Years ago, I had a little update blog on Patreon and Newgrounds called Makin' Toons. I stopped making update posts because no one interacted with them. I'm restarting it because I feel that people forget I exist when I don't put out content daily and I want to give more value to my Patrons and followers. This time, the update posts will include ALL the things I do rather than just cartoons in these updates, so I'm renaming it Makin' Art. Updates on animation, drawings, music, commission work, YouTube videos, all that.
I started working for MatterBoar earlier this year. I work as an animator, musician, and video editor and have had very little time to devote to TotallyGood or my own music and animation. I'm okay with this, though, because I'm finally working in a creative field and what I make gets way more viewership through MatterBoar than it would through me.
The way my Patreon works is changing. As it currently is, all posts are public and none are locked behind a paywall. With this method, there's no incentive for people to donate. They could donate out of generosity, but since ~2015 and after lots of self-promotion, only three people have donated in total and two of them stopped a long time ago. If Patreon is going to become a decent source of income someday, I'm going to have to make some changes. WIPs and previews for animation, music, and videos are all going to be behind a $5 reward here on out.
For the first time, I found a Nintendo Switch copy of #NexomonExtinction in the wild! I will be giving away this copy of the game. (There may be other goodies with the giveaway too!) Drawing date TBD.
I have taken an interest in filmmaking lately. However, filmmaking is a notoriously expensive hobby. So instead of buying proper equipment for ludicrous sums of money, I decided to take matters into my own hands and do it myself!
I still have more plans for DIY equipment! A boom mic pole made out of a broom stick. A camera slider made out of PVC pipe, maybe a motorized slider. I plan on making short videos like these on all of them!
Commissions are going through slowly but surely as usual. I want to transition away from commissions indefinitely because it takes up such a huge chunk of my time that I have no time or energy to focus on Totally Good at Games or my own animations and other ventures. After this current League of Legends commission and the next MatterBoar cartoon, I want to take a hiatus from commissions and return in the future.
In 2015, I was part of my friends Mark Swartz and Orion Rodriguez's indie film studio called Clear View Pictures. Since Mark left PA some years back I've always wanted to make my own movies. Good news! I've been getting into filmmaking, though I am in the early stages of it. I'm working on building a simple set of vintage lenses before I buy a camera body. So far, I have a telephoto lens. Next up is a 35mm lens and I will hopefully get one tomorrow!
Sun Optics Zoom Telephoto 85–210mm f/4.8
I have my eye on the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K for $1,300. It's a lot, but it records super high quality 4K footage. If you want to keep up with what gear I use, I have a Kit account where you can see all my filmmaking, animation, and music gear!
In other news, Darren is getting very close to 10,000 followers on TikTok! Go support my boy!! He's working on his voice acting demo reel.
I am very proud to present TWO NEW ALBUMS: Nexomon Sound Selection and EXTINCTION EVENT—Nexomon: Extinction Sound Selection! They contain all the music I created for both Nexomon games and even include some never before heard unused tracks! Give them a listen. I hope you enjoy! ^_^
In the Bandcamp release, there are extra goodies like sheet music and album commentary for each track!
2020 was bad. It was filled with worsening depression and apathy with short-lived spikes of happiness. It turns out that even if good things happen, it doesn't make the bad things go away; they just distract from it.
It was slow and yet went by in the blink of an eye. But if there's one thing I've learned from 2020, it's this: In order to do something, you have to do it. Do not wait nor make excuses. The problem is that I am not equipped to do that. Not with any meaningful consistency, anyway.
Commissions
The argument of "Should I continue being a freelance artist or should I get a 'real' job?" and "Can freelance even be considered a real job compared to jobs like burger flipper, janitor, cashier, etc., especially when I make less than even minimum wage?" when people assure me freelance is a real job dances around in my head nonstop. The thought of doing both is awful; imagine trying to balance a real job and freelance when I cannot emotionally handle a real job and cannot financially handle freelance. The push and pull would be too much. (There's another layer of guilt from the fact that everyone else on the planet can do both and yet I can't. Combined with people's advice that you should "follow your dreams!" and "Don't compare yourself to others!", it leaves me questioning if I'm even a good person or a manipulative bum at every turn.)
Often, I receive advice by other artists to simply increase my rates until my financial needs are met, but that brings on a whole new set of problems.
If I already struggle to find people willing to pay for cheap work, how can I hope to find exclusively find people willing to pay much more for the same quality of work? The vast majority of clients are just your average joes and cannot pay a living wage.
How can I physically pull off an increase in art quality analogous to the rate increase if I'm already doing my best? If I increase my rates, how can I sleep soundly knowing that I'm arbitrarily asking $100 for something today that was $50 yesterday?
If I already struggle with guilt in taking people's money, how does increasing the payment relieve stress when all it does is increase the stakes if I don't meet expectations?
I have been very fortunate to have the clients I have had and am grateful to them for choosing me over others. I am sorry that I do not do enough. The most notable commissions from this year were the ones from MatterBoar and WaffleDew.
YouTube
Totally Good at Games will be on hiatus. There may be streams from time to time, be them art or games, but I want to focus on finding stability in life before further pursuing YouTube. My resolutions for 2020 centered around finding stability in order to get TGAG off the ground or send the channel in a brave new direction, but after the COVID-19 pandemic struck that went out the window. Darren and I haven't recorded together in person since the Breath of the Wild episodes in May. The enthusiasm I had for expanding, filmmaking, and let's plays at the beginning has waned because of the utter lack of progress made over the years.
Music
There is a new album coming out soon! I'm not gonna talk about it too much because it's a surprise! I hope for it to release early January 2021.
Comics?
I've been thinking of moving away from animation. Not because I dislike it—I still love the art form as much as ever—but because animating is such an immense time sink that the reward of completing it is not worth the effort put in (among other reasons). Animated cartoons, freelance or for fun, do not make career sustaining numbers on NG or YouTube for me despite animating since 2012, nine years ago. The highest viewed cartoons of mine are Oney Plays Animated: Well Well from November on MatterBoar's channel at 85,000 views (and 940 on my Newgrounds channel) and Funny Mii Thing from eight years ago on my channel at 67,000 views. Despite my passion, there are a number of internal and external factors that prevent my life as an animator from being successful and I do not know how to fix that outside of continued stubborn, blind, hopeful persistence.
The benefit that comics have are that they are generally easier to make and so I can tell larger stories with less time. Before 2012, I was a comic artist and so I at least have experience making comics as a kid. I don't know if that's the direction I will be taking, but I'd like to just try it out without pressure. The takeaway here is that I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing. I haven't been sure of what I'm doing for six years (in any aspect of life) and, given external pressures, only having that ambiguity when things should be concrete is maddening.
I've also slowly been working on a Sonic Adventure 2 comic adaptation in my spare time. When I'm not working on commissions, I may work on it. It's the first comic I've made that uses a dip pen! I was inspired by the art in 90s cyberpunk manga and wanted to replicate it. This City Escape page isn't from that comic; it's just something I made to try out the dip pen and digital screentones since I'm very new to it. The plan is to complete the entire comic and thenpost it instead of posting pages as it progresses. That way, I can focus on making each page to my liking without worrying about hooking everyone with consistent updates. Given everything, I'm not sure if I will have the time or peace of mind to create this at all, but I'd certainly like to.
2021 Resolutions
I hope that things improve. I don't know how to make them improve, but I hope they do.
Either quit freelance (permanently or temporarily) and get a real job or instead make freelance sustainable
Afterwards, expand Totally Good at Games to be something more than just another let's play show
While I work on commissions, I am also preparing a new album that will release sometime in January 2021. All that needs to be done is complete one of the tracks and create album art! I am very excited to get this album in the hands of its listeners!
My memory is poor, so my recollection may be faulty. Many of the details were taken from me and Marc's Facebook Messenger conversations, though they don't explain everything. I believe we talked more on Skype, but those conversations have unfortunately since been deleted.
My involvement with the Eddsworld Fan Movie project started in mid-2014. Marc asked for image songs for Edd, Tom, and Matt. The intention wasn't to use them in the movie, but as bonus tracks in the movie's future soundtrack album. Edd's image song was originally intended to have lyrics. They told the story of how Edd and Matt deal with Tom's sudden clone. I wrote the lyrics sometime in late September 2014. The intention was to have the voice actors of Edd, Tom, and Matt perform their lines in sprechstimme, a speaking-singing hybrid delivery. I recorded myself singing the narration lyrics in early August. The singing was very cringey and the actors never performed their parts in the song.
The Inner Imaginations of Edd's Mind Lyrics
By Alexander Emenheiser
[SUNG] Sit right there
Imma’ tell you a tale
About a young man
And his two good friends
You better strap right in
This shindig is about to begin
[RAPPED] Edd was sittin’ on the sofa
Takin’ a sip from his cola
Matt started yelling
Like a bat outta’ hell-a
[EDD] “What’s your deal, Matt?
You can be heard two homes over!”
[MATT] “Quick! Duck down
You’re gonna’ blow my cover!”
[RAPPED] So they hid right underneath the couch
And Edd decided to let Matt vouch:
[MATT] “Tom’s gone mad!
There’s nothing we can do!”
[EDD] “What are you talking about?
How can this possibly be true?”
[CHORUS]
[MATT] “He bumped into me
Accidentally”
[EDD] “And then what did he do?”
[MATT] “He said he was sorry!”
[EDD] “WHAT?!”
[MATT] “I know, right!
And that’s not all.
When I told him my granny was ill
He said he’d give her a call!”
“That’s so unlike him!
Being nice and junk.
He’s not supposed to be gentle,
He’s supposed to be a punk!”
[EDD] “These are desperate time
Calls for desperate measures.
We must put an end to this
For now and forever.”
[RAPPED] Scared and confused,
They did what anyone would do
They went up to Tom’s room
And his artillery collection, they went through his
AK-47s, AR-15s,
With enhanced trigger action
[EDD] “Are you ready, Matt?”
[MATT] “Ready as ever, Edd.”
[EDD] “Let’s do this!”
[RAPPED] So they searched the house,
Every nook and cranny.
Looked in the garage
And looked in the pantry.
They huddled ‘gainst the wall,
Look at door that they’d breach,
Slam open the door,
And their destiny was reached.
[CHORUS]
[SUNG] Oh, my god!
There stood two Toms.
One had to be the right
And the other had to be the wrong.
But which one is real?
The one drinking
Or the one petting the baby seal?
[EDD] “It’s – Oh, it’s the one who’s drinking…”
“What the heck? You have a clone?”
[TOM] “Yup. He’s an anti-clone. He’s the opposite of me.”
[EDD] “That would explain the politeness.”
[MATT] “And the humanitarianism.”
[TOM] “And it would explain why he does all the chores I want him to do for free.”
[MATT] “Did you say FREE?!”
[EDD] “Where did you get this clone?!”
[TOM] “Why, at the Clone Shoppe, of course!”
[MATT] “Ohmigod, Ohmigod, Ohmigod, I’m gonna’ get a clone~~!”
[RAPPED] So Edd and Matt got their own slaves
To do all their work, thinking they would behave
But they forgot that the clones turn evil
So the clones told them to dig their own graves.
Too afraid to die,
They compromised.
[SUNG] Lesson of the story is
Don’t get an anti-clone
To do all of your chores
Or else they might form a union
then you’ll have to pay for worker’s compensation
…Or you can just fire them.
That can work, too.
[TOM] “Hey, Edd? What are we going to do with this seal?”
[SEAL] “ORK!” (Seal noise)
[EDD] “Hmm…We could either give it to the Animal Protection Agency or…”
[MATT] “I’m going to call you Shelly! And you: Petunia! And you: Snuggles! And you: Dominguez!”
[FADE OUT]
[SEAL] “ORK!”
[END]
The "Sit right there / Imma tell you a tale" bit was a Game Grumps reference to how Arin Hanson would open his improv raps with "Wassup, mothafuckas, let me tell you a tale". Looking back, I don't know why I did that since Game Grumps has nothing to do with Eddsworld; chalk it up to being young and inexperienced. Two versions of Tom's image song were made. The first one was a clumsy mix of prog and funk and the second was ska. Ska naturally fitted Tom's character, so that was the one we used. Matt's image song was supposed to have vocals, too, but I struggled with the lyrics and couldn't complete them. So, Matt's theme was left as a strangely paced instrumental. The song was going to be about Matt protecting his precious face from the dangers he encounters while going on a milk run. The chorus was supposed to open each time with a bombastic "NOT THE FACE!!"
"All I can tell you now is the style of music we're going for. Since it's called 'Eddsworld: The Movie', Billy and I really want the music to sound big, like a real movie. For the score, we're going for the regular Eddsworld style (blend of ska, techno, 80s new wave, etc.) but with a larger emphasis on the orchestra." - Marc Lovallo, dir.
Marc asked me to be a composer for the movie itself on June 10th, 2015. My involvement was very on-and-off-again due to the gig being pro bono in addition to going to high school, having a janitor job, depression, and my mother suffering a car accident. I was unfortunately disconnected from the other team members and only really spoke with Marc. To my knowledge, I was the only composer on the team.
The music of Trailer 2 was explicitly inspired by the music of Metal Gear Solid. The animatic of the trailer it belonged to has since been removed, but I think it was supposed to tease the military's role as antagonists. After reading the script and learning about Paul's death in the movie, I composed A Death In the Family to accompany that scene, but was told it might not fit. I later repurposed that song for a faux-video game called Immortal Dust and retitled it Life is Fleeting. It turns out from the leaked animatic it was used in the final scene.
I left the Fan Movie project in September 2016. Interestingly, the Fan Movie team at some point received the original creators' blessings to make the Fan Movie. I never got to interact with any of the official Eddsworld team.
An early version of the script was leaked online in December 2015, I think. In 2018, Marc stepped away from the project to focus on his YouTube channel and Pippin Kelly, also known as PiPtoons, took over as director. The Eddsworld Fan Movie team announced the movie was canceled on September 12th, 2020. Minor grooming allegations against Marc Lovallo and film project-related controversies revolving around him appeared around this time, as well.
On October 9th, 2020, the full movie animatic written and directed by Marc Lavallo was leaked on YouTube and MEGA by Yoyosmixture from Instagram and was met with mixed reception at best. This version of the movie is not to be confused with the canceled project directed by PiPtoon. Watching the leaked animatic in 2020 was the first time I was able to watch the movie in a semi-complete state since starting in 2014.
Working on this project has been an honor and a blemish. On one hand, it was and still is an amazing feeling to have provided music for a cinema-esque movie based on one of my favorite internet cartoons as a kid that is Eddsworld, even if it was an unofficial fan project. It was a great learning experience as a media composer. On the other hand, it is a shame that the project was wrought with delays, controversy, and mediocrity; and that it would result in cancelation years after its conception in 2013. Though I never really got to know any of them during production, I wish the crew members of the Eddsworld Fan Movie team the best, including Charlie Neider (@chxrliee), PiPtoons, Billy Crinion, Arivuple, Franchesca Pun, Shainix, Best Buds, ShawnCookie, Patman, Vintdoo, Andrew Scott, Korpdork, Fliglaba, FishieComics, Star-Kingo, Gary On a Skateboard, Anthamation, Jaylin Corbin, DoctorLazlo, Collin Bogert, Kevin Horton, N0sSyndrome, and MikanGamerPrime. (I hope I got everyone!)
Finally, thank you to my Patreon supporters—Aleah, Ashley, and Froggy—for your continued patronage.
Download the album here on Newgrounds or on Bandcamp.
Here is a list of all the known credits for the Marc Lovallo version of the Eddsworld Fan Movie. Information supplied by Mikan.
VOICE ACTORS
Edd | Anthony Rees
Tom and Mark | Lena Charles
Matt | James Horsley (was recast once Jon took over as director in 2018 before PiP)
General McCoy | Kevin Horton
Private Martin | Mike Joseph
Paul | Billy Crinion
Edwardo, Ian, and Hillary | Marc Lovallo
Jon and Loud Bob | Jon Lopez
Anna | Elissa Park / Adoxgraphist
Pony scientists | Billy Crinion and an unknown voice actor
Commander Bai | Jason Norris / N0sSyndrome
President Mone | Landon Bell
Patryk | Matthew Plichta
Kim and Katya, Milkman, Son Rwanson, Bill, Frank, Space Cat Announcer, Delivery Guy, Stefon Zolesky | Unknown voice actors
Evil Director | Lena Charles and unknown voice actor
Larry, Seth Mayer | Likely Mark Lovallo
Soldiers and additional voices | Unknown voice actors; likely Billy Crinion, Marc Lovallo, and Lena Charles
PRODUCTION CREW
Composers | Alexander Emenheiser, Finn MK, Hayleigh West-Nover, and Marc Lovallo
Composers (Unused) | Michael Pearson, Chandler Robinson, Noemie Pounder, and Zack Walter
Direction, Storyboards, and Editing | Marc Lovallo
Animation | Jon Lopez
Story | Marc Lovallo, Jonah Good, and Radley Catubig
EDIT (December 7, 2020) I was cleaning out my room and came across a composition book with lyrics to an alternate version of Edd's theme. It is titled EDD'S THEME—"Enter His World", likely written around mid-2014 and likely written before the used version.
There was once a boy
Who was left all alone
He carried his sketchbook:
A life of its own
He put up his art
For the whole world to see
Be befriended a boy by the name of Tom
And they would realize what they could be
In the beginning,
They did their fun and games.
Unaware of what was up ahead,
Their lives would never be the same
Chased by a mummy
Invaded by zombies
Joined the army
Explored the deep blue sea
Dangerous, adventurous,
Treacherous, humorous,
Courageous, Uranu—okay, let's not- let's not do that one.
