Last week I uploaded nearly the entire GFGames series on ScrewAttack (having problems rendered a new video of Tactical Espionage) and we’ve had a really good response so far. On the above video, la Tragedie is the first highlight on the g1 Spotlight. It’s good to see la Tragedie get a little respect as it’s our least watched episode of the series. A few days before that, Rated M for Molester was featured on their front page. It has been great getting introducing GFGames to a new crowd, and it’s encouraging to see that some people over there already know of it from Newgrounds. One commenter even went as far to say that the episode featured on ScrewAttack were stolen. I let him know that they came straight from the source.

The video is officially up on the YouTubes and it is time to share all the details about the event. Here’s a PR straight from the Shamoozal Press Room, i.e. my home computer room.

NATIONAL PARK, New Jersey – Shamoozal.com is proud to present the Second Annual ‘NES Holiday Marathon’, a live 12 hour event to raise money for charity.

Starting December 12th at 12PM EST, the gang from Shamoozal will host a live 12 hour Nintendo Entertainment System themed event. During those 12 hours, the crew hopes to raise money for charity by playing classic game titles along with a host of other events. The charity, Child’s Play, specializes in distributing video games, toys, books and cash to children’s hospitals across the country.

It’s that time of the year again! I’ve spent the better part of this weekend (mainly today) putting together a new promotional video for Saturday’s upcoming NES Marathon. The video we put together last year was a huge success for us, and to be honest, if I didn’t make that thing and Gametrailers didn’t push it for us, we probably would have had the worst turn out ever. That said, I realized the importance of doing the whole promo video thing. I’ll be spending some time this week uploading this video to different places (probably later in the week when it’s closer to Saturday) in order to help us drum up a bit of support.

Not sure how happy I am with the finished product here, but it was an interesting project. It’s essentially a sprite movie, and I’ve actually never made one of those before. The process of gathering all the sprite rips from games and shoving them into Flash was somewhat painless but a lot of work. Still, I guess I can see the appeal of working on sprite movies because once you have the character moving around, it’s pretty easy to get your point across and come up with scenarios. The scene I animated here would have been a nightmare to animate had I did traditional frame by frame animation, but I was able to crank out the bulk of the work in a few short hours. Again, I can see where the appeal in making these types of movies lies now… though I still don’t particularly dig sprite movies, which is why I guess I’m on the fence about the one I just created.

Anyway, check it out, share some thoughts on the smorg. I might be doing a few changes to it, so if there is anything glaring that you think needs adjusting, let me know.

Being a long time fan of the Ninja Turtles, I was not only shocked to find out that I had no idea about a brand new feature length cartoon that was in the works, but was already being aired on TV the moment I learned about it. The premise of the new cartoon is to celebrate 25 years worth of Ninja Turtles legacy in an hour and a half, and celebrate it they do.

The idea is that the Ninja Turtles from 2003 end up in the same dimension as the Ninja Turtles from the original 1987 cartoon series. Eventually, the 8 Turtles even meet up with their black and white comic book counter parts. Along with all the different versions of the Turtles are also different versions of Shredder, April, and Splinter along with classic characters like Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady.

I only caught the final 20 minutes of the show on Saturday morning, but as it turns out CW Kids will be airing it over the next three weekends, so I already set the DVR for next weeks showing. From what I saw, I had some mixed feelings, but generally I loved the idea of it. Of course the story your standard Saturday morning cartoon nonsense, but then again, I guess Saturday morning nonsense is what I loved so much about the Turtles back in the day.

Okay, sorry that the whole streaming event was a bust. UStream was being a pain and my machine wasn’t running well at all while I was doing the video capture, so I was forced to cut it if I were to get this done.

This project was a little harder than I originally thought. The Frankensteiner shorts are not supposed to be well put together in the least. As you might know, with the original it was just a joke and a jab at poor Flash animation tucked away inside Crapfest Force. With the second episode, Muscle Quest, I just wanted an excuse to use Mario Paint again. You know, a coming full circle type deal, since Mario Paint is where everything started for me. With this new one I felt like it needed to be bad, but a different kind of bad. I wasn’t willing to go as crude as in the original short, The Toughest, but I wanted to make something that maybe looked “serious” even though it’s not. Anyway, there was quite a bit of effort going into making something terrible, which is kind of shocking. It goes to show that to make anything it takes time, even if it’s something as simple as this.

So anyway, you can go check out the latest episode of Frankensteiner over in the Episode section under “Extra Episodes.” Enjoy it, and be sure to leave us your thoughts! There you have it, my Halloween gift to you. Happy Halloween!

Just a little reminder that I’ll be streaming the entire creation process tomorrow of the next Frankensteiner short throughout the duration of the day. I’ll probably start sometime before 12 (once I get up, get showered, ect) and I’ll be working on it until completion. I really hope it’s worth the effort, because I already got myself into some trouble actually. Despite planning this event for the last month, it slipped my mind and I told my wife I’d take her out to dinner tomorrow night for our third anniversary… needless to say she wasn’t thrilled when I reminded her that tomorrow I’ll be working all day. Whoops. Sorry Dem, I’ll make it up to you, I promise.

Anyway, so I’ll have the stream up tomorrow and I wish everyone drop in and say hi. I also decided to rename the short, as it is now titled “Frankensteiner: Glutes and Chutes.” Believe me, this title actually has something to do with the short.

All you Frankensteiner fans will be pleased to know that on October 24th of 2009, yours truly will be hosting a 12 hour living stream event for the next episode in the series, titled “Frankensteiner: Biceps & Triceps.” Taking place on a Saturday around noon, I’ll guide watchers through the entire process of the making of this short. Unlike last year, I most likely will not be using Mario Paint for the creation process, but instead will be using Flash. However, I do plan on taking a bit of a different route this time and most likely presenting Frankensteiner in a bit of a different way. So mark your calendars because this episode of Frankensteiner will be the most insane, over the top, ridiculous and vicious episode seen yet.

You won’t want to miss it.

Oh, in case you need a refreshing on Frankensteiner, the version I cooked up last year is after the jump. BA-BAM!

Howdy all. Hope everyone has had a chance to check out GFG#5 “How To Hook Up The NES“. So far, so good! As much quality as we tried to jam into our latest here at the Shamoozal, we’re still just a handful of guys doing this in our spare time with a budget of zero dollars. Of course, when I see rough animation for the upcoming “Princess and the Frog”, I can’t help but get pumped and humbled at the same time. There is some really amazing character work going on here. I especially like what’s going on with the crocodile character as well as the long, drawn out handling of the villain. This is looking like a sure fire hit the more I see of it.

No, not a new episode, but a new episode page. Yup, the old DVD case format is no more. It was a Shamoozal staple since the site started back in ‘05, but I’ve decided to move on. Frank and I noticed that people really didn’t “get” or understand the way we used to present the episodes from before. As a result, we probably lost many potential viewers. The new layout is a little more clear cut and just gets right to the point and just makes more sense in the long run. If you want to check it out, just hop on over to the episodes page.

Anyway, just wanted to get that whole thing in order before the launch of “How to Hook Up the NES” which should be dropping… soonish.

So it was only a few weeks ago that FOX announced the return of the beloved animated series, “Futurama”. Hands down, “Futurama” is one of the best animated series to come along in recent years. I remember not liking it so much when it first aired, but I fell into it when Adult Swim began airing episodes. It’s easily one of the most cleverly written series that takes advantage of its medium, and it has become one of my all time favorites.

I just read today that FOX is looking recast the major roles which are played by Billy West and Katy Segal and John Di Maggio. Being an animator, I will be one of the first people to tell you that Brad Pitt won’t make a character any better than the actual animator doing the work to bring said character to life. However, in this case FOX is making a HUGE mistake. At this point, these actors are now synonymous with the characters they portray in “Futurama”. I mean, Billy West alone does a majority of the show’s side characters as well as Fry.

Not signing them on would be a major disservice to the series and to the fans who without them there would be no call to bring the show back into production in the first place. What is going on here is that FOX is balking at whatever price the actors are asking for to reprise their roles. In other words, FOX is turning into a bunch of cheap bastards, which will in all likelihood will backfire in their faces.