What did I miss?

Here's a shady shark with a carrot in a cove! Courtesy of the great @TheShokBlok.

Have a grand summer y'all! I'll see you in a bit.

It's out! The third and final; the big one. The FNF entry of FNF entries as far as FNF entries I've somewhat participated in now go.

Animator/director/project organizer extraordinaire @recme's been working pretty much non-stop on this the past week and then some, and what a blast it's been to play a part in. You can catch my voice alongside the likes of NG icons like @VoicesByCorey with the contagious enthusiasm and the always professional maybe most known NG VA @Piper! Plus up-and-coming ditto @AdubsVA, with @tapioca-witch and @RokusWing on backgrounds/cleaning.

Don't miss the details! Here's the link:

And if you missed my earlier participations for some reason:

Funk away y'all. All night all dayfall.

There's a grand new brand new animatic up on the grounds of which I played a vocal part in! My second FNF jam entry by role of collaboration, with thus far minor contribution, more specifically on the vocal lines and bits (like grunts and hits) you'll hear here and there by inclusion.

The storyline and animation portion's by talented-but-short-on-time-this-time @Mabelma! It's not all crisp and colored and all, but it's as done as it's going to get for the jam, so hopefully y'all enjoy it with storyboard focus. ;) You can read his post about this here.

Hopefully there'll be a full-on fluent and flawless animation to come down the line, and more, and I should be partaking in one final funkin' entry coming out last minute tomorrow! More notes on that one then; enjoy!

First little FNF jam feature btw: Funkin's Finest, here.

Guess what just arrived in the mail over here!?

Stickers and pins the dopest things. Thank you @Mabelma! :) And Super Happy Belated Pixel Day Forever After The Raffle!!! Shall in some way add to the merriment of this fine holiday with these here stickables next time it comes around... maybe... actually I'd rather frame them and/or stash them away safely in a container that'll keep them pristine forever, as the collector I am, but feels like I oughta showcase 'em somehow somewhere, so if there is any suitable day for such stickering maybe it'd be then...

Though I did just do so above too. If naught else there you go!

In other news I joined a couple game jams last week, if you missed my stuff there:

Also go check out @KillerRATband's new album! Metal instrumental at its most grueling and moody. AKA finest. It's a soundtrack made for the game with the same name, so maybe you'll want to play that too. More info on his page, and you can buy it here.

Somewhat unrelated but very relevant D.Va Clock's also looking for material for her Late Night with D.Va Clock series, which is great, so do send her something!

And last but not least if you need a voice for anything, like this recent thing, feel free to hit me up! The smaller the role the better really. ;)

Good day y'all and thanks again for those stickers!

Want to join in on a random seven day game jam hosted by the highly spontaneous @ChibiWilli who just asked if I'd help spread the word about a jam if he'd decide to host one and then moments later hit me back with this link that holds all the details you'll need to get started on said game if you so choose to join?

The theme is lies, games that'll tell you one thing, but aren't actually telling the truth. First place wins 10 USD, and digital trophies await for all top three. :) The jam starts in an hour and a half and the deadline is February 27th 2021 at 12:08 AM! (EST? Maybe? Click link above for counter)

If you have a moment to spare this weekend and five days and feel like delving into the realm of falsehood and trickery maybe this is just the thing for you!

Never made a game before? It's never too late to start.

Could possibly enter your game into the Flash Forward jam at the same time if you happen to dabble with Flash too, if this is a non-exclusive thing? Direct potential ponderings as such regarding the jam here plz.

Good luck. And/or may the best jam win.

UPD: 27th now! Still time.

Last one didn't turn out that awesome, so this time with a little caution:

2021. Let's make it fun.

Hold up! Before I delve into a long-winded and long overdue recollection and ramble on the potential crops of labor this my second year of audial Inktober may have produced, let me first give you this:

It may not be all instrumental, it may not be all metal (maybe not at all metal?), but for me at least it is somewhat monumental! And maybe momentarily a little mental - but I meant all that I sent y'all.

INK 19 is all of last year's daily material in mixtape form, with thorough additional mixing and mastering by the one and only @Jabun! Starring @S3C, @HOTSTUFFDX, @Father-of-Death, @JamesHeart, @Jabun here too, @littlbox and WyteNoiz on occasional instrumentals/beats/boxes, and a few exclusive leftover bits from way back when. Everything's fully revisited; balanced; hopefully as good as recording quality allows it to be.

You can listen to the full thing here on NG, on my site, or download the full pack with individual tracks right here.

Share if you like! Enjoy, and go check out @Jabun's solo material too if you haven't already - or his showreel if you need a master master!

And now over to that long overdue; by now old and fruity Inktober rant:

Inktober turned out awesome this year. Wasn't sure it'd match up to last, but how wrong was I? It all comes back to you, and then some.

I started with a lot of resistance, but as Steven Pressfield says you just gotta learn to overcome that systemically to stay creative; keep pushing yourself and make new things. The War of Art. Thanks @BenTibbetts for that great random (to me at the time - very thought-out otherwise) reading recommendation a few years back!

I ended up collabing with NG peeps on more than half of the daily recordings this year, of which at least 3-4 were pretty elaborate. ninjamuffin99 and KillerRATband handled the mixes on theirs for appreciatively different flavors, but everything else is yours truly. For now. Potential reinterpretations and improvements on a few of the better ones may be on route, like this just recently. And this a while earlier - that one's been a looong time coming now!

Hope to do even more next year. Collabs I mean. Collabs every day? Is that possible? Without planning ahead too much and thus entirely bypassing the very essence of what Inktober is meant to be?

I felt like I burnt myself out enough with what I did this year, but then again I felt the same way last year and that amounted to just half as much, and nothing after, with shorter acapellas too on most days with no collabs. It feels like you realize when you push yourself that you're capable of so much more than you think.

It's an inspiring feeling; something only this particular challenge has truly brought forth in me for the past two years now. So maybe I need to push myself even further to truly greet that greatness I desire to aspire?

You learn to handle stress better too. You grow efficient by necessity. You effectivize your workflow in ways you never knew you needed to until you just don't have the time to do things the hard way, like how I just recently learned how much more efficient the envelope tool in Audacity might be at consistently adjusting the flow of the sound instead of manually amplifying individual bits up and down (thanks for that one @Jabun). And compression. I need to use that. Probably. And panning. Production game be stepping. Up!

So I'm definitely getting back to this 2021! No matter how much resistance I might feel for it at that particular point in time. And hopefully I won't have that familiar phase before then where I drop these creative pursuits entirely; need to warm up to the idea of it all over again. It's all too easy to get into a rut. To get comfortable. To let that spark diminish. Don't let it!

Lemme know if y'all want to collab again next year! Or whenever. I'm down now. Life's looking up. Days are busy but awesome. And here you go again, don't miss that mixtape! Revised somewhat by me with additional mixing and mastering by the one and only y'allreadyknow @Jabun!

We've been going back and forth on this the past month now, and though the original recordings are far from best source quality (I'll blame those daily deadlines and frequent lack of time overall but should probably be blaming my recording/production ethics) I'm really happy with how this turned out! Going to be playing it on every drive to work for a while now; rap along with myself. Good practice; efficient jam sessions; suitable methods of keeping you awake and stimulated whilst on those dark and wet wintery roads that just started getting brighter again! This time's the time it all turns.

This really turned into a rant, or maybe more so a causerie of observations and experiences regarding this particular yearly event. Also read up on the controversy surrounding the Inktober name back when I wrote the above. It's trademarked. Though with non-profit things it should be no problem, so I guess I'll keep using it anyway since I've done so thus far! Until a better name comes along.

TLDR (but do read anyway cause you do get better at longer reading the longer you read long writing): I had a blast this year and I think I might've improved a little since last! I'll let this play in conclusion:

Was going to list some favorites but I can't just choose a few now. Here's a playlist for this year and last and again last year all properly mixed and mastered and possibly with a little more material than the original.

Thanks again @Jabun on that mastering magic on the mix! :) Happy this came to fruition, and happy with this year too! All in time to have a listen as we unwind and greet the new.

Toodles.

Y'all might appreciate this! Thanks @Patrystyk for making it the best way possible! ^ cover by me.

@fredbearplaz doing free commissions right now! :) Go check him out.

And thanks again for this one!