So yeah, two weeks was definitely optimistic, but in that time, I've been busy making a font for my animations. I'm really diggin the radical 90's aesthetic it's got, but now I've gotta figure out how to ACTUALLY turn it into a font. Don't mind that the question mark is missing, though. We don't ask questions here. (I'll get around to it, eventually.)

Feel like I went a lil ham with the camera. In all the animations I've done, there's always been some sorta limitation, like it's an in-game camera, a static camera, or a 2D camera. Now that I have full control of the camera in blender, I feel like a baby elephant that just discovered its trunk. I'm swingin it around doin helicopters and shit. I know not how to wield the power I now possess.

I first started animating at the beginning of the school year in 2007, and my passion for it died after I graduated in 2009. My time as an animator lasted less than 2 years, and all my stuff was posted within 2008, so effectively, my series lasted less than a year, and yet 16 years later, I still find fans dedicating time and effort to this series I made so long ago. My passion for animation was reignited last year, and I've been slowly working on it ever since. It's been slow going, but what else can I do as one person doing all this in my spare time?

As of right now I'm still working on Sonic's trailer. His animation is all done for it, and right now, I'm working on building the scene. Once I'm done with that, I'm gonna animate the camera and then put together the trailer. Only then will I feel I've proven my resolve and motivation in reigniting my passion for animation enough to justify having a patreon. So be on the lookout for that. Maybe another week or two? We'll see. Plans are made to be broken, after all. Whatever happens, that fire's still in me, and I don't plan on letting it die again!

OH YEAH! Model's built and rigged and I'm ready to start animating!! NOT EVEN DEATH COULD STOP ME NOW!!!

So big news from my workplace. They're finally matching our pay with other Honda plants, dropping time to top pay from 6 years to 3, and on top of all that, increasing our pay by 11%. No doubt they saw what the UAW accomplished and collectively, and in unison, shat their pants. Whatever motivated them, this is amazing news for me! Since I'm already 4.5 years in as full-time, I'll be going straight to top pay in January. I'm looking at going from $26/hr to ~$35/hr. That's a gigantic jump in pay and opens up so many possibilities for me!

My plan now is to get all my financial ducks in a row and, with that done, see if I can drop my schedule by one or two days a week, and dedicate that extra time to animation. Prolly won't get to that point til the summertime, so until then, it'll be a slow trickle in progress for my animation.

I can't tell you how relieving it is knowing I'll actually have the money to not only catch up and keep up on my finances, but also get shit done around the house and dedicate more time to my hobbies! My future just got a whole lot brighter! Unions are an amazing thing, and they even help push jobs that aren't unionized to be better.

Been workin with Blender making my own models for the animations. I figured the easiest way to both animate and get the angular+sketchy aesthetic I'm wanting to go for is using 3D models. That said, I'd still like to use 2D illustrations for the story beats, so don't think the style of my recent illustrations will go away completely.

It's been an interesting ride so far, learning Blender and making models at the same time. Here's a few pics, two of the model and another with the overlay in front of the camera. Still working on getting the overlay to cooperate at more than one angle, but I'm slowly learning how to use Blender. As of right now, this is all I've done. My next update I plan on releasing a small trailer showcasing some of Sonic's animations, but before I even get to that point, I'll hafta refine the model some more, rig the model, then make the animations, so I've got a while longer yet. I just wanted to let y'all know, I haven't been sitting on this. I've put a lot of my spare time into making it this far, and I'm not done yet. Not by a long shot.

I've been working on rebooting an old flash animation of mine, Sonic Reversal. So far, I still haven't even gotten the logo fully done, but not a whole lot I can do about that when I've got a full-time job and can only animate in my spare time.

The kinda style I'm goin for is what you see in my recent art posts, with characters doin the shaky shake. I still wanna keep the action scenes 2D, but animate the characters myself. The cutscenes, however, I want to be a picture collage, sorta like the cutscenes in Phantasy Star IV. It'll have the brown checkerboard pattern from Green Hill as the backdrop, and as the cutscene progresses, new pictures will get "tossed" onto the screenspace, kinda like someone tossing printed pictures onto a table. Once a new picture is tossed on, the last picture will stop doin the shaky shake; only the newest pic will be shaking.

Occasionally, the screen will be cleared off, so it won't get too chaotic with the picture collage, but maybe it won't. Who knows? It's some ideas I'm working on (it prolly will. I don't want the screen getting too chaotic). Particularly impactful shots will clear the screen and replace the standard backdrop, and pictures will still get tossed onto the screen as the scene progresses, and just like previous shots, the backdrop, too, will stop shaking once it loses focus.

This is all a work in progress, subject to change, and very early in development, so don't expect me to finish for a while, but I've got the fire to animate once more, and I'm not about to let it fade away!

So I made a flash series years ago called Sonic Reversal, it's recently regained my attention, and I'd like to give it a proper eulogy, even if it is over a decade overdue. It's wild seeing something I made in my spare time in high school have the impact that it did, no matter how small that impact may have been. I actually almost cried looking at comments on Twitter and YouTube about it. I'm sorry I never gave the proper closure I should've. I never continued the series because I graduated high school, life got in the way, and I just lost my passion for it. That doesn't excuse the lack of communication, I guess. It's not much, but this series is a part of my own past and a part of flash history. I'd like to at least give a proper eulogy, even if it is over a decade late. To that end, I'd like to at least post what I had done with episode 4, along with a little info on a different project I'm working on. I really appreciate everyone's love for these animations I made so long ago, and I'm feeling less embarrassed about how they turned out! It's with that motivation that I'm hoping my next project I can leave an indelible mark on those that need it! In the meantime, you can check out my insta @inappropriatejester and Twitter @The_Great_Derp. I don't post often, but it's there. Maybe I'll share updates on my project there? Anyway, y'all have a good day, and I'm glad I could bring some smiles!

So I got the sudden inspiration to make a flash game recently. I don't wanna spoil what the gameplay is like, so you'll have to wait to see. I've gotten too far into this project just to let it sit and rot, though, like many of my other flash projects, so who knows? Maybe this will turn out to be the full story of Sonic Reversal!

As more and more time passes, I'm more and more inclined to redo what I've done with episode IV. I was already out of ideas with episode IV, so I just put in whatever came to mind, but I've got an 8 hour job now and attending college. Having to pay attention to these two, I've sort of lost interest in this. I don't think I'll completely ignore it. As I said, I'm inclined to redo what I've done, especially considering the fact that I can draw now. Just figured I'd share my thoughts.