NiN10Doh! is COMPLETE!

Hey Everybody!

Remember that Newgrounds movie that I said I had a part in animating? Well it's done & the film is up on Newgrounds! Here's a direct link to the page!:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/432427 & REMEMBER TO VOTE "5"! WE NEED ALL THE HELP WE CAN GET, FOLKS!

Congratulations to everybody who took part!

After watching the movie, I noticed how many mistakes I made. I still don't understand why the faces blink black every few times, I don't remember seeing that when I sent it off. Oh well, what's done is done. Onto something new!

A Birthday Card for a Friend

Here's a scan of a birthday card I made for my good friend A.J., who is a Illustration student here at SVA. You can see some of her work on her deviantART page HERE. She's really got some amazing work that reminds me of a cross between Dali, M.C. Escher & Dr. Seuss. Very detailed stuff!

I drew the card in pencil, inked it with a Rapidograph & painted it with watercolors (well, technically I used watercolor pencils, but they come out just as good). I really like to use the watercolor pencils because not only does it bring a splash of color to whatever I'm drawing, but it gives it that watercolor look that I've always had a love for. Sketchy & sloppy, yet beautiful & graceful.

The birthday celebration was a big success! We ate at a nice Thai restaurant over on Saint Marks Place (I forget the name), gabbed for a few hours & at the end of the meal, we ate not one, but TWO cakes! But after a huge plate of basil fried rice with shrimp, 2 cokes, a slice of strawberry shortcake & tiramisu, I felt like I was gonna bust out wide open! Eitherway, it was a nice end to a great day!

Happy Birthday A.J.! Count this plug as your 2nd birthday present!

"Disney's Gettin' Lazy" 3: Whatever Happened to Bambi's Mother?

To many, the death of Bambi's Mother is the single saddest moment in all of film history. But don't worry folks, Bambi's Mom is alive & well! In fact, she came back to play a role in many movies since then. Personally, I think she holds the record of most appearances in a Disney film.

The big questions from me are 1) Who animated the original scene of Bambi's Mother eating grass, looking up & running away (Frank Thomas? Ollie Hohnston? Eric Larson? Who?...) & 2) Did the animator in question get credit for it when it was reused in the later films? Can anybody answer this for me?

Special thanks to Hans Perk & Michael Sporn!

*UPDATE* - Hans Perk pulled out his animator drafts for Bambi & wrote about his findings in the comments:

"Hi Michael, I had a look at the draft for Prod. 2002 (Bambi), Seq.09.2-"Death of the Mother." Directed by James Algar, layout by Dave Hilberman, animated by (drum roll...) Art Elliott. He animated Sc.8 (21-00ft on a 6½F setup), Sc.9 (9-00ft on 5F setup) where mother whispers "Bambi!" and Sc.10 (5-07ft on 5F setup) where mother says "Quick! The thicket!" (followed by some scenes by Bill Justice).

I did not check the other drafts yet, but normally reuse like this is not credited, as--again--the drafts were not prepared for crediting animators but for tracking the responsible person on any current production. Thus, most likely the person RE-animating the scene will be credited..."

Thanks again for the info, Hans!

"Disney's Gettin' Lazy" #2 - Mr. Toad & Jungle Book

For the chase scene at King Louie's Palace in The Jungle Book (1967), the animators thought: "Hey guys, we don't have to animate anything new! Let's just break out some 20-year-old animation from Mr. Toad & trace over Ratty, Moley & Mr. Winkie with King Louie, Baloo & Bagheera! & don't forget to replace the deed to Toad Hall with Mowgli, alright fellas?!"

I vaguely remember some animation from Mr. Toad where Toad is hanging from the chandelier & saving Moley from decapitation & Ratty from a bunch of weasels was reused for another Disney film, but I can't remember exactly what film it was. Maybe Robin Hood? If anybody can enlighten me on this, let me know & I'll compile & post it here as Part II.

Thanks & remember to leave comments!

*UPDATE* - Hans Perk & Michael Sporn both let me know (at almost exactly the same time!) about a translated Russian article about Disney animation reuse. You can find the article here: http://www.prodisney.ru/index.php?page=clones.php . Part I is translated in English, but if you want to read parts II & III, you have to translate the webpages using BabelFish.

Thanks again Hans & Mike!

Disney's Gettin' Lazy

Last week while talking about 101 Dalmatians, I mentioned about how by that point, Disney was reusing a lot of animation from earlier films. But 101 wasn't the first to do this. Disney has in fact been doing it way back since the early 1940's.

Let me ask you a question: what does Make Mine Music (1946) & The Black Cauldron (1985)have in common?..... Give up?

They both used animation from the "Night on Bald Mountain" sequence of Fantasia (1940).

Also, I think they reused some leaf animation from the "Looking for Romance" sequence in Bambi for the Make Mine Music scene.

I plan on making more of these animation comparison videos in the future. While you're at it, if any of you notice any Disney animation reuse, email me through the address in my profile & let me know (but not in the comments section!). Thanks for watching!

Another Dalmatian Reminder!...

I should've brought this up when I did my 101 Dalmatians post last week...

Hans Perk over at A. Film L.A. has just recently begun posting the animator drafts of 101 Dalmatians. To me, these drafts are a gold mine! They're very informative & it's really interesting to read & see who animated what throughout the film. As of this post, he's just gotten up to the introduction of the Colonel, Captain & Sgt. Tibs, my favorite scene in the movie!

By the way, he also has the complete drafts for Pinocchio, Three Caballeros, Alice in Wonderland & countless classic Disney shorts up on the site too, so take some time & check his site out!

"On the double, man! On the double!"

"Here's Some Drawin's fo' ya!"

I just noticed that besides the Photoshop stuff, I haven't posted any new art in a long time. So, here's some recent art of mind for you to peruse through. Make sure to click on the pictures to enlarge them. It helps when you wanna look at some of the small stuff.

I know I've said it before, but my favorite thing to see from cartoonists & artists are pages of random sketches & doodles. You see a lot of stuff like that in published artist sketchbooks & in books like John Canemaker's Before the Animation Begins. It kinda shows what's going on in the artist's mind has he/she is drawing.

Here in the city, I go to a local diner called "Cosmos" at least once a day. Two days ago, Rina, one of the girls who work at the register, asked me if I could draw a picture of her cat for her. Before I drew her cat, I decided to warm up by drawing this page while eating. I drew some cute cats, ugly cats, realistic cats, cartoony cats, angular cats, round cats & famous cats like Felix, Stimpy & Choo-Choo. My favorite cats I drew are the ones with the little * next to them.

This page is filled with pictures just of farmyard animals. The mouse, donkey, cow & bull are my worst ones, but I do like the chick in the top right corner & the rooster. & look!... a duck that doesn't look like Steve-O! Hallelujah!

This page was drawn right after the farm one. The depressed baby elephant is kind of a downer to look at. I really like the panther in the middle, it looks a lot like Bagheera. I'm pretty satisfied with this page, except for that damn elephant (just look away folks...look away!)

Here's one of those pages where I draw one little scribble, pull it out of the clipboard & stuff it in the back of the pages. The only picture there was the Steve-O sticking out his tongue. About a day or so later, when I was out of clean paper, I scanned through the lot & decided to fill up the rest of this page.

It's really hard to draw female cartoon characters without them looking like guys in drag. The girl duck resting her head on her desk (named Mona) is THE hardest character to draw right from my stable of characters. It's nearly impossible for me to draw her without making her look like Steve-O with eyelashes. This particular drawing of her is just right, but it's one of those "spur-of-the-moment" sketches where you're not really paying attention to what you're drawing & after you're done you can't remember how you did it. It's a real shame because it's exactly how I want to draw her every time; the eyelashes, hair & bill are exactly right! The bowler dude is one of those, too.

The Steve-O flapping his arms looks a bit too "cutesy-wootsey" with those big pupils, but that look fits Randy like a glove. In my mind, Randy would have eyes like that all the time, unless he does a big take when he's hit, surprised or scared. The proportions on him are correct as well, everything is the exact shape/size it should be.

& speaking of Randy, here's a page just of him! This is what we'd call a "model sheet", where the character is shown from (almost) all sides, with different expressions, poses & sometimes with a guide showing the basic construction of the character.

When I draw my characters, I move/feel/draw in a completely different way for each character. While I prefer to draw Steve-O & Cannibal Chicken pretty quickly to make them look spontaneous, I like to take my time when drawing Randy. Since Randy is a calm, patient character, I like to slow myself down & be relaxed when drawing him. One wrong line & he goes from appealing to appalling.

For some reason, a lot of people I meet like Randy over the other two, preferably the girls. I'm not completely sure why that is... One reason may be because he's round & has a softer edge than the other guys. I guess that's because round, smooth shapes are more appealing to the eye than angular ones, just look at characters like Mickey Mouse or Snoopy, who are either A) Made up mostly of circles/ovals, or B) have no hard edges or sharp points. Besides, everybody likes the plump, chubby characters.

& now for something completely different: Here's a bunch of witchdoctors. Although witchdoctors like these may seem a bit politically incorrect, they're real fun to draw. The one guy on the left is recycled from a character I used to draw a long time ago, named Kanji ("bone" in Aborigine). I especially like the Jafar-looking creep on the right.

Lately, I've been hooked on animation from the 20's. To me, Ub Iwerks is "Animation God". All that rubberhose & elastic motion is so hypnotizing I can't look away for even a second. Here I tried drawing in that early style, studying Fleischer designs & animation from "Barnacle Bill", "Betty Boop's Ker-Choo" & my favorite Fleischer cartoon: "Bimbo's Initiation". Sadly, I couldn't help drawing a page without scribbling a few ducks here & there.

By the way, expect a post about one of my favorite pieces of animation from this era sometime next week.

& finally, here are two recent Rebops I did. They're loads of fun to draw & people love choosing the various parts & seeing the finished animal. These are the only two that I kept (I lost count how many I gave a way).

Well, that's it for now. But here's what I plan to do: From now on, at the beginning of every month, I'll post my best pages from the previous month. Another thing to keep the energy going here.

See ya around sometime, & remember to leave comments!

Disney Bastardization #5 - Dalmatians Meet the Cows

To coincide with yesterday's One Hundred & One Dalmatians post, here's a dalmatian-themed Bastardization!

Sadly, the Bastardizations have steadily grown unfunny since the dinosaur battle one. I don't know how to top it! I won't do anymore until I have one that's sure to make people laugh. A real funny concept!

Well, at least try to tolerate this one anyway:

The DailyMotion thing was a bust, they're as bad as Youtube. They took the videos down as soon as I put them up. I guess it's for the best, so For the Birds will be the only place to see these videos (unless some shmuck steals them & puts them up on Youtube).

Also, I'm sick & tired of Windows Movie Maker! It's been a real pain to make these films with it. I had some spectacular ideas for videos, but due to the limited functions in the program they have been scrapped. I've been saving up to get a Macbook this summer, so when & if I do, the quality of these videos will greatly improve (if it's even possible to improve a video with smut like this in it every time).

"For the last time, it's not spelt 'Dalmations'!"

I picked up a copy of the new One Hundred & One Dalmatians DVD the other day. For some reason, the quality of the Platinum Edition series has been gradually decreasing over the past few years. I was somewhat disappointed with the release of Jungle Book last October, & this one was a bit lacking as well. But the virtual puppy games, music videos & sneak peek spots aren't what I'm about, it's the movie that get's me excited.

One Hundred & One Dalmatians is one of my favorite Disney films. I guess it's because it's the most different Disney movie they ever did up to that point (besides Fantasia). There's no big elaborate song sequences where everybody stops & sings (besides the "Cruella DeVil" number) & no princesses to fuss over. Its in it's own little catergory.

I know Walt Disney hated the Xerox look of the film, but I think that's one of the main reasons why its so charming. For an animator, it's got that sketchy quality that we all admire, like a colored pencil-test. The backgrounds are really unique for a Disney picture, where everything looks flat & has that graphic style. It may have been an eyesore to Walt, but to us animators & cartoonists, it's eye candy.

Although the film probably has the greatest amount of recycled animation of any other Disney movie, every single bit of animation excites me. I might go into detail in a later post about Disney's constant reuse of animation, but for now let's focus on the positve stuff. The characters, the special effects & even the rotoscoping they did on the cars blows me away every time. & out of all the human characters that Disney has done, the stylized designy ones in this film seem the most appealing to me, even if they are greatly exaggerated caricatures of real humans. & don't even get me started on 6,000,000+ spots they had to draw!

The middle of the film is my favorite, from the Twilight Bark sequence up the the last scenes at Hell Hall . & my favorite characters in the film are not the dalmatians, but the trio made up of the Captain, the Colonel & Sgt. Tibs (with Jasper & Horace right behind). It's interactions & conversations between personalities like these that always intrigue me. The way Sgt. Tibs is repeatedly flustered by the Colonel's serious yet awkward demeanor alway's makes me laugh. It's Leslie Nielsen if he were a sheepdog. To me, that stuff is pure gold.

& speaking of gold... isn't J. Pat O'Malley's English accent for Jasper just beautiful? Out of all the lines in the movie, Jasper has the best ones: phrases like "...We're gettin' plenty of boodle.", his long stretch about the new law passed in Parliament, & one of my all-time favorite line from any Disney film: "Here, grab a torch! We'll hunt 'em down before ou can say 'Bob's yer uncle'!"

I could probably go on & on about how great this movie is, but it'll just turn into a big gushfest, so I'll leave off here. I highly recommend buying (or at least renting) One Hundred & One Dalmatians on DVD. The bonus features may be lacking, but the film is worth the cost.

"A Sign of Things to Come"

A few months ago, my father finally came to accept the fact that he needed a sign for his shop, which was at the time in a bit of a slow period. People who pull out of the BJ's Wholesale store across the street were passing by the place, not even remotely aware of what was behind the two large wooden gates hiding our property.

He thought "I know... I'll have my somewhat-artsy son of mine do it for me!", so he told me that I should get into the sign business. I was gonna make signs whether I liked it or not. Thus my new career as a sign guy begun.

So I sketched out this drawing & painstakingly colored in in Photoshop (back when I was still in the process of getting to know the program). Since I'm partially colorblind, it was a task trying to choose the right colors. Working late into the night, I finally got it done.

He approved it the next morning when I sent it to him. Thinking that he'd transfer it onto vinyl, I thought my work was done. Then a few days later, he decided that I should PAINT the whole sign instead. Without my knowledge, he went out & bought brushes, cleaning fluids, bottles, tubs, cases & pints upon pints of different colored enamel paints. I was a bit mad that all my late-night work was for nothing, but I thought "Hell, I'll give it a shot. What harm could it do? It's one more thing to add to my repertoire."

I projected the image onto the back of an old junk sign, traced the lines in pencil & later in Sharpie Marker. Then I finally began to paint. I spent days painting, standing in the cold mixing paint colors & trying to keep my hands steady. When I thought I was done, he said that he studied up on signs & that the Sharpie probably wouldn't show well & that I should paint over the lines in thick black paint.

A bit peeved, I retraced the black lines as steadily as I could. When I was done with that, he said I should do the lettering too. & after that, he kept adding more crap for me to add to the sign: "Put the phone number on there... & when we're open." & finally the graceful phrase "FREE SOLUTIONS". "Why not 'ADVICE'?" I asked. But whatever I might say, his way still goes.

In the end, this is how it finally came out:

I was glad that I was finally done with it, but it was still a bittersweet end. I was tired of looking at the goddamn thing.

There's plenty of mistakes & miscolorings, but hell, it's my first sign.

By the end of the project, I felt a lot like this guy...

...CONFUSED!

I plan on doing a few more signs, maybe even learn a bit about pinstriping. Hey, I'd love to earn $60 bucks painting a straight line across the door of someone's car. I'll post those when & if I start them. Ciao!

Disney Bastardization #4 - Ludwig von Drake Dances & Sings

I don't know if I'd truly consider this a "bastardization" per se, but it's kinda like one.

If any of you remember watching Ludwig von Drake on Disney's Wonderful World of Color back in the day, you might remember him singing a song called "Green with Envy Blues". Well, I took some animation of him swaying his feathery behind (which I believe is Ward Kimball animation), looped it to infinity, added some psychedelic video effects & dubbed over the original song with something totally opposite. This is the stupid crap I make when I'm home alone & there's nothing good on television. Explains a lot about me, doesn't it?

Ludwig von Drake Dances to Deep Purple
Uploaded by FantasiaMan (aka ME)

I've been screwing around with a bunch of songs for this video, so who knows, if you guys like this idea I'll post more of these von Drake Dancing movies using different tunes.

Also, I want to give credit to kaijueguy for putting the original von Drake footage up on Youtube & Deep Purple for their song "Smoke on the Water" ('cause if I didn't I'd get my ass sued).

& finally one last note: For some reason, when I post these movies onto Blogger there's a slight lag in the video so the visuals & the audio don't sync up exactly right. I've been thinking about putting these videos up on a site like DailyMotion (definitely NOT considering Youtube) to boost the video quality. When & if I do so, I'll repost the videos. If there's anybody out there that can recommend a good video uploading site for me, that would be a big help. Thanks!

*UPDATE* - Alright folks, from now on, all my videos shall be posted through DailyMotion.

Horton Hears a Who (but you have to hear it from me first!)

When I first heard that Blue Sky Studios was adapting Horton Hears a Who! into a full-length animated film, I had my doubts. But after tonight, those doubts have been silenced.

Since I got off for Spring Break last Friday, I've felt a little down. SVA's students have break a week earlier than the other schools, so all my friends will have off next week while I'll be going back. I've been extremely lonely & alone, even to the point where the closest thing that could cheer me up was to just walk around town in the cold for hours. Tonight, I went to the movies (alone) feeling down & the film actually cheered me up a bit. In the end, I walked out of the theater feeling satisfied & happier than when I went in.

When you're a cartoonist/animator like I am, you're already well aware of Dr. Seuss & his stories. I grew up with Seuss, & his drawings & stories have inspired me very much. One of my initial doubts when I heard about Blue Sky's Horton adaption was "How are they gonna pull of that Seuss style I know & love?". First off, Blue Sky already has the right idea: animation is the ONLY way you can bring Seuss to life. I kinda liked the live-action Grinch, but I despised the live-action Cat in the Hat. To me, no amount of CGI effects or makeup can make a live-action film do the impossible, which is what Seuss is all about (although Jim Carrey's green makeover was pretty cool).

Then there's the 2 types of animated Seuss adaptions: the cartoons that vaguely resemble Seuss & the somewhat-true to the book/style Seuss cartoons. Bob Clampett's Horton Hatches the Egg back in the early 40's was the first animated Seuss story, but while Clampett did try to keep at least some of that Seuss look, the characters & gags are not Seuss at all. Horton comes off as a Looney Tune like Bugs or Daffy. Then there's Chuck Jones' takes on Seuss: The Grinch (which we all know & love) & his own version of Horton Hears a Who!. With Grinch, the story is true, but the cartoon is all in Chuck Jones/Maurice Noble styling, which is very appealing in it's own right, but for Seuss' sake, not quite Seuss enough. With Horton, there's a bit more Seussiness in the look of the characters & the story, but they still come off with Jones' designs & timing. Still, I think Chuck's Horton is probably one of the most true adaptions of Seuss I've seen.

Back to Blue Sky's Seuss: like I said, I was skeptical when the movie was first announced, but after seeing a maquette of Vlad the vulture & these two pictures of the Mayor of Whoville & Horton:

... I knew that the Blue Sky team had the Seuss-style down pat & that they knew what they were doing (even though I didn't quite understand why Horton had crow's feet). Luckily, the character models have been altered a bit since these screens were leaked over a year ago, so Horton & the Mayor don't quite look as "over-the-hill" as they do here.

A lot of CG films like Madagascar tried to pull off the wacky, spontaneous actions you find in classic cartoons like squash & stretch & blur/streak effects, but they still come off as stiff & rigid characters. With Horton, they finally pulled it off, & flawlessly. The animation in Horton has some of the best CG animation I've ever seen, especially in the the animation of Vlad & the Mayor. After seeing the TV ad when the Mayor screams in agony over a stapler to the head, I knew as an animator that I was in for a treat. We eat that up like it was going out of style. & don't worry traditional animation fans, there's a few treats for you in there, too!

Now on to the voices: now when I think "Horton", I think of a timid yet lovable type, having a small voice but with big things to say. The Clampett Horton was too much of a "DUH...Which way did he go George..." type of voice, while Hans Conreid's voice for Chuck Jones' Horton was spot on. When I first saw/heard Jim Carrey going through his "funny hats" line in the teaser trailer, I thought that was a really bad move. The idea of Ace Ventura in an elephant suit freaking out all over the place was a really hard to think about. I thought somebody like Albert Brooks would play a better Horton than Jim Carrey.

But now after seeing the movie, I think Carrey's performance was perfect. He put a lot of heart into the role & that made the character extremely appealing & likable. & on top of that, Carrey himself is a die hard Seuss fan, so he knew what he was putting his voice to. Steve Carell & Carol Burnett's performances were great too. I'm usually not a fan of studios using big name actors as voices in animated films, but in this case I can make an exception. Blue Sky made the right choices in choosing the voice talent for the film. At times, you forget that they're Steve Carell or Jim Carrey.


I'm not the kind of person who really laughs at a movie & I could probably count the number of times a movie has made me laugh out loud with one hand, but this film did make me laugh out loud a few times. & if I laughed, then chances are every single person in the theater would be laughing twice as hard as I was twice the amount of time. Unlike a lot of films like Shrek, Horton doesn't have to stoop so low as to use pop-culture references or fart jokes to get a laugh (in fact, there's not a single fart joke throughout the entire movie, it's a freakin' miracle!). Sure, some jokes may be a bit lowbrow to some, but they aren't unbearable. & unlike Shrek, these jokes will not date the film. This film shall live on through the ages!

In the end, I was very satisfied with the film. It blew my expectations clear through the stratosphere (& that's a good thing). & I know there are a lot of people out there who'll look at the film in a negative light & say that it's not true to Seuss, or something about them using big name actors or whatever... hey, if you're a kid, chances are you'll enjoy it. But don't let me tell you how great the movie was... go see Horton Hears a Who! yourself! & while you're at it, come back here & tell me what you thought of Horton in comment form

But as for Blue Sky's next planned Seuss film, Green Eggs & Ham, I don't quite know how they'll pull that one off. We'll see how that turns out a few years down the road.

*P.S.* Since I came back from the movies, I've drawn pages of Horton-themed sketches to help break apart the long stretch of words I had to say about the film. But my scanner here at home is on the fritz, so I can't post them. When I get back to SVA on Monday or Tuesday, I'll post them then. 'Til then, imagine how great they look between all those white letters!

It's Brawlin' Time!

After over 2 years waiting, I finally got my hands on a copy of Super Smash Bros. Brawl! I'll gush later, but for now I need your help.

If you have Brawl, & would like to VS. me, Michael J. Ruocco, in a match or two through Wi-Fi Play, email me by clicking on the link in my profile & we can transfer friend codes.

Can you kick my ass? We'll have to wait & see for ourselves!

Nintendo meets Romeo & Juliet

A few months back (probably around late-September, early-October), my roommate Chris Niosi was telling me about a Flash project he was in development on called "NiN10Doh!". The concept of it is just a compilation of Nintendo-themed skits & parodies strewn together into one movie (kinda like Robot Chicken).

He's outsourced a lot of the work to his friends & colleagues to help speed up production & after seeing a short 3-year old FLASH animation of a blob I did at Hofstra, he asked if I'd like to do a segment too. Thinking it would be fun, I said "Absolutely!", not realising how inexperienced I was at FLASH, how difficult it would be to animate & forgetting about how busy my class schedule was at the time.

"Ewww... cooties!"

Since most of the shorter, simpler scenes were already taken, I decided to do the Ice Climbers segment. I chose that particular one because I knew how to construct & draw the characters & that the story concept was funny as hell.

Here's Popo playing Brando playing Romeo

When I finally first sat down to do it, I was completely stumped. I forgot what button did what & what layers were which & I was completely discombobulated. & on top of that, all I had was a cheap, crappy old tablet that barely worked anymore, & there was no way I was going to draw the whole 25-second segment with a mouse. At that point, I decided that I needed a new tablet & that I needed to take a crash course in FLASH, doing both in a weekend's time. Now that I had a new tablet ( A fancy new 10'' Wacom Intuos) & at least some knowledge of the program, I started to work on the piece.

Months have passed since then, & I'm just about done with it. The coloring is complete, the animation is cleaned up (mostly) & the backgrounds are set. All I need to do is redo the snow, since the old snow was a complete mess & then I can send it off to Chris for finalizing & tweaking.
I don't know when the movie will be released, but I know for sure that it'll end up over at NEWGROUNDS.COM very soon. I don't want to spoil the storyline for you or post any of the animation footage just yet, since I haven't gotten clearance from Chris if I could, & even if I could, it probably wouldn't be 'til long after the movie has been put up. I'll post later about the animation once it's online.

I'll let you know when the film is out & I'll link to the film directly from here when it's online. & while you're at it, check out Chris' Blog, deviantART page & official website. Definitely worth the viewing!

"See you later!"

"Happy Birthday, You Ol' Blog You!"

"What? It's been a whole year? Already!?

This blog is exactly one year old today! & not only is it the blog's 1st anniversary, this also happens to be my 100th post! What a coincidence! I timed it just right!

& to celebrate this joyous occasion, here's a little Flash animation I made for you as thanks for stopping by for the past 12 months. Enjoy!:

I'd like to thank all those who visited the blog (& left a few comments here & there) throughout the past year. Let's see... there's David, Emily, Denise, Doreen, Jose, Sam, Thad K., Kevin Langley, John Sanford, Hans Perk, my friends/teachers/collegues at SVA & countless other visitors, friends & anonymous commenters. Thanks everybody for all the help & support!

Looking back, I've accomplished a lot in my life since I started this blog last March: I graduated high school, visited foreign countries, got accepted/started classes at SVA, learned to drive, learned Photoshop, began to live on my own (almost), made new friends & completed a 7-year long metal sculpture project!

Before writing this post, I took the time to look over all 100 posts I've done, & after seeing all of them I forgot how much I covered here: The Rockman, unfinished comics (sorry), movie reviews & recommendations, rebops, WDCC's, Bastardizations, holidays, SVA, juggling, Toon Platoon, foxes, Miyazaki films, Hofstra U., Shakespeare, personal events, Smash Bros. & a plethora of sketches, drawings, doodles & scribbles (mostly of ducks)! "Phew, what a mouthful!"

Here's to another year of For the Birds goodness!

... now what?