Interview No. 165

Interview By: @The-Great-One

Today's guest was one of my first all the way back in 2009. During his first visit we talked about the series that he started and how it birthed a day of it is own, with the Madness Series. It is time to revisit and learn more than we should have since then. I am most pleased and honored to welcome back, @Krinkels.

Q: Last we spoke was eleven years ago. You have been quite busy since then and there were a lot of things I neglected to ask you back then. I hope you don't mind we'll be retreading a little ground.

A: I'll do my best to remember things, I'm getting old and new information keeps pushing old information out of my head.

Q: At what age did you become interested in animation?

A: I can't even be too precicely certain, especially because we're all fascinated with cartoons as a kid. I remember abusing the slow-motion feature on the VCR many times so I could see how animated things moved on more than one occasion. The interest in animated work came and went as I got older until flash came along, or more accurately; Newgrounds. It was such an eye opener to see just some guy (Tom) banging out home brew cartoons with a PC and posting it online. It helped that they were super amusing and in line with my sense of humor, too. So while I was always fascinated with animation I never really get it in my head to embroil myself in the methods until I saw Newgrounds, so like, what, 19 years old?

Q: Where did the inspiration for the Madness series come from? How did you come about this design for the bodies and heads?

A: The design for the grunts was in my sketchbooks all through highschool. They were little sack looking featureless men I could just scribble into anything and were great for doodling because they were so featureless. A lot of the handless sort of looks (i.e. Rayman) are ofc a direct artistic inspiration, showing me that I don't have to draw arms to have hands out there doin stuff, so I ran with that. The cross on their face was derived from the basic drawing principal of using a cross to orient a sketch/drawing of a human head.

Q: When I wrapped up the last interview, the ninth installment of Madness Combat, Madness Aggregation was already out. Looking back on the Madness Series as a whole, how have you felt about it blowing up in popularity?

A: I'm still stunned people enjoy the series, considering how slowly I churn them out, and how the fandom itself has far and long surpassed me in quality (and quantity!), but I'm absolutely grateful for the opportunity to throw something out there that people enjoy and that I enjoy doing. Part of me wonders what would have come of the series if I had a stronger business acumen but that road of thought has me thinking there's be madness funko pops and that seems kinda gross.

Q: Madness Day will be celebrating its 13th Anniversary this year. It is a day that I always look forward to. With creators such as Littleluckylink who was here to talk about his Madness Day trilogy. Madness Anitpathy was the inspiration for him. MOC-Productions was also here to talk about his Madness Day contribution as well. How many of the Madness Day movies have you seen? What do you think about Madness Day overall?

A: I try to watch every single one of them! It's easier these days as the popularity has waned but the creators are no less driven. The last couple years I've been twitch streaming on Madness Day to watch the entries with anyone who cares to accompany me on the journey through the portal. These long time Madness animators like LLL are definitely a part of why I have to evaluate my own process to make sure I ain't slacking! As for my thoughts on Madness day like, a lot of people will come at me and say something to the effect of 'hey matt you got your own day on newgrounds!' and I feel like I have to correct a lot of people so it'll be good to kinda run the words here; it ain't Krinkels day, it's Madness day because it's a show of what newgrounds can do when they circle up on content they're into. Like Pico day, robot day, ect al, it's about the artists who are enthusiastic about the portal and what it brings, the days are great for compartmentalizing and celebrating.

Q: One thing I absolutely love about the Madness Series is that with each new installment there are new weapons introduced or older weapons used in creative ways. You find a way to break up the monotony of the fight scene with each new addition to the series. How do you do it?

A: I HAVE TO DO THIS!!! haha, I know I do a lot of samey stuff, in fact the biggest fair criticism is that i'm maybe too consistent with things and let them get stale! Any instances of freshness you feel within the newer entries comes from me kicking in keyframes and stopping and thinking 'wait i've done this before' and rolling back to approach it again. It lends to a longer gestation period in my cartoons but I hope it's worth it! I get worried that more plot heavy stuff like the Dedmos series (which, frankly, had the same kinda whispy plot as the rest of the series just sorta more... rocky?) will miss the mark, and for many it did, but it got me thinking of stuff I wouldn't have introduced otherwise.

Q: In the last interview I asked you the story behind Hank. The reason I ask because back then and even to this day, Hank is my favorite Newgrounds character. I kind of relate to Hank in a way. Just having the damn determination to just not give up and keep fighting. He's quite inspirational. How did you come up with the idea to flesh out this one character?

A: Hank is literally an amalgamation of 90s and early 00s edgelord protagonists, my love letter to an era of ridiculous anti-heros. There really isn't too much to say about him other than he's a force of nature wrapped in bandages, an agent of the higher powers to enact change in the Godmachine Nevada. Of course his determination is mysterious!

Q: You have many episodes that expand Madness Series. For those looking to start a series in animation, what advice can you give to them about world building and fleshing out the characters and story in-between the lines.

A: Oh man I may be the worst person to ask! My method is to just hammer out animations with the person and start figuring stuff out as the process starts getting slick, instead of planning things before hand. Maybe I have an aversion to plans because they invariably change/fail and I can't handle that so a more lazzaie-faire approach lets it feel more organic? Even if it winds up being a little indicative of a lack of deep creativity. Working with swain and doing actual writing for Project Nexus has been insightful, on the other hand, so in all fairness my knowledge of how to 'properly' world build is pretty new, and I still favor a 'lets figure it out together' design for the animations, using a few bullet points I want to hit and then just animating around them.

Q: When and how did you meet The-Swain? What stories can you tell us about working together?

A: I met Swain first at a Comic Con back in 2009? 2010? I can't remember the year precicely but we hit it off pretty quick talking about venture brothers and animations/vidyagames. Embarassingly enough I wasn't aware of Blockhead when I first met him and it wasn't until the next comic con when I was able to talk to him about the work HE'D done as well. From there we'd communicate on AIM and over time we got it in our heads to collaborate. Working with swain has been a boon to my own sense of professionalism and drive. We stopped being goofballs with ideas and became forgemasters with plans, though admittedly it took me some time to get in step with the processes but I'm grateful he had the patience needed for me to get a handle on game development and Blender/3d and even art in general. When we met my art wasn't what i'd call even adequate.

Q: What can you tell us about The Gibbing Tree and Madness: Project Nexus 2?

A: Not a lot to say, Gibbing Tree is two desks in a room where Project Nexus is being made. We've dropped the 2, and are referring to the Flash as 'classic', moving forward, so as not to shut out new people who feel like they need to play an ancient game to be caught up to speed.

Q: An Experiment does ask quite the interesting question. At first it made me go "huh... that's interesting" to "WTF" real quick. How did you come to this conclusion when answering the question and will we see this being utilized in a future Madness Combat?

A: Grunt S3lf energy erodes into dissonance when abused in such ways. Dissonance being the 'atomos' of s3lf, and a large byproduct of... well, things doing what they do in Nevada. The story of Project Nexus is surrounded by it in a more destructive capacity, the cartoons cover the more bizzare aspects of it.

Q: Alright, are you saving the next Madness Combat for this upcoming Madness Day?

A: PART ONE OF MADNESS 9.5 WILL BE READY FOR MADNESS DAY, MY DUDE!

Q: What is in your opinion, the definitions of art and animation?

A: oh god, what a question. Right now my working definition is that art is little more than basic interpretation/expression. Even if it just an expression on 'I really dig on this thing, so I drew a picture of it'. It all starts with looking at stuff, seeing the stuff, and thinking about it. We all got different filters so ten people living the same life will draw different things at the end of the day and that's the beauty part of it. It's an insight into what a person thinks, if even just a little bit, and even if it's confusing and might be unsolvable from our view. But deterministically speaking data goes in, data comes out.

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

A: A couple more animations, at least. MC12 might be it for me then I'll relegate myself to shorter and shorter animations. I'm in a position where I can animate a bit right now and will absolutely make the most of what little time I can to make good on the implicit promise to those who patronize me.

One thing The Interviewer has always been known for since its early days are interviews with big names. Although I have no personal vendetta against my older interviews I wished I was better back then. You could say this along with others has been me trying to correct this matter. Krinkels' Madness Series has not only helped fuel Newgrounds, it has made possible, the chance for many new artists, animators, musicians, and programmers come to the front with a style that they can make their stamp with. Without Krinkels and Madness Day we may not have as many talented creators on the site that we do and we wouldn't have so many wonderful stories. Madness Day is a day I look forward to every year, and I am always anticipating the newest Madness entry from Krinkels. He has given so much to this site, and we can all only hope to see more.

The Interviewer is a part of Dohn's Desk Productions

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