ok, maybe a new era is exaggerating it a bit. I just wanted something that sounded cool.

I have a few things to announce:

1) I'm not dead. you probably already figured that out, but I just like saying that after I go inactive for awhile.

2) I plan on sending some stuff into the art portal soon. what I have now is pretty different from most of the stuff already there, so I'm not sure if it'll ever actually be in the portal itself.

3) previous news posts and most of the stuff on my website is now outdated and will not be checked or updated in the future. I have matured a lot since the last time I was active and there are things which I have said and done that I'm not particularly proud of. all animations I mentioned are considered dead until further notice (I am, after all, necromantic) and the website will probably be updated sometime in the distant future. EDIT: or the website could cease to exist, that works too...

4) in the extremely unlikely event that someone from the super hero RPG thread is reading this, I'd like to thank you for keeping it alive long enough for me to toss a few characters in. from those characters I made a story that will probably be published in the near-ish future (though it's probably going to be in some small magazine for sci-fi nerds).

I know that nobody's going to read this, but I've been wrong before. heck, the fact that you're reading this proves that I'm wrong. it's like pascal's wager for the random blogger.

just figured I'd mention that I'm not dead yet. I haven't really done anything, but I'm still here. JVN is now in the hands of gex to work on at whatever pace he chooses. EBWS is being outlined and I'm hoping to get a storyboard ready by the end of the year. clash of cursors is going to the backburner for a long time, we'll see what happens.

I was hoping to have a storyboard out for EBWS by now. sadly, i still don't. it's due to a mix between the fact that I don't have flash, I don't draw well, and general laziness. I'll be honest, it's mostly the last one.

Note: I'm regularly checking for and answering responses for all previous news posts. the one about the JVN trib, however, is woefully out of date and the information will probably not be updated for a while.

I've made a big mistake by thinking while i was working on the JVN trib. now instead of one impossible project I have several impossible projects and one that I might actually be able to do.

JVN trib: (see my last news post for older details) this was a tribute to Jedi vs Ninja, a really cool movie that could be reworked into something that uses my ability to go way overboard explining things that are really not worth caring about, like certain issues that people had with the way some of the attacks used in the original (i even have a way to explain the giant energy blasts from both the jedi and the ninja), and my ability to plan out really good (my opinion) naruto-styled combat. I'd made some really crappy looking characters that I was going to use, but then i decided to completely rip off xionico's style and save myself the trouble of being too original. at this point (in addition to what I mentioned in the previous news post) i've made the designs for the xionic demon versions of the characters. i think i should make them look less shitty before posting pictures of them. other than that, nothing major to report.

EDIT: geco-deco (aka gex) is animating JVN for me ^_^ he's been working o it for a while and so far it looks pretty good. check it out!

unnamed EBWS animation: Dammit! I had the details all in one spot on EBWS.com, but the site went belly up. I'll still work on it in my free time. the idea is that pico and a few more beloved NG characters break into the lair of ebaum, an evil little asshole who has been stealing content from creators and using them to make heaps and gobs of cash off of ads. of course, i'll try to keep it interesting by using lots of violence to portray the issues involved. Help the lost cause (when I say lost cause, i mean nobody cares anymore, and is thus lost temporarily. so start caring goddammit!). unfortunately, almost nobody (even on EBWS) ever actually helped that much with anything. it's really kinda pathetic if you think about it.

EDIT: this animation was a little more than I could handle in terms of making a story for it. it's still being worked on little by little, but it's on the back burner for now.

Clash of the Cursors: inspired by mouse war, mine will essentially be animator vs animation, but with animators fighting each other for control of the desktop. the main differences are that it will take place in adobe illustrator CS2 and that there might be some very... different tool combinations. we'll see what I can come up with. unfortunatley, although this is the most likely one for me to actually do, my other stuff comes first priority-wise. I'm kinda sorta starting it up, but it could take awhile.

here are some ideas that I've had that have been growing to epic proportions in the confines of my mind and I figure I should at least mention a couple

unnamed super hero thing: so, I had a few characters left over from the Super Hero RPG that managed to survive the forums for 46 pages of real RP stuff(the thread, not the characters). my characters were, in my incredibly biased opinion, pretty damn good and had excellent back stories. I'm not going to list everything because I'm lazy, but I'll put in the new profiles for the original 2 characters. I'll be adding more later. a couple of characters are already done (and snipe and Jem n' I have been updated too), but I think i'll release them en masse.

Name: Snipe
Age: 15
Gender: M
Species:

Alignment: good
Powers: he can throw anything with unnatural accuracy and at any speed he chooses (up to a point, of course)
Strengths: fairly intelligent (no matter how much of a moron he sounds like), good at talking his way out of a bad situation.
Weaknesses: he's a coward, to an extent. Can be easily manipulated depending on the method. scrawny. Good at talking his way into a bad situation.
Appearance:
Hair: brown, might have a little blond showing depending on the season
Eyes: dark blue
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 98 lbs
Clothes: usually T-shirt and jeans (I don't see why superheroes need anything fancy anyway)
Personality: kind of a smart-ass, only intended to be banter and stops as soon as he feels he's really, really getting someone angry. he likes to think that he's funny, but everyone, including him, knows he's not. he also likes to think he's clever, which he usually is. when he isn't, he's trying to be. if he screws up, that's when he's funny.
History: not much to tell. He's some kid who, for no apparent reason, has super powers. I know, it's lame. I like it because it leaves room for mystery (I know exactly why he has them and how they work, still a mystery to you though).

Names: Jem & Dill (sort of, they switch)
Ages: 17
Genders: M
Species: mutated human

Alignments: good enough
Powers: effectively share a mind, though the two are capable of operating separately. as a result of the strong psychic energy between the two, they can manipulate it into a mild form of telekinesis and even more mild telepathy. have the strength of two men (sorry, had to put it in)
Strengths: telekinesis/telepathy is strongest (actually the only time it's combat-effective) when the enemy is standing in-between them. they can even exert a VERY slight influence on someone if they are sitting closely on either side.
Weaknesses: what idiot would let himself be surrounded like that? anything breaking psychic link would seriously disorient them
Appearances: one has black hair and green eyes, the other has brown hair and blue eyes. They have a psychosomatic disorder that that causes them to look identical when the psychic link between them is made stronger (this is because their minds sort of fuse into one central mind and their bodies can't tell who is who. This causes the pigments to sort of mix together and, after the bond weakens, separate back into one of the two twins), sometimes even switch appearances.
Personalities: they have a tendency to do things that are a little... illegal. They do not, however, do so unless there is an emergency. For instance, they may really need something... or really want something... or just feel bored...

Warcraft Tribute: canceled. it seemed like a good idea when I first thought of it, but as time went on I realized that I've pretty much got nothing.

and finally, a plea to all decent animators:

I suck at this. i'm not an animation guy, i'm an idea guy. I can write up a storyline and map out every scene, but if anyone is willing to do the animation for me it would be so much faster and easier. i understand that it's a lot to ask and that it's unbelievably pathetic, but in my defense, I REALLY suck.

I'm making a tribute to the Jedi vs. Ninja animation (I don't know why I expect anyone to read this, but I'm updating this anyway :\ ). I was diving right into the animation, then I realized that I didn't know anything about wat I was doing. I decided to draw up a storyboard, using a program that I am semi-competent in, instead.

apparently I'd severely misjudged the amount of spare time I had as well as the length of my attention span, now i'm working on the storyboard.

yay! Microsoft word is working again! now I don't need to storyboard in textedit. UPDATE (yet again): I finished the typed storyboard :D. now all i have to do is draw the thing and animate it and... crap, this is never gonna get done.

new pics of the main combatants (I'm actually putting in the fight from the first JVN for story-driven purposes, plus I'm not feeling that original today). I'm considering a MAJOR change, see below

more picture updates: YAY!!! I got a HUGE burst of inspiration ad found a shortcut that will make things faster: pseudo 3D effects. it'll be a little lower quality as far as the image goes, but hey, i'm lazy.

update: pseudo 3D sucks. at least the way I'm doing it. I've got another idea that i'm posting in the forums somtime in the near future.

yes you heard me, there's a story to this. you just know that'll be f***ed up.

EDIT: production is scheduled to start on Monday! huge thanks to geco-deco for animating for me.

this post was for a thread I was trying to breathe life back into, but I'll bump it later when there is something to report. there shouldn't be a whole news post for a 7 page thread anyway.

this post is now for my favorite authors, they are (mostly) not given the attention that they deserve.

Paranoia: I like this guy. his ideas are good (especially mad vlad) and he is able to make a really good game without complicated aspects that completely lose some people *cough*komix*cough*

Xionico and ActiveobjectX: YAY! violence! awesome stylization for both, and I kind of have to list them because I'm stealing their ideas for the JVN trib.

Komix: master of combining physics engines and the "OMFG are you kidding me?" style of game. it's amazing how many people hate his games because they suck at 'em ;D

Granfaloon: this guy makes some of the best serious/dramatic movies on NG, though he's better known for his comedy (which really isn't that great).

Wogoat: anyone can point out flaws in the workings of the marvel universe or use irony/shock comedy, but Wogoat makes WAY it funnier than most of the s*** in it's category.

Terkoiz: how the f*** did Xiao Xiao get more popular than this guy?!

if you have questions for me in general, post here.

other stuff...

I post on the diverge bbs regularly. unfortunately, LOZ online vanished and EBWS... well let's just say that I have some theories as to how that one bit the dust...