Newgrounds.com — Everything, By Everyone.

There is only one problem with your rant: While it might be true that the website is laced with "awesome" stuff, the truth of the matter is - NOBODY HAS BEEN DOING ANYTHING WORTH FUCKING WHILE TO WATCH. So the only thing anyone has to look forward to is stupid fucking jokes about video games. 90% of all fucking animators can't write a script for shit, and it's so much easier to make someone laugh than to make them cry. So everyone always defaults to comedy.

The only times anything is worthwhile in the front page is when Adam Philips posts something on the front page, right? because apparently he's the new fucking standard. Yeah it's such a bitch that everyone is obsessed with dumb cartoons as opposed to original works, but the truth of the matter is that original works around here are garbage! Everytime someone puts out some original work of animation, it's riddled with fucking anime and stupid script writing. All influenced by other garbage out there.

If I have a choice of watching something on newgrounds, and the choice was "shitty original work" and "cliche dumb video game jokes", then I'm going to have to say DUMB VIDEO GAME JOKES, because at least the chances of them fucking that up is about 50% less likely. And mind you, it does happen.

Yeah I don't like it any better than you do, but doing a rant about it and posting some sarcastic video is not gonna change kid's opinions on this website. You just do your animation, submit it and forget the fuck about it. In the end, anyone who complains about something being too popular is because they're honestly fucking jealous. Maybe not jealous in the way you're thinking, but jealous none the less. Thoughts like "why is he always on the front page, he can't draw for shit", or "that wasn't even funny". Well maybe you forgot, but this is the internet, there is people who like jokes, there is people who like farts, and then there is people who like the INTERNET. Which is about as low as you can get when it comes to expectations.

Just get over it. I know I have. Fads die.

May 11, 2009

Author's Response:

A few months ago ashford pride made a movie with a foreboding title. It was called "Awesome Grounds".

Well ladies and gentlemen, that's might as well what this site should be called (at least right now), with the top row on the front page slot dedicated to an "awesome" movie and an "awesome" parody, an "awesome" t-shirt in the newgrounds store, and pretty much every "awesome" movie in the top 100, along with han's "awesome's creed".

I can't go to newgrounds with seeing something not about egoraptor or his coveted video game parody series. It makes me wonder sometimes if pursuing anything but half-assed cartoons making mildly funny observations about video games laced with profanity is even worth it. Truly, they are what bring the masses of 13-year olds to this site, and thus increases traffic and competition in the internet world. But you have to ask yourself, with this sort of two-bit audience increasing in numbers, are they really interested in watching anything else?

I understand that it's a dog eat dog world in the online entertainment business, and to compete you have to pretty much put up content that a majority of internet browsers would click on. This includes either women or video games. Things they already know they want. And that's all they want. They sign up, watch more, and come back and do it again later. They're trained to know that what they want is easily accessible and is promoted all over the site.

Original content is often shuffled off to the bottom of the page, or never gets any attention to begin with. Now comes into play the whole 'they won't click on it unless there's a boob for the icon', etc etc. That's because they've been fashioned to think that way.

I'm not saying i have all the mysterious answers to the way people's minds work. But this much is true - if all people click on are breasts and video game icons, and you give them breasts and video game icons, you're not pushing the envelope.

Newgrounds is the epitome of user-generated content. We already have a massive advantage over youtube in the fact that making a cartoon involves so much more creativity than snappily editing your webcam footage. So instead of 200 cartoons coming out every minute, we have 200 cartoons coming out every day. That gives someone a better chance of breaking out and being discovered for his hard work, and a reward for a job well done.

But in the same way that viewers are trained that they don't have to go out of their way to avoid original content they would otherwise enjoy, authors are becoming more and more disenchanted with their personal creations and are turning to nerd culture icons and cheap tactics to get viewers.

I can't tell you how many animators I have spoken to that have shunned their own creations in favor of sub-pop culture parody and disjointed scripts sprinkled with toilet humor and profanity. a cartoon catering to everyone who's forgotten what cartoons are all about. And here we are shoving away everything about cartoons that was originally appealing and magical, because we're pretty much forced to.

I'm not pointing the finger at any one person here. I think it's part of the bigger picture - bigger than Newgrounds, too. But if people really care about the future of cartoons and animation, we wouldn't be seeing this kind of blatant favoritism.

People will find what they want if they want it. They don't need to be spoon fed it all.

For thirty years animators who strive to create something genuinely unique have gotten nothing but a slap in the face. It's sickening and it has to stop someday, before they all disappear.

Lastly, this post is not about me. I'm not writing this out of self-pity, bitterness or spite. I'm being honest. I care a lot about the future of animation, and what I see around me is very troubling. The industry is bad enough, but where the future lies is in the small corners of the animation world. Newgrounds is one of them. I spend a lot of time trying to encourage and teach frame-by-frame animation, and creating your own characters and scripts. That is what is important

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Score: 5

"Static would've been better voice overs."

submission: The TRUE death of Hinata

date: March 11, 2009

Absolutely HORRIBLE voices. Next time get someone that can at least be understood by a human being.

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People think this is a useless review.

Score: 4

"Good Effort..."

submission: The Last Fight

date: January 17, 2009

This is a good effort, and decent animation. Now here's some tips should you choose to listen:

Drop the anime art style. You can still draw just as interesting and better with a style that you develop, take some anatomy classes, some figure construction; and then you'll be find a method that looks great.

Drop the pop music. I know you probably love whatever band that was, and I'm sure you think that song brings you great memories or maybe you can picture great things from that song. But a LOT of people don't see it that way. You need to pick something that's preferrably without lyrics, something that fits the mood and scenery.

Animation wise... drop the dragonball fights. Okay, they were cool the first time we ever laid eyes on them, I admit. But we're all getting older, we've seen them in flash animations a million times, not counting all the anime fights that are exactly like it. Dissapearing and re-appearing is NOT cool, if you really want to emphasize that these characters are having a grander than life battle, there is an infinite number of ways to show it, than to dissapear, clash, reappear.

Text and no voices - if your animation is just about a fight... don't include story telling unless it's going to have voices. Text simply kills it. You already know the name of this flash animation, that's why it's not called "The Last Scene From One of My Stories". If you insist on putting story to a fight you make, put it on the extras, or in the notes. But don't stop the action just to force the viewer to read a whole bunch of nonsense that doesn't make sense to anyone. I'm sure you have this grand storyline planned out, but it's embarassing when you're forced to read a bunch of sappy crap in a movie that you're thrusted into without knowing anything previous to it. The introduction text does not help either.

Final advice: I like anime, and I used to love the idea of drawing just like the japanese. In the end, you come to realize that it's all just a fad. Even further, a cultural fad. A fad that drives away a lot of people. A fad that makes money, and tries to imitate itself over and over again, creating ridiculous amounts of cliches in all sorts of animes. "everything has already been done" is a popular quote you will hear over and over. Cliches are inevitable. But they don't have to be lame if you do it right. You have learned enough from the anime art style, so now use that and develop it more. But leave the diamond chins, pointy flat noses, huge eyes and ridiculous hair styles behind.
That's my 2 dollars and 2 cents.