So, I made something with the camera and lighting equipment I picked up last summer, I have more projects lined up it's just a matter of balancing that with digital work and normal work lol.

The Grave of The Fireflies Challenge:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=912vj9iwVjc

I also started painting warhammer 40k minis again so check out my social media pages if you want to see updates on that along with my other art. I'm trying to be more active on social media in general so please check me out.

https://www.instagram.com/jameschino/

https://twitter.com/DarkMatterNG

The final animation, color, cleanup, and edit are done.

The only thing that is not conclusive is whether or not I can use this really awesome NERO song for my credits. I almost went ahead and filmed an intro of myself considering how much time was spent on this, but instead, decided a clip from a film would convey the message of said intro better than I ever could. Sure it's copyrighted, but I couldn't resist adding it, I'm willing to deal with any copyright claims and remove it in the future if it comes to that but anything short of a cease and desist isn't going to make that happen.

Considering Newgrounds owes it's popularity to submissions that violated copyright claims over the years, I will feel extremely betrayed if it gets removed from here (even though I doubt it'll get that much attention) as a result.

I'll be dropping it in about a week, after I give NERO some time to respond and after facebook unbans me, so I can post across all platforms at once.

I went ahead and asked for their permission on Twitter (because lets face it the chances of them seeing and even responding there is the best), hopefully the calling them goddess and gods and thanking them for the amazing music helps them say yes.

I've added shading and cleaned up the last few scenes, now is the time to give everything a last once over and look for quick ways to improve without delaying production any longer!

It's pretty much on to the compiling stage, sound design and final editing stages.

I'm so excited.

In other news I'm also in the boarding stage of another project, and the writing stage of hilarious short I'm going to straight ahead animate and not bother boarding.

Been Cleaning up, adding shading to the last few scenes, and compiling it all into one project, lot of work.

Also, been working on a personal brand that I plan to launch my content under as well as sell t shirts!

Been learning how to use elements of Bootstrap 4 with basic HTML and CSS skills that I already know in order to create a responsive bootstrap website for the brand kind of like NewGrounds here just super simple with just some sliders with featured content and such.

Also have a couple future projects in the works, still in the planning stages but one of them is lined up for story boarding which is the first but arguably the most important stage of creating a motion film.

Also been working with an ex-NewGrounder to come up and create some T-Shirt designs specific for her target audience, hopefully we'll get the ball rolling for her business as well within the next few months.

I've colored 19 out of 20 animated scenes, finally getting closer to finishing.

A lot of the animation is dated but I've decided to just finish this with minor touch ups and edits so that I can finally move on, people can judge this for what they see, but ultimately this work will not define who I am but who I was and where I can go.

God I could go for a drink and a smoke, I CAN FEEL THE END!

I've always wanted the capability to shoot videos, so I spent a couple hundred on a basic DSLR camera that can also shoot 1080 video with autofocus if I need it, which is cool for an amateur photographer.

I'm back to coloring my animated short and am looking into sound recording equipment so I can do it right.

Trying to trickle down some content so that my page isn't some barren wasteland.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and browse my profile.

I was on track to start submitting some more content by the end of last year, but circumstances with life took an unexpected turn and I had to shutdown and move my workstation to a dusty corner until I eventually moved into my current apartment which was merely a month and a half ago, since then I've been able to slowly start picking up steam and hopefully I can start putting some stuff out so I can start working on some new projects and really mature as an illustrator and animator.

I'm anxious because the work I'm putting out and the work I'm striving to complete is merely a reflection of my struggle and past self, and I yearn to show people what I'm really capable of and maybe inspire others.

For those of you who took the time to read this, thank you.

Almost done with 12 scenes out of 20.

Some are admitedly shorter than others but I'm about 50% done right now.

'I'm starting to pick up the pace and devote more time to the project.

I realize it's mostly me who cares about this and in the end it will probably be that way but I'm doing this for me more than anyone, developing a fan base and creating something magical is always the goal but this might not be quite magical enough to captivate millions of people.

I know that this won't make me a famous animator or storyteller but it will give me the practice and experience to take that next step, and hopefully soon I'll have taken enough steps to be considered a profesional.

Almost a quarter of the way done with coloring this cartoon that I've been working on for what feels like forever, I can sense the end drawing near, and it excites me to know that I'll be more free to make humorous animations again, while pursueing other possible ventures.

When it's all said and done and I submit it, I wonder if I'll even leave a authors comment, or just say "enjoy" with no explanation to the dated animations or mediocre shot concepts.  Either way, I'll be glad to have it done.