Hey y'all,

if you read my previous post, you know that i've been working on an animation editor, SLUG. well, i'm excited to announce that SLUG v1 is live, free, and available on all major operating systems.

i weighed the thought of charging for the app, but i don't think that's the right move when so many artists are struggling to stay afloat. if my app can save people a few bucks a month, or at least not cost them any more, then i'm happy to keep it free for artists. long term, i may look into developing a split between the base app and the more business-oriented features like SSO, scripting, export pipelines, and cloud based tooling. keeping the base app free-for-indie seems like the best place to be.

what is SLUG though? it's vector animation, but with raster styles. 

for years i've been experimenting with what i'd want out of an animation software. most of my past short films were done in photoshop, just because i want those chunky gross lines, but photoshop's animation doesn't scale out past short experiements. there's flash, which i've been working with since i was around 12 years old, but it has no capabilities for raster tooling. there's toonboom harmony, but that's incredibly expensive and overly complex for what i would want to do. blender's grease pencil is promising, but the 3d aspects make it complex to do things that are simple in other programs. finally, there's tvpaint, but working all the way in raster throws out the benefits of vector processes and requires a much tighter plan of action as mistakes become costly to correct.

SLUG sits at the intersection of these tools. flash's vectors, blender's effects stack, photoshop and tvpaint's texturing. SLUG has all your vector needs: symbols, tweens, layers, keyframes, swfs. then, on top of that i've built in an effects pipeline that allows you to produce raster works. take this vector drawing:

apply a few effects and you get something like:

these effects are non-destructive, meaning you can change them on the fly, edit them per scene, or scrap them entirely and still be left with your original animation.

you can also do things like bring in 3D assets as reference:

and then turn those into 2D shaded renders:

SLUG exports image sequences, videos, gifs, and even swfs thanks to ruffle. it's worth noting that SLUG does not support multiple scenes as of right now. if you want to create a long movie all within SLUG, you'd need to create one main timeline with multiple symbols sequenced one after another. SLUG is primarily inteded for a compositing & editorial pipeline where SLUG is not the final program to touch your animation.

for imports, SLUG supports images, videos, 3d, and natively opens fla files. it does not, and i do not plan to, support actionscript. i believe there are a few other projects out there at the moment that are already implementing or have implemented actionscript, and i would prefer to stay in my wheelhouse and focus on what i know: wonky animation.

i guess all that is to say there's a lot you can already do in SLUG, but at the same time it's just getting started. i think now that v1 is out there i'm going to get to work on the initial documentation, which is definitely lacking at the moment. expect videos, images, and writeups in the coming weeks.

if you want to check SLUG out, the free download is available on slugstuff.com

love ya,

dylan

Hey y'all,

wanted to share a bit more about the animation program i've been working on, lovingly named SLUG. 

the SLUG interface.

if you read my last post, you might have seen that i put together a tool for getting those chunky, gross lines in my recent upload, your face is average.

but how do we make the jump from vector data to raster wonkiness?

you start with some basic animation.

the above was animated in SLUG. it's got frames, it's got tweens, it's got symbols. not too much more you could ask for from a vector program. SLUG also opens most flash files for general compatibility, though i don't plan to support every flash feature.

the secret sauce in slug is that you can apply visual effects to your animation, like after effects.

here's a sketch pass effect applied to the above animation to make the lines feel a bit more broken up and less mechanical:

but the fills are still too solid. let's add on a boil effect as well for that old school wobbly style:

since we're still within SLUG's vector-space here, we can actually affect all the shapes independently, versus an after effects pass where you'd need to either work on the thing as flat animation or do like 30 separate exports. for this one it turned an hour long fx pass into sbout 2 minutes of work.

finally you might want to give it a gross, grimy texture:

man, that's some kind of slugly-ugly.

the best part though, is that all of this exports out into standard swf, which allows for additional composite work in after effects as needed.

as a pipeline technical director, i've done deep dives into pretty much every animation tool in existence over the years, but none of them have really hit the sweet spot of balancing efficient workflows against highly stylized output. i love flash for its data structures, blender for its customizability, photoshop for its raw drawing capabilities. it's just that none of them make it easy to make the kinds of things i want to make. so i made SLUG.

it's also got a heavy backend focus on scripting, plugin development, and a general focus on pipeline scalability. somehow making plugins has become something i enjoy doing, gross i know, but you gotta have hobbies. possibly a discussion for a future blog post.

SLUG is cross platform for mac, windows, and linux. i even got some heavy effects passes playing solidly on a 12 year old laptop running arch the other day, so i don't anticipate anyone needing a beefy, modern machine to make use of this tool. more testing is certainly needed in that space though, as my intention is for this to be a tool for people in all spec-brackets.

i don't know exactly when i'll release it to the public. it's close, but not there yet. when i do it'll be a free download for independent artists. i've got a few testers at the moment trying it out on styles that aren't as grungy as my own to find bugs and areas of improvement. i'd like to get it in y'all's hands soon though.

love ya,

dylan

Hey y'all and all,

sure been a decade, hasn't it? 

i was recently nudged by the wonderful gianni into getting back onto newgrounds, and after prodding tom to reset my login info, here i am.

i think i left things off last time with having finished runner up in nata and was working on some adult swim bumpers. well, things lead to other things, and the thing is i ended up moving from animator to director to technical director and finally landed as the pipeline technical director at titmouse. and honestly, what does that string of words even mean? 

sometimes it means databases, sometimes it means scripting, sometimes it means application or plugin development. i got roped into all this via a vr project back in like 2017, show it 2 me, which i co-directed. we didn't really know that there would be an in-depth technical aspect to the project when we took on the work, and i drew the short straw on being the team member that would need to learn how to code. the project has racked up some 50M views over the decade, which is a bit insane given how little i knew at the time.

during that vr project, i found that coding really scratched the same mental itch as animation. i ended up taking a job on an adult swim show, tigtone, and got heavily into after effects script & expression work for building rigs in the show's insane visual style.

during that time, i also got pulled into a side gig of developing some tools for the netflix show midnight gospel, making scripts that let the composite team create the hand-drawn line effects you see in the show. this tool has become a key composite component of a lot of our flash shows over the last half decade.

time passed, and then right before the pandemic hit i began work on a personal project: a custom animation software package to streamline making animation in my scratchy style. i made a vector animation program that used a pretty rudimentary system to create raster, scratchy, photoshop-ish lines. for the time, i still think it was pretty cool. from that program came my short film "your face is average" which i showed at titmouse's 5 second day screening approximately two weeks before the world grinded down. it's now on newgrounds as well. all of the wobbly, wonky lines were done via my animation tooling.

then the pandemic. i spent a lot of time getting into coding. i learned how to make websites, gameboy advance games, and even spent a bit more time on my animation program. i was pretty terrible at making user interfaces back then, so the work was p atrocious. during and since that time, i've worked across many titmouse productions, developing tools, automations, and other odds & ends to, in small part, help the artists do the wild and amazing things they do.

last fall, i released a plugin/tool for flash that creates chunky, nasty lines with minimal smoothing, SLUGLINE. since then i've gotten back into working on my custom animation package, so i haven't had time to further develop the flash based tooling. SLUGLINE is only available on mac at the moment, and it's more an experimental prototype than anything else. i wouldn't yet rely on it as a primary tool for animation, but if you wanna play around with it, it's available for free with no plans to change that.

decades are long, but they tend to have a great compression ratio in hindsight. also i just got - literally while writing this post - one of those auto-generated "remember when" photo albums on my phone from a decade ago. it had photos i took on my 2016 trip to the newgrounds hq for pico day, apparently that was 10 years ago almost to the day. yes, things often lead to other things, but the thing is that those things often lead back to where you were and when you were. 

happy to see y'all again.

all my loves,

dylan

hey gs and gs,

got some news i've been wanting to share with y'all since september! check it out here:

back during the third round of nata i was contacted by titmouse, the studio i interned with last spring. they were commissioned by adult swim to make like ten bumpers, and they wanted me to direct one. a nice chunk of my time during the final round against @thesilleguy was divided to do concept, pitch, and rough animation for this so that i wouldn't disapoint my friends in los angeles. it definitely felt weird to have a project going on that i couldn't share anything about publicly. in the end, i had what you see above, and i've been waiting to share it for like four months now.

and speaking of nata, 'your art is shit' got a staff pick on vimeo!

it's been a busy couple weeks dealing with press, licensing, and other junk for it, and it feels like it's already been a solid boost to my career. if anyone out there is interested, i'd be happy to do a writeup on the promotional work i did for this piece that ended up having a big hand in getting the staff pick. it's information that i think would be beneficial to indie creators on all these sites, because i really don't feel like many of you are doing a decent job at self promotion.

all my loves,
dylan

hey gys and gls,

happy new year! you remember that last video i made for nata a few months back? well i took some time over the holiday to polish it up. you can check out the new version here:

it's got remixed vocal track and a new visual segment towards the end. i took out the stuff with my old characters, since i think only my newgrounds followers would get most of those references. i feel it makes it a bit more applicable to the public in general, but at the same time it seems to remove the 'me' part from the video, like i'm less emotionally invested. not fully sure which version i like more in that regard. i do really dig the new oversaturated vocal track, though.

i'm getting more and more into versioning my videos. i've come to believe that the video should fit the venue it's being played in, if that makes sense. like each new place you see the video should be a whole new experience, not just a repeat of what you've already seen. something that takes advantage of where and how you're watching the piece.

a monthish ago, deppressing stories was played in a local abstract-film showcase, and i took the time to completely redo a couple of the segments for the screening. i really like the idea that there's 50-100 people out there that have a totally unique experience with that film, one that you and i will never quite get. i think from now on i'm going to plan alternate sequences in all of my shorts to really take advantage of the possibilities of versioning. 

speaking of plans, i think i'm also going to be trying a new way of making short films in 2016. i'm planning on doing 10-15 second segments that are optimized for instagram. once i've got a minute or two of footage, it'll be compiled for newgrounds viewing as well. i'm really liking the idea of self-contained vignettes that combine to form a larger theme, kind of like power rangers. we'll see how that goes. 

anyways, happy new years!

all my loves,
dylan

hey all and the rest,

time to announce the three judge picks of the sarcastic animation jam!

• 1st place - @railtoons, nothing gold can stay 
• ​2nd place - @linktcone, fishy business 
• 3rd place - @eggnogtripod, eaters of dog food  

linktcone already has supporter status for the year and has chosen to pass it along to the next runner-up, congrats @megadrivesonic with window fish!

all three will recieve a pair of hikarian's handmade drawing-gloves, along with honorary supporter status! in addition to that, railtoons, our audience choice winner, will recieve 50 bucks!

you can check out the rest of the collection here.

this was a lot of fun to organize, hoping we'll get to do something like this again next year!

loves and gloves,
dylan

edit: official forum topic with rules and other junk

hey you and you too,

want to jam? well i got one for you. the sarcastic animation jam, happening as of now. animators, you have from now until 11:59:59 est on sunday to make a kickass animation using at least two out of these three elements:

prop: a fish bowl
location: a place with a broken window
line of dialogue: “she’s not my _____”

these are simply meant to make sure the piece was made in the timeframe and do not need to be the focus of the piece.

those are the basics. get going!

all my sarcasm,
dylan

hey anjmators and animatjrs,

announcing the first sarcastic animation jam, the sarcastic 2/3 jam!

next weekend, friday the 20th through sunday the 22nd, it’s animation jamjam time: you, a computer, some drinks, good times, and a cartoon. also there’s prizes.

next friday evening, 5pm est, i’ll post three things. they could be anything from a line of dialogue, to a prop, to a location, to whatever. you’ll pick 2 out of the 3 and make a movie that utilizes them. as an example, i might post:

- “you know what they say”
- a cardboard box
- the pacific ocean

then you take two of those and make a (hopefully) damn fine movie. only one animator per entry, but feel free to bring on voice actors, musicians, background artists, whatever else you might need to make your thing cool. judges include a smattering of previous nata winners. it’s gonna be way fun.

prizes! yeah, there’s gonna be prizes. I’ll give y’all the official prize announcement with the theme next friday, but it’s looking like cash, status, and a few kickass drawing gloves from hikarian's store (been using one of these myself for the past year, awesome as all getout)! 

remember: 5pm est next friday. be ready for making some stuff. 

for voice actors, musicians, etc: if you want to contribute your talents to the jam, let me know below and i'll be sure to include you (and a link to your demo) in the official announcement next friday!

funstufffunstuff,
dylan

hey gjys and gjrls! 

so it’s been a fun few months of nata for me, and now it’s all done. my final submission, 'your art is shit,' is now online. i thought it’d be nice to do a quick retrospective on my experience on year 3 of entering, so i queued up all my videos and barfed out some thoughts on them, along with thoughts on where i’m at with animation in general.

if you don’t want to read all this self-centered junk, just know that there’s a big announcement coming your way in the next few days once a few details are finalized! it’s loosely related to the sarcastic collabs, and you’re going to love it.

‘loves me, loves me not’ - my open round entry for the theme ’ten facts.’ i really like this one. it was a great warm up to just do something totally abstract and strange. basically, there had been this girl that i was chatting up, and i started to get to that stage where you’re just wondering ‘does this person feel the same way i do?’ nothing came of it in the end, and i just felt that i had missed out on a lot while i was just sitting there, uselessly twiddling my thumbs.

‘white noise machine’ - my novice round entry for the theme ‘surving ___.’ there was this girl i was seeing for a minute, but we pretty quickly realized that we were more into each other platonically than we were romantically. the breakup was mutual, but she made a sarcastic comment about how she’d have trouble sleeping without my white noise machine. i thought it was a really nice image, the way you feel when someone leaves you manifested through all these small, once-insignificant objects. 

‘we watched fireworks (on tv)’ - my pro round entry for the theme ‘a tragic misunderstanding.’ after all this junk about romantic relationships, i thought it’d be nice to move over to a familial relationship. this was a nearly entirely accurate representation of my childhood fourth of julys. i was afraid of fireworks, so i spent my fourths bonding with my great grandmother, easily some of my best childhood memories. i thought it would be nice to cement those memories into an animation before i get old and forget all of them. and no, @tomfulp, i’m not deaf, ya goofball.

‘your art is shit’ - my final entry to nata 2015, for ‘against all odds.’ after covering most of the other types of relationships in my life, i thought i’d cover my relationship with art. i had originally (a month or two ago) written up this big blog-post about what i labeled ‘artistic dysmorphia,’ this thing where people constantly down-talk their own work, whether it’s because they’re humble, modest, insecure, or whatever. i haven’t posted that yet, and maybe i don’t really need to anymore, but the short revolves around those ideas; how it’s not helpful to compare your own art to others, how hard it can be to ‘make it’ as an artist, how sometimes you have to accept that your work just might be shit, and that it’s okay to make shit. if your art is shit, so is mine - so is his - so is hers. it’s all just art in the end. 

if you’ve followed my work for a while you’ll notice a few of my previous characters and styles appearing in the short, it was neat to see how my techniques have changed. speaking of style, working on this one was a blast. i did a lot of (semi) blind contours for this piece, drawing things without looking at the screen. made for some beautifully weird lineart. i love it.

when i started nata this year, i knew that i wanted to stick to one theme throughout the whole thing to make my pieces have a cohesive feel to them. i chose to keep everything centered on love. i think it worked out well. 

i also need to give shoutouts to @thegoatee, @codeblackhayate, and @sirundead. these guys all came through for me each time i asked over the tournament. i always asked them for help on literally the final day of each round, and they all came through with some fucking awesome work. you cats are the best!

anyhoo, that was my nata. i had a blast. if you haven’t, go check out thesilleguy's entries too, he’s been fucking on point this whole tournament. 

all my <3s,
dylan

hey kits and kats,

i'm gonna be selfish for a sec and self indulge in making something for me. here it is.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/662572

fireworks by beyoncé, checkers by gladys mahar.

happy mother's day,
dylan