First things, first, new cartoon in the portal!

Jim Day 08

Jim Day is the celebration of my main character, "Jim's" birthday. This year he turned three years old, so I made a neat little cartoon, it's about 1 minute and 10 seconds excluding the credits, and hopefully you'll get a chuckle out of it. Big thanks to rabidsquirl for getting his lines in so promptly.

In other news, I head off to San Diego in 3 days or so, I'm pretty excited, and hopefully I'll be able to meet all of the fellow NG artists that are going. I took a look at the list of events going on, and I filled up my whole schedule in about 20 minutes, I doubt I'll get to see everything I want to see, but you never know!

Also, by request of EvilEgg I'll be writing up a little convention report when I get back. If you care to hear about my experiences, check out my profile on July 29th.

See ya some other time NG!

~Jimtopia

EDIT (7/21/08): I'm going to be flying all day tomorrow, so I probably wont be able to check my NG account.

In 2006, when I first heard about Newgrounds from a good friend of mine, I took a look around the site and I thought: "This is something I'd like to be apart of." This was only a few months after I'd learned how to animate, and I was fairly worried when I submitted my first cartoon, Stuck in the Desert. At the time I was pretty proud of this cartoon, it was the first one I made that actually used backgrounds, all my others were just the characters floating in white nothingness, kind of like Brawl Taunts.

Surprisingly the first thing I ever submitted passed, and needless to say, I was elated and inspired. All the nice reviews made me want to submit more of my work, and work harder on my new animations, which I did. It was nice to have constructive criticism and praise for my work (something I never got when I made cartoons solely for my family's entertainment).

One thing I always sort of prided myself in though was the use of my own original characters, simple though they may be. The star of this original cast of characters being "Jim." A 9-shaped human-like chibi sort of figure. Now, ever since some of my earliest cartoons, I've had people tell me that they "like Jim, but think he could use an update graphically." Now, way back when I made my first few submissions, I honestly couldn't animate a more advanced character without it either looking choppy, or getting to confusing to keep track of all the layers; now I don't update him just because I like the simplicity of him, which is hard for some people to understand.

To this day, I still get people sending me messages and a few reviews telling me I need to update Jim, and to each one I say no and tell them what I just told you here. He is not meant to be an advanced looking character with tons of detail, he's supposed to be simple and silly. Although I did cave in and get him a voice actor, I have still kept him mouthless. This is for two reasons. Reason one being that in Koolmoves (the program in which I animate) timing up mouths is a much harder process than in flash. Reason two being that it seems like (with him being such a simple character) the constant movement of a mouth would detract from the slight body language, and eye movement he uses to convey emotion.

Now let me just clear up something quickly. I can draw and animate a lot better than I could when Jim was made! Some people seem to think that chibi style simple characters are the peak of my drawing ability, which is a fairly understandable assumption I suppose considering somewhere around 80% of my cartoons involve Jim and crew, but just for the record, I can in fact draw a lot better than that now. I have yet to release any of my "well-drawn" cartoons to NG because, to be perfectly honest, none of them are done. I always start them off with a lot of gusto, but start to lose steam at about the 2 minute mark. I do intend to finish them at some point, but for now they're kind of on the backburner while I work on Jim's Time Cartoon Part 1.

I suppose the whole point of this is: If you see a Jim cartoon in the portal, please don't downvote it because the characters are simple or because they don't have mouths, that's how they're supposed to be! I'm perfectly fine with constructive criticism to help me make it funnier, and if you don't like the cartoons, that's okay, I am just sick of people telling me to update him or add a mouth when he isn't supposed to have one and doesn't need one. Also, please don't make fun of me for "not being able to draw well" because I can, I merely choose not to for those cartoons, and someday you guys will see my well-drawn cartoons and characters.

Thanks for Reading,
~Jimtopia

Heya guys,

I just wanted to say thanks to all the nice reviews/votes/feedback I got on Jim and Pals Shorts Episode 6! It's really nice when a cartoon is generally well received, and almost getting in the top 10 of the week was cool. As a little side note, if you like that, that's very similar to what my new cartoon is going to be like.

~Jimtopia

Okay so, this week I'm not doing a cartoon production update because that's boring. If you must know the cartoon is coming along fine, but that's the most "update-ey" that this news post is going to be.

What I really wanted to dedicate this news post too is that fact that I'm going to Comic-Con this year! Woooooo! I can't wait! I'm going to be going for the full 4 days, and I'm so excited to (hopefully) meet some of the other NG'ers that are going.

The one's I know are going so far are:
-RubberNinja
-Danomano65
-AlmightyHans

If you know any others that are going, please tell me.

That's all I really wanted to say this week. I'll leave you with a picture of how Jim feels about this whole thing.

~Jimtopia

Hey folks, it's me Jimtopia. I am officially done with high school as of today so woot! This was my last day of public schooling EVER. Now I'm off to Southeast Tech for the next 2 years. Anyway, that's obviously not why you clicked here, you clicked here because you're curious about my new cartoon! Well you're in luck; first off, here's a quick percentage for you.

Jim's Time Cartoon:
Current Percentage- 5% (ooh ouch)

Yeah I know, 2 weeks after announcing it and only 5% done! Well I do have an excuse! It took awhile to get all the lines in, but once I did I got movin' on it. Okay enough babbling, click HERE to see the first 45 seconds of the cartoon (AKA the intro). I really wish I could show you more, but that would spoil the awesome-ness of watching it all for the first time.

Animating felt good after the 1 month break, I hope I didn't lose a little bit of skill in being on a hiatus for so long.

~Jimtopia

It feels good to be back at the wheel. Well I must say that was one hell of a break. I haven't touched flash in a little over a month, which may not seem like much, but for someone who is obsessed with animating, it's difficult. Anyway, I think I've gotten my life more in order now. I am getting a job at this place called V.O.R.P. (Victim-Offender Reconciliation Program) I'll be keeping there website up to date, and potentially be designing them a new site altogether. We haven't quite worked out pay but it will probably be anywhere from 10-13$ an hour. Taking a break was a great idea, and I finally have a little bit of financial security in my life.

PART 1: SPRINGVILLE (CLOVERFIELD PARODY)

One thing I was working on these past 2 months was this movie for a local film festival. It's a parody of the movie Cloverfield, which, if you saw it, is a very easy movie to parody. This was written mostly by Jacob Plette, one of my friends. We all brainstormed ideas, but he was the one to get them down on paper in a coherent way. I must say it was a blast making an ass out of myself on camera, we may do this again this summer.

Here's Part 1:

Part 2:

...and Part 3:

Some of the jokes I'm sure you guys wont get, but it's fine, the movie wasn't made to be epic, it was just a fun experiment in me and my friends film making abilities.

PART 2: SHOT DOWN AGAIN (WEBCOMIC)

Next on the list of cool stuff I'm doing/starting, me and my friends are starting up a webcomic called Shot Down Again. It will have artwork by me, and writing by me. My friend David will be upkeeping the website, which will soon be located at: www.shotdownagain.com (obviously there's nothing there yet). If you want to get samples of my art, check out http://jimtopia.deviantart.com.

PART 3: JIM'S TIME CARTOON

Last but certainly not least, is my next cartoon. Jim's Time Cartoon! This is going to be a fairly long cartoon with voices! That should excite a few of you, a fair amount of people preferred it when Jim talked, and I must admit I kind of do too. This cartoon is going to be comin' at you guys in 2 parts. Part 1 will have the plot/character development, whereas part 2 is going to have more action scenes. The script for part 2 isn't entirely done, but It's coming along.

It feels good to start animating again, a 1 month break is really something that I needed. Expect to see some cool stuff coming soon to my site, and Newgrounds.

Thanks for Reading! ^_^

(Oh right, how could I forget your picture? Let's see what I've got here- Ah HA! Also here's a link to the higher quality version of it)

Very VERY Important; Please Read-

Okay, so I know that in my last news post, I probably sounded like an asshole, saying that my cartoons weren't up to snuff, and complaining that I didn't get an award or front page, and honestly, I feel like an ass about it. I questioned the judgment of the masses, I need to be able to trust them more. Sure I worked on it for 2 months, but hey, if it's not entertaining, it's not entertaining. The viewers know that better than anyone; and who am I to question them?

But that's not the point of this news post, the point is that I'm going to be taking a break from animation for awhile. I'm honestly not sure how long it will be, but I have a feeling that come summer, I'll have nothing else to do (excluding my job) but animate. So it's only for a couple months max. Don't forget about me though, I'm not giving up on it entirely, I just need to get my life in order right now. Hopefully the few people that do check my news page understand this.

I'm sure I'm going to go on Newgrounds still, I can't stay away from this place, but as of today (March 23rd, 2008) I am not going to submit anything until I get my life more in order.

Don't forget about me,
~Jimtopia

P.S. I am going to try to update my LiveJournal more. If you want to read about the aspects of my life, not related to animation, check that out, I should be updating more frequently.

ABOUT BRAWL (EDIT): I have added everyone who wanted to be added up to the first 15 comments.

So, for those of you who clicked here because you saw the word Brawl, my friend code is: 2320-5798-1378
Please leave a comment in this news post with your code if you intend to add me. Thanks.

Okay, so for those of you who like to actually read my cartoon production updates, here ya go. First let me start by saying that my newest cartoon, TV Rules the Nation, really needs some love. It didn't even get a daily award, which kind of pissed me off. I mean, when you work on something for 2 months and get 19 reviews and a little over 1200 views to show for it, you feel gypped. Whereas something like this which took me 3 days, gets daily 4th and almost the same number of reviews/votes, you can maybe understand why I'd be pissed. So please go rate/review TV Rules the Nation, I would really appreciate even just a little more feedback on that cartoon. And hey, if your friends like Daft Punk, show them the cartoon, I show my friends flash cartoons all the time.

Okay, so enough self advertising. Time to tell you about what's to come. Yes, it is a Jim cartoon, hopefully this doesn't anger/upset any of you; seeing as my last cartoon was such high quality, and I'm going back to a "Jim based cartoon." But let me just say this in my defense, I do not intend for it to be like this cartoon, or this one for that matter, I am going to treat this next Jim cartoon the same way I treated TV Rules the Nation. I'm actually going to use different camera angles, re-draw Jim multiple times (I'm sure), this cartoon is going to have voices! To put it simply, it's going to be epic, I'm going to make sure of it. So please, when I say that my next cartoon is a "Jim cartoon" don't think of it as one of my old ones where I used maybe 1 or 2 camera angles, think of it as something entirely new. After this one, I don't think you'll look at Jim the same way again.

Okay, so thanks for reading this far, and here's a screenshot for you all. But before you look at it, let me just say that this is still basically just concept art, and I am in no way done drawing this scene, I guess you could just call it filler; mainly I'm putting it here just so you guys have something to look at, lol.

~Jimtopia

Done done done, I'm freakin' done! Ah, it feels so good! Okay, so, like the title and first sentence of this news post says, I am done with TV Rules the Nation. The cartoon is a total of 2 minutes and 38 seconds long. So, unnecessary percentage:

TV Rules the Nation:
Approx. Percentage: 100%
Run Time: 2:38
Release Date: March 7th

I really hope that this cartoon does well in the portal, I worked my butt off on this thing and I don't want it to all be for naught. Well, enjoy your screenshot, and wish me luck tommorow.

~Jimtopia

P.S. I'll be submitting it right after school, so about 4:00 Central Time.

Hey hey everyone, it's been awhile, what's up? It's been about 3 weeks, so I figured, hey, why not update 1 day early? So here it is, your cartoon production update! Okay, let's get down to business, shall we?

First off, here's the percentage:

TV Rules the Nation:
Approximate Percentage: 75%
Current Runtime: 1 Minute and 30 Seconds

I'll just give you a quick synopses of how this cartoon is going. It can be described in 3 words: "Slowly but surely." I think I can finish by the end of February, and if not then, then for sure early March! I really hope to finish before March 13th, because that's when I'm getting Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and, well, to be honest, that's going to eat up a huge chunk of my time, let me tell ya. Anyway, seeing as I only have about 30 seconds left, I know how this whole thing is most likely going to look when it's done, and I think this has serious NG frontpage potential. I know that's not my jurisdiction, but this is definitely better than TU3, and TU3 got frontpage. Wish me luck.

In other news, I've been doing a little bit with my tablet, nothing terribly impressive mind you, but I've made a couple of these little comics if you want to check them out:

Comic 1: Posture
Comic 2: Flammable

**please note that is not the limits of my drawing capability those only took about 20 minutes to put together fully**

Also, if you didn't know, I have a Deviant Art account. So check that out sometime, I upload some stuff you don't see on NG there!

Okay, another big project that I've been working on lately, is me and my friends are entering a local film festival. We're making a parody of the movie Cloverfield. Now, this isn't going to be like the parodies of it on NG like Awesomefield or The REAL Cloverfield, this is going to be a full length (probably over a forty-five minutes) live action movie, featuring me and my friends. Written by Jacob Plette. I put together a trailer, if you want to see.

--Trailer--

What else, what else? I guess nothing except the weekly screenshot (located below)! Enjoy.

~Jimtopia