Interview No. 99

Interview By: The-Great-One

[ PART 1 | PART 2 ]

Q: For those just getting into art, what advice would you have for them?

A:

Flowers10: Well, that depends on why you started arting in the first place. For those who want to create pretty pictures, i'd say : look at your work in a critical way, practice what your bad at. if you cant draw hands, draw a 1000 hands, and they will improve. Don't draw the same thing/theme all the time, you need to experiment to improve and get outside your comfort zone.

Oh and pick up some art books. But if you'd just like to have fun, try to improve its allot a fun

Lucky: Well... its... Don't! Or if you do, make sure you know all the bad sides of art before you keep going! Including lack of job security, insane time schedules, not seeing sunlight, dark eye shadows, losing friends from lack of contact with the social world... you're still with me?

GREAT! Because if you're fine with all that being an artist is AWESOMEEEE!

My biggest advice is to do a LOT of life drawing and a lot less copying of things that are famous like anime or scot pilgrim or whatever's popular right now. I think personal style comes with time and not trying to MAKE it come to you. I've stayed up late nights depressed that my drawing is horrible and nothing special and that's the worst feeling you can have, so DON'T! If you ever feel like you haven't found yourself EXPLORE! Look at real life, look at other artists, not to copy them but ask yourself why their work is so appealing and try to capture that aspect! Every once in a while someone will come along and tell you you've got a great style , but when you've found yourself you'll know! I still haven't completely found myself, but i'm getting closer to where I want to be. The more personal I make my work and the more vulnerable I feel making it the better it turns out for me. And good luck, it's a struggle, but with great rewards in the end!

Morthagg: Practice, obviously. If you want to be as versatile and open to learning as possible, try to understand realism and relatively correct anatomy before you start clinging to one (cartoonish) style, because it will misshape your other styles. Welcome criticism. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Think about a medium (paint, realistic digital painting, pencil, ink, ..) that you think you would suck at and then just try it out until you find a way to make it work. In other words: confront your problems, don't ignore them (this is one I'm still learning myself). Oh, and don't be afraid to imitate and learn from others. Just make sure to move on at a certain point.

Luwano: art101.newgrounds.com has a lot of useful tutorials to get started. When you have done some of the practices, you should post some of your work in the art forum (actually post it in the thread rather than just posting a link to it) and above all, be patient. Don't expect people come running, the forum is slow at times and sometimes people just can't add anything interesting to the piece. Just keep submitting art and somebody will respond. I also recommend asking specific question rather than just "check out my art".

Accept critiques. There are good ones and bad ones, but you won't get anywhere if you can't take criticism. Don't take it personal, they talk about your art, not you. If people are just rude and are not giving advice, you should just ignore them.

Follow advice. People are not giving you tips because they are bored, but (in 95 out of 100 cases) because they think that's what you really need and what can help you improve.

Practice a lot.... and I mean A LOT. And when you have done a lot, do more. Don't be as lazy as I am, seriously.

ZaneZansorrow: Learn the basics from your art classes, if you are not attending art class and looking at Newgrounds for guidance for art then follow and read Art101 http://art101.newgrounds.com/news/post/269181 If you are feeling like being a better artist through photoshop then ctrl+paint is also great on teaching how to use photoshop's tool to its fullest http://www.ctrlpaint.com/

Q: If you could change one thing about the Art Portal, what would it be and why?

A:

Flowers10: I'd make it a requirement that all pictures must have dicks in them. No, I really don't know.

Lucky: I'd make the thumbs smaller and display more art on the art portal page, because i'm too lazy to scroll trough 15 pages and enjoy artsites who have tiny image previews because if a 40*40 preview can grab me, the art's gotta be awesome!

Morthagg: I honestly can't think of any intelligent adjustments to make.

Luwano: I wish more users would actually check the art portal and vote on art. It's already considered a success if a drawing that is not frontpaged reaches 100 votes. That would not even get a flash through judgment and even worse, some pieces don't even get 20 votes. Unfortunately I don't know how to achieve this, maybe this interview helps already.

ZaneZansorrow: I would change how voting on an artwork would also give experience points.

Q: Flowers10 - One piece by you that fascinates me is entitled selfportrait. What can you tell me about the Self-portrait Collab and your contribution?

A: It's a picture of me that i drew. JQB organized the Self-portrait Collab, and since he's the best artist on newgrounds i wanted to contribute to some of his work. Instead of making a normal kind of portrait i choose to make orgasm of colors with my sexy face in the middle!

Q: Flowers10 - Another piece that intrigues me is War. Could you tell us what World War II pic it was you found, describe the picture and what inspired you to draw it?

A: Almost everyday i take a minute and search the interwebz for inspiring pictures.

I stumbled on a thread filled with WWII pictures, there were some blood gushing in there. And the one i drew was the one that caught my attention the most. The scene is so dramatic the way the officer is holding the capitative head whilst pointing the a gun at it, It really makes you question if the nazi were actual humans?

Q: Morthagg - A piece by you is entitled Markerface. You say it is based off of you, but it's not a self portrait. Also you state that you were trying out your kiddie markers. What gave you the inspiration to draw yourself and use kiddie markers?

A: The only reason I drew 'myself' in that drawing is because I needed a basic human face reference and mine was quite readily available. I used markers because I felt I sucked at using colour and I don't like using something as irreversible as a thick marker, so I wanted to confront myself and make something that was a bit out of my 'comfort zone'.

Q: Morthagg - One of my favorite pieces by you is Nightly scene. You said it was for a background for an animation. What was this animation and what was the inspiration or the goal set in mind for the animation?

A: That's really one of your favourites? :D How odd. I made the thing in like 15 minutes almost 5 years ago or something. I was in my first year of studying Animation and the assignment was to make a storyboard, model sheets, and backgrounds for a story we came up with ourselves, based on something the teachers gave us. I wrote a story about a cricket and a sparrow that fell in love against the wishes of either's family, some kind of animal-ish Romeo and Juliet. Since this was early in the year we didn't yet need to make a completed animation out of it, and Nightly Scene is just one of the backgrounds I made.

Q: Lucky - A lot of your artwork has a very interesting caricature style to it. Where did you adapt this style from and what twists do you add to yours?

A: Oh idk, i used to do caricatures on the street, not for a company or anything I just put 2 chairs in the middle of the street and offered caricatures to people , i really love drawing faces and expressions and so I try to add as much expressions into my drawings because I think that's the best way to make the drawing feel more personal to me. I love minimal lifework so i spent a lot of time trying make characters with as few lines as possible, I'm out of that phase now , but I think even subconsciously I still want to show the most in a character with the fewest amount of lines possible!

Q: Lucky - A Bear fighting a squid is quite possibly the funniest yet most badass piece I've seen. How did this friend request come about and what possessed you to bring it to life?

A: It was a fun request from a friend and I thought why not have fun with it?? It took me way to long to make, but looking back it was a loot of fun! It's one of those I cant believe I did that pieces. I really really love making drawings on topics that make me laugh or happy just thinking about, and when i get the feeling of a connection deeper than just a drawing with something it usually succeeds much more than i originally tought it could! Same as my submission for the comic jam this year!

Q: ZaneZansorrow - Cat Knight is an interesting and adorable piece. You describe it as a cat and his knight companion. Where did the idea for this come from and what was the process in making it?

A: The idea just pop in when I was tired on what I was currently arting on and I need to get my creativity flowing. So I decided I wanted to art a cat, then I wanted to do more (the best part in art for me is the urge to do more then what you originally intended), so I added a knight because I love armor. Went about creating this in a casual manner on whether this will turn out good or bad because I started by an eye for the cat and work around from there. I even painted it straight from color because on how fast I want to get the creative flow flowing. Evidently whats done is done, and I was happy enough to even put in the art portal.

Q: ZaneZansorrow - My favorite piece by you has to be Desolate Light Consumer. I feel that there is an interesting story to tell about this piece, would you care to share it with us?

A: The Desolate Ligh Consumer was a piece for the Art Forum's COW (Creature Of the Week)(the theme was exoskeleton) which isn't really a weekly thing anymore but oh well. I started this piece right after I finish another COW (the theme was volcano dweller) so I was already feeling kind of exhausted but I still want to do it because of the theme. Dinosaur pop up in my head but I want the creature to look unique so I slap in some extra stuff like small hands attach to the side of the head and reptilian feeling to it. Did it by painting grayscale then slaping it with a blue gradient then add in colors to give it the right attention.

Q: Luwano - An interesting art form that I have forgotten about that you have refreshed my memory with is in the piece Show me some scraperfoil!. For those who don't know, could you explain scraperfoil and why you wanted to make one?

A: Scraperfoil is the name for those kids toys where you scratch black color off a shiny or coloful background along given guidelines, to receive a fancy picture. Of course that's not real art, but fun. When I was practicing basic forms, I got bored by the repetitive process, so instead I added a black layer above a colorful layer and erased the black to receive a drawing, similar to those scraperfoil toys. It's basically just a form of shading called "scribbling", but it helped me to keep on practicing. I even started an activity thread (http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1181899) based on the idea a long time ago, it never really took off though. lol

Q: Luwano - Green Flash is a pretty piece, made for The Friday Flood. It tells a small little story with footprints leading to the ocean, with a broken heart and "Dear John" written in the hand. An interesting tale to tell, but one I would like to know more about from the story teller. What all can you tell us about this piece?

A: "Dear John letters" is a term used for letters women write to their boyfriends or husbands to break up with them in their absence. So the message of the writing in the sand along with the footprints that lead to the water should suggest, that the woman committed suicide. There are more hints at death in the picture, like the skull face in the moon. Actually, I was testing out composition with this one mainly, thus the elongated format and the transition from more or less light at the bottom to dark at the top. I made some mistakes in the drawing which the reviewers pointed out, so I learned a thing or two from this pic overall.

Q: What can we expect from the Art Portal and Art Forum in the near future?

A:

Flowers10: Dicks, lots of them.

Lucky: Well I haven't submitted in a while , but I'm making a comic at spikescomic.com and have been making it for the past 13 weeks, the stage height is huge thats why i cant make it fit in the art portal, BUT you can expect a lot of production art from my personal projects!:3

Morthagg: Artsy things, hopefully. And probably a healthy bit of bickering and trolling.

Luwano: There are some art collabs yet to be released and I hope we can also team up for some more of those in the future. For the Art Portal, I think Robot Day will be a huge thing again. I can't wait to see what people like keepwalking, Nekow, Mindchamber and all the other great artists around will come up with.

ZaneZansorrow: The art forum will get my personnal art thread bump daily with work in progress (oh look it's bump now) and me participating on the Epic Battle Fantasy fan art collab (if given enough participation and find someone who know how to use flash to put the pictures together) plus I might do some critiques if I can think of any that fits for the right art. The art portal will be seeing my favorite finish pieces, friday floods (because I will participate to flood that portal), and many things that relate to the art forum and Newgrounds.

When it comes to art, I must say that I have learned more than what I thought. Is it subjective? Absolutely. Is beauty in the eye of the beholder? Yes. Overall though, creativity and creation is something that takes skill to learn and master. From what I have seen in this interview and these artists works I truly do believe that there is no such thing as talent when it comes to making art... it is something that takes time and dedication, more than probably most people think.

[ PART 1 | PART 2 ]

Interview No. 99

Interview By: @The-Great-One

Special Thanks to @liljim without whom this interview would not be possible.

For those of you who read the Interview with the Audio Portal: Defining Music, we learned what defines music and why people make it by asking esteemed members of the Audio Portal and Audio Forum. Today we're going to be doing it again except this time we'll be looking at a topic more controversial than that of music, I am of course speaking of art.

I decided to question the Art Forum on what the definition of art is. You can read their responses within this thread. So you can gather a wider scope if you want one.

The following artists I have decided to ask further questions on the subject. They are @Flowers10, @Lucky, @Morthagg, @Luwano, and @ZaneZansorrow. These are the fine artists of the Newgrounds Art Portal and they are here to define art and share their stories with us.

[ PART 1 | PART 2 ]

ANSWERS WILL BE POSTED BENEATH THE _A:_ DUE TO TWO PEOPLE BEING INTERVIEWED PERSON ANSWERING WILL BE NOTED AS SO.

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

A:

Flowers10: As a kid I used to watch silly movies and play adult games (even tough i wasn't 18!) on newgrounds. Some years later i joined the website in a quest to get on the frontpage with my art. Which i was successful in btw, twice!

Lucky: I found it... i think when I was 13, about 10 years ago and I just loved the cartoons on it back then, the clock stuff, the matrix has you, the madness/stick/games were all loads of fun!

Morthagg: I guess the first time I came to newgrounds was around 2005-2006, when a friend showed me Retarded Animal Babies on here, which we used to quote from a lot during our D&D sessions. I never really got into the website then though, and kind of forgot about it until my little brother (Breaktroll here) started spending a lot of time on it. He was also the reason I joined, by bugging me to make a profile and start my own art thread. So I did!

Luwano: I once found Newgrounds while looking for flash games. It was one of the older versions in the year 2000 or 2001, I played the Police Bike game for a while and unfortunately couldn't find the site again when I looked for it some days later, because I didn't remember which search term led me there.

At the end of 2002, someone showed me the game "Bloody Rage" shortly after it's release and after that I discovered many funny toons and games on the site and got hooked. Since then I was checking Newgrounds more or less regularly, but only the frontpage and the collections really.

Chluaid's first Brackenwood movies made me sign up in 2004 then. Because they made me really understand the scope of NG and the portal. I wanted to be a part of that somehow.

ZaneZansorrow: I find Newgrounds when I was a middle schooler, me and my brother was at my friend's house and my brother was looking at metal gear awesome and I notice that he was laughing pretty hard. He show it to me and I laugh my ass off at the piss joke. Skipping to my sophomore year in high school, I recently finish playing Castle Crasher on my friend's Xbox and I was getting pretty tired achievement hunting through my friend's games, so I was exploring through for some addicting games to play online. Eventually I made it to Newgrounds and notice the medal system, made an account so that I can get the medals.

Q: When did you first become introduced to art and in what form?

A:

Flowers10: I have been drawing and painting on all and everything since childhood, so i really don't know.

Lucky: I've always had art in my life, I suppose I just never noticed it until i started pursuing it as a carreer. But my father was a painter and loved crafting so art came into my life quite early on. I just never chose to pursue it at that point.

Morthagg: Hm, let's see. My parents had a couple art books lying around, and since I was a young child I spend a lot of time with my nose in one or the other. They were of the big, more classical masters, like Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Rubens, .. Actually, Rubens was my favourite when I was a child, his fleshy women and biblical scenes could really capture my attention and make me want to try the same. He was one of the influences that made me want to be a classical artist too, and reintroduce realism and little fat flying angels into modern art. That didn't quite happen, but I'm okay with that. I also read a heap of comics, if that counts.

Luwano: I used to draw as a kid, like most people. But I haven't picked up a pen really until I became more involved in the Newgrounds art forum. I can honestly say, I have learned everything that I know now, from the art forum regulars' tips and helpful links.

ZaneZansorrow: I was first introduced to art when I was 6 and my dad had these attach green white papers; me, my brother, and my sister doodle all over those with crayons and pencils. The things that came in my mind when doodling those were video games and anime.

Q: What first inspired you to create art?

A:

Flowers10: I'm very competitive. I couldn't take it if other kids would get attention if they made pretty drawings,I always had to make a better drawing. This might also be one of my biggest motivations to draw, because whenever im not drawing there's someone els who is, and he might be getting better than me.

Lucky: I've always had art in my life, I suppose I just never noticed it until i started pursuing it as a carreer. But my father was a painter and loved crafting so art came into my life quite early on. I just never chose to pursue it at that point.

Morthagg: Well.. First of all I don't really like calling the stuff I make art, because it has very little to do with art. I just draw.

But err, no sematics. I honestly wasn't really 'inspired', it was more of an itch I needed to scratch. It's an enormous cliché, but I've been drawing ever since I could hold a pencil and I never really stopped, or started. I was just something I did, something that defined me as a person, since 'drawing' was the first thing that popped into most people's heads when they saw me. There were a lot of influences but one of my biggest must be the Belgian comics, specifically "Suske & Wiske", which showed itself a lot in my early drawings. I remember drawing comics in preschool, even. When I was young I used to think drawing comics wasn't honourable enough as a profession (see the: "I want to introduce fat angels in art again"-stuff), but I obviously changed my mind, having started my own webcomic and all. In fact, I'm really getting into graphic novels and other comics now, which are huuuge inspirations.

Luwano: It's a long story, I hope you don't mind. The inspiration came from a webcomic called "Savage Chickens" actually. The creator Doug Savage, wanted to become a cartoonist as a kid, but as he grew up he stopped drawing and found himself in a monotonous job. On a bad day at work he started drawing chickens on a post-it note and the creative outlet made him feel better. I, myself, could identify with that story, because I was studying maths at that time and that's kinda monotonous too. So I went to the most creative site I could think of, Newgrounds. I haven't noticed the art portal before, but there I found Sabtastic's Art. I initially fell in love with "Nighthawk Nanabush" (http://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/sabtastic/ni ghthawk-nanabush) and one of her other pieces mentioned the "Level's Collab" in the art forum. I went there to check it out and there was so much creativity and fun stuff going on, so I felt like it was the right place to revive my own creativity.

ZaneZansorrow: Encouragement that the things that I drew look cool and nice, classmates and teachers always did say the things I drew look nice.

Q: What is in your opinion, the definition of art?

A:

Flowers10: An act of emotion.

Lucky: To me it's the equivalent of talking about something that happened to you in real life to a bunch of friends. But using drawings, which can have a lot more detail, a lot more mood, a lot more emotions which can be portrayed as opposed to if you just verbally described what happened.

Morthagg: Oh dear. Not this question. I really, really don't like this question, and this is going to make me ramble. WARNING: rambling ahead, it's going to sound retarded and I suggest not reading it, honestly.

An attempt to put it simply: Art is what 'they' say art is. Getting taught art history and silly stuff like that has lead me to believe the definition of art is not 'different for every person' or 'something that appeals to you' or whatever, but simply what is being called art at this moment, or what is made by a recognised artist. What is Art fluctuates over the years, seeing how many artists were only discovered after they were six feet under, but one thing is certain: it is divided into streams that reflect a certain state of mind of a culture in a certain time, and constantly reflects on itself in following periods. (ß THIS IS KIND OF MY DEFINITION, I guess)

It might have to do with my difference in language, but Art with the big A is not really for anyone to simply choose based on their own preferences of aesthetics. I get a serious case of the shits when people still get 'angry' over a piece of modernist art made 50 years ago, yelling THIS AINT ART. Shaddap. Yes it is. That doesn't mean it's suddenly wonderful or beautiful or priceless. Not at all. Art can be absolute crap and not appeal to you at all. Doesn't make it any less Art though. But that aside, there is still art with the little a. The one you find appealing, that speaks to you, that you think deserves more of a pedestal than anything modern, and that is completely fine. Lots and lots of art with a little 'a' has eventually made it into the Art-league, by people who were willing to stand by their tastes and push them further, as long as it has certain aspects that make it a reflection of it's time in some significant way. Also there is art that is kind of a combination of the two that is actually recognised art but on a smaller scale and those artists might not make the history books unless in a paragraph about a larger stream of art linked to a cultural overtone of a certain period oh god why are you making me do this I'm going to shut up now

Luwano: I can't answer that question properly. Even if you narrow it down to visual art in form of traditional or digital drawings, there is so much variation that I can't think of a coherent definition. Some hints however are the skills of the artist behind it, the thought he put into it and the effort it took.

ZaneZansorrow: The definition of art to me is........

{X}= The form of media use

{Y}= The Concept and a bunch of fancy literature words

{X}+{Y}=Art

Q: The Art Forum was introduced on September 15th, 2006. There you would all have your own Art Threads, Flowers Art*, Morthagg makes things., Lucky's Art stuff, Zanezansorrow's Personal Art Thread, and Luwano learned a little lot!. What is the purpose of having an art thread in your own words and how much experience do you think you have acquired since making your thread?

A:

Flowers10: At first the purpose of my art thread was to show off my art, and maybe get scouted. Over time it became somewhat of a progress chart, i often find myself looking back at my old work and seeing how much i progressed makes me happy. Its also a great way to generate criticism, which is very important for an artist trying to improve.

Lucky: Well documenting progress for the most part, to keep the art growing and to see improvement over time of your art can be really satisfying. Having people give feedback on your art is great and to that extend you can meet a great number of people who are into the same type of art as you which is a great plus. Also if you have art on your site that can go down, if one year you decide to stop the hosting but the art thread's art stays there forever(or until NG goes down) so it's perfect to use to look back like an old sketchbook!

Morthagg: An art thread is in my opinion a wonderful way of getting feedback and making a little real-time timeline of how you progress and how you use the feedback you get. I have no doubt that many people will progress, having a wide arrangement of opinions ready. I have made some pretty okay things because of Newgrounds' feedback in my art thread and new things I saw here, but honestly I don't think I myself have progressed much. I'm afraid I'm already kind of rusted stuck in my drawing habits. Maybe I have mostly learned to try new things.

Luwano: The purpose of an art thread is to have your art in one place. It's a good way to get better at drawing, because most of the times, other users will post useful tips and pointers for you. You are supposed to post works in progress there and ask if you need advice on anything. The reason why it should happen in one thread is, that visitors can see your progress, they can see what you have done before and how you have improved over time. When you spread your art over several individual threads, people will start to repeat themselves, because they don't know what you can do already.

I personally, could literally not draw at all before. So everything I can draw now is owed to all the other talented artists in the forums. I think I acquired a good amount of experience with drawing generally since I started the thread, although I kind of stopped doing regular practices and avoided anatomy for quite some time. I think I could easily be better if I made more use of my art thread and other people's advice. Shame on me! lol

ZaneZansorrow: The names of the art thread comes by as personal choice, makes art threads uniques (even though there is a limit on how irrelevant you can be on naming an art thread, at least having the user's name on it would be relevant enough but it really doesn't matter unless it clearly stated that the user's art is stuffed in that thread). I gotten many experience from my art thread, not only my art thread but other people's art thread too. The critiques, advice, and discussion carried out in those threads can help.

Q: The Art Portal was introduced on June 3rd, 2009. It was something that was hinted at for a good long time. What was your first impression regarding this new portal?

A:

Flowers10: I HAD TO GET ON THE FRONTPAGE!

Lucky: I wasn't all too impressed at first in all honesty. Not that there wasn't amazing art, there was! It was the fact that people upvoted tits and violence(same as the early times of the flash portal) and quality art seemed to get low score just because it didn't contain nipples or there wasn't a chick with a gun in it. But as the years progress I think users have matured more and more and the art portal these days seems to be quite lovely and filled with a variety of different styles and subject matters!

Morthagg: Um. I wasn't here yet in 2009, I'm a pretty new member. I joined early 2011, so I pretty much don't know any different. Ha, I feel like such a noob now. Still happy it's there though!

Luwano: I only realized there was an Art Portal, about half a year after its introduction and I was totally impressed by it. I used to check every single art piece that was submitted, sometimes catching up on 4 or 5 pages of the portal a day. I don't do that anymore, but I still enjoy a lot of art every day.

ZaneZansorrow: I didn't notice that the art portal was a new implement until somebody told me lol.

Q: What is The Friday Flood?

A:

Flowers10: The friday flood is a (mostly) monthly event where artists are evoked to draw a pictures within the borders of a theme. The pictures are all posted on the same time with the same thumbnail, flooding the art portal. After the portal is flooded the artists will begin to write critics on all of the participating pictures. it's lots a fun!

Lucky: It's when we make a drawing for a specific theme for friday and we flood the portal with it.. right? I've never done one *ashamed face*

Morthagg: I never joined one, but as far as I know it's a thing that goes on the first Friday of every month. There is a theme given, and people make drawings according to it. They insert the avatar given with the thread into their drawing, make it their image's thumbnail, try to post their pictures in the art portal at the same time, and thus flood the portal with the same looking thumbnails. It's a pretty cool idea and I really want to join one one time. If uh, they still do it because I'm a little confused.

Luwano: The "Flood the Portal Friday" is an activity in the art forum. The idea is to flood the art portal with the exact same thumbnail at the same time with drawings about a certain theme, like "Dinosaurs" or "Green" and add a certain tag to the submission. The theme can be interpreted as loosely or strict as they want. After the flood has happened people are supposed to review each other's submissions. TurkeyOnAStick just took that concept to a new level and turned it into a cool contest about M and A rated art with an emphasis on realistic anatomy, where people also flood the portal with the same thumbnail and hopefully many users review them. It's called "M&A Monday" (http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1305136). Two artists and two reviewers have the chance to win a prize then.

ZaneZansorrow: It's a monthly event to flood the art portal with identical thumbnails based on the theme the artist have to art. It all in good fun and hopefully one day we will flood that first page in the latest art. All we need is more participating artists.

Q: When it comes to your art, where do you begin? How does the creative process start and when does the creation become finished?

A:

Flowers10: First thing i do is take lots of drugs, Lots! This will allow me to generate some crazy ideas, and after the drugs have worked out(drawing on drugs doesn't work for me lol) I will make a sketch. Once my fingers start swelling or a headache starts to come up after some hours of drawing in photoshop i will call it done. But ideally an artwork is never finished there's always things you could improve on it or change.

Lucky: Oh its pretty straight forward

1: Idea

2: Procrastination

3: Anger from procrastination

4: Rough sketch

5: Frustration that I can't get it perfect

6: Incredible joy when inking it

7: The feeling of satisfaction from getting it done

9:Rinse and repeat!

Morthagg: Ow. Um. I have a serious problem with finishing things, so that part of the creative process often kind of.. fails. I have a better chance of finishing things when I do an assignment or a commission, because that thing simply has to get done. If I make something for myself it often stays in the sketchy stage, or I call it finished when I come at a point where I'm simply scared to f-ck it up if I work on it any further. Mostly the things I make are just sketches, loose drawings. When I make someting 'real', it often starts with me seeing other art and getting inspired/wanting to learn, but I have noticed I make my best work when I work for someone or something else. I made some of my best work for contests on Newgrounds here, for instance.

Luwano: Wherever inspiration comes from. Most of the times, I draw stuff for a collab or activity on Newgrounds, so the basic idea comes form there. After that I just sketch out some ideas I can come up with, IF I can come up with something. To be honest, my creations are finished by the deadline of the projects most of the time. I am procrastinating too much usually. Many others may know this problem too. :P

ZaneZansorrow: I begin arting in many different ways, it all depends on what exactly I'm arting. I usually tend to grayscale paint then give it color or gradient the grayscale then give it color. I might approach things with texture brushes with odd forms and silhouettes for scenary and creatures. I might manipulate an old art I did and paint over it. I might do line art and then give it grayscale shading and paint with colors. I might color straight from colors in order to get a mood first. I usually call things finish when I ran out of ideas on how to continue the art, I post work in progress in my art thread to see what feedback I can get to improve it better.

Q: When we spoke with different members of The Graffiti Crew here on Newgrounds, I asked them why they use the world as their easel. Would you say there is a difference between graffiti art and more of what can be called traditional art, or is graffiti just another form? Whatever your answer could you please tell us why?

A:

Flowers10: I think graffiti is just another art form, but is a whole different experience than all other forms.I used to do graffiti some years ago, but i stopped because i like to sleep at night, and if my mom ever found out i would be fucked since she's a police detective. It was fun though seeing your name every day when biking to school, and thats what graffiti is about in my opinion: seeing and being seen. Once you start writing graffiti you will notice graffiti allot more, and you will start to remember the tags. I began to notice the big names and looked up to these figures, they motivated me to write more.

Lucky: I love graffiti art, I have great respect for the artists who practise it, I don't know how they can do it knowing that some old people can come by, call it a travesty and replace the drawing you spend 4 weeks on with a white wall. They take such risks and extremes with their art and get little respect outside the art world, i truly admire their passion for it. When I was younger I used to do graffiti art, but every time i did something that took more than a week i'd come back and it'd be covered with tags. I don't think I'm EXTREME enough to call myself a graffiti artist, but it in no way is less hard or lesser than traditional art. It in fact is harder than most art, because not only do you have to make it look good, but you have to make it look good while on top of a building at night looking out for police to not arrest you for vandalizing... Beat that DaVinchi!

Morthagg: Ah. Well, for anyone who read my art-ramblings, I think graffiti can play an important role in the Big Art because it does (wilfully or not) show the state of mind of a certain generation, and that combined with the nature of graffiti being quite independent and anti-authority makes for a pretty interesting medium that can have a large influence. The fact that it's really close to the public and seldom pretentious only adds to that. In that sense I think it is different from more traditional art, although the painting of walls can be done in a very traditional way, too. Depends on what's being made, I guess.

Luwano: Actually, I think graffiti is a form of traditional art even though it's a relatively young form of art. It's a lot more traditional than digital art for sure. You don't have the possibility of unlimited "undo" with traditional mediums and especially with graffiti, you can not save your progress and continue with it later. You have to know your medium and use it the right way to get the desired result. That's something I profoundly respect.

ZaneZansorrow: There a Graffiti Crew in NG? Cool, I say graffiti and tradititional art feels about the same, I just wonder if the graffiti that is being done is legal. lol.

Q: What programs or tools do you use to create your art?

A:

Flowers10: I like to use watercolors when I paint traditionally, I use photoshop to paint digitally, stencils and markers for graffiti, pencil fine liner and eraser for sketching, and leather paint and permanent marker for customizing shoes.

Lucky: I use a few programs, i used to be all about sketchbook pro, because i love the brushes. But i'm trying to use photoshop for most of my lineart because it takes up less ram.

Basically

Alias Sketchbook pro - high lag, high ram usage, but great brushes

Photoshop CS3 - good ram usage, good brushes, stable

Flash CS3 - great ram usage, crappy brushes, unstable BUT has its perks

Morthagg: Mostly pencil, marker, pen and paper, but otherwise photoshop, or a combination. And a little watercolour too.

Luwano: I use a small Wacom Bamboo tablet. It doesn't have a "Fun" or "Pen" or something in its name, because it's such an old model. I almost always use GIMP for drawings, but I did use Inkscape and Flash once or twice.

ZaneZansorrow: I use photoshop cs3 the most, but I also gotten photoshop element 7 and corel painter for use too.

Q: Is there any other artist or person you look to as a guide or mentor?

A:

Flowers10: I'm 100% self taught, but there are some artist that really inspired me. Take for instance the renaissance masters, they lived hundreds of years ago and reached a level of realism in there paintings that most artist today haven't reached yet.

Lucky: Al Hirshfield and Hank Ketcham. For their linear, use of space, composition, simplistic yet highly detailed depiction of a scene and for their fun styles I absolutely adore their works!

Morthagg: Hm. Not really. Many people have influenced me in some way, if not all people. The folks I worked with in a certain Belgian Animation studio did guide me in some sense, since I got a better idea of what I can and want to do in my later work-life, and made me realise I kind of don't feel comfortable in my school. Pretty important.

Luwano: ReNaeNae helped me a lot through my early time on Newgrounds. I was a real noob, like most people who post in the forum for the first time. And she was also hosting or co-hosting most of the collaborations I took part so far, which made me feel like a part of the community. There are many artists that I admire too, but I don't want to start naming them all, because I would most likely forget some. Generally, most of the art forum regulars are always there with advice when I need it.

ZaneZansorrow: The art mods like Ornery, turkeyonastick, renaenae, the art regs that post and review in NG, the arts that I fave in NG and Deviantart. These things are huge benefactors on how I improve.

[ PART 1 | PART 2 ]

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!