horribly and primitively in F6 move. F6 move... F6 MOVE! Basically frame by frame, one layer and just with a knowledge of groups and frames. The limbless style worked well for that without getting too sloppy. That's why I also didn't use backgrounds. Sneek 1 has 10 short skits in it. That kinda gave the episodic feel that I liked Spike had. Then I decided to add more story for Sneek 2. Also switch swap it and make it that this dude needs to get out of a place rather than sneak into it.

I'm still 'proud' of it, but obviously with the cushion thought that I was about 13 when I made those. I never show them to anyone myself though...

Q: What was 24-7 going to be about?

A: 24-7 was going to be the story of two brothers who move together with their uncle who runs a cheap apartment complex in a small shitty town. It was basically going to be my attempt at something like the Simpsons. I even had the first episode half animated. But I realized I didn't have enough practice to pull it off. Comedic timing. Terrible and I mean TERRIBLE microphones. STUPID SCRIPTS. I had an outline for 12 different episodes. Some of them I still kinda like. But with my terrible technique there was no way I was going to basically pull them off. I might have gotten them done, but they would have been very very bad. So I moved onto other things.

Q: For those who know me on here, I am a fan of Monopoly. Your movie MONOTONY is certainly a funny movie, basing a commercial off of Monopoly, but parodying it at the same time. You stated it was for a school project to make a commercial. Could you elaborate more on the project, what you were allowed to do and not allowed to do? Also why did you choose Monopoly, how long did it take, and what did your teacher and class think?

A: I always hated school. After that one good year of first grade that I mentioned, it was all downhill from there. I used any opportunity possible to make something creative out of a project just to stay interested. I was living in Elkhart, Indiana for a year with my dad, with my mom being in Spain and all. We had been studying the Second Industrial Revolution, with the railway systems and all. And we had to create this presentation and parallel it with a board game for some reason. Obviously everyone just spoke their presentation to the class. But I just played this animated video I made. I took the 'Row Your Boat' song and put lyrics to it that kinda connected the game and themes in the Industrial Revolution. Somewhere in the lyrics I mention "Robber Baron" and that was a name for a type of criminal in those days. I got a lot of inspiration for that cartoon from Ren and Stimpey's Log toy. But mine wasn't as funny. I think I made that in 5 after school days.

Q: Glympse would be your first serious movie. You say it is based off of a book you are writing. What is this book about and will we see more of Glympse in the future?

A: During that same year in Indiana every day during every class I could, I was writing this story. I went with this idea about someone who couldn't see someone for more than a day or else they'd die, so this dude would have to be constantly on the move. And without thinking I just kept writing and writing and writing. Until one day I counted the pages and I had like 200 or more. It was funny too cause I'd write with whatever paper I had around. Note book paper, or graph paper from math class or if I was with my dad I'd steal one of his Johnson Control's factory notebooks.

I decided to make a trailer. Not because I ACTUALLY wanted to make a full blown animated movie, but because I really like trailers and I decided to take a jab at it. Personally I cringe whenever I see that title "Glympse" and especially when I watch it. It's incredibly cheesy and immature. I also think the book sucked balls when I try to read it. But it helped me at the time. It was a rough year for me in Indiana. And it sorta acted as therapy. Hahaha!

Q: When did you get into claymation? Also what can you tell us about the CLATOMIC series?

A: I got into claymation when I was 7. I remember when I was younger than that, like 3 or 4, I'd seen trailers and VHS commercials for "The Nightmare Before Christmas". I was so blown away and interested by the visuals. But my mom never let me watch it 'cause she figured it'd be too scary for me. I felt stupid and kept my urge to see it to myself. In 2nd grade, when I was 7, our teacher decided to bring the movie to class for Halloween. I was so excited. And the movie started with that song. And the camera gets going through this weird creepy world. It felt like a disneyland ride. Like indiana jones, just moving through this crazy world. But then she had to turn it off cause of a fire drill within the first 5 min. That was the first and only time I didn't like a fire drill. It interrupted the most interesting moment in my elementary school history.

I went back home jumping and excited telling my mom they were playing the movie at school and it wasn't scary at all. I convinced her to get the VHS. I watched it that night and loved it. The music the story, the design. Everything. And the credits rolled and I kept listening to Danny Elfman's music playing. The credits rolled until it reached the end of the tape and I saw the first 'Making-of' documentary in my life. This was when I knew what I wanted to do when I grew up. Make Movies. I saw the process and comprehended it completely. 'Stop Motion' frame by frame, picture by picture, they made these puppets move. I decided to try it for myself.

Because I knew my animation was going to be jerky and what not, I decided to make mine these clay figures of robots. I used my mom's home video camera and hit record and stop very quickly then move the puppet, so on and so forth. As I was looking back at my footage I realized fast forwarding the movie made it look more fluid. So I showed my family the movie in fast forward on tv and talked over it for the voices. Kinda like the piano guy used to play music over silent movies in the theatre back in the nickelodeon days. (not the tv channel).

I stopped making those cause we moved and didn't have a camera anymore. But Clatomic started years later (2005) when I had a logic tech camera with it's own stop motion system built into the program. I was so excited.

I'm going to go out and say I hate animating in 2d. It's a painful process for me that I don't enjoy, I mainly only do it because of the satisfaction of finishing a project. But as tedious as it sounds, I get off on animating in stop motion. The linear step by step isn't so bad for me, because the puppet retains its shape and it's all just you knowing how you want to move it. This is why no matter what style I work in, I like motion tweening. I guess I'm more of a 'puppeteer' than an 'animator' if you want to get snobby.

The Clatomic series started off as a test. I wanted to see if I can take advantage of flash to achieve making a guys head explode. It was just an example situation for me to practice and get back in the grove of stop motion. Then I also thought about character expression and such. Can I also make a guy gesture enough to look like he feels awkward? So I decided to make a simple story about a guy telling his friend to not concentrate or his head will explode. I finished the first episode but as I was animating I was thinking where this could go. So the bigger story started unfolding in my head, so Clatomic turned into a series.

Personally, it's one of the things I'm most proud of. Especially episode 3 and 6. Maybe it's partly because they were my first front paged pieces... I had planned for 9 episodes. It was going to turn into this North by North west sort of "fugitive story" a fugitive with an insane and unpredictable sidekick that made things worse for the main character. And I had this great idea for how to end it. But I don't know if it'd be a spoiler or would at least put to rest the curiosity of anyone who followed the series... I'd rather not say...

I stopped making them cause I got pretty annoyed at the Knox comparisons. I mean sure, it was claymation on newgrounds and the characters were each one solid color. But I hoped people would see that they were completely different in style of humor and even in animation style. My character were very energetic and story fueled. His were more casual and dead pan humor. On top of all that since I move around so much, it was becoming a nightmare buying props all over again the inconsistencies in the series are present. The characters change clay type, the sets change. So it was annoying to keep track of all that.

Q: Valentine 29' would have you leading a collaboration and a beautiful one at that. What inspired you to tell the story of the St. Valentines Day Massacre, and have it told through different animators? Also to those who want to start a collab and or lead one, what advice would have to give them?

A: During the time I was making Clatomic. This guy had come up to me who went under the name of Gorilla Studios with an idea for a collab on the Valentines Day Massacre. And asked me if I wanted to make a part. I was up for it. I did some researched and learned of the story. Since I really liked gangster stuff. Like the more classic gangster stuff, Dick Tracy and all that. But originally, the animations were going to be stick figure like shoot em ups. At least I knew that was going to be a part of it. Which was cool, I didn't mind. One thing lead to another, and the collab fell apart. But I really really liked the possibilitys of the collab. So I asked Gorilla Studios if I could take over? He was cool with it.

I'd always loved collabs on newgrounds. Like the "Matrix Has You" and "There's Something About Halo". I loved seeing all these artists come together to create something under a consistent theme. The styles were different, but it was consistent. I wanted to try something else with approach. Come up with a sequence of events and break that into 5 parts that each artist will animate how they please.

I knew that for this collab to work, the same way everyone comes together and agrees on a theme, I needed everyone to come together and agree on a due date. If we were making a Valentine's Day movie, no one could argue the due date. It needed to be done by that day. And in a collaboration, everyone needs each other. One guy messes up, we all pay for it. So I put the forum to use and made a post not expecting much. But luis was the first to reply. And I FLIPPED. I loved his grime and squeeze so much, my brother and I had peeked out all over it. And thankfully, because of him more people were interested. Including Osuka and Meebs. Critias was already a friend of mine so we was definitely in.

I was really surprised how well everyone did. I thought each piece was unique enough but set up the next sequence well. The only person who started getting on my nerves was Critias. And I'm not saying this out of spite, we're still good friends and talk haha! But he was the only one who didn't have his part done. And the due date was the next day. He hadn't told me and he was being very lazy. And since I was having so much trouble stitching these things together as it is, I told Critias to give me the file, so I made that sequence of the guys sweeping the bullets and getting the hell out of there super rushed. On top of that I had a really REALLY bad flu. But I uploaded it JUST in time for Valentine's Day. Over all I'm incredibly happy and proud of how that one turned out. I think it's sadly rare for awesome collaboration to happen on NG. Where everyone chips in and the final product turns out better than expected. I'm glad to have at least contributed that to Newgrounds with the team.

I had an idea for more "Horrible Holidays" collaborations. Including a Christmas one about the legend behind Christmas Caroling. But I never got to it.

Q: Shorts To Wear Pants To would be an amazing collaboration that would bring together a lot of different animators. The movie used songs from Songs To Wear Pants To. How did you become a part of this collaboration and how did it feel to work with these different animators?

A: Me being in this collaboration was completely out of the blue. I had never heard of this musician, and one day, SqueakyToad asked me on messenger out of an emergency. If I could make a part cause someone dropped out in one night. Funny enough I hadn't slept the night before he asked me that (I have a problem with sleep) so I pulled another all-nighter and made my part. Thankfully it was short cause I didn't know what to do by the end of it. I do think it was good that I was so exhausted. I don't know about you, but if I haven't slept I almost feel this surreal high, and everything is a lot more relaxed for me. I tend to over think everything I do and that can be destructive sometimes. In this case, I just let loose, didn't question and shit my part out of my brain.

[ PART 1 | PART 2 ]

Interview No. 97

Interview By: @The-Great-One

Today's guest has hosted a contest by the name of The Tournament of Flash Artists. He brought this contest to Newgrounds last year and now this year he brings it back under a new name entitled the Newgrounds Annual Tournament of Animation. With the posting of this interview the open round will come to an end. Let's see what goes into this tournament as well as the tournament's creator. So let's all welcome Adam Witt a.k.a. @NitWitt.

Q: How did you find Newgrounds and why did you join?

A: I discovered NewGrounds in 2003, while I was just beginning to learn Flash animation. I submitted a god-awful stick figure animation which made use of the Papyrus font, loud clipping low quality pop music, and a fake loading screen. Somehow it didn't get blammed at the time. I joined so that I could begin showcasing my own flash animation work.

Q: When did you discover animation?

A: In the fall of 2002 I was a freshman in High School and enrolled in the Web Page Design class. The teacher not only taught us the basics of web architecture, design, and HTML; but also taught us the basics of Adobe (then Macromedia) Flash Animation and Video Editing. It was really basic. Literally the only thing that they taught us about Flash was how to create a tween to move a rectangle, the rest I learned by experimenting with it in class and by watching animations online.

Q: How did the Tournament of Flash Artists begin?

A: You can blame it on a couple things. I was an active member of the Albino Blacksheep flash animation community beginning in 2005, which ran occasional contests called the Flash Developers Contests. By the time that Flash Developer Contest #15 came around, I was decent enough at animating to enter, and as it would have it was decent enough to win the contest. It was a small contest where only three to eight people would enter at all, and the prizes were small, so it was no big deal.

When contest #16 began, the host promised a $100 prize and the deadline was April 1st. Several animators made high quality animations because of this incentive, and when April 1st came around, the host called April Fools and refused to award the prize. The entire forum was up in arms over the issue, and I was so enraged by this wrong that I decided I would start running my own contests to show them how it ought to be done. Needless to say, the Flash Devo Contests were finished.

I began a small contest called Logo Go on the forum, where entrants had one week to make a 3-10 second fake logo animation, with a prize of $10 a week. It went on for a solid 7 weeks before losing interest, following which point I began hosting holiday contests such as Trick or Sheep, Woolentine's Day, and St. Sheepie's Day for AlbinoBlacksheep, with prizes donated by the ABS webmaster.

The reason for the tournament structure can be blamed on baseball. In 2007 the Colorado Rockies made it to their first MLB World Series, which was very exciting for all of us in Colorado. I followed the brackets religiously during the playoffs, and one day while at work I thought "What if there were a Flash tournament, where you could decide who the ultimate animator is?" So I set out to create just that. It started with 8 hopeful bracket slots, which quickly filled up to 22 interested contenders in the first year, 2007.

Q: When did you bring the Tournament of Flash Artists to Newgrounds and why?

A: The Tournament of Flash Artists began on NewGrounds last year, in 2011 during its 5th season. The tournament had grown exponentially in popularity and prize value with every year, and I wanted to see that trend continue to see it reach its full potential. The AlbinoBlacksheep Flash community was tight-knit and talented, but was diminishing in size with every year. The forums also began to populate with spam-bots and trolls that caused interest in the forum to decline. Eventually the ABS Flash base grew so small that the majority of participants in TOFA were NewGrounds members who registered accounts on the ABS forums solely to participate in the contest, and then never post again. Their entries to TOFA often made the front page of NewGrounds. After creating a couple topics asking for input on the idea of moving to NewGrounds and receiving extremely low input and for the most part trolling responses, it was apparent that NewGrounds was a much more appropriate environment to help the Tournament flourish.

Q: What is the process of gathering judges and prizes for the tournament?

A: Prizes are gathered on a donation and sponsorship basis. The largest chunk of the prize ($2,000) is being donated by NewGrounds as a sponsor this year. Adobe is donating Adobe Design Premium CS5.5 for the tournament, but declined name or logo placement within the contest. I myself am donating $500 to the prize pool. Additional donations can be made at the NATA website, which will not only help to compensate myself and others who volunteer their time for the tournament, but to add bonus prizes such as store credit and T-Shirts to the mix. We have not received any other donations so far, and so T-Shirts are looking unlikely at this point.

Judges come on a volunteer basis as well. The only main requirement is that they have previous animation or artistic experience. I do not typically volunteer as a judge, but usually cannot find a fifth in time for the contest and become one myself. The fifth judge is always an honorary position, being the Champion of Animation from the previous year's contest. This year's judges are Tom Fulp (CEO of NewGrounds), Myself (Adam Witt, AGS in Film/Video technology, writing/directing emphasis), Tiffany Witt (BFA in Fine Arts, drawing emphasis), Elliot Cowan (BA in Visual Communication), and Dave Bruno (BA in Film/Video, Traditional Animation emphasis).

Other people who help in behind-the-scenes planning for NATA include Thor, Clod of Blunders and Thundaboom.

Q: How did you come to then start Newgrounds Annual Tournament of Animation and what would become of the moniker of Tournament of Flash Artists?

A: AlbinoBlacksheep was quite fond of the contest I had hosted on their forums, so much so that they decided to continue the tournament under the same name, but with different people organizing it. The ABS Webmaster, TooMuchSpareTime, and AvidLebon organized last year's ABS TOFA. There was much debate about which contest should retain the original title of Tournament of Flash Artists to avoid confusion, and which contest was entitled to the Adobe Software that had already been donated for that year. It was agreed that the Munchy Media organized contest would change its name in order to retain the Adobe donation. The Albino Blacksheep run contest is most commonly known as ABS TOFA, while the NewGrounds contest is known as NATA: The NewGrounds Annual Tournament of Animation, which was coined by Tom Fulp and most popular in new name polls for the contest.

Q: Did the process of gathering judges and prizes for this newly named tournament change?

A: No, everything is pretty much the same. The sponsor donators changed, but that's all.

Q: How are the themes for the different rounds chosen?

A: All themes must be restricted enough to help people think of specific ideas and hold a level playing field for all entrants, but vague enough to inspire any number of different takes on the subject. It's also important not to favor a specific animation style with a theme, as that would handicap certain entrants.

The Open Round typically has a fun, open and easily brainstormed theme. The middle rounds will usually be medium in difficulty for the animator to brainstorm, or will provide a facet of personalization, intentional external reference, or provided graphics / sound clips. The Semi-Finals have a theme that is intentionally so vague or confusing that the animators will have a challenge in brainstorming a good idea for it. The Final Round's theme tends to insinuate an epic storyline that will lead to an exciting or emotional set of movies to conclude the tournament. Typically I will think of all of the tournament's themes in the month before the contest begins, sometimes with input from siblings or friends. "Discovering Time Travel" was a suggestion from my oldest brother. Incidentally, at the time of this interview, no other themes for NATA 2012 have been decided upon yet. Suggestions are welcome, but never revealed until the round begins.

Q: What can we expect from Adam Witt and the Newgrounds Annual Tournament of Animation in the future?

A: My highest hope is to have big-name animators like EgoRaptor and Sexual-Lobster competing in the contest. It would be really nice to see who comes out on top. It'd be like The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny with animators. Also higher prizes (because even $2500 is a pretty lousy amount for all the work that goes into these fantastic animations), more T-Shirts, and more epic animations. I don't see myself animating again anytime soon, but am pursuing a career in Videography and Graphic Design (I am currently attending university for a BFA in Digital Design). Of course, NATA is something I've always enjoyed hosting, and I plan to continue organizing and hosting it for years to come.

Adam Witt is an amazing individual. To start a tournament for the great animators of Newgrounds to compete in is not only a genius idea, but it is one that has its benefits to the creative minds. Dave Bruno was last year's winner, and an interview with The Interviewer was one of the prizes. This year will be no different, so I have been watching this year's contest carefully as I did last year. Adam Witt is a wonderful person for putting this together and I can only hope that he will continue to run it for many years to come.

Interview No. 96

Interview By: @The-Great-One

Today's guest, is quite possibly the strangest forum member I have ever met. Being around the site of Newgrounds since 1999. That's over 10 years. He has had a lot to say over the years and he still has just as much to say now. From being a forum moderator, having some ties within The Clock Crew, as well as other established Newgrounds cliques and groups, he is none other than @cast.

Q: How did you find Newgrounds and why did you join?

A: It's sort of a interesting story, and not what you'd expect actually. I used to be a hardcore Christian, like almost enough of a nut to hold up signs about God hating fags at funerals. Well there was a list of websites that were considered to, I guess, be likely to corrupt the youth. A list which unfortunately I no longer have access to, but Newgrounds was on the list, so I went over to visit, hoping to find the best possible way to take down the threat. Instead it immediately corrupted me. Go figure. So then I just kind of stuck around. Masturbated for the first time in my life too, my hand has been practically attached to my cock ever since.

Q: One of your first threads was entitled NG'S FREAKEN AD BANNERS ARE SICK!. Looking back on this thread, how much have you grown since then as a member of Newgrounds?

A: I don't have any recollection of making that thread. Is this interview about asking honest questions, or just trying to slander me? Fuck off.

Q: At one point in Newgrounds time, you were a Forum Moderator. How did you become a forum moderator and why were you de-modded?

A: And it continues to appear your motive is slandering me. Why was I de-modded? First threads I didn't create, and now trying to get me to look like I was a bad moderator? Well if you must know, it had to do with your mother. Yes, she had an account on NG, for confidentiality I can't tell you the name of the account. But her and I had some of the steamiest cyber sessions you could imagine in our private messages. Real kinky shit yo. Well long story short, she sort of sent me a photograph of her using a cactus to fuck her gaping asshole. The picture leaked out to Mod Lounge, I don't really know how. I guess they decided it was too much, so I got de-modded. Unfortunate, but it was completely worth having the pic of your mother with her asshole gaping shoving a cactus up in there. Still have that on my hard drive somewhere.

Q: Your first movie on Newgrounds would be a small collaboration entitled My New Trick. Would this be the debut of Tricky the Clown for The Clock Crew? Also what can you tell us about The Clock Crew?

A: Well, I can tell you our deepest darkest secrets, to start out with. You know all those animated cock jokes on NG? I'm sure you do. All the gay sex and shit. We like to act out all those films together. It's our bonding exercise and it's what makes us so great. I think you've got the interesting bits now, so I'm not going to answer any more.

Q: When it comes to being on Newgrounds, you've been here since 1999, since the very beginning. You've seen Newgrounds grow for years. What was the experience like seeing each new design come as well as being on the Internet since it's humble beginnings?

A: Imagine a rape victim having to watch footage of his rape in slow motion. I guess that's the best way to describe what watching the site grow was like. Every second just more and more traumatizing. That really makes things sound a lot easier than they were. It's the closest comparison I could think of though.

Q: When it comes to the different artists and members of Newgrounds, surely you have made some friends and enemies over that course of time. Care to tell us who and why?

A: Yes.

Q: The Stickam Newgrounds Chat has been talked about on the forums for being a fun place as well as place filled with drama. It was there that DavidZX was talked about a lot. What all can you tell us about this chat and the incidence with DavidZX?

A: I really can't tell you much. I assume I was involved with the Stickam since you bring it up, but there was a certain period of life where I was constantly drunk. I don't remember a thing from that period of my life. I guess now I know that it involved Stickam; Now if I could only figure out how I got the 4 scars on my dick. As far as David goes, his works of art were true masterpieces. It's a shame he had his account deleted, if only for his artwork.

Q: What is it you like about Newgrounds the most and what is it you dislike about Newgrounds the most?

A: The cock jokes. They are the best part of Newgrounds, but only the ones that take an approach that lacks any amount of creativity or originality. I honestly cannot think of something worse than an original cock joke. So, yeah, for both, the cock jokes.

Q: If you could change anything about Newgrounds what would it be and why?

A: Probably throw up a huge black cock on the front page somewhere. Of course there could be more hentai as well. Actually, maybe just, tentacle rape. Like get rid of the rest of the site and just fucking tentacle, in the holes of men, women and children well children is illegal. So just men and women then.

Q: What can we expect from cast in the future?

A: A lot of things. I will be traveling to Saturn this May, so that should be interesting, I will bring a laptop though, so don't worry. I mean, that's the big thing I think. Other than that, I will be making a full length film on flash based on the cybering sessions I had with your mother, I highly recommend you watch it, if you don't get an erection you'll get a full refund. If you're lucky you can expect to see some skin from me in the future as well, but only if you play your cards right <3

cast is certainly the strangest person on Newgrounds I have interviewed, and no offense to the others in the past that is certainly saying a lot. At one point I thought it was The Shadling, but as it turns out, cast has certainly proven me wrong. He is a bizarre individual, but one I must admit I had fun doing this interview with.

Interview No. 95

Interview By: @The-Great-One

Today's guest is a fascinating individual. He is probably most known on Newgrounds for his music, with tracks such as {BT} Dance till Dawn, {BT} Coulrophobia, and Nostalgica. He is also an artist and filmmaker. The story he is going to tell us today is unlike one I have heard before. He is none other than @BenTibbetts.

Q: How did you find Newgrounds and why did you join?

A: A couple of years ago I was looking for a place to showcase some of my original music. A friend of mine mentioned that Newgrounds might be a good place to start. Since I knew he had connected with some very cool artists here, I thought it was worth a shot. At first my experience was not good. Visiting this site for the first time was like wandering clueless into a giant party without knowing anybody. I was overwhelmed by the staggering amount of content. I was intimidated by the quality and talent exhibited by some of the community members, which made me hesitant about uploading anything for a while. Gradually and through participation I've become much more comfortable here. These days it is my homepage.

This experience is probably not unique. I'm sure lots of people are scared away initially from uploading their own content by the harshness of reviews, or by the sheer size of the community, only to later grow to love those same qualities in the site. Newgrounds is somewhat unlike most web communities I've seen in that it feels like a giant mess, like a place where everybody is throwing paint on the walls. Since my first visit to the site I've realized that this is probably the best environment for creative and passionate artists to thrive, fail, succeed and connect with one another. After seeing the recent threats of SOPA and PIPA, I'm beginning to realize how much I cherish this sense of freedom which Newgrounds and some other important sites have fostered in the last decade.

Q: How did you discover music?

A: My parents are music teachers. When I was three years old my dad would play the piano, I would sit on his lap, and I would pretend to play by putting my hands on top of his. At five I started taking piano lessons. I haven't stopped since.

Q: What inspired you to make music?

A: At about seven or eight I realized I didn't like to practice, so I started improvising on the piano to fool my parents in the other room into thinking I was playing Beethoven or whatever it was that I was supposed to be practicing. After a while I started messing around with some old music notation software so I wouldn't forget some of the things I had improvised.

Q: Your first song to the Audio Portal would be entitled {BT} So I am Singing. Were you the one singing and then edited with these programs and/or was there more to it?

A: That track sounds even weirder to me now, and even cooler, than when I first wrote it! The voices were totally synthetic and rendered using an old program called Virtual Singer in conjunction with another, even older program called Melody Assistant. The second half of the track is basically a reversed rendition of the first half, which was edited in Audacity.

Q: How and when did the University of New Hampshire come into your life and what did you study there?

A: I pursued my undergraduate degree in music theory at the University of New Hampshire from 2007 to 2011. There were a few great professors who listened to and gave constructive criticism on nearly everything I wrote while I was there. I also made some close musical friends at the university who continue to give me support, competition and feedback.

Q: {BT} Prelude in C minor was a sad solo piece played at the University of New Hampshire by you. Why a sad piece for your performance and what was your audience's response to it?

A: One of my professors said that sometimes you write for yourself and sometimes you write for other people. Prelude in C Minor was one of those pieces which was written in a private moment and which I later chose to perform at the university. I tried to evoke a very specific emotion through that music; there is sadness, but sadness with a twinge of something else. The audience responded well. I cut off the applause from the version I submitted to Newgrounds because it ruined the mood, but I nevertheless felt very happy with the reception to that performance.

Q: Your first time in the Trance genre here on Newgrounds would be with {BT} Dance till Dawn. I have heard many different Trance songs here on Newgrounds, some good, while others very generic. You take your time with this and ease the listener into it to where you are entrancing the listener. What was the inspiration and process you took in making this?

A: I'm beginning to understand the genre a little better now than when I wrote that song. The trouble is, you can write a very generic Trance song and be perfectly within the confines of the genre and also be boring as hell. Or, you can blur the genre line so completely that no one can follow what's going on. Dance till Dawn was a little too ambitious for the software I was working with at the time, so it sounds to me like this might be overdo for a makeover with better samples, but I'm still very proud of the song compositionally. I'll reveal something a little private here and mention that the inspiration for the track actually came from my experiences seeing various people I knew struggle with abusive relationships throughout high school and college. I tried to convey some of these emotions through the music. There is struggle and there is momentum throughout the whole track. The music takes a few dark turns, but everything ends on a triumphant note. Trance felt right for that kind of story. The process I used to write the song was not complicated, but it was slow--I painstakingly clicked and dragged every note into the notation software and listened repeatedly until I was sure I was writing what I wanted to hear.

Q: {BT} Sneaky Sneakers lives up to its name of being very sneaky. As the user basbalfan55 put it...

"The plucked guitar, harp, and pizzicato strings were a perfect selection of instruments which fits the character described in the title perfectly. Wonderful layering of instruments, and the melody and countermelodies all work so well together!"

Would you agree with this statement? If not then perhaps you could tell us your original vision when making this song?

A: Jeff Heim (basbalfan55) is himself an impressive composer, so it was great to find that complement from him in the Comments box. To answer your question I'll just say that Sneaky Sneakers began as something totally different than what it became. There was a long period a few years ago when I would write a piece every day in Sibelius for whatever instruments I felt like using at that moment. This by itself doesn't explain why some of these sketches came out as strangely as they often did (and even less does it explain what to do with them now, other than let them sit on my hard drive), but there was definitely something carthartic about writing music every day and getting into a really consistent work schedule. The piece which eventually became Sneaky Sneakers began as a trombone quintet with cowbell on the side and it was called More Cowbell. Eventually I decided to change the music and settled on using plucked strings to create a completely different atmosphere.

Q: I believe there is an interesting story to be told with the song {BT} Coulrophobia. The definition of this word is of course "the fear of clowns". So what is the story behind this song?

A: I hate clowns. I know they're supposed to be funny but I don't find them funny at all. When I was a little kid my parents used to take me to a traveling circus which came to my town every year. This was like getting the same awful Christmas gift in your stocking a couple years in a row. I wasn't into it. I tried to look like I was having a good time so it wouldn't hurt my parents' feelings. Apparently I was a little too convincing.

Q: Another step into the world of Trance would be with {BT} Alberti's Place. Truly a rocking song that envelops the ears. When making this song did you reference "Dance till Dawn" or did you simply go from scratch when looking into Trance?

A: That's a hard question, because I do think that I might have accidentally or subconsciously borrowed from Dance till Dawn to make Alberti's Place. Mostly the answer is no. Alberti's Place came more from my recent obsession with Souleye's soundtrack to VVVVVV, and although I think it fits well into the Trance category I would probably be equally comfortable submitting it as Video Game music. There is a kind of 8-bit enthusiasm in the middle section which I tried to copy from Souleye's work. Definitely, though, electronica is something I've really only begun to explore.

Q: My favorite song by you and what I believe to be your best song has to be Nostalgica. It truly did captivate my ears when I heard and sent me back to a simpler time of my youth as I'm sure it will for others who listen to it. Where did the inspiration for this song come from?

A: Nostalgica is emotional for me too. Its roots are in some Japanese music which is close to my heart, namely the soundtracks to the Zelda and Final Fantasy series as well as the films of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. I imagine that anyone who's played those games or seen those movies might understand a little of what I'm getting at. I definitely associate those feelings with my childhood and with sights, sounds and smells which are only just on the edge of my memory.

Q: The last song of yours we're gonna talk about is Four On Four an interesting Video Game song for sure since it can be used for a variety of different things. Either just as a background theme, a fight song, a boss theme, there are just so many possibilities. Where did the inspiration come from for this one and what were the steps you took into building it?

A: Some of the inspiration for Four on Four came from admiration for certain NES soundtracks, particularly music from the Castlevania and Super Mario Bros. games. What I find really inspiring about these old soundtracks is the simultaneous complexity and simplicity which they demonstrate. There are only ever a few lines or melodies happening at once, but the music is nevertheless really sophistocated, and there are lot of little details which an attentive listener can relish. I should add that the Ape Escape soundtrack by Soichi Terada was also on my mind when I composed this and I definitely hear influences from that music as well.

To create a tricky piece like Four on Four I split the composition process into two distinct parts: 1) the initial conception and 2) the edited final track. This is a process which seems to work well for a lot of my music. I begin by writing down the things I'm sure about, or as sure as I can be-a melody, a harmony I really like, a texture which is really important in a certain place, and so on. During this time I sometimes make notes (no pun intended) about what I'm going to do later. This is usually done in one sitting, or as quickly as possible, to get the idea out of my mind and into some kind of recognizably musical form before I second-guess myself. Usually this results in a track which is too long and disorganized. This is actually a great place to start. From there I edit, reorchestrate, tweak, reconsider, and polish the music until I'm satisfied (or, occasionally, until I'm sick of working on it!). I like to think of this process as comparable to mining for a raw metal before cutting and polishing the diamond.

Q: You are not only just a musician, but you are also an artist. You have many different works in the Art Portal. When and how did you get into art?

A: I've been into CG art as a hobby since about 2004 when I first bought a copy of Bryce 3. I had a vision that one day I would develop an RPG and create the graphics and music myself, a vision which came directly out of hot summer days playing Final Fantasy VII! I posted to the art community at Renderosity under a couple anonymous usernames. Now I've found that the Newgrounds Art Portal offers a much richer community with more helpful feedback. These days I use an amalgamation of several free and commercial programs to make my visual art. The RPG has been put on hold indefinitely.

Q: You are, as you describe, a hobbyist filmmaker. What films have you made?

A: There were some student films in high school and college, two which are feature-length and about two dozen are short films of varying quality and subject matter. I've also made a few short animations which are fairly abstract. Filmmaking is wonderful-it combines a lot of my interests, ranging from compositional work to visual aesthetics, and it offers another medium through which I can express myself artistically.

Q: You have posted in two different atheist threads. Are you an atheist? If so then could you tell your story of how you became an atheist?

A: Yes, I think I can say that I am a passionate atheist. My family is devoutly and almost uniformly Protestant, so giving up the faith of my parents, siblings and close relatives was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. I think that in the U.S. there is almost as much pressure on people to be religious, or spiritual in some ill-defined way, as there is pressure to be heterosexual. Happily, thanks to some some very talented writers such as the late Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and several others, it looks like the atmosphere is beginning to improve for atheists in this country. But there remains an element of pathos in losing one's religion. I'm not at all sorry to have lost faith in God, but I am sorry to have lost what was once the only thing in common between myself and some Christians. I alluded to this briefly in the NG forum: I remember having the exact same feelings towards some of my friends at school when I found out Santa Claus was not real, and even having some of the same arguments (such as "If no one knows if you're naughty or nice, why not be naughty all the time?", and "How can you prove He doesn't exist?", and so on). These sentiments affect my work as much as they affect my politics, so I would be remiss if I didn't talk about this part of my life.

Q: You and I share a fascination of learning more. You to are an interviewer. What made you want to interview others in different fields?

A: Yes, I interview composers, game developers and visual artists. I get a thrill out of making contact with people I admire, and it's fun to pick their brains about things which interest me. Usually I learn things from an interview. Sometimes the person I am interviewing will write something which causes me to think deeply for a moment, like when Daniel Remar responded to the question about "Do you have any wisdom to offer to aspiring game developers and programmers", and part of his response was "Make what you love." I think that's terrific advice.

I should add that I think what you are doing here at TheInterviewer is great for Newgrounds. I'm sure I speak for your other readers in saying we appreciate the work you do and enjoy the weekly articles.

Q: You seem to be a teacher of music. Could you tell us then in your own words, your definition of what music is?

A: Defining a word like music is like reverse engineering your own head. I might describe music as "any sound or sounds to which we pay attention, usually organized with the purpose of entertaining an audience, generally distinct from unsung speech and language."

Q: What can we expect from BenjaminTibbetts in the future?

A: You can expect more music! I am scoring an animation which will hopefully be presented to some of the folks over at Adult Swim later this month. In the more immediate future I'm scoring another short student film by Brian Burke. This is on the heels of his previous film "No Good Deed", which I have showcased on the News section of my acount homepage.

Besides that, I will continue posting music to the Audio Portal and on my website at www.bentibbetts.net.

I found Benjamin Tibbetts while I was simply browsing the Audio Portal. His music captivated my ears and I was truly stunned that I did not come across him sooner. Over the course of this interview and after it we have become friends, and I'm certainly glad that we have. He is oozing with creativity and uses the outlets supplied to him to share his creations with the world. My only hope is that more of the world will learn about him in time.

Interview No. 94

Interview By: @The-Great-One

Today we'll be talking with Tom Fulp once again. He is here to talk about the redesign as well as other matters pertaining Newgrounds. His full story can be found here, he was The Interviewer's 1st Interview, he was here a second time, and today he joins us once again. The creator of Newgrounds... @TomFulp.

Q: When it comes to this redesign, when did the creation begin?

A: Even during the development of the redesign that launched in 2007, we knew we wanted to make bigger changes and go wider with the layout. Actual visualization of the new site started in 2008 and went through several revisions until the final concept in 2009. From there it came down to addressing every single page, overhauling a lot of back-end systems, developing new features and rewriting all the front-end code and javascript.

Q: Many members including myself have been wondering where two things are. Where is the Lit Portal and Chat?

A: The Lit Portal is waiting on the existing portals to be in better shape and still more unified, since it will share a lot of elements with them. Chat has been waiting on the multi-user server and API PsychoGoldfish was developing a few years ago. Other projects have been keeping it on the backburner.

Q: When it comes to this redesign, a lot of it has been cleaned up and many different sections of Newgrounds were given well deserved attention. However, we haven't gotten many new features with this redesign. What other new toys will we get over time?

A: We're pretty secretive with features because companies with more resources can attempt them quicker than we can. What I can say is that we'll be accepting other formats for games and movies, which is why we removed the term "Flash Portal" in the first place. We'll also be expanding a lot on the feed data available to individual users, so it's easier for them to keep tabs on their favorite artists and responses to their own contributions.

Q: Where does Newgrounds stand as far as the Video Portal is concerned?

A: It's not a standalone video portal but rather the option to upload your animation as an MP4 file instead of SWF. The feature is ready to launch but we're holding off on the big premier. For the immediate future it's an invite-only option for animators; we want to avoid being a video dump and focus on animation and film with cool post-production. I know we'll get heat about "Everything, by Everyone" but that slogan has always had a dual-meaning anyway, as in everything you see on the site is the result of everyone here working together.

Q: When did your brother Wade join the Newgrounds team?

A: Wade came onboard in 2000.

Q: With this new design comes the Project System. Could you explain how this system to those who don't know much about it?

A: The project system addresses some things that have been long-term issues with NG. It allows artists and developers to fill out their information and preview their files ahead of actually publishing them. It also creates a space where teams can share assets and invite beta testers, while integrating the API directly into your project. Before this, people had to set up their API entry in advance and HOPE it linked up to their final submission, otherwise we had to manually link it. It has made it much easier to integrate ads, set up medals and make sure everything works before you publish.

Q: Will we be getting any new holidays or contests with this new redesign employed?

A: We have plans for contests and one-off events but I'm squeamish about additional annual commitments since they really add up.

Q: The Newgrounds Tank Awards are on the horizon. To celebrate Best Movie, Best Game, Best Musician, and Best User. Any new awards to be implemented?

A: There won't be any new award categories this year but I'd like to make adjustments in upcoming years.

Q: Randy Solem recently passed on. He meant a lot to different people on this site, he's how I came to find Newgrounds. What mark did he leave on you and how do you feel now that he is gone?

A: Randy was part of an exclusive club of early Flash enthusiasts and it's a wake-up call that we won't be around forever. Randy and I are almost the same age and he lived nearby in New Jersey, so the whole thing hits close to home. It's a reminder that there is limited time to get things done and I don't know when my own window will close so I need to keep pushing ahead. I want NG to be around in 100 years and I want people to know about Randy 100 years from now.

Q: People have wondered whether or not we would be getting Portal Moderators. With groups such as The Newgrounds Police Department and The Elite Guard Barracks keeping an eye out on the Movie and Game Portals for a good long time now, what would the implementation of Portal Moderators bring to these clubs? Will we be seeing Portal Moderators in the future?

A: We do intend to have Portal Moderators who can un-publish projects that break the rules. It means these clubs can have members with actual administrative power, rather than depending on the staff as much.

Q: Is there anything new coming from The Behemoth?

A: BattleBlock Theater is on the way and coming along great! I've been working with JohnnyUtah on what could be Game 4 but that is going to stay private until we're ready to show something.

Q: What can we expect to see from Tom Fulp and Newgrounds in the future?

A: More games from me and more features from NG, along with more NG everywhere. I want to be sure everyone who sticks around feels like their time couldn't have been better dedicated to any other website.

Tom Fulp is always a very chill and amazing person to talk to. A lot of us here know his story and what he wants to do for Newgrounds. The future is always out there and Tom is always wanting to find it and he is always looking towards others to help him on his journey. What else can be said?

Interview No. 93

Interview By: @The-Great-One

DESPITE IT SAYING Entry #100 AT THE TOP THIS IS NOT THE 100th INTERVIEW. THERE HAVE BEEN TWO PART INTERVIEWS IN THE PAST THAT TAKE UP ENTRY NUMBERS THROUGH THE BLOG SYSTEM HERE ON NEWGROUNDS. THIS IS THE 93rd INTERVIEW

Today's guest is a cartoonist. His series Guinea Something Good has achieved a small bit of fame and touches on real world topics through the ideas of adorable guinea pigs. From works such as Car Games, The Daily Grind, Lost and Found, and Shades of Fear. He is Jeff Mumm he is known on Newgrounds as @WaldFlieger.

Q: How did you find Newgrounds and why did you join?

A: I found Newgrounds when I was in high school, back when the original "Star Wars Gangsta Rap" was first popular. We used to watch Flash videos in any class we had that revolved around computers, and that's how I learned about Newgrounds. A few years later I joined in the hope of gaining some exposure for my comic I was creating at the time.

Q: When did you get an interest in drawing?

A: I was interested in drawing ever since I could hold a pencil. When I was five I drew a children's book style story called "Starman." When I was nine I started drawing comics about my pet guinea pig, Joe. I drew a 160 page comic book about him, actually. And I've been drawing comics ever since.

Q: What is Obscured By Species?

A: "Obscured by Species" was one of my first real attempts to create a comic series NOT based on Joe. I had been drawing Joe comics all through middle school and high school and posting them online. At the end of high school, I felt like I was really being held back by this commitment to a character I created as a little kid. For some reason I refused to completely redesign him, so he always had this little kid's stick figure look. Actually, you can see a drawing of what Joe originally looked like in this comic I made recently: http://joegp.com/assignment/ . Sort of an inside joke for anyone who read my comics when I was a kid. (Obviously an extremely limited audience.)

Anyway, I wound up doing "Obscured by Species" first as a graphic novel style comic, and then as a comic strip. I updated it for about two and a half years and then lost interest in the premise. The "Obscured by Species" 'games' on Newgrounds were just my attempt to show my comics to the Newgrounds audience. I don't think there was an Art Portal back then.

Q: Your art submissions are a comic series hosted on your site. It is entitled "Guinea Something Good". Could you tell us what this series is and how you came up with the idea?

A: After I lost steam with "Obscured by Species," I went to the Center for Cartoon Studies, a school for comics, and developed my comic series, "featuring Talking Guinea Pigs." (http://www.ftgpigs.com) The idea for that comic was just to combine things that I felt were unique to my interests - namely, sci-fi, guinea pigs, and Dostoevsky. To be honest, I haven't owned a guinea pig in years, but I've always thought they were nature's cartoon characters. They're just fun to draw.

One of my ideas behind fTGP was to make a storyline so involved that I'd be forced to stick with it longer than my previous failed comic series. But the pattern took hold again. After about two and a half years, I burned myself out. I had been pushing myself too hard, trying to update this graphic novel style comic three times a week, and I was getting like four hours of sleep most nights of the week.

"Guinea Something Good" just started as a joke to myself. If you read the first comics, you'll see that they're intentionally stilted, the backgrounds look horrible, and the copy-paste nature of it is ridiculously transparent. I threw in random things like Mario backgrounds and things that just didn't really make any sense. It's called "Guinea Something Good" because that was the stupidest name I could think of. I was so burned out on taking fTGP so seriously that GSG was really just a way for me to let off steam and have fun with comics in as pure and simple a way as possible. Take it back to when I was a kid, when I just did them for fun. That's why they're about Joe again. It was sort of my way of looking back and saying, "remember why you used to make comics?" I also thought it would be fun to see how a realistic version of Joe would look in a comic series.

Q: Your first art submission to Newgrounds would be Invention Invention. Although it is the first one you brought to Newgrounds the first guinea comic appears to be Signs. Why not start from the beginning when coming to Newgrounds?

A: By the time I had started putting more of my attention on Guinea Something Good, and developing it as my primary comic series instead of a side-joke-project, I hadn't used Newgrounds as a comic mirror in years. I had uploaded a few animations to Newgrounds, but I was done with trying to make interactive comics. One day, though, I realized that Newgrounds had the Art Portal. I'm not sure when they added that, or if I just never noticed it before, but that's when I decided to start uploading my comics to Newgrounds again. By that time I had easily more than a hundred comics in my archive, and I just didn't feel like uploading them all to Newgrounds, especially since the beginning ones have such a different feel than what I'm going for now. So I just uploaded that day's comic and have been updating it along with my main site on a daily basis.

Q: These guinea pig characters have very funny personalities to them and you seem to draw their situations from real life events. Which comics have been events that have happened to you?

A: Thanks! I honestly try not to write about things that have actually happened to me, but there are definitely recurring themes in my life that I draw from. Just scanning some of the recent comics, there are two that stick out that are more directly based on my experiences.

The first is http://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/waldflieger/a cquaintance . I'm so bad with talking to acquaintances, especially people who I sort of know but never really talked to in high school or whatever. I always feel like running away from those interactions. Sometimes I actually do, if I'm pretty sure I saw the person and they didn't see me. I'll slip away. But then I feel bad about it. So now I usually try to make a some sort of gesture and just man up to it. It's still a feeling of sinking terror, though, when I recognize a semi-acquaintance just within eyesight.

The second is sort of related: http://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/waldflieger/o pen-seating . It's sort of an alternate reality version of how I perceive my interaction with strangers that approach me when I'm working in a coffee shop. Semi-frequently I find that women will approach me when I'm drawing my comic or whatever I'm working on and ask me about the digital tablet I use or my setup. I'm usually so focused on my work, that when I respond, even though I'm trying to be polite, I think I just come off as kind of grumpy or uninterested. Their reaction is always the same: embarrassment and awkward departure. The comic is kind of like the next step of social awkwardness. What would happen if I took my obliviousness to the next logical conclusion? But fortunately I'm not quite as screwed up as Joe. I just put my headphones back in and keep working.

Q: One of my favorites by you has to be The Daily Grind. You're not the first to make fun of Starbucks Coffee here, illwillpress was doing it with Foamy for years. What made you want to mock Starbucks' customers?

A: I'd have to say that it's because I've become such a Starbucks tool myself. Not that I judge other people or care what drinks they order. I don't even have any loyalty to Starbucks, really. I just like their drinks, and I like the fact that no matter where I am I can find one. But that might also be part of what interests me about it. I kind of refuse to assimilate into Starbucks culture, yet I observe it on a near-daily basis. Not to mention that I've assimilated whether I like it or not. So yeah, it's ripe for commentary.

Q: Many artists out there tend to have people who inspire them. Seeing as you are a cartoonist who do you draw your inspirations from?

A: As far as comics go, when I was a kid, I drew my inspiration from Calvin and Hobbes and Dilbert. Sam and Max and the Tick inspired me in high school. I don't really read comics anymore, though. I was a huge fan of Dinosaur Comics when I was doing Obscured by Species, and I think that was a big influence on those original Guinea Something Good comics I made. Outside of comics, though, I'm inspired by a lot of different things. Cartoons, comedies, stand-up comedians, game developers, YouTube video creators, novels. Anyone who's making something interesting, or funny, or new, and especially the people who put it online and are able to make a go of it. I get huge inspiration from them.

Q: Your first movie on Newgrounds would be entitled Morning Coffee fTGP!. You were already a cartoonist with some great comics, why take a jump to animation and will we be seeing more?

A: I've always experimented with animation, even way back when I was in grade school. I used to make nine-frame animation cycles in Mario Paint all the time. I made Morning Coffee after I got burned out doing the fTGP comic (and before GSG) and was exploring new directions. I sort of rediscovered my love of animation, made a career path change and decided to go to school for animation. So I'm actually in the middle of studying 2D animation right now. So yeah, you'll be seeing a lot more animations. It might be a while, though, because every time I start one these days, a month will go by and I'll learn so much new stuff that I'll want to start from scratch and apply everything new I've learned. It's actually made me decide to hold off from doing my own animations for a while until I really feel like I've learned enough that I'm not just spinning my wheels.

Q: What can we expect from WaldFlieger in the future?

A: Well, I actually just released my first Flash game, called "Bounce or Die," based on Guinea Something Good. (http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/589790 ) So you can expect more Flash games! That's something I'm really excited about. You can of course still expect new Guinea Something Good comics every weekday. And a few months down the road, you can expect a Guinea Something Good animated series - that's the hope, anyway! That's the ultimate goal.

WaldFlieger is an amazingly funny man. His comics bring a smile to my face and make me laugh, as I'm sure he does for others. As a cartoonist his artwork is great, but the humor he brings is even better. If you haven't checked out his works yet, they tell the tale better than I can.

Interview No. 92

Interview By: @The-Great-One

HAPPY APRIL FOOL'S DAY!

Today's guest, is one of the best Newgrounds members ever! His enlightening posts have fueled his generation and many others throughout the eons (which is some years on Newgrounds time). As a member of the Kitty Krew, his amazing works have graced an audience here on Newgrounds and has brought emotions upon them that they themselves cannot control. He is the one and certainly the only @Sevkat.

Q: How did you find Newgrounds and why did you join?

A: Wow uh... Well, I first started using Newgrounds like most of us probably did way back when. Assassin, Dating Sims, and Dress-up Hentai. I'd spend hours playing Love Hina Sim Date. And to be entirely honest, I don't remember when/why I joined. I wasn't really that into the internet when I was in highschool, and I think I joined when I was in senior year. Not sure, though.

Q: Could you explain exactly what it is you are?

A: Of course. Sevkat. But no really, what the fuck is that supposed to mean?

Q: Your early posts show that you were a gangsta. You even went out to make a NG Ballers crew. When looking back on this, how much would you said you have changed?

A: Ugh.

Q: What the fuck, Sevkat questioned you on your posting ability and you as a user. This wouldn't be the first thread to talk about you, there would be others. What do you think of these threads?

A: Meh, my life would probably be exactly the same with, or without them. It's the buttmad '12 users that keep me fueled. I swear though, it's other users trying to get my attention, so I guess it's kinda sweet.

Q: Last year, we talked to Xyphon202 and how he was meant for greatness. When did you realize that you to were meant for greatness?

A: Who in the name of fuck is Xyphon202?

Q: What can you tell us about your lover Rummy0?

A: It's eternal and flat-chested.

Q: Would you ever like to be a Forum Moderator?

A: Why would I want to be one of those faggots?

Q: Who here on Newgrounds do you like and who do you not like?

A: Don't like? Honestly, besides the recent trends of ponyfaggots, it's been okay, I guess. BBS is the same as always when it boils down to it. Same rotten shit hole it's always been... Oh and likes? Uhh... There are a few posts I see every now and then that I can kind of admire, but I just think the BBS is slowly degrading. I can find better conversation on /a/ half the time.

Q: At one point in time, you were an original member of the Kitty Krew. What can you tell us about your experiences with them as well as BigFuzzyKitten?

A: I don't really know if I'd call myself an original member... I've never even really talked to BFK before, when I made flash for the KK it was usually with Inf0xy, Magyar, or someone else. I'd rather credit the Teh-NoN flashes I made with Grub-Xer0 if I was to credit any flash I've done. They were by far the most fun and quite a gag. GX is absolutely hilarious, anything with him in it's bound to be good.

Q: What can we expect from Sevkat in the future?

A: Nothing great, I s'pose.

I've been picking away at my website, trying to learn me dat dur php ukno. If you really want to know what I'm up to, I'd suggest registering on my forums.

Sevkat is truly a bizarre individual, he should be recognized and given credit for his contributions to Newgrounds. Because let's be honest... if Sevkat wasn't here, this place would be less interesting. It's like Gotham City without it's Joker. What is the purpose of the city then? All bow down to Sevkat.

HAPPY APRIL FOOL'S DAY!

You People --- Make Me Laugh!

Interview No. 91

Interview By: @Sketchy

Today's interview is with a person with a passion for flashin'. Not only is his artwork astounding, but his programming too is starting to show a silver lining. Today's talented artist is the one and only @Tarienn!

Q: How did you find Newgrounds, and what encouraged you to join?

A: But yeah it's mostly because of my interest in Flash. The community on Newgrounds was uh... Special haha. But yeah it's mostly because of my interest in Flash.

Q: Since when did you start animating and how old were you?

A: Well, I was about 15, I think. I played around with Flash the same year I found Newgrounds. I wasn't all that good at traditional "animating", so I just did abstract stuff instead.

I actually just spent most of my time seeing what kind of effects I could make. I never really made anything worth posting on my own back then.

Q: How long have you been programming for?

A: Actually, I've only been programming for about a year and a half now. I never thought I'd learn to program at first as it really intimidated me. I started off by learning PHP back in 2010.

I started learning ActionScript though about 8 months ago I think, and I've just recently started learning C#.

Q: Is programming something you'd consider staying with?

A: Oh yes, I don't think I've ever done anything better in my life. Since I've started learning I've learned 4 different programming languages and planning to learn about 5 more. I can just sit there coding all night, it's really something that changed my life. Literally.

If I never took the dive into programming, I'd probably still be stuck in my dead end job and not be going anywhere. It really gave me confidence and motivation to try to create more. And even if my own projects don't work out, I have the skills I need to get a job that require programming skills.

Q: Do you make all of the art for your games?

A: No, that would actually be my girlfriend, who I actually met on Newgrounds.

When I started AuraCore, she joined up around the time we started BitterSweet Symphony. She's always been the best animator in the group. I've always been mesmerized by her animation and art skills. I also never thought we'd become a couple, but skip a few years into the future and we're living together and working on starting out careers as indie game developers. She's the one who inspired me to learn programming, it just really worked out that way.

Without her (Jeinu), I probably would have left Newgrounds and Flash behind years ago.

Q: So Tarienn, do you have any favourite flash artists?

A: Well, it really has to be Celarent and Proxicide, both of them have pushed Flash to its limits and I really can't ever hope to compare to either of them. Celarent has done 3D effects with Flash BEFORE it had its 3D tools. When I first saw his "Future" music video, it just made my head explode. I've been trying to emulate his work without 3D tools but I just can't do it. But I even had him join AuraCore for a few collaborations.

Proxicide on the other hand, his flashes are just so over the top with beautiful lighting effects and backgrounds. It's so ridiculous how much he can fit in one flash! I can't really say I look up to him, because his work is so ludicrously good that I just fume with jealousy. Even if I could do as good a job as him, there's no way I could find the time or patience to do that type of work.

Both of them have really made an impact on my graphic style, and even my thoughts on what Flash's limits are. They really make me believe that Flash will go as far as you can push it, and further.

Now I'm going to sound like an Adobe advertiser, but I really think Flash is the only medium that could present the work they do.

Q: How did your company "AuraCore" start out?

A: Funny story actually. I was lurking on Newgrounds one day, and I ran into a Flash that had a really nice tune in it. I checked out the Musician that made the tune, his screen name was Winterwind at the time.

Now at the time, I had an idea that I wanted to start up a collaboration group, but it was just a plan at this point. But I thought I'd send him a message anyway. And all it said was "I may have something for you to work on soon", or something close to that.

Well, he replied within minutes.

He said he was really interested and would prefer to know what it was immediately. Now see, he put me on the spot, I didn't really have anything for him yet, I just wanted to start contacting him to see what he was like before I actually started anything.

That's when I created a group called "Aura Media". Right then, I made it up right there. And I told him he was invited to join, but I couldn't tell him that he was the first member, so I had to run around asking people to join!

So I found a handful of people and invited them all to join at once, and in the confusion, no one really found out who the first member was.

It was all coincidence after coincidence from then on, stuff just happened, and we all started talking and became really good friends. In fact, they were some of the best friends I ever had. We'd all watch movies together, and share links. Those were some of the best days of my life. We all inspired each other, Winterwind made the music, I made really nice designs. And I mean INSPIRED, one of us would make something, like a techno song or something like that, then another one of us would get really pumped and make an animation to it or drew something to it. There are a lot of things we made that we never showed anybody.

The flashes with AuraCore's logo on it are really just a fraction of what we all made.

Q: "Operation: Graveyard" in my opinion is one of your best projects. Are you or AuraCore considering making sequels to this one of a kind flash?

A: Ah I actually was talking to Jeinu about that this morning haha. But yeah, we are considering entering Pico day this year. But I want to wait and see if we finish Salem before April to see if we have time.

Operation Graveyard took about 35 days of constant all nighters to finish in time. And it's not something I'd want to repeat. So if we start earlier, we'll probably finish it without needing to kill ourselves or rushing it.

But the story line for the next Operation is pretty much planned out to star Darnell. So hopefully we'll have time for that this year, if not, then there's always next year. It really is something I'd like to make though.

Q: Well Tarienn, what can we expect from you in the near future?

A: Oh my, that's a big question haha. Well, as I said earlier, we're starting out trying to be Indie game developers, so I'll keep my fingers crossed that it works out! I have at least 3 flash games, including Salem planned for this year. Next year I have several more.

Next year I also plan on entering the Steam, iOS and Android platforms. So I'll have games planned specifically for those systems. But I do believe that games that I develop for Flash, belong on Flash, and I don't think I'd ever port them.

Q: Well thank you for the interview Tarienn (Joshua Lambrose), on behalf of Newgrounds, we wish you and your company "AuraCore" the best of luck.

A: Yes! I hope I provided an interesting story! I'm flattered that anyone would find me worthy to interview, thank you much.

Like many others on Newgrounds, Tarienn has a talent in the arts. His works continue to improve and please the audience, in my opinion, Tarienn is capable of taking his career anywhere.

Interview No. 90

Interview By: The-Great-One

[ PART 1 | PART 2 ]

Q: When it comes to exposure, do you feel that the Symphony of Specters is well-known or do you think more could be done to get your name out there?

A:

MaestroRage: Depends on the market. In the indie flash scene I believe we are one of the strongest names out there. Maybe we have waned a bit since we've shifted focus in other markets but without arrogance I can claim we are one of the best in this scene. When it comes to the other game markets we are still an unknown face. We plan to drastically change that this year.

ZStriefel: I think for how little we've invested (both time and money) in marketing, we're doing okay. We're still a pretty tiny blip on the radar though.

NickPerrin: Symphony of Specters is a name in the Flash game community that gets recognition, for sure. And with Selcuk (MaestroRage) speaking at the Flash Game Convention in Feb 2012, and myself speaking at a videogame convention (still in planning stages, top secret!) taking place August 2012, that exposure is only going to grow bigger! Beyond that, we've had some recent expansion, such as having one of Zach's (ZStriefel) tunes place in a TV ad from Disney, and other big placements like that. We're planning increased advertising and an even bigger presence than ever before in the near future, so yes, more could be done to get our names out there and we are in the process of doing it now. We really want to expand our horizons and make this a sustainable full-time business for everyone involved, it's a shared goal.

sorohanro: Well, game and movie music is not all what I do, so, yes, as for my music career can be done more but that's not really a Symphony of Specters thing to do, is more on my side. I have already an album "out there", collaborated with some other artists on their albums, produced a album for Timohi, album that got signed to one of the biggest record labels in Lithuania.

Q: What is the process that an animator or developer must go through to acquire music from you to put into their game?

A:

MaestroRage: Depends on the circumstance. In most cases we deal with small indie guys and so we kind of skip through all the super lengthy procedures. They give us an asset list/project overview. We provide them with an estimate along with what license those estimates are for and what they entail (in easy to understand English). And we go from there. If they agree, great, lets get started!

ZStriefel: Shoot us an email! Tell us about your project, what your needs are etc.

NickPerrin: Pretty simple, actually - they can email any of our symphonyofspecters.com email addresses if they have them (group member's name, with @symphonyofspecters.com afterward), contact our NG account, or simply go to our website's contact form (http://www.symphonyofspecters.com/contact) and you can send us a message explaining who you are, what you're looking for, and when you need it! One of us will get back to you ASAP and fill you in on our current rates, and from that point on email correspondence is the name of the game (we are also open to talking on the phone if you want to go that way and have lots of money for long-distance calls).

Remember that we're not just composers, but sound designers too - so SFX and voice acting are all part of our group's skill set as well, and we encourage animators and developers to contact us as a one-stop shop, making it easy and convenient to get all of your audio needs handled at once. Discounted rates for multiple services help you save cash, too.

sorohanro: Go on my Newgrounds profile, search for a suitable track, click "download". Well, if they would like more customized then it gets more complicated than that, but not much more.

Q: What advice do you have to give to those wanting to get more into music?

A:

MaestroRage: This bit of advice will not be warmly received, because had I told myself this a year or so earlier I would not have liked it either. Honestly if you want to get into music, and I mean really get into it in such a state that you can make a living you need to recognize that music is a craft. Every great painter must first learn how to draw a circle. Every great architect must first learn to draw a straight line. In such a sentiment every composer must learn his theory. I have written a much more indepth post about this in our blog but the short jist of it is this.

A composer in this day and age writes music on demand. (S)He cannot wait for inspiration to hit and save the day. For years I used to do this, muddle around until I found a streak of inspiration that kept me going. While it is not IMPOSSIBLE to make a living this way you are going to waste a LOT of time. You will not be able to further your craft as quickly as those who have put in the effort to learn the basics. There are many great self taught composers today that give me the belief you can learn all this without going to expensive colleges/universities.

ZStriefel: Don't let anyone tell you that you can't. Work hard, and be humble.

NickPerrin: You have to be nuts to consider music as a full-time career, especially in this economy. So be nuts, first off. All of us at SoS are totally f-ing insane. That out of the way, I can definitely give a little advice, but take it with the following points in mind: first, I'm not yet at the level of professional work that I plan to be in the foreseeable future, and second, there is always more to say than can be fit into an interview answer. Be on the

lookout for more advice from veteran industry professionals of all sorts, who will be much more qualified than myself to give you rock-solid advice.

So, listen attentively and critically to music. Don't just hear it, listen to it, dissect it, understand it, know it. You give me an mp3 of a Tchaikovsky waltz for strings and I will tell you what the first violins, the second violins, the violas, the cellos, and the basses are doing at any given time. Maybe orchestral music isn't your thing, but whatever your preferred genre, develop an ear for what's going on, recognize the idioms and events that are taking place under your eardrums, and use their strengths to your advantage when creating your own work.

Don't limit yourself to one or two genres. It pays to have a localized strength, for sure, but take in influences from everywhere. Good music is good music, throw away any prejudices you have. I always believe that if you truly love music you will not care how it is categorized. My always-expanding music library contains ambient, classical, electronica, film & game scores, flamenco, jazz, funk, metal, etc. etc. If you don't like it, don't listen to it, but you might be surprised what you find if you dig enough and have an open mind. I absolutely LOVE finding (quasi) new genres to explore.

Ask yourself, why do you want to make music? Is it for people to love you, or to love what you create? Even if your first efforts suck (and they probably will), do you still enjoy making it, the feeling of accomplishment with a job well done, and the process of getting better and better at your craft? That's the way to go. It's not about getting girls. You want that, learn to play some mediocre uninspired songs on a cheap acoustic guitar.

Always take criticism in stride, but don't be too ready to accept ALL the advice you get - especially from less experienced people who may not know what they're talking about. Self-tutelage from trusted sources, as well as outside teaching from trusted instructors is the best way to keep learning more, and of course straight-up application by continually composing!

This is always going to be difficult, but don't look at music as a competition. When you hear or meet, whether online or in real life, musicians who are better than you, be able to admit to yourself that they're better. But don't get angry, learn everything you can from them and work even harder.

Now, these are all points regarding getting into music, as the question asked, not really the industry. But they're essential points to consider for that as well. As far as getting into the industry goes, well, that's a whole other topic for another time, and one I really haven't even figured out properly yet myself! (Please refer to first line, IE you must be crazy!)

sorohanro: Learn what you do. Theory, instrument playing, song writing, recording/ mixing technique, listen to TONS of music and try to reverse engineer it but at the same time don't rip off other artists. Learn from them but be original.

Q: MaestroRage - You have had different accounts in the past, one being MaestroSorrow. I want to talk about your last song on that account and what you said would be your last song on Newgrounds. It was the first song I heard by you and on the Audio Portal and it was _-=[The Maestro's Requiem]=-_. There is an interesting story to tell here and I want to know as much as I can about it.

A: Ah TGO, to tell this story would be a short novel in of itself and it is not a new and fresh one. It was around this time that I was battling inner conflicts. My new budding love for music waged fierce struggle with my old idealogy of coding. Even then I knew music was a very difficult career path. I could find work much easier as a coder, my life would be much simpler. But... the passion just wasn't there anymore. I had also used music as an escape for my entire MaestroSorrow career. I did not have the happiest childhood and I realized this escape should not be what dictates my life moving forward.

But music saved me. Music in it's abstract and formless shape molded me without me even knowing. At some point I had to come back. If only for a short while I said to myself, I had to keep writing.

That short while, has been 5-6 years and counting.

Q: ZStriefel - When JAZZA was here we talked about his works on The Kill Kar and the LARRY series. It seems you got to do some work with him on these? What can you tell us about your involvement with these and what is it like to work with JAZZA?

A: I did the sound design on both of those projects. Kill Kar was actually the first game I ever worked on. I had no clue what I was doing, but it was a blast. I love working with Jazza. He's a pain in the ass sometimes when he makes me stay up for 2 days in a row while we do last minute crap before a release, but he's a great guy, and a really great friend. Absolutely love working with him.

Q: ZStriefel - Your recent news post states that one of your songs was licensed by Disney and used in a Club Penguin commercial. How did Disney come about contacting you? What was your initial reaction then and now that the song has been used? Also have any doors been opened for you upon this?

A: I'll never forget that day. I was sitting on the couch, and I got a text message from Selcuk saying "omfg go read your emails". So I go to my computer and I'm like "okay.. whats the big deaaaa-- OH MY GOD". So my first thought is, "yeah, that's hilarious Selcuk.. F**K you too." But after a few mins I realized that it was seriously Disney emailing me and I spent like 20 mins running around the house giggling like a little girl. When I saw the commercial I was pretty jazzed. I had never seen my work on TV before, so it was a real treat for me.

As for other doors opening, not so much. I've done a couple other commercials since (I'm not sure if it's safe to talk about them yet so I won't), but nothing really major.

Q: NickPerrin - Heavy Troopa is Ready to Launch! in an interesting project of orchestrating the music from Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. Two entries from you would be Super Mario RPG - Moleville and The End (Super Mario RPG). How did you come across this project and what was it like working on it? Also will the Symphony of Specters ever create a project like this?

A: Wow, that's ages ago, 2008 in fact! For me that feels like a different lifetime in music-making. My process and understanding have really evolved a lot since then.

Back then I started a project called 8-bit Philharmonic, which was orchestral arrangements of 8-bit music from NES games. It was very purist. I loved the NES growing up and today I still love it, partly because of nostalgia, but also because the games were great and the music is fantastic. It was also purist in its arrangements. I didn't want to simply copy over notes into orchestral instruments, but instead really arrange the 8-bit pieces so that they sounded as if they could have been written originally for the orchestra. To some degree I succeeded.

Super Mario RPG is of course a 16-bit game on the SNES, but it was Anthony Ruybalid of gamemusic4all.com who contacted me about the compilation album. He found the 8-bit Philharmonic page and asked me to choose some tracks from the OST to arrange. There were only a few left that hadn't been taken, but I knew I had to make a big epic arrangement out of the ending track. The Moleville track ended up as a more last-minute afterthought, a track that still needed to be done near to release but didn't have any takers, and I think it shows that it was rushed.

I did contribute to another compilation album from gamemusic4all.com, which was Welcome to World 2 (http://gamemusic4all.com/wordpress/gm4a-records /gm4a-compilations/welcome-to-world-2/). On this album I contributed probably the best arrangement from the old days under the 8-bit Philharmonic name, a symphonic suite of music from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. That arrangement is available on my account here on NG. (Disclaimer: It's also pretty old, and as such also not indicative of my current work).

Now as far as I know, Symphony of Specters isn't working on any projects like this right now. Or we might (or more specifically just me) - but that's top-secret! Suffice to say, something is in the works on a slow burn, will make NES music fans like me very happy, and revive the "8-bit Philharmonic" project back from the grave... Stay tuned!

Q: NickPerrin - I believe my favorite song by you has to be - Horizon -. It is a beautifully rendition of many genres and elements combined together seamlessly. You stated that it was inspired by many film and video game genres. It strays from your usual style, but your skill more than makes up for it. Your girlfriend's voice is also quite beautiful. What was the process on working on this behemoth? How did you come to have your girlfriend supply her voice in it? And can we expect more of her voice with your music in the future?

A: Horizon was a fun track to put together. Up until that point I'd been desperately holding on to Logic Audio as my DAW (Digital Audio Workstation software) of choice, except that the program had been bought by Apple and made an Apple exclusive years ago. This meant I was running a really old version of the program. Luckily, it was years ahead of other DAWs, but full of glitches, lack of support, general instability, and investment in a nice new custom-built PC tower meant it was time to switch. So I picked up Cubase 5, and intimidating as it can be to start with new software, Horizon was like my boot camp. After creating the track I felt a lot more confident on my new platform (which now today I love).

I was inspired by a lot of sci-fi minimalist scores that were floating around at the time and got cracking on my own ideas. The song is and was admittedly musically very simple, but that was always the point. I wanted to make something that sonically delivered a lot of punch, and compared to anything I'd made before it was a big leap. I also knew I wanted a live element to it, and a big soaring vocal section with lush strings was part of the plan. For that I enlisted my girlfriend, writing out her parts in advance with a synth, having her listen to that then giving her specific directions for the phrasing and nuances of the notes when she sang them (which notes to bend, hold, vibrato etc), so it wasn't a straight verbatim performance of the guiding synth's notes.

What's cool is just about each bar of music is a separate take but combined sounds seamless. We did it this way because I wanted really long sustained notes with a lot of power and vibrato behind them, which might not have been possible had she been forced to do it all in one take and breathe quickly in between notes. Today I would definitely record her in much better acoustic conditions, but at the time I got excited and recorded her in a crappy space which really killed a lot of the body and width her voice could have had. Luckily the musical content of the section meant I could drown the imperfections in reverb and get away with it ;) You'll definitely hear her again in the future, recorded better and in very different styles, just when I'm not sure.

I'm glad you really enjoy the track but the truth is today I find most of it bad, personally. I really like the mid-section (atmospherics and the string orchestra/vocal section) for soundscape and atmosphere, but the two ends of the track (beginning and end sections) really don't do it for me anymore. I recognize a lot of the issues now and don't feel that I can hold that track up as a calling card anymore, without feeling its inadequacies that sound truly amateur in my opinion. I suppose this is a good thing, it must mean I'm improving or something. Windswept is definitely my favourite of my own tracks right now, and I hope in a year's time I can look on it like I see Horizon now, and continue to progress as a composer.

Q: sorohanro - Well, one of your songs is being used as The Interviewer's main theme, however the first song I ever heard by you would be the old version of Paper Dragon. Where did the song come from and what is a Paper Dragon?

A: O, that's an old one with a long story. Is not only the first song you've heard from me but it's also one of the first tracks made by me on my first computer. I remade that one several times. the oldest version is actually a remake of an idea that I made on a friend's keyboard (I think it was a Roland JV 80) and then he lost the floppy with my project... so, first time I got a PC with a FL (at that time was Fruity Lops 2.3 or something, found it on a CD from some French computer magazine) I tried to remember it and remake. Soon, this one became a favorite of my friends, they liked it so much that they wanted it as their wedding song.

Then, when I got more "pro" I decided to remake the remake and made THIS

Soon, I had to make a wedding version for each one of my friends, so, this came up. Now I think to make it again, for my new album...

Q: sorohanro - Listening to your music I tend to find an exotic style with each song you make. Like I'm in Casablanca. However one song that seems to set itself apart from others is Good Morning America. Now this is an interesting song. I and others expect something like a news show to start, but it can spell so much more such as military and patriotism. You say it was an attempt at something "Epic" and although you hit the nail on the head one must wonder how you came to make this? Is the inspiration just simply "America" or is there something else there?

A: He he... the title is actually random. I really can't come up with titles, I always end up with stuff like "the third track in f minor, jazz with guitar solo like Scofield". This one was like "that with trumpet solo in Bb, like in Star Trek".

I made it as a request for some WWII themed game, somewhere here on the Audio Forum. After finishing it, I asked my wife, how should I name it ? I want to post it on Newgrounds, and she answered "Good Morning America", without any kind of second thought I named it like this and... the rest is history...

Q: What can we expect from the Symphony of Specters in the future?

A:

MaestroRage: We can expect some serious ass whoopings haha! We're charging into this industry with our guns blazing. We've spent years honing our skills and we're ready to show them off.

ZStriefel: Good question.

NickPerrin: We'll have more flavour and be 3 times as crunchy! Now with less trans fats!

Nah, but we WILL be in bigger and better projects as the years go on. We are at an interesting point in our development (and this is a fact far more apparent to the guys who have been part of the group longer than myself), where we are taking the first steps to being truly big players in

custom audio. Our skillset and team is ready for this, getting there can be difficult but we have full confidence in our abilities.

Plus we'll be enriched with B vitamins for your metabolism!

sorohanro: I hope a future

This interview has been one I've been wanting to do for quite sometime now and I feel very honored to be able to speak with these four people, seeing as how sorohanro was generous enough to let us use one of his songs as our theme and MaestroRage being an old dear Newgrounds friend, who helped me out here when I was new whether he knows this or understands it or not. These four live and breathe music and they're not the only ones. The Symphony of Specters has gotten a redesign lately and not all of its members are listed from the previous design the one I mainly used for information in this interview. With all that is said and done, these four are just the tip of the iceberg that upon further inspection, is a vast mountain filled with music and wonder. If you're a game developer and you're looking for some grade A music, or even just an animator... you can't go wrong with these guys.

[ PART 1 | PART 2 ]