EDIT: There will be NO Cartoon Production Update until the 21st of December!

My Apologies, Jimtopia

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I have good news, and I have great news, and I have bad news. Which do you want to hear first? How about, good, bad, great?

Good:
Today (Dec. 12th) I completed Christmas In Jimtopia at approximately 9:54 PM. The total runtime is 87.8 seconds.

Bad:
The runtime is 87.8 seconds because of the credits and menu. The actual cartoon itself runs at about 1 minutes 7 seconds. Sowwy... :(

Great:
I'll be releasing the official, completed Christmas In Jimtopia cartoon tommorow at around 3:00 PM (Central Time). One day earlier than I thought it was going to be released!

Now that that's out of the way, I just want to say, I hope you like it, I hope it does well, and Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

~Jimtopia

Well, it seems I made a mistake. Rather than revoking my frontpage privileges, they moved it to once every two weeks instead of once a week. So there's some good news. Now, this doesn't mean I'm only going to post Cartoon Production Updates once every two weeks, I'm still going to post them once a week, but you'll have to come to my profile and check it to see it, and not rely on the frontpage. Anyway, let's get down to business, shall we?

Christmas in Jimtopia-
Approximate Percentage: 45%
Current Runtime: 42.1 Seconds
Estimated Release Date: Dec. 14th

Now, I have some good news, and some bad news about the cartoon; let me start from the beginning.

I began making this cartoon so that I could enter it in the 2007 Christmas contest. It was coming along smoothly, but every update Tom made I failed to see anything about the Christmas contest. So I did a bit of searching, and found a post Tom made in the Halloween 2007 contest thread stating it was canceled this year. Honestly, I was a bit pissed, but really there was nothing I could do; plus he created this site, if it wasn't for him I probably wouldn't be animating, so really, I was being kind of ungrateful. Okay, moving on, I decided, instead of entering the Christmas contest this year, I'd just make it my cartoon a regular old Jim cartoon (and hopefully get frontpage again). So I shortened the song length to about a minute and 30 seconds, which is now going to be the length of the cartoon, rather than the original estimate 2 minutes and 30 seconds. So there's some info about it; hopefully no one will be too devastated by this information.

In real life news, I believe that I am going to be getting a tablet this Christmas, which means I will finally be able to draw out my characters. This does not mean that I will be abandoning Jim, or his Pals in any way, it just means I'll be moving into other forms of animation potentially, which I am very excited about. Another neat thing is that I have been experimenting with Flash MX and Flash CS3 at school, and at home, and have begun to get a grasp of how to draw/animate stuff. I'm really getting the hang of it quickly (If you didn't know, I don't use Flash to animate my cartoons currently, I use KoolMoves). I really began to start wanting to use Flash MX and CS3 when I found out I got accepted into college (for animation) and that Flash is the software they use. Obviously I wanted to get my bearings in the program before doing anything, and I think I've begun doing some good preparation.

In closing, enjoy this screenshot for the week, and keep checking back for more once-a-week updates!

~Jimtopia

(It seems Jim's hat has been burnt)

Apparently someone out there didn't think I was frontpage worthy anymore, which stinks because I really relied on these posts to keep people updated on what I am up to, and to maybe catch the eye of someone who'd never heard of me; but alas there is nothing I can really do about it. I'm not even sure if I'm going to do these anymore, I barely ever get comments on them, but we'll see. Maybe you guys will read this and comment about it. Who knows?
</plea for attention>

Okay, so on to business. I haven't really done a whole lot of work this week, which sucks because I wanted too really bad. I was just insanely busy with school for the past 7 days, excluding Thanksgiving break of course. I had projects and books I had to read, and it basically all culminated today; so forgive me for the following, slightly depressing percentage.

Christmas in Jimtopia
Approximate Percentage: 25%
Current Runtime: 30.7 seconds
Estimated Release Date: Dec. 14th

As you can see, I have an estimated release date for you all to take in. I think I can manage doing 75% of the cartoon in two weeks... I did just about that with TU3, and this is a bit easier to animate than TU3 was. Okay, so your weekly screenshot is below. Oh, and FYI when I played the cartoon it took all the trees out of the background, I'm working on fixing it, so just live with this one for the next week or so.

~Jimtopia

Hey guys, sorry this update's a little late. So anyway, there's not a whole lot to say, I DID get significantly farther on Christmas in Jimtopia, and I think I can show you a screenshot this week. So anyway here's a percentage for Christmas in Jimtopia (since that's really all I've worked on in the last week).

Christmas in Jimtopia-
Approximate Percentage: 20%
Current Runtime: 24.2 seconds

Since all I'm currently working on is this cartoon, I figured I would give you guys the current length too. I'm expecting the cartoon to be about 2 minutes and 30 seconds long. Just something I'd like to mention about the screenshot (below); I know Jim's legs look a little weird, and I'm still working on that, so be patient. Actually that picture isn't a very good representation of that part at all, because I haven't added the backgrounds in yet.

Now as a kind of strange treat, I am going to show you a short 30 second animation I made for a friend of mine. See about once every year he is asked to do a video project for school, so then he usually comes right to me and asks me to animate it for him (at a price of course), and so I do. Now, just remember when you watch this that it's not a regular Jimtopia style cartoon, and I didn't really put any effort into it, it's just something I thought was kinda funny. Also, if you haven't read MacBeth, you wont know what's going on, so just keep that in mind. I wanted a way to show you guys the cartoon without having to submit it to NG (because I'm sure it would be blammed). So here it is:

Macbeth Kills Duncan

Just remember that that is not an accurate representation of my flash skills, it only took me a few hours to make.

~Jimtopia

Okay, with JtMT out of the way, I can now focus on my X-mas 2007 submission, now, originally it was going to be Newgrounds in December 2, but I slowly lost interest in that project, so I'm making an entirely different cartoon called Christmas in Jimtopia (I'm so great at naming things, lol). If time permits I'll finish Newgrounds in December 2, but we'll just have to wait and see how long Christmas in Jimtopia takes.

Another project I am going to be taking part in is the NG New Years Collab 08. It's going to be kind of like the sketchbook tour, only with little New Years themed cartoons, if you're interested, you can still join.

Okay, now onto the mandatory percentages for my cartoons, although the Christmas in Jimtopia one might be kind of inaccurate, seeing as I'm not sure how long it'll end up being.

Christmas in Jimtopia:
Approximate Percentage- 10%

Newgrounds in December:
Approximate Percentage- 4%

Below is a screenshot to show you how Christmas in Jimtopia looks so far. I wish I could show you the flash itself, my animation has become so much smoother, and it really shows in this cartoon. Anyway, here's your screenshot.

-Jimtopia

Non-related Note: I just found out that I got accepted into Southeast Tech! None of you know where or what that is, but still, it's pretty cool, I'm going to be going to college for animation!

Okay so this week I have good news, I finished Jim: The Movie (Trailer)! So... quick unnecessary percentage.

Jim: The Movie (Trailer):
Approximate Percentage- 100%

Anyway, I'll be releasing it right after school tomorrow, so remember to keep a sharp eye out for it in the portal at around 4:00-4:30 on Nov. 9th. This cartoon will be the first one I make to feature voices for all but 1 of the characters in my series. I think you'll all enjoy it. I am not going to put a screen shot this week, just because you'll be able to see the whole thing tomorrow.

-Jimtopia

Happy Halloween Everyone! Here's your weekly (or thereabouts) production update! Okay, so I've been working fairly regularly on Jim: The Movie (Trailer), and it's coming along great! The audio is working very well with the assigned characters, and it should be done pretty soon. I'm just glad that It's going at the rate it is, so here's your percentage.

Jim: The Movie (Trailer)
Approximate Percentage: 45%

Okay, the other news is that I made Jimtopia DVD's. No one commented on what they thought about it, so I'm re-posting the questions I need answered. Now, you don't
have to answer the questions to comment here, but that'd be a plus! So here's those questions again:

1. What kind of DVD's would you like? (I.E. Jimtopia Classics, Tetris Unleashed, Jim and Pals Shorts?)

2. How much would you be willing to pay for a DVD? (Considering that there would be bonus features on each one)

3. How much content would the DVD itself have to have before you would consider buying it at your previously established price?

Thanks for reading, and here's a nice little pic I threw together in honor of halloween!

-Jimtopia

Okay, so last week was kind of a bad one because I revealed that I had to re-start on Jim- The Movie (Trailer), which shall hence-forth be known as JtMT. So anyway this week I have all good news, the first good news is that I got a good 20% done on it in the last week or so! It's really coming along well, and I think you guys are really going to enjoy it. So, like always, here's a percentage for ya'll.

Jim- The Movie (Trailer)
Approximate Percentage: 25%

The second good news is that I have made my first successful Jim DVD! I think that soon I'll be able to put Jimtopia DVD's into production and sell them on my website! So I have a few questions for my production update readers:

1. What kind of DVD's would you like? (I.E. Jimtopia Classics, Tetris Unleashed, Jim and Pals Shorts?)

2. How much would you be willing to pay for a DVD? (Considering that there would be bonus features on each one)

3. How much content would the DVD itself have to have before you would consider buying it at your previously established price?

Thanks in advance, and as a reward, here's a JtMT Screenshot!

-Jimtopia

Intro:
Sorry I haven't updated in awhile, mainly it's been because of the popularity that TU3 got, I have been responding to reviews constantly. Another reason was that I just plain took a break from animating for a few days. I put a lot of effort into TU3 in the last 2 weeks of it's production, and it really drained me, but now I'm getting back into the spirit of it.
Bad News:
This update is kind of a disappointment though, because of the news I must reveal. I am going to restart work on Jim the Movie Trailer. I know I had about 30% done, but looking back at it, it is very shoddy and badly animated, and just needs to be entirely re-worked. I'll keep posting pics of it, once I officially start work on it again. Don't worry, I'm not canceling the project entirely or anything, I intend to finish, I just have to rethink it...
Good News:
Some good news is that I'm getting somewhere on Newgrounds in December 2 (info on this toon located here). I got a good menu down, and I redrew the main character from the previous one. He definitely has a lot more personality now, and I think that Newgrounds in December 2 will be a smashing success! (Screenshot Below)

Keep on checking my profile for updates usually once or so every two weeks.

(FYI I don't intend to keep the menu so bland, I am going to fix it up and refine it over time)

Throughout all of yesterday I was pretty dissapointed with how well TU3 was doing, in the sense that barely anyone was watching it, it got like 100 views in 3 hours, then came midnight, I got on NG to check if TU3 had anymore reviews and when I went to it, it said I won daily 5th! So all-the-sudden I was overcome with joy, this is why I like NG, even if you aren't the winner, you can still win something! :)