@Chuw-Croissantier - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: How would you describe living from your perspective?

// Oof, went through a lot of shit that I have so many descriptions for it, but I think the most accurate one is... a narrow path with hope prevailing at the end. Because it doesn't matter how life treats you, hope will prevail at the end of the day. Just reminding y'all that you're not alone... and if you are, it won't be forever. Just don't let your hope die, and enjoy the small things life has to offer you!

Q: What does it mean to be a Newgrounder?

// Don't have an accurate description, but being a Newgrounder means creating cool stuff, sharing moments with your community, and making friends along the way. Maybe someone else has like a super definition (and possibly triggering some nerds (?), buttt at the moment, that's what I have in mind when describing what a Newgrounder is: a creative person who shares small moments with their community!

Q: How did you discover the NG website?

// Well, when I was a kid, I used to search for something like free games and stuff, especially Sonic. So one day, I was scrolling through Google and found this awesome game... Ultimate Sonic Flash on Newgrounds. I played a little bit and saw the games section, and I was like: "Mmm, it says gems... IT MEANS GAMES!!" (Yeah, the only English word I knew back at that time was "games" because my dad taught me some words and stuff. It was a hard time for little me to guess everything, lmao). Then I clicked on it, and I was in paradise... all types of games and all genres in one place—truly the paradise for kid me. I didn't create a Newgrounds account until 2021 and didn’t upload much—just two drawings of Pico and Boyfriend; that was everything, lmao. I still found some movies out there, like Edd's World and some Pico/Madness animations. I didn’t understand them at all, but I liked them!! My history on the internet is pretty funny, though.

Q: What made you decide to join the community?

// Well, there's no specific reason for it, but I mostly joined to try some things and stuff. Let's say that eventually, after interacting with some people and having fun uploading my content, I started to feel like it was my home. Somehow, I felt that my work was being more appreciated than in other places. Eventually, in my journey, I found the sketch collab, joined, and... I fell more in love with the community, got amazing friends, and an amazing girlfriend (you know who you are! Mwah <3). Soooo if before I liked the community... now I love it and have a big appreciation for it. Truly an amazing community!

Q: Do you feel differently about the site now compared to when you first joined?

// Absolutely! Before, I was like: "Ehhh, it's just another website," but as I said in the previous question, this felt more like my home, and I felt much appreciated. Thank y'all, everyone, for your support. I'll always appreciate it immensely!!

Q: The story of your profile picture

// Ahh... well, it's kind of bittersweet to remember, but it originated from a Minecraft skin. It was a penguin with horns... or croissants. My previous friend group didn't even know either, soooo I just got silly and said they were croissants stuck with tissue (by the way, I had a human sona before). Over time, I felt that this penguin with croissant horns represented me much better than my human sona, soooo I decided to give it an official design. It started as a penguin with a plain green hood, and over time, it just got glasses and a hood inspired by Club Penguin. The concept evolved so much that it became a virtual penguin made in HTML5 that little by little became sentient, and now it materializes in the real world through a robot. What can I say? I loved the concept so much that it evolved from being just a regular penguin to a penguin created in HTML5, lmao. (And yeah... I got inspired by MegaMan Battle Network 6. Those who got the reference before reaching this part... y'all are real ones ;D

Q: How did you get interested in creating art?

// This is another story of kid me. Back in that time, I was a big Sonic fan (still am a big fan) and saw this cool character with a raw design... Mephiles the Dark. For some reason, I had a big obsession with this guy. I searched for a tutorial on how to draw him, and omg... bro started to become an NFT because I drew this character every single day in the same pose and with the "Monster" song by Skillet (truly embracing Shadow's edge...). After some days, I just got tired and said: "Okay, you know what? I'll draw something different—SOMETHING AMAZING!!" Spoiler: it was poop, lmao. However, that didn't stop me; I kept drawing regardless of how it looked until my current level. It was a very satisfactory journey, not gonna lie... still willing to learn more things about art! Sooooo yeah, we could say that... it was thanks to Mephiles that I got interested in creating art ;D

Q: Your advice for artists

// Never be afraid to fail, remember you're not failing, you're learning how to NOT draw a hand (or whatever) and over all... have fun creating! bc what is the point of creating if you're not having fun? and of course... be open to the feedback of other people!

- Deep Sea Prisoner

Well, a thing I always like to share is the creation of my comic. Everything started with 15-year-old me... with a big passion for creating stories (even fusing Club Penguin with Dragon Ball Z, but more details about that in the future (?)). I saw this game by the artist Okegom (Wadanohara and the Great Blue Sea) and said, "Woah... I really want to make a story like this." Then I started with the concepts. At first, it was going to be a fanfic, something connected to this game. With time, I grew up and said, "Well, this has the potential to be its own thing." I then decided to scrap everything and start from scratch. At first, I created Clover... then some vamp dudes and Barry (formerly known as Clark (?)). The thing is... the story had everything: action, comedy, etc., but it lacked something... a beginning and better character design, lmao. Hell, I didn't even think of something logical for Clover to get involved in adventures that would put her in many dangers. The concept itself was in diapers, and for some time, I didn't even know what to do.

Then, after going through a lot of things, watching artists, learning from them, watching comics and stuff... I knew what to do. I retconned some things and designed more characters (even redesigning some of them), and welp, little by little, it took form. Now, it’s the thing you know nowadays: from Clover not having friends and living in an empty world... now we have a Clover with super good friends and a world full of life! I just love my comic; it means everything to me, and sharing it is like sharing my happiness with everyone. For now, it has 5 chapters, but they're all worth it!! Y'all should take a look ;D

Q: What have you learned from making your comic?

// Many things, I learned about paneling, scripts, and pretty much how to use fonts and learned how to speed up the pages. Still, I'm a slow fella, but I do what I can! And of course, so many things to learn about how to do a comic, but trust me, if you can do line art + coloring at the same time... it speeds up everything 1000 billion times faster. It may seem slow, but it's incredibly faster. If you're someone who makes colored comics... try it ;D

Q: What do you like about comics?

// I like how creative they can get with paneling and even with expressions. A major example is Akira Toriyama in the OG Dragon Ball; bro made characters breaking the panels and all that crazy stuff. If you read Chapter 5 of my comic, you can clearly tell how I was referencing that sjdnskjdn (still planning on doing it because it's immensely creative!!). Then we have Eiichiro Oda with so many funny faces and expressions, a major example being Luffy and Enel. If you know the Damn Daniel meme, you'll know what I mean sdnsakjdns buuut yeh, these mangakas and other sources are my big main inspirations when drawing comics.

Q: What are some other artist you watch? 

// Well, there's this artist I practically grew up with, called Okegom (also known as Deep Sea Prisoner... HA, yeah, like the name of my comic ;D). I liked her style so much and the way she uses colors in general. During my teenage years, I tried to do the same thing, imitating her style and stuff (which obviously failed miserably, lmao). There was also a time when I was obsessed with the Scott Pilgrim comic. I liked the style so much, but I was like, "Mmm, I don't want to stop doing this style..." Then I had the brilliant idea of combining both styles. At the start... it was uhhh a bit uncanny valley, but over time, it just got better progressively. Then I saw Sr. Pelo, who inspired me to explore more types of bodies, and more recently, Bacun, who inspired me to improve my coloring. But yeah, long story short, the artists I mentioned helped me a lot to develop my style.

Q: How did they learn their techniques? 

// This is a hard one to answer because I don't have any idea how they learned them sadnsjkasdn, but I can imagine that they learned by studying the basics and pretty much just trying and trying. As I said before, it's hard to answer this because I don't have a proper answer sajkdnsajdns.

Q: What would you consider bad art? 

// Hmmm well, for me it really depends on the context. There's no bad art at all. You can say: "Well, abstract art is shit because it's just a lot of random scribbles," while others might say: "Abstract art is so cool because it expresses so many things!!" Sooo at the end of the day, it's just subjective (but that doesn't mean lame things don't exist tho (?)

Q: Do you think people are too afraid of failing and not learning from it? 

// Oof, believe me, I see that every day on a certain server... like, you know, I feel them. Failing can be scary, but if you just stay doing nothing and not trying to learn anything about it... then you're just trapped in a loop of mediocrity, buuut. Trying to be perfect in everything just leads to frustration, sooo... my recommendation: stop trying to be perfect, analyze your failures, learn how not to do a certain thing, and overall... have fun with your creations!

Q: How do you determine when feedback is helpful as opposed to when it is not? What is the distinction?

// Well, feedback is useful when the person tells you where you went wrong and what you could do to improve it, even giving you advice and tips to keep in mind. However, if it's something like: "hURR dURRR yoUR aRT IS SHET" and uh... "KEI UAI ES bleeeh," then it's just throwing shit without adding anything. And not just that, but also saying: "Eh, you're not talented enough, quit art" or similar—that's not feedback, not even a constructive one. Basically, the difference is that one tells you the errors you made and how to improve, while the other doesn't add anything useful (also, you don't have to follow feedback super strictly or anything. You can add your own twist to it, and if it doesn't work for you, try something else. Never stop experimenting!).

@EmsDeLaRoZ - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: How did you come to use both MediBang and Photoshop? Why do you mainly use MediBang, and in what ways is it more comfortable? What do you like and enjoy about Photoshop, such as the 'dissolve' effect? Do you think you would enjoy drawing new NG Agnry Faices while utilizing the effects in Photoshop that you enjoy the most?

Medibang was my standard app, but during a period where I couldn't use it for some reason, I started using Photoshop, which was already in my PC. I believe medibang is comfier to me simply because is less technical and less hyper charged with options. What I like about Photoshop is that it makes complex tasks very easy to perform (like give a 3d effect to the image). Also yee, making angry faics should be very funny.

Q: Your experiences with the Internet

My experiences with the internet began since I have memory. I've been browsing around since I was five years old, searching, yk, the typical ideas of a kid: "games of super Mario", "games for two people", "free games" and the sort. I grew up playing flash games, some parodying others, and some really og games. Maybe my favorite was fancy pants world 1, because before that, I didn't know a game could have such pleasant movement and animations converging together.

Q: How did you discover the NG website? What made you decide to join the community? Do you feel differently about the site now compared to when you first joined?

I don't remember if I ever got to NG during my childhood era, but I remember seeing the tankman logo in various games, so I was already aware of them. It's kinda sad for me though, because I wish I could've been to the site during it's initial growth days. I decided to join NG because around 2022 or so, I gathered enough courage to start sharing my work online. I started on Instagram and later moved to DeviantArt, but I was lacking something. Later I remembered newgrounds, and how there I could not only share art, but also music and games (animations too, but I've been kinda far from that topic for a while). Finally, no, I don't feel really different since I joined, as I already knew what the newgrounds synergy was like, but I did meet lot more of kewl people who actually felt like me, like I was speaking to people that could actually understand everything I said.

Q: How did you get interesting creating art?

I feel that my interest in making art is one of those things you're just "born with". I don't recall having a complex deep reason for why I like making art, I just know I like it, and like how powerful it is that with a simple artwork, a mix of sounds, and some textures, you can give such powerful messages. I think that's what motivates me mostly: the power of speaking without words (considering we humans are communicative animals who also need socialization to survive).

Q: What video games do you enjoy playing, and why? What elements in a video game do you enjoy, and what elements do you dislike? Why do you dislike them specifically?

Currently, I like playing Madness: Project Nexus, Smash Bros Ultimate, Piczle lines, Picross, 51 worldwide games and Voez. In general I like playing some types of puzzle games and maybe adventure / action / platformer games. I enjoy when a game is designed so every element fits accordingly to create a memorable experience, speaking of music, mechanics, animations and "lore" (I think making a game is like writing an interactive tale, so your story must have it's own world, environment, rules, etc.).

What I dislike is when you include things that don't fit in the game or break the experience, for example, pay to win games, it feels dull to me that you can reach success in a game by spending great amounts of money, instead of actually earning that success.

Q: What makes for good music analysis, and what analyses do you enjoy? What are the reasons behind your enjoyment?

I think that a good music analysis happens when you take a moment to really "hear" the music. There are lots of tracks I've heard when playing a game that, once I hear them in YouTube sound extremely different. Good songs have things to say, so in a good analysis, you should be able to understand what message is the song trying to give. I like the analysis videos of Charles Cornell and Davi Vasc, it's so kewl to see how easy they can break down different pieces of music and explain it, even the most complex and subtle details like songs written in microtones. It's a level of music making and analysis I can only hope to reach one day.

Q: What movies and animations do you like? And why?

My most fav animations are Madness combat, Bunny kill, animator vs. animation and Xiao Xiao. Out of newgrounds, I like Kick Buttowski, Phineas and Ferb, South Park, and many works from Mondo Media, like Happy tree friends, dick figures and goodbye kitty. In movies, I like the first John wick (I've only seen that one), Shrek, ice age from 1 to 3, up, ratatouille, Kung Fu panda and puss in boots. I think I like all these because they contain action, kewl concepts and adventures, and many beautiful morals to share.

Q: How did you become interested in playing board games, particularly games like backgammon and checkers?

I'm not sure where my interest for board games came from, I guess they're just fun for me to play. The most played board game around the world is chess, which is quite dull to me, since I feel many people around the world don't really play chess for the game itself or to have fun, but just because they think is a game for "smart ppl". Maybe it is tho, but that's not the important thing.

Q: What is your process for organizing your ideas? How is it having your mind generate ideas constantly, and what do you mean when you say that only a few of them are good enough to work on?

With "only a few ideas are good enough to work on" I mean that despite having various ideas, not all seem kewl enough or give opportunities to develop greater ideas. They stay just in the "concept" phase. Having many ideas is great, specially when needing a brain shower, but it is kinda problematic when going to sleep, not only because it takes me a lot to fall asleep, but also because for some reason, I never dream anything. To organize my ideas, I usually write them down in Google keep, or in the back of a notebook. Whenever I feel like start working in a new project, I go check my notes and start thinking of the possibilities (Nitainaga Island and Boxanne Passed through that phase).

Q: Can you share the stories behind your experience in 3 different college careers? Why do you say they resulted from various bad decisions?

In my first college career, I was aiming for a degree in electronic, but there were two problems with it: my school was at the other side of the city, and my generation had very few students, meaning that at any given point, they could close my career due to lack of benefits. They gave us the opportunity to change careers so we wouldn't miss our advances. I changed to a career for business management, because I was told it was an easy career, and I was in college just to obtain my degree and move to my real interests afterwards: art. It was easier alright, but that career was also ridiculously boring (me not an entrepreneur :b) and I could not focus enough to make it work. It also began to worry me that when I started searching for job, they would put me in an administrative role because of my career, so I made a last change: a career for animation and design, which is were I currently am. I said they resulted from bad decisions because, before the animation career, I took my college career while focusing on finishing college as soon as possible to begin working on my things (very childlike perspective).

Q: Why do you have 5 different YouTube channels? What is your opinion on YouTube? What do you think the platform is about, and how could it be improved? What decisions do you feel have been detrimental to the platform, and why do you think those changes were implemented in the first place?

I've had 5 five yt channels because I've tried many times before to achieve a successful channel. Now, I'm just moving at my own rate with the latest one.

Q: How would you describe your experience of stating that you've had a very turbulent phase of gender curiosity? What misconceptions do you think people have around gender curiosity?

I feel YouTube has improved in options and page design, but has gone a bit downhill with the videos management and quality. I feel that excessive or unskipable ads, or the famous "blacklist" of bad words have given more problems than help to the users experience, and am very sure these were added to help with the benefits and reputation of the site.

Q: What are the differences between the types of animation you are interested in and those you are not? What common elements resonate with you, and which elements do not? Please explain why these specific elements are positive for you, and why the others are negative.

I remember an era where I was not entirely sure if I was heterosexual. I began thinking about homosexuality, bisexuality or even trans. After a bit of exploration, I knew I am heterosexual, with a bit of bicuriosity. I think that one of the misconceptions ppl tend to have with gender curiosity is they threat it like ppl of other gender are different ppl, instead of similar ppl with other interests.

I think I like animations that are frenetic and/or fluid. On the other side, I don't like very stiff animations, I feel that the world is never that much calm.

- Cookie Story

For one, I was in secondary school, during lunch time, and I was eating some cookies, when another kid approached me asking if I could spare one cookie. Since I've always been very egoistic and idiot, I answered him "I only give cookies to my friends", and since then, he began to interact with me, and that's how we became friends :b. One of my other friends was very antisocial, but tried to approach me several times by trying the technique of "give subtle hints to get your attention". The problem here was that I am very unhinted, so I never catched any message, and that forced him to approach me and talk to me out of pure exasperation. On the bright side, thanks to my stupidity, he's now more talkative.

Q: What would be your advice for socializing?

My advice for socializing is, go talk to ppl, about what you like. Just like you, ppl are scared of talking to each other, and like meeting interesting ppl. If someone doesn't want nothing with you, they'll let you know through words or actions.

Q: What are your goals?

My goal is to travel and find my dream home. I also want to make something big ppl will remember me for.

Q: Your advice for life

Keep balance in life: a good life involves 50% of actions and 50% of perspectives.

@trevor8 - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: How did your interest in music start?

-melody has always triggered a strong impression/response in me; at least as far back as i am able to remember. i think people have something in them that is wired to respond to music with more primal sincerity than any phonetic language (and it’s so universal)!

i used to play with my dad's guitar, coaxing some (truly) horrible sounds out of the poor thing, we also had an upright piano that was a hand me down from my aunt, i really loved that, it was sort of wonky and out of tune, and maybe that's why i like warbly and slightly off-kilter sounds? (Is this Freudian?) i can't remember whose idea it was, but i started taking piano lessons at maybe four or five? i always wanted to make my own music, but i loved learning to play baroque, classical, romantic also. Mozart and Bach really have such grace and purity!

i also had an obsession with the physical media; (I am probably dating myself here), but i grew up in the early nineties; and at this time (at least in my house) cd's were a luxury for the idle rich, so most of my first albums were cassettes or vinyl. i remember the tape deck "eating" the cassettes and trying to salvage them with a pencil. i loved(still love) the feel of record sleeves, the big artwork, liner notes, etc. i also listened to a lot of radio (mostly the oldies station, Christian, classical, or smooth jazz), i think elements of Amy Grant’s sound are indelibly scarred into my brainhole

Q: What have you learned about yourself creating Music?

-i have learned that i have quite a ways to go! i have seen my limitations, and incompetency in so many and varied ways! i have also learned to work within these limitations, to strive to do better, and to settle for imperfection. i can't count the number of times i screwed something up or accidentally stumbled into something and it ended up sounding REALLY COOL (to me anyways), i believe that God is merciful to his creatures in mysterious ways.

Q: How would you describe living from your perspective?

-hohoho; i am absolutely horrified half the time by my own existence. i had a sort of breakdown maybe ten years ago where i was afraid that all my body's autonomous/subconscious functions (i.e breathing, blinking, sleeping, etc.) would stop if I didn’t think about them, i did not trust my brain, and had these sort of out of body sensations all the time. This was all triggered by a rather severe bout of ocd (which is a little different than the movies portray) i've gotten better at handling it; thankfully, but i still think about death and loss a lot, and sometimes disturbing thoughts get stuck in my head. however, i try to be present in the moment (not so much in my head), because the now is inimitable and improbable; gratitude is something that i am trying to learn and practise.

there is so much beauty in the world, even as fucked up as it may be. even sadness can be beautiful in its way?

Q: What is NG about? How did you discover the NG website? What made you decide to join the community? Do you feel differently about the site now compared to when you first joined?

-SOFTCORE FETISH PORN! just kidding, but it was kinda sleazy back in the early 2000's, (at least to thirteen year old me). in seriousness, though, i remember it was this and albinoblacksheep and ebaumsworld. newgrounds always seemed like the place where the cool kids hung out. i can't (and probably don't want to) count how many times i watched the demented cartoon movie, arfenhouse, weebl and bob, saladfingers, Harry Partidge's everything. i almost got expelled from high schoo, because i would bypass the content blocker on the library's computer and play “castle cat”, and the school's IT guy (who also happened to be my best friend's dad) found it in my browser history, hahaha. i digress; newgrounds is essentially about unmitigated creativity, and freedom to create! it is such a wonderfully untainted platform for burgeoning artists of any kind or skill level! the community is very supportive and nurturing, i have learned so much from other musicians, and their feedback and advice have been indispensable!

*THANK YOU TOM FULP, THANK YOU FOR ACCEPTING MY CREEPY FRIEND REQUEST IN 2014, AND FOR PUTTING MY WEIRD SONGS ON THE FRONT PAGE :)

Q: What do you enjoy about Southern Gothic stories, like those by Flannery O'Connor and Truman Capote's earlier fiction?

-i grew up in north Texas (still live there), i went to college for a few years in Arkansas, a lot of my family lives in rural Missouri. the southern states absolutely have this weird almost self-flagellating quality to them, there is a lot of poverty, a lot of urban decay, a lot of failed states. i know "small town polite", and the strange dichotomy of a culture that preaches love and peace, but perpetuates death and oppression in practice.

Flannery O'Connor perfectly captures this in her writing, all the weirdness and the landscapes (there is a lot of beauty amidst the ruin). her stories are also absolutely hilarious often times, "A Late Encounter With the Enemy" is one of the funniest things i have read (outside of Charlie Kaufman’s "Antkind").

"Wiseblood" i think really cuts to the jib of faith and spirituality, with a character navigating this world, who cannot seem to accept/tolerate the notion of grace or forgiveness. i forget which of her short stories ends with this statement, (i'm paraphrasing) "God shelters us from the true nature of our own depravity", but there is something so illuminating to me about that?

Truman Capote is a brilliant and beautiful writer, his stories are also very strange. i really like "Breakfast at Tiffany's", although maybe that is the least "southern gothic" of his writing, it does have a lot of similar sensibilities though. the tone of the book is much more tragic and wistful than the movie.

Q: How did you become interested in science fiction, and why are you drawn to anything weird or introspective?

-haha, i should probably specify that my interest in science fiction is really, really specific, and is probably informed by my interest in the “weird or introspective”. i have always been fascinated by the life of the mind, the nature of being, philosophy (to a certain armchair extent). I like some science fiction (movies) purely based on aesthetic, “Bladerunner” is great more for its set design than its plot, (Kojima’s “Snatcher” is awesome too, it’s basically Bladerunner the game). I like some of StarTrek TNG. i like the way it feels like it was written by a couple of friends just playing around with concepts and asking “what if?”. It reminds me of conversations my friends and I used to have late at night, haha. in the literary realm, I really am fond of Kurt Vonnegut. He has this one novel, “The Sirens of Titan”, where it turns out that pretty much the entire history of human innovation (and civilization itself) has been molded by aliens in order to to make a replacement part to repair one of their (the aliens) stranded comrade’s spaceship, (he tells it much better), but it’s so creative and cool, Vonnegut has a lot of really cool concepts in his books that leaves me feeling electric!

Q: Where does your obsession with the anime "Gunbuster" come from?  

-maybe fifteen years ago i stumbled upon it, i saw Hideaki Anno’s name on it and was totally unaware that he had done anything other than Evangelion. Now, i really love Evangelion; i love the fact that it’s basically about an awkward and chronically depressed boy whose weird and repressed dad is trying to actively bring about the apocalypse, (this is my whole childhood right there). But whereas Eva was kind of a slow burn for me; Gunbuster hit me with so much concentrated force… it’s really short if you haven’t seen it (like 8 episodes?) but it basically starts of satirizing the mecha genre, and ends up getting into some pretty bizarre metaphysics (because Anno), culminating in an ending that still makes me cry sometimes. but it also has such a purely 80’s feel to it too! everything from the music to the graphical style is like a pastiche of the 80’s (vibes) in it’s best possible form. and it really does hit you in the gut with the ending, while a ripoff of “Cavaleria Rusticana” plays in the background, so very good.

Q: Why do you enjoy bird watching, especially finding owls in the autumn?

-there’s something so liberating about my birdfriends! i wish i could just pack up and leave sometimes, and i guess they represent a certain freedom in their comings and goings. i like the different species through their seasonal migrations, it gives me peace to see ducks and wigeons in the autumn and winter, hummingbirds in the summer, the ever elusive owl. owls are so rare to see, you really have to be patient and persistent to come across one (and I do mean come across, because they are nearly impossible to actively find or predict).

Q: Why do you think you struggle to sit in one place for longer than a few minutes? Why do you feel you’ve had difficulty with meditation, and how would you describe that one time you tried yoga?

-my brain is racing most of the time, i try breathing exercises, i try to still my thoughts, i try to sit still, i do all three of these at once and it’s like a silent scream inside. so i take two out of three, i can kind of quite my mind if i am constantly moving, going on long walks, like some idiotic shark (except with my mouth closed).

i tried yoga once, and realized the utilitarian purpose of a yoga mat after spending several minutes breathing in my gross and ancient carpet. i actually do intend to try yoga in ernest when i get around to it (and get something to cover up the shitty carpet, or get new carpet, maybe linoleum?)

Q: What is "krautrock"?  

-im so glad you asked! It’s German “rock” from the late sixties to late seventies. most of it is not really “rock”, per se, generally it is much more free form and jazzy, or minimalist. a lot of it has a deep spirit of collaboration and improvisation (similar to jazz). Kraftwerk are probably the most internationally known krautrock groups.

Q: What do you enjoy about 80's electronic/ambient music, and what are some of your favorite artists? How do David Sylvian and other adjacent musicians fit into your tastes? And what do you enjoy about Gilbert and Sullivan?

-some of the music, like Tangerine Dream, i like because it fits into my sort of modern futurism notions. my dad also listened to a lot of Vangellis and Yanni, and other new age artists, and i guess a lot of new age stuff is actually ambient, sometimes the line blurs (new age is an ill-defined *possibly nonexistent* genre anyways), so some of it’s nostalgia. Brian Eno has some beautiful albums, particularly “Music For Airports” and “Apollo”, which just flow so barely perceptibly and open up into the vastness of sound and decay which i find so peaceful, and with music this slow, your mind kind of starts filling in spaces and you start to pick up on the most subtle shift in timbre.

David Sylvain is surely a genius, there is really no sound comparable that i have found to his music, particularly his output in the 80’s. During this decade, he collaborated a lot with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Holger Czukay (he was in “Can”!) one of my favorite songs of David Sylvian is “Wave”, like Eno, it just kind of opens up into the vastness and washes over you like a— WAVE, it’s beautiful, sad, ethereal, qualities i try to emulate in my own work, sometimes, hopefully (*goes back to ripping off the Cocteau Twins’ drum machine, lets crank that reverb up shall we?) Gilbert and Sullivan, i absolutely love their melodies. Victorian bawdiness, the patter songs, and if you’ve ever seen the film, “Topsy-Turvy”, Gilbert’s such a grump, it’s all great! i would recommend “The Yeomen of The Guard”, it’s probably one of their more “musical” operas

Q: What does it mean to be double-jointed in most of your digits, and how do you feel that has affected your life?

-haha, my fingers bend backwards, can dislocate my thumbs, great for carrying multiple cans or jars, weirding out your coworkers, playing octaves on the keyboard.

Q: How did you come to enjoy doing an impression of Maurice LaMarche doing Orson Welles? You also enjoy doing impressions of David Bowie and Paul Williams as Swan in "Phantom of the Paradise." Are they primarily done in your car? What type of car do you have?

Maurice LaMarche does this orson Welles thing on an old(ish) show called “The Critic”, which is absolutely hilarious to me! it’s one of those things i have yet to tire of quoting to amuse myself, same thing for Paul Williams (it’s pretty much the same voice I do for both, haha). Bowie, my singing voice (especially if i’m worn out and throaty, kind of does sound like a slightly higher pitched Berlin era Bowie)

Q: What’s the story behind the first political candidate you ever voted for? Why was it Kinky Friedman?

  -ooohhh, i had just turned eighteen, i was super in to Hunter S Thompson, and Kinky Friedman is/was pretty much a regional (albeit less psychotic) variant of that. also, something to piss off my ultra conservative civics teacher ;)

Q: How did the old moniker "wilidacious" come about, and how was it connected to the character from the home movies you made with your closest friend when you were twelve?

-it was my first year at college when i started posting music on newgrounds. i was kind of lonely, and in the veil of nostalgia (and need for anonymity) i guess i just settled on something esoterically important for my moniker. The origins of the name (as per the home movies) are unknown, it was just childhood gibberish i guess? “Wilidacious” was supposed to be an aging hippie, and my knowledge of hippies was basically Cheech and Chong, so i guess that’s kind of what i was drawing from.

Q: How did you learn that your maternal grandmother was an extra on "The Love Boat" once? What do you think about the show?

-i don’t know when i first heard about this, but she used to go on these cruises with her best friend all the time, and one of the cruises they went on ended up being the shooting location for the love boat. pure serendipity as far as i am aware! absolutely terrible show, hahaha! but i think it’s fresh on my mind, because i’ve been watching reruns of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, on which Gavin Macleod (captain of the loveboat) is a co-star (in a much better role), so i’ve been watching Mary Tyler Moore with my mother, and she’s been looking up the guest stars film credits to see if she knows them from anything else, and ALL OF THEM have at one point appeared on “The Love Boat”, which makes me think that we have a sort of “Bacon number” situation going on, although i would argue the the degrees of separation everyone has from “The Love Boat” is a lot less than your average on Kevin Bacon.

Q: What was it like composing for VALERIAN HIGH? How did you get the opportunity, and how would you describe the process? 

-oh! It was easy! they pm’d me asking if they could use a couple of my pre-existing tracks, i said “sounds great!” and went to bed! hahaha

Q: You have a very distinct synth style. How did that come to be?

-that’s very flattering! thank you! i definitely wear my influences on my sleeves. basically it’s my feeble attempts to assemble everything i like into as concentrated a dose as possible. i am obsessed with melody, i love certain chord progressions, but i am too dumb to tell you exactly what or why they are. sometimes i have like thirty or more tracks going on at once, and it wants to crash my computer. i also work usually on an older version of Reason, and i’ve spent so many years poking around the samples and patches that It’s pretty easy these days to get the sound (or as close as possible) that i am searching for. i mean, i just add and subtract, i love complex arrangements, and have a tendency to try to have too much going on at once, probably goes back to my messy brain, so i put everything down and then sort of start erasing the mess i’ve made of things, and it starts to reveal the song. sometimes the stuff i end up with is still a mess, but that’s okay. i’ll try it again someday.

Q: Your advice for creating music  

-try to get something down every day! Even if it’s just a single note repeated ad infinitum, or a rhythmic pattern. play the piano in the dark! (play the piano while you’re half asleep). play the piano while you’re asleep. make the music you want to hear! it’s like Kiki’s Delivery Service, “sometimes you feel shitty and uncreative, and you just have to make yourself do something and the season of blah will pass”. remember that you are your harshest critic.

Q: Your favorite food and beverages 

  -pumpkin pie, quinoa and COFFEE

Q: Your advice for happiness  

-try not to let the elevator break you down, don’t fret the details, let go of things, forgive others, love is the greatest capacity we have as human beings.

@joeyvfx - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: Where does your personality come from?

I guess my personality is just a conclusion of how I want to be perceived. I want to be a positive force in other peoples lives, always striving for the ultimate good in everything I do while staying authentic to myself. I'd say that's also how interests are derived, just taking everything in & sticking with things that really resonate with you.

Q: Who is Newgrounds for? How did you discover the NG website? What made you decide to join the community? Do you feel differently about the site now compared to when you first joined?

I joined Newgrounds in late 2022. I've always known about the site, but only ended up joining when I saw Christopher Rutledge saying more animators should post their work there. It's been awesome! I love how active & welcoming it is.

Q: Where does your interests come from?

The VFX/3D & music stuff really all started when I was in middle school. I was very inspired by Corridor Digital & FreddieW & basically worked as hard as I could to replicate what their style of action oriented VFX shorts. Luckily they were very open about what tools & techniques they used & even did some tutorials. Brandon Laatsch's 3DS Max tutorials were a huge eye opener for me especially. Combining CG with live action footage is very rewarding & has always fascinated me.

Q: How did you become interested in making VFX/3D and music? What have you learned about yourself while engaging with these fields, and what advice would you give to those starting out who are interested in learning about them?

The VFX/3D & music stuff really all started when I was in middle school. I was very inspired by Corridor Digital & FreddieW & basically worked as hard as I could to replicate what their style of action oriented VFX shorts. Luckily they were very open about what tools & techniques they used & even did some tutorials. Brandon Laatsch's 3DS Max tutorials were a huge eye opener for me especially. Combining CG with live action footage is very rewarding & has always fascinated me.

Q: What do you like about Ghostbusters? You've been working on your Ghostbusters costume for the past year—would you be interested in sharing some photos? What is your process for creating the costume?

Oh boy, lol. The ghostbusters interest goes way back. The movie just has a special quality to it I guess. I built three different proton packs out of cardboard & foam board around 2010-2011 & just got back into it this past year. My new pack is mostly 3D printed but contains lots of authentic metal parts. It also has some neat electronics with a smoke effect. It's been a childhood dream come true! Here's a pic of the pack:

Q: What was your biggest challenge in creating your Durability Tests? What was the pipeline, and what did it take for you to develop the skills needed for the animation? If you were to start a new project, what would you do differently?

Durability Tests was actually an idea I wanted to do for a long time. I always thought ragdoll physics were funny & have experimented with them for years, but never really found a great way to work with them. So once I found the ragdoll tools plugin for blender, I was set on giving it another try.

I modeled a new digital double of myself & rigged it up as a ragdoll. Did a quick test of myself going down a slide & was just elated by how well it worked. I think my buddy Dooveed actually gave me the idea of putting the ragdoll on a plane, so once I tried that the rest of the piece just sorta fell into place. The playground set is a recreation of my childhood playground. The majority of the animation was done within a single .blend file, with the main playground set linked into different "scenes" which contained separate actions & choreography. I just kinda tried out whatever motions & scenarios I thought would be funny & made sure there was a sense of story progression in the piece.

I'm still quite happy with the end result! I'm working on my next animation between client projects. It'll definitely be different in style & tone, and the approach is different too. Honestly more labor intensive than Durability Tests. But hopefully I can get it out someday.

Q: Why is it nice to have a hobby that's not entirely screen-based?

It's just nice to have something to work on that's not on the computer. Probably better for my eyes.

Q: How would you describe your experience of meeting Corridor Digital, which is your main inspiration for getting into VFX? Why is it an inspiration for you? You met them along with Alan from Captain Disillusion for a video shoot in LA, and you got to visit their studio. In what way was that a full-circle moment for you?

Meeting Corridor Digital was crazy. At the time I described it like I was visiting the birthplace of Jesus. When we arrived on their street it felt unreal, since I had seen that place so many times in their videos. There was a persistent smile on my face the whole time I was there. Unfortunately I was too overwhelmed with joy to say much of anything to the team, but I did manage to thank them for all they've done over the years. Niko even put the helmet from their Minecraft videos on my head & in that moment, I was truly knighted.

Q: Would you say that habits play a crucial role in shaping your future? Do you feel that people underestimate how habits and routines contribute to becoming the person you want to be?

It's definitely important to have discipline & to have good habits. I'd say exercise is super important. Your body & your brain are one and the same. Life is full of challenges, lots of mentally taxing events. And a lot of times, you won't be able to work those out purely in your head. They'll paralyze you. You have to move. Go take a walk. Do some push ups. Make it a habit to do these things daily & it'll improve your life in so many ways.

Q: What advice and philosophy do you think are necessary to succeed in the creative field as a profession?

For personal creative projects, I'd say it's important to set achievable deadlines. Time is not on your side, and if you want to be a generative person, you need to have the discipline to use your time to create a body of work & build yourself up.

Another piece of advice that's universally helpful in all aspects of life - practice "outcome independence". What that means is disconnecting your happiness, fulfillment & self esteem from the outcomes of events in your life & invest yourself in the process. Live to work & be generative, but always be moving forward. Finish something & move onto the next one.

@Ferbun - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: What does it mean to be an artist?

1) You do art, or draw.

Q: How do you feel being Hispanic and being able to speak both Spanish and English has affected your life? Are there ways in which you think differently from others because of your experiences?

2) Pretty gud. Well, at one point, I felt that my English was very close of replacing how I usually was able to speak in Spanish. Don't give me wrong, I still have a decent Spanish, but I was in my home country for like 11 years since I was born. And right now will often mix-match some English words into Spanish ones, and say a English word out of nowhere, when having a Spanish conversation. In order to keep my Spanish identity alive, I would still watch some dubs, or YT channels, in which I should do more of. And for the last one yeah!

Q: What do you think about emojis?

3) They're fun to have a more expression of any comments or posts. I would usually prefer to do something like this ;)

Q: You’re a veteran fan of Friday Night Funkin’, having played the game when it first launched on the site. How did you discover the NG website? What made you decide to join the community? Do you feel differently about the site now compared to when you first joined?

4) I saw the pop-ups on loading screens, title screens, and main menus. I was into playing some more Flash games (mostly Mario, and Sonic.) at the time around 2018, and 2019, and when I rediscovered Newgrounds about 2019, I just joined and made an account anyway, because that's where a lot of these Flash games/movies like, Super Mario Bros Z, Final Fantasy Sonic X, Super Mario 63, Mario Combat, Sonic Shorts, etc. where founded here.

A lot. Back then, I would usually play some of the newest NG games at the time, that's why I found out about Funkin' before It became a phenomenon, and this is where I found out about more series like Henry Stickmin, the Fancy Pants series, Alien Hominid, and There she is!! That all changed from what I'm about to say below.

- Interest in drawing

About 2021 and mostly 2022, and only one year after I got back into drawing, I was starting to get more intrigued into the Art Portal right after loving Cardbordtoaster, graskip, MistakeHarvest, and even the horizon_hugger works! This made me start drawing here, on the site. From my first drawing to this one, I drew on mouse, and after that, I started using my pen tablet that I just got before that. I also used GIMP at the time all the way to this drawing when my dad bought an iPad for him and me, and for now I just use ibisPaint X.

And from time on, I made a few friends here, improved my art, started going to the Art and Video Games BBS forums, and then made a small following after the KinitoPet Art Collab. This site made me feel more open to myself.

Q: Your advice for artists

5) If you ever struggle on getting a material right, use references! (that's the only I can think of ig)

Q: What elements do you like to see in art, and how would you say collaboration helps creators? What does it mean to be a good community member, and what traits do you consider important?

6) I like the colors! It gives them like some sort of a fun gathering around other users! Not being an total asshole, and be respectful, and kind.

Q: Your username, Ferbun, is based on your name, Fernando, incorporating 'Fer,' and is combined with an old username, SparkyBun. What do you think usernames represent, and why do people choose their specific usernames? What reasons influence their choices?

7) I dunno, they're kinda of nickname instead generic normal one, and they're unique! It makes it have a more creative way to call someone! (tried my best to explain.)

Q: What foods and drinks do you like, and why do you think you enjoy those specific choices? Are there any foods and drinks that you don't enjoy, and what are the reasons for that?

8) Rice and chicken baby! I've been those since I was little. I'm basic, so I will say Coke-Zero, because It's better than Diet for me. I dunno honestly.

- Music

I like to make some music, and mostly mashups in my personal time. Although weirdly enough, I haven't made a lot of music, because it's nothing that I will take it too seriously like art, but it's still fun to go back, since a few of my songs are decent enough (It's moreso of a hobby.) I loved mashups because I always though to myself "Hey, what if I combine these songs that sounded similar?". I will say that a few of them sounded messy, but I've getting the hang of it!

Q: What are your favorite songs from Friday Night Funkin'? What do you generally enjoy in music, and why do you think you like making music? How do you know when a mashup sounds good?

9) Pico. Something that sound funky! (not just y'know!). I like going back to the parts of the songs I made to see how well enough it sounded! If it is on par with the beat, and not sounding messy!

- The Creation of Cenen

I love rabbits, the cerulean blue color (or even blue in general.) And I thought, what if I made it like one? I was into Animal Crossing back in 2020, and I made a OC based on that idea around early 2021 (I mean there were some villagers like this already but hey.) He was once called Ferke, and that name didn't sounded good to me now because, It just my named fused with another AC villager Snake.

Later on I decided to detach him from being an Animal Crossing villager OC, to completely his own thing, and that's the origin of the world of my characters (Still haven't decided what it will be about yet). He went through multiple names, He was once called Cenann, Cenan, Cliptz, and Cenan again. I would later on decided the name Cenen, because It sounded good, and Cenan which was the name I was going to chose for now on sounded like (See-nan), with the new one being (Seh-nen).

Q: Why do you enjoy Nintendo and Sonic? You mentioned that you're mostly good at platformers and are trying to get into fighting games. What fighting games are you exploring, and what are a few combos you have learned?

10) Sonic is cool, and love the characters, and of course the music! (excited for Shadow Generations). Nintendo has some fun games, and art-style, that is nothing compared to other company (Their business decisions is another story). I've recently been playing Marvel VS. Capcom 2 from the newer collection, Street Fighter 6, and Vampire Savior. An air combo, and the Felicia basic combo.

Q: What is it like being astraphobic?

11) Every time I hear, a storm, I freeze.

Q: Why do you like creating OCs?

12) I like to come up with some new and interesting ideas.

Q: What are your creative goals?

13) Have a more interesting lineless style.

Q: What does it mean to be cool?

14) Is to be enthusiastic, and rawness!

@Nerostratos - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: What does it mean to be happy?

1.     This answer is always different depending on who you hear it from, but for me, to be truly happy means that you have found that one thing in your life that truly excites you or that you are passionate about. Whether that’s a hobby, love, or a certain lifestyle. If you can wake up everyday and look forward to at least one aspect of it than id, say you’re doing something right!

Q: Why do you think you get deeply invested in something for one or two months, only for that interest to be replaced by something else?

2.     I think it might be brain-rot! Just kidding, finding something to be invested in is the easy part. Stumble across a cool video and boom I’m hooked. I lose interest mostly from over-indulgence. Too much of something makes its stale and boring to continuously consume. And thus, the cycle continues.

Q: Where does your deep fascination with science come from? What science-related topics have you been interested in, and why are you currently focused on caves? What do you enjoy about prehistoric animals, and what have you learned about fossils?

3.     The only television I was allowed to watch when I was a young kid were educational shows so that meant a lot of time on the discovery & science channels. From there I can’t tell you how many space documentaries I watched over the years. And when I was really into space, I wanted to learn more about how it worked and how we could even learn most of this stuff to begin with. I think that curiosity as a kid is what drove me to science. Science-related topics I have the highest interest in are Astronomy/Astrophysics, Zoology, Biology, and Paleontology/archeology. All super fascinating subjects and all started from a younger age so that’s why they have such a foundation. I think prehistoric animals are cool because its hard to imagine that there were other creatures on this earth before us, and how just the sheer mind-boggling amount of time that has passed since they existed. Also, paleoart of dinosaurs just looks cool! For what I’ve learned about fossils, that’s a lot so ill share the coolest fact! One of these most scientifically accurate paleo-reconstructions of a prehistoric creature is that of Psittacosaurus, thanks to a Chinese specimen SMF R 4970 we are actually able to determine which parts of the body were covered by scales and even the coloration of the skin!

Q: How did you discover the NG website? What made you decide to join the community? Do you feel differently about the site now compared to when you first joined?

4.     I was told to join Newgrounds by my friend @Arzonaut after I had made music for him for the 2018 smash brothers collab and I decided it was a great place to stick around and continue to show off my music. It was definitely better then SoundCloud, I feel like the community here was a lot interactive which was a nice change of pace from the no-listen, no-like, all bots SoundCloud. Ultimately, I feel the same about the community of Newgrounds even 6 later! Even though its not reaching the traffic it used to was back in the early 2000’s I think that works in its favor as community members are a lot closer. People actually comment and provide feedback to any work, and it seems, for the most part, to try and foster growth in the arts and music giving people an outlet for their creativity and dreams!

Q: How did you become interested in creating music?

5.     Ever since I learned how to read music, I wanted to make my own stuff! It was just some sort of drive that said, “hey what if you play these notes together”. That eventually led to me trying to mimic genres of music I enjoyed listening to, and today I make it for fun and in hopes that people will enjoy listening to it.

Q: Why do you enjoy voice acting?

6.     Voice acting is just fun, I enjoy making people laugh and I try to do that in any way I can! Voice acting just so happens to be one of them! It wasn’t until lately that I deiced to have the confidence to actually post voice acting works. But thanks to the reception of that post, I now plan to do a lot more!

Q: How did you get interested in using Blender?

7.     The show RWBY. I watched that several times and was like “I can do better”! turns out I could not haha!! but coming from someone who has zero drawing skills I thought it was an easier way to actually produce a cool show with awesome fight scenes! But 3D modeling/ Art takes just as much work and skill, so I have much greater respect for it!

Q: The story of your profile picture



8.     I found it on 4chan years and years ago! I didn’t even know who the character was I was just like “wow what a funny little character crying while holding a Lego set, I like it!” and I started using it for all my Nerostratos affiliated accounts! Turns out the girl is a character from Girls in Panzer which I still have not watched. I assume one day I will change it, but at this point this picture is like part of my accounts identity so who knows!

- Pianist

Stories I’d like to share is another tough one. My memory is always lacking when it comes to these things, my friends tend to remember the good ones for me! But here are some short ones. I grew up my whole life being a classically trained pianist, but I don’t remember most of my performances except for two big ones. The first one being the time in high school I transcribed an entire Glitch Hop song (Toothless Hawkins – Varein & Razihel) for solo piano and it actually came out so well that the percussion department asked me to perform it for one of their concerts!

Q: How did you become a classically trained pianist, and what is your process for transcribing the glitch hop song?

9.     When I was around 5 years old my sister started taking piano lessons and I told my mom I wanted too as well. To transcribe the piece, I had to listen to it hundreds of times and note by note I try to match the tones with my keyboard. For the crazy dubstep sounds I have to get creative by making up cords that fit into those spaces with some for a rhythmic resemblance to the original song. Definitely one of these most difficult transcriptions I’ve done.

- Concrete pillar

Again In High School (marching band this time) I completely messed up an important part during a big competition BOA and I got so angry afterward I punched a concrete pillar. It's funny to think about it now but I was genuinely upset I messed it up haha.

Q: What advice would you give for handling anger, and did it hurt your hand when you punched the concrete pillar?

10. I think that anger is something that is different to handle for different people. I always recommend physical exercise as a way to medicate anger and stress, just go for a nice run! But I know people really enjoy just clearing their mind so if physical exercise isn’t your thing try meditation or just spending some time alone outdoors! Take a step back, try and see what is making you angry and see if there is a way to resolve it. Just that action alone could help! And yes, it did hurt!

- Avid Bodybuilder

Final story is actually quite recent, most of Newgrounds doesn’t know but I’m an avid bodybuilder and have been for about 2 years now. Very recently a guy I see in the gym almost everyday came up to me and started asking my a bunch of questions mainly if im on steroids. I'm not, but to have someone even think that really just boosted my ego! The moral of all these stories are if you put the time, effort, and passion into something results will come! And yes sometimes they won't, mistakes are bound to happen, just don’t get to caught up on them, keep pushing forward!

Q: Why did you start working out, and how would you describe your workout regimen? Where did you learn to train, and what is your philosophy on fitness and diet?

11. I always wanted to be stronger! I was never into sports but in college I started to go the gym on campus and found it to be very frustrating at how weak I really was and that drove me to my current mindset of “try to be better than who you were yesterday” and since then I continue to push myself forward! Also, dragonball did some heavy lifting at the beginning hahah. I learned to train from many MANY different sources but let me give some advice to anyone who is interested: Do NOT follow what just one person says find a routine that works best for you and your goals. You should only use influencers or these educational videos for tips on exercise and teaching the rest comes from you! My philosophy is everyone should at least try to be healthy! Especially now a days when fast food and sedentary jobs are everywhere it’s important to counteract those elements. I’m not saying you can’t have McDondals and spend the whole day gaming, but it’s called moderation. 

Q: Why do you say that you're not that interesting?

12. I say I’m not interesting because it seems like everyone has these crazy stories about their lives or go on wild adventures. What’s more interesting someone that travels the globe for a living or the guy that goes to the gym everyday and can play a little piano. Maybe its just a negative outlook on myself but even when socializing with strangers or coworkers I find it hard to have anything to talk about since I do the same things every day. Its not like my life up until this point has been crazy eventful either; however, to round off a somber answer, I do like the slow life. To many activities and adventures gets stressful, I enjoy just relaxing!

Q: What are your favourite 4chan greentexts?

13. In high school it was the “man door hand hook car door” I remember laughing so much at that. It became a repeatable line my friends would always say! Nowadays I think it’s got to be the “Bottomless pit supervisor” definitely a good one.

Q: What do you think about the Internet?

14. This may seem completely crazy, but I think the internet is actually not such a great thing. The internet has eroded a lot of human social ability and is extremely predatory. Companies and agencies are always trying to sell you shit or steal your information to sell. Not to mention social media creating unhealthy atmospheres and actually reducing children’s mental capabilities. Yeah, it’s nice to be able to talk to family and friends in far off places but the downsides I see are too massive to quantify. But the internet exists there’s no turning back on that so we might as well make the most of its existence.

Q: Draw a picture of yourself in MS Paint

15. 

Q: What are some misconceptions you think people have around voice acting?

16. I think people tend to believe its easy, they watched one episode of Naruto dubbed as a kid and said, “dang they just let anyone do this”. But in reality, to be a professional I feel there is just as much skilled required as a professional singer. You need to be able to do multiple voices/accents or have such an iconic voice that it doesn’t matter (looking at you Patrick Warburton). This is not to say that people without those things can’t do voice acting, I’m just saying for professional grade movie/tv show level it’s very difficult. But I would still love to do it someday!

Q: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

17. I see myself 10x as big and 10x as rich ~ Jk I know it sounds sad and generic but in 10 years I see myself in the same place in life as I am now! I have a stable job, my own house, who knows maybe ill have children or maybe I’ll have won a bodybuilding competition! But that won’t change the direction of how I live my life and I’m happy as I am so why change it!

@CARVEDSPINES - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: How would you describe yourself?

I would describe myself as a video game music composer first and foremost, but also as a game dev in general. Since the age of 5 I was telling my parents that I wanted to grow up and make video games. Overall, I'm an artist that wants to make media that changes the way the player sees the world around them; media that changes lives.

Q: Why is Sonic 2 on the Sega Genesis your favorite game on the system? What other games would you consider your favorites, and what do you enjoy about the Sonic the Hedgehog soundtrack? How has it inspired your music?

Sonic 2's my favorite not only because of the music, but the fact that it was one of the first games I've ever played. I remember playing it as a wee lad on my Nintendo DS and being enthralled with the soundtrack, thinking "I want to make this." The biggest inspiration for my music though, is actually Toby Fox's Undertale and Deltarune. I use the same soundfonts and techniques Toby does in his music while adding my own twist to it. My favorite part of all 3 of these game's OSTs is their instrumentation.

Q: How would you describe your father who was an Air Force Vet? How was your family life?

Unfortunately my father passed away this year in March. Our family life was very hard as he dealt with PTSD and the trauma of the Gulf War in which he served in. He was very mentally unstable and abusive but I don't blame him anymore. I hope he rests well. To add, The Cycle of Abuse is a very real thing and is what WALKER COUNTY's narrative is driven around. I experienced it firsthand through my father.

Q: What is it like living with bipolar disorder and ADHD while currently staying at a homeless shelter? You mention that these two conditions sound bad, but you assure they are not. Why is that?

The Bipolar Disorder is medicated. I'm taking a cocktail of meds to keep me grounded to reality and to control any irrational, sometimes psychotic thoughts I may have. The ADHD is something I've learned to deal with by now, being diagnosed at age six. As for the homeless shelter, it's a very nice, inclusive space where I can be myself so I never really worry about anyone judging me. Mental Health struggles become alot easier to deal with on the right medication.

- Abandoned Hospital Story



Me and my friend during May of last year went to an abandoned hospital called Carraway Hospital located somewhere in Birmingham, Alabama. When we got out of the truck, we smelt a weird...sulfuric smell. I remember looking back at him like, "That's not what I think it is, is it?" and we just fucking BOOKED IT out of there. For reference, demons are supposed to smell like sulfur. Spoooooky.

Q: Why did you and your friend visit an abandoned hospital, and in what ways do you feel the experience has affected you? Do you see the world differently because of it?

We went to the abandoned hospital to get scared, I guess. I really don't know why we did it, we just did. That being said, I see the world so much more differently after it. Call me crazy, I wouldn't blame you, but we encountered something truly evil that night. It was a feeling I can't describe. I'm a lot more open-minded to various spiritualities and religions after that.

Q: Your experiences with the Internet

Young 10 y/o Spencer Davis (me) started his online journey on Google Plus, if you remember that site. It was the wild wild west and it had ZERO moderation. I saw things no 10 y/o should see, lmao. Fast forward to the past 5 years, Google Plus is shut down and I spend most of my time on Discord doing game development and music production with my online friends. It's such a stark difference to what I started out doing.

Q: The story of your username: CARVEDSPINES

CARVEDSPINES is an anagram of SPENCER DAVIS, which is my real name.

Q: How did you become interested in music, and what does music mean to you?

When Deltarune Chapter 1 came out, I loved it to death. So I started making my own music via a website called Beepbox. It's pretty nice, and I learned the bare basics of music with it. But growing up, I've always had an appreciation for good music and an "understanding" on why different songs made me feel different things. I feel as if music theory is etched into my brain from birth. Music means the world to me, because every form of media needs a good soundtrack to make you feel something. Since that's what I want to do with my games, like WALKER COUNTY or SPEEDIN' SHOTGUN for example, making those soundtracks good is very important to me!

Q: Your advice for creating music

Just do it! I'm in a bit of a block right now, music wise. Every time I've ever broken that block is because I said "screw it" and made something on FL STUDIO anyway. It's trial and error, and some people will have a harder time than others when they start out, but keep sticking to it!!! Composing is one of the best talents someone can have. Music is the way to the heart, and being able to make and understand it is so, so important.

Q: Your favourite food

Grilled cheese and ham, son!

Q: Your advice for life

My advice for life is this: Don't Give Up. I've been through the trenches. Before I was medicated, Bipolar Disorder ruined my life in every way it could. Life is fucking tough, but you should never give up because, and take it from me, there IS a silver lining! There IS hope! There IS a reason to keep going! Go create something you and others would love. Take control of your own emotions, take charge of your own life, and keep moving forward!!! You don't owe anyone shit, you only owe yourself a happy life. I hope my dreams of being this big game dev come true so I can prove to everyone reading this that life is truly worth living and that i'm not full of it, lol.

@FreakFormal - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: How would you describe yourself?

Q1: I would likely describe myself as an introverted brain rotted man who plays music sometimes, not too much to me.

Q: What is your opinion on having idols?

Q2: I think having idols is awesome! In a non-parasocial way ofc, I always have people and artists I look to and get influenced by, my favorite artist right now is Quadeca, someone I look up to HARD. I tend to wear my influences on my sleeve, but usually in an aesthetic and vibe way. 

Q: What does it mean to be human?

Q3: Got me the tough questions 😭 I’ll try to articulate this as best as I can. To me being human is finding happiness in whatever you do, and persevering through challenges. As well as maintaining relationships and connections.

Q: How did you discover the NG website? What made you decide to join the community? Do you feel differently about the site now compared to when you first joined?

Q4: I’ve known about New Grounds for the longest time, but one of my best friends and frequent collaborator @realityreimagined convinced me to start posting here. He would boast about the great and receptive community. He’s a fantastic producer and artist. He actually has new music coming soon. I'm so excited for him.

Q: The story of your username: FreakFormal

Q5: I wish I had an actually cool story for my name, but I came up with it when I was around 12. I just really wanted to become an artist, I would daydream about it all the time and had a day where I tried to come up with a name. It really just came to me in the shower after a full day of trying to come up with one. I told my mom immediately, who didn’t care lol. I think it’s a good name, ever since freaky became popular I knew I was cooked tho.

Q: Why would you describe yourself as a boring person?

Q6: I just don’t do much outside of music. I watch a couple of shows and movies and a lot of YouTube. And as far as other hobbies I literally have nothing else, I do work and am in school so it takes up a decent amount of time, so it's not like I have a ton of time outside of it, so I think music is a good use of it.

Q: Your dad has been a positive influence on your musical development. How did he inspire you to learn as many instruments as possible? How did you become interested in creating electronic music? Also, how would you say you've been influenced by artists like John Mayer and the Red Hot Chili Peppers? How have they shaped your perspective on music?

Q7: He just loved jamming with a lot of instruments. He played piano, guitar, and his main instrument, bass, which he’s crazy at. Helped me realize the possibilities, so I learned guitar, bass, drums, piano, and ukulele I guess it’s fun to play. As far as getting interested in electronic music, it was just the easiest avenue for what I had, just a computer and a bedroom. It was enough for me since I use mostly free software and fit my more pop sensibilities anyways. With John Mayer and The Red-Hot Chili Peppers, they really just showed me what diversity can look like in music. Just an example of different genres my dad liked. While I do listen to them, I don’t too much. Some of my favorite acts right now is obviously Quadeca, Hippo Campus, Dayglow, Magdalena Bay, and Keni Can Fly. I’ve never liked pretentious people who didn’t like more mainstream artist to fit their predetermined aesthetic, I listen to drake but love finding more underground artist too.

Q: What types of videos do you watch while playing Minecraft? Do you find the experience relaxing, and what do you usually do in the game?

Q8: I look at alot of random video essays and I have a few comfort channels. Some of them being Best friends today, Slushy Noobz, and SuperMega, I don’t have a gage for how popular they are so I hope someone knows one of them. It's most definitely relaxing to me, as far as minecraft I usually play survival, a lightly modded survival, or bedwars. I also play a couple Roblox FPS like bad business, definitely not much of gamer but relaxing is the perfect way to put it. I'm a major passive player, mostly focusing on the video more than the actual game.

Q: Describe your experiences with walking. Do you walk almost daily in your local park? Why do you think it's a good way to clear your mind? Would you recommend taking walks as a positive practice?

Q9: Walking is so awesome, I try my best to take almost daily walks to my local park. As overused as it is, touching grass is real, the combination of looking at nature and seeing people brings the right chemicals to my brain atleast for me. I always think about what I wanna do musically or in general during my walks while listening to music or a podcast. I definitely recommend people to try it once, I honestly can get depressed if I don’t walk for a while.

Q: How did you become interested in filmmaking, and what projects would you love to work on in the future?

Q10: I would just watch alot of filmmaking video essays and liked movies ofc. I used to write bad scripts when I was little to live out the director dream. I dabble with it with a few music videos I do, but I’m definitely not that good, I would need to practice a lot more to do real stuff with it. I would love to make a movie one day tho, or work on a short film.

Q: In school, you were a band kid. What does that mean? You exclusively played keyboards, such as marimbas, vibraphones, and piano.

You were also in a jazz band. What does it mean to improvise, and what are the core principles of musical improvisation in jazz? How did you learn to read and interpret music while being in a jazz band?

Q11: Okay I was more of a kid in band, not invested in the culture, but loved playing with people. Improvising to me is just coming up with melodies based on chord progressions. A core principle is to listen to the people around you and stay in the scale and progression, which was usually 2-5-1 for me. I just got better at reading notation faster and playing different inversions of chords. Like if I saw “Amaj7” I knew different ways to play it right away. I’m not amazing but enough to get me through and it helps me come up with new melodies faster for songs I make. 

Q: How do you define music?

Q12: Another hard question. I personally define it as an emotionally charged group of sounds that says something about the human condition. As pretentious as that sounds, I love sincerity in music, I need to feel connected to it. I try to be as honest as I can with my music and write about what I’m experience in the moment, to create a snapshot in time almost. I like to think people can sense it and hopefully connect with it.

- Story of the conception of the "Look! You’ve loved!" album

I was trying to skate with a couple of my friends and immediately sprained my ankle. I had about a week where I was just in my room, where I made the first three songs cause I had nothing else to do, which included I's on me. I was already thinking about making something focused on love, but that made me focus to start cause I didn't want to waste away in bed.

Q: How long have you been skating?

Q13: Oh I don’t actually skate 😭 that was one of the only times I did and even then I immediately sprained my ankle so I probably won’t for a while. I did skate lightly when I was little, but I would exclusively cruise and not do any tricks, so I would just take scenic trips.

Q: How do you know when an album is finished?

Q14: I wish I knew how to answer this, I really just live this quote CakeWalk gives me sometimes. “A project is never finished, just surrendered.” I don’t consider myself a perfectionist, I like moving on from projects when I get tired of it. Especially while I’m trying to make a name for myself, I wanna throw as much as I can at the wall, I obviously do try to make them as good as I can. I listen to my music alot before release to make sure I like them, tweaking what I can but not stressing over it. I work very spontaneously. And with knowing when an albums finished, I like to tell a type of story when I make an album, so I usually have an emotional journey in my mind when I make an album, so when I think there’s enough songs to tell it, I think its done. I love concept albums, I hope to eventually make a proper concept album that tells a story and has a tight sonic sound.

Q: Your advice for creating music

Q15: Honestly, create alot, it really is a muscle to exercise. Follow your intuition and create what you like to hear. There’s nothing wrong with wearing your influences on your sleeve, as long as it’s not just copying. And there’s nothing wrong with wearing your heart on your sleeve, people connect when your being sincere. I live by this one Pharrell quote since I heard it, “Make something undeniable, and make it equally as infectious” paraphrasing but close enough. Do what you want without fear, words I still try to live by today.

@anymany - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: Your experiences with the Internet

I always believed that the internet is what you made it out to be, it's a tool , and as a tool I have been able to mold it to make it be a mostly positive tool. I try to avoid going on twitter, and if I do go there, I don't read anything. I don't go on 4chan much nor do I pay much attention to internet drama, this has allowed me to not be angry all the time. I try to fill my time online instead with things I like, browsing on newgrounds, talking to friends, watching edu-taiment videos on youtube, etc. that why, for the most part, I have pretty positive experiences with the internet.

Q: How did you discover NG, and why did you join?

I discovered NG when I was watching "hellbenders" by psychicpebbles and I heard something about NG, can't remember what. I had known about it for a while always as someone's backup account but I had also heard that a bunch of cool artist had gotten their start here, so I was curious and I visited it.

I joined because I thought that it looked like a cool site, it didn't feel like a twitter or myspace clone, it felt fresh, it felt new...gounds. I also thought about joining because up until then I had just made stuff for myself which was fine but I thought the idea of sharing it with others to be really cool.

Q: What do you think about the BBS?

I miss general but aside from that, I never though I would enjoy forums, I only came across the forums by accident because I was trying to see what the "chat" was. I like the BBS because I feels like a dedicated place to just "shoot the shit" with others, make jokes, have fun, etc. The BBS to me feels like a digital hangout spot which I really like.

Q: How did you get interested learning about music theory?

I've always been curious about many things music not being an exception. I wondered how people were able to "feel" or " think" in music, It felt like a language to me, so I decided to take a class in it. I thought that maybe if I took a class I would be able to compose a piece but since it was only one class, I only really learned how to complete chords, recognize keys and some history about old ppl who played the piano

Q: What is the music that you like?

I'd say that I really like most music, techno, classical, jazz, jizz(starwars cantina genre), jumpstile, polka, salsa, reggae, j-pop, electro swing, rock, bluegrass, country, throat singing, rap, hip-hop, bachata, city pop, metal, grind core, bhangra, SOME reggaetón(not the biggest fan of it), banda, and yes... anime intros.

Q: What advice do you have for people who are feeling sad?

I'm not sure, I can dish out advice, I deal with it by ignoring it which I have heard that it's not great. maybe go get some ice cream if you're feeling down?

- "dress x-ing"

a story that I think is interesting is the how my first erotica "dress x-ing" came to be.

I actually started the outline of that story one day in school. I had finished all my work so I had some down time in which I just scribbled the beginning of that story. later that day during lunch I continued writing it and made it ever more gay; a friend of mine who was sitting next to me asked what I was doing and I showed them, I though he was going to get a good laugh since that was it's original point but he actually thought it was interesting. He told me that he actually genuinely liked it and showed it to our other friends. I was surprised that none of them were laughing since again, I only made it to be funny and entertaining, in fact, they wanted me to continue and to keep them updated about the story. I wrote more and showed them and they kept asking for more content so I continued and eventually I reached the end. they all seemed genuinely invested in it despite the fact that it was really gay and cross dressy and they weren't but I decided to post it and it became my most read story.

Q: How did you get interested in writing?

I just stumbled upon it to be honest. I never really even cared about writing and even hated it for a bit. English is my second language so when I came to the US it was really hard for me to get used to it and when I came in, the kids around me were already writing essays which I was expected to do soon after I arrived, needless to say that I didn't do all that good; after a while I was able to do ok at it and just wrote as part of my assignments. It was only until my friends saw that story that I was writing and thought that I had potential that I actually started practicing it and thinking about what I could write next

Q: Why are you the horniest BBS user?

although not a scientifically peer reviewed claim, I think that I talk about sex and stuff like like a bit more than the average BBS user. perhaps not, perhaps I'm just full of myself, and by full of myself... I'm gonna stop that train of though right there

Q: How would you describe your life

my life is like a taco, fleeting moments of intense happiness but very unhealthy in the long run

Q: What do you like and dislike about the NG community

I like that, for the most part, it is genuinely a pretty positive community and well, an actual community, there are many places online that say they are community yet feel rather Isolating. The NG community is very helpful and willing to make something bigger that themselves.

I dislike that there is some people that do just enjoy starting drama but that's a problem with every community

Q: What are your goals, and what do you hope to achieve by being part of the Newgrounds community?

I want to make friends and inspire people

@Siberg - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: Favorite Family Guy character, and why?

I don't have a favorite Family Guy character but if I had to pick it would be Meg because no one likes her and I don't either.

Q: How did you discover NG, and why did you join?

Always knw NG existed from way back in the day but a buddy of mine told me to upload music here so I did.

Q: Your experience with making music

Yes.

Q: How do you know when music is good?

It's all vibey wibey.

Q: What do you think about longboarding?

It's cool.

Q: You have stated that you like pussy, what does that mean?

Yes.

Q: Your experience with jobs, and funny job stories and unfunny job stories

I stock produce. It sucks. Funny thing is the pay. Unfunny thing is my pay.

Q: Why do you enjoy smoking and drinking?

It's dope.

Q: How did you become a schizo?

Long isolation accompanied by crippling depression and extistential dread lead me down a path of crazy vibers.

Q: What makes you laugh, what makes you brap?

Spongebob Brappants.