2024 is done!
I’ve been really busy both with real life and with my creative works, so much that it tends to get really exhausting. My job hasn’t been particularly forgiving in this aspect; many work-related changes throughout the year on top of the usual work environment has led me to take more breaks than I preferred, and even then, I found it more difficult to find energy to do what I want to do in my spare time.
Despite all that, I’m fairly proud of the works that I’ve produced this year. Some experimentation with line art based on art studies I’ve done last year as well as some new brushes has yielded a more unique, personal illustrative style that translates better to animation. Additionally, I feel like I have a better establishment on the general workflow of my creative projects as well as more realistic expectations of the final drafts of such. This is likely thanks to the variety of Newgrounds events I’ve participated in each year.
EDY-EM: OVERLOAD
Although it’s technically uploaded in 2023, the upload time was half an hour before New Year’s Day (in EST), so I think this animation still counts as something I did in 2024. I’ve already written an in-depth post on this project, so I’ll briefly summarize my thoughts here.
EDY-EM: OVERLOAD is a personal benchmark of my progress in animation, in the sense that it proves to me that I’m fully capable of producing an original full short. Before this, I have only created animated loops or segments for collaborative works that usually last 5-10 seconds.
This was also an animation that was molded by personal experiences in real life, so it means a lot more to me than most previous works. I am unsure if I’ll be able to make another creative work that’s as heartfelt as this one, but we’ll see!
Love Transmission
As a palate cleanser to finishing a 100-second animated loop, I made a small, kind of abstract illustration for the Valentine’s Day Art Collab. To tie it to Edy's musical themes, I based the illustration on old jazz album covers from the 80s and 90s. While I think I achieved the idea very well, this goes thematically against the concept of basing Edy around electronic music. I also now think the placement of the wires coming out of her neck looks awkward.
Kamen Rider O’s!
A fan animation for a collab that unfortunately went kaput, Kamen Rider O’s! was a personal test on how fast I can animate, similar to the Music Makers trailer back in 2021. I had to animate around 30 seconds within a little more than a month, so I had to accept that the quality won’t be on the same level as EDY-EM: OVERLOAD. However, the overall quality has improved significantly in the three years I have developed my skills, and I’m fairly proud of that fact.
Beyond a few fight scenes, I actually haven’t watched Kamen Rider OOO.
Project Cadenza: File 00
My submission for Robot Day, notable enough to get an honorable mention! As stated here, this is meant to vaguely set up the background setting for Music Makers (more info on that later). I do like to continue this sort of animation if I plan to make Music Makers a full-fledged series, but most of the setting I have for this is up in the air at the moment.
Even with the deadline for Robot Day in mind and the fact that I started working on this entry relatively late, I still think the quality of the animation is too shoddy for what it’s worth. One reason may be that the visual effects do not hold up very well, and I’m wondering if that points to a lack of compositing skill.
Victory Dance
Submission for the Pokemon Gijinka Collab. There were a fair amount of Pokemon that I wanted to try this out for, but I decided to work on Hisuian Lilligant because its inspirations and monster design are relatively easy to translate into a humanoid design.
This is also an illustration where I feel it displays my current illustration style at its best, apart from the Porygon illustration earlier this year. Recently, I started to put a heavier emphasis on line art so that it’s easier to transition from illustrating to animating, and vice versa. Even then, the custom digital brushes that I use for line art still give me a sense of the painterly style that I do in lineless works.
Nintendo DS Collab — Pokémon Black Version 2
Animated loop for the DS Collab. I’m very proud of how this came out. This was very good practice on getting comfortable with secondary animation, which I felt is appropriate for a large monster like Black Kyurem.
Music Makers, and Moving Forward to Next Year
Finally, this is my current creative project that I’m working on!
This is probably my biggest project I’ve undertaken so far; it’s way larger than EDY-EM: OVERLOAD. Next year, I’m planning to take a step back from doing smaller works and collaborations in order to focus on Music Makers, as that was a reason why EDY-EM took longer to complete than I’d preferred. Even so, I’m still unsure if I can get it done sometime in 2025; the scope of this animation is large enough that I’m considering making the last section of what I had in mind to be its own separate thing.
Despite these uncertainties, the animation process itself is both relaxing and exciting. Whenever I am able to 100% focus on working, I always get giddy at the progress I make. I’ve roughed out 15 seconds’ worth of shots from the barebones keyframe phase, and I’m fairly proud that the past few years of experience has led to stuff looking like this:
All I want to do in 2025 is to give a sort of closure to that “fake” trailer I made back in 2021, and I feel confident enough in my skills to give it my best.
KittyhawkMontrose
Thanks again for being a part of the Pokemon Gijinka Collab! The new animation is looking sweet. Happy New Year!! 🎉