Finally, back to the grind…kinda. Strange how comforting routine is. I’ll miss the sand and sun, but I’ve missed feeling like I can actually unpack my bags and settle in to our new home and start working again.

Just finished pick-ups at 4Kids this afternoon, only had a few lines, which makes the hour minimum really nice. Heading back from 4 days in NYC to MN on Wednesday.

Backed up on voicing, so I plan to tackle those first. Some fun projects I’m excited to get rocking on. Also, Auralex has sent me the breakdown on what I need to treat my first real home studio. So that’ll be happening soon, along with a new mic.

Animation stuff … I’m kinda in the air. Would really like to pick up where I left off with all my fbf stuff, just to keep that rock rolling. Been seeing some great fbf stuff in the portal lately, which has been really motivating. Still thinking of hassling Oney for the rights to make a short Jack Matthews continuation. And I’ll be picking up on some projects that have been in stasis for way too long.

Pico Day is quickly approaching, and I’m psyched to see everyone again. If all works out with my audition tomorrow, I’ll be back in NYC recording the same time period as the NYC NG meet … which means I’d basically go from Pico Day to the NYC meet. More scheduling insanity, but would be a blast to have another last hurrah in NYC with some local Newgers.

Also, while I’m not one for prayer, my positive energies go out to any of those affected by the insane tornadoes that tore through the past week. I hope you’re all okay.

Hey guys! After a complete failure in my first attempt to make a video tutorial on treating your space with household items for better recording quality, I decided to scrap it and go with what I know: tweened flash.

How to Make an Audition-Quality Home Recording Studio like you Robbed an Airport Baggage Claim

I’m not an authority on voice over recording spaces, but I have experimented with a number of setups and done a bunch of research online and with some prominent voice over folk … so, this is a culmination of some of the stuff I learned about treating your space.

A couple people asked how portable sound booths play into this. They’re great. And when combined with some wall treatment, you can guarantee the sound quality will be even better, especially if you’re projecting.

I’m holding off on animating for a little while, while I figure out what’s up with the Pico Day game.

Also, back in NYC March, 4 – 7 to record more Yu-Gi-Oh.

Ace Pilot is a labor of love, born from the brain of AlmightyHans. With the help of an amazing team of artists, programmers, and voice talent, the production on Ace is literally out of this world (GEDDIT?!!!).

I provided voices for the battle chatter in this first volume, and will voicing a feature role in the sequel. Megasupa honored to have been a part of this endeavor : go play now!

NEW ANIMATION

– Hank’s Rage : Megaupload –

A fun short dedicated to the Megaupload FBI shutdown controversy.

A huge honor to have worked with hbrunav. The guy’s talent is off the charts, and I look forward to his future here on Newgrounds… which is obviously bright and shiny.

Thanks to Lazyass for making the introduction. I hope you’re doing your homework and learnin’ dem animation skillz.

VO : HARLEY THE … PORN STAR

I’m stoked to have been cast as a cock-guzzling tranny in the latest Milburn endevour : Harley the Really Really Famous Porn Star.

With such an awesome cast and crew, I count myself lucky to be the backstage fluffer. Gobble-gobble!

VO : YU-GI-OH ZEXAL

I’d spoken about this gig in the last few posts, namely because I was so excited to be voicing in the very industry that got me inspired to start voice overs. Growing up on cartoons, going to acting school, and recently getting a taste of character voicing here on Newgrounds made the job all the sweeter.

Despite what some may feel about 4Kids, the folks who work there (that I met, at least) were so extremely supportive, positive, and all around just fun folks.

I was initially confused where my character was in the storyline, but I did some research. I’ll be featured in episode 15, and on the sidelines in 16. Dunno if my character comes back or not later in the series. But it was nice to have a character with a story arch who plays a pivotal role in the protagonists journey.

Darren, the director, was fucking awesome. Hands down. (And so was Mike, our “engineer”).

VO : iPHONE GAME – DIGGIN’ DOGS

Soap Creative released a new game today Diggin’ Dogs. I did some sound/voice stuff for the game.

I’m not just saying this because I worked on it, but as a mobile gamer, this shit is FUN! It utilizes the entire iphone without making you look like you’re strangling a phantom.

It picks up fast, has a great mix of action and puzzle, and enough spastic activity to keep your ADD in order.

It’s only 99 cents, and it’s original. Not some ragdoll, bird tossing, yeah-we-get-it same-old-same-old bullshit.

LIFE : NYC MOVE

Another thing I spoke at length about. After 12 years, my wife and I finally moved. After 3 days in a u-Haul, we’re officially stationed in Minneapolis, and we’re loving the new space. The neighborhood is awesome and we’ve got 1,800 sq feet of living space : enough for an entire room to become a voicing studio.

I miss New York (though I was there just yesterday for Yu-Gi-Oh), but I like the trees and the grass and the air here. I can already feel it’s for the better …

Hopefully, some more cartoon gigs will have me back in the city in the near future … but not too near.

GAME : PICO DAY GAME

I’m working with RedHarvest and MonoFlauta on a game slated for Pico Day. The concept is a mix of old-school and new-school, and should be fun for any fan of platformers.

We got off to a quick start, but the process has taken a hit since the move and the Yu-Gi-Oh recording (which pretty much ate up this last week, now that I’m playing catch-up). That said, we still have plenty of time, and once the ball starts rollin’, I’m hoping the progress will inspire us to rock.

YOUTUBE : PEBBLEMON AND DRAGONCUBES

PsychicPebble‘s Pikamon hit Youtube while I was on the road moving. And it was a dandy pleasure to behold while on the road. Fucking weirdo.

KaggyFilms’ DragonCraft Z was released today. I voice the gayest Goku ever … honestly, I thought his announcer sounded like a better Goku. My apologies. If you’re a Minecraft Dragonball fan, go check it out.

NG : IN THE WORKS

Besides the Pico Day game, there’s a number of projects on the table. The God of War animation with Hulalaoo slowed down after he finished his education and started work, but I’m hoping to get that going again. The Creaturing Project has also lost a bit of momentum for a while now, however once I get settled in our new place, I plan to fill in the blanks on the site and move that along.

Also working on an “Awesome series” tribute. It’s proving to be a lot more challenging than I initially planned, but I like that … I’m learning a lot about animation, backgrounds, and comedic delivery and setup (namely, that I have to redo shit like 20 times before it’s passable).

Lots of other things I’m forgetting … bah.

To celebrate the upcoming redesign of Newgrounds.com, I was invited to create a short piece to be viewed while the site is undergoing the transfer.

Folks seem confused whether this reaction is in favor or against the redesign. The truth is, it’s neither. It was just a fun idea that came to mind, mostly poking fun at the people who froth at the mouth over redesigns.

To be fair, the recent slew of redesigns hasn’t all been for the best (in my opinion). Gmail, Facebook, Xbox (and their Netflix app), Youtube, and others have all undergone recent overhauls.

So far, my biggest beef was the new Netflix on Xbox not having a “recently watched” section … that blew my fucking mind. Thankfully, that’s been remedied.

Infinity Blad is a parody based on the popular iPhone game, Infinity Blade. The concept was a spark that came about during a conversation with Chris Zambelis, and later he improv-ed a recording of the God-King confused about a number of issues in the IB storyline.

Of course, IB2 and other related materials have been released answering all these questions, however I remember being confused by such things myself when I first played.

Best quality viewing on Newgrounds

I was called in to audition with 4Kids Entertainment for a Yu-Gi-Oh audition.

Seeing as this is the exact type of work that inspired me to start my voice over career, I was excited, and I wanted to be as prepared as possible.  So I wrote [omit name] and asked if there was any additional information about the characters I was auditioning for.  I was told that the two parts I was auditioning for were bad guys, and that generally bad guys in the series were late teens, possibly a little older.

So, over the weekend, I practiced my teen voices, running my personal gamut of variations.  I even recorded the samples that I liked best, put them on my iPhone and silently practiced on the subway.

Come the day of the audition, I arrived at 4Kids a half hour early.  Normally, that can be a bit premature and slightly imposing, but they had a big enough lobby, nobody really noticed I was there.   Printed sides were on a small shin-high table in the center of the room.  To my surprise, there were three characters, not two, and the third wasn’t a bad guy at all.  More surprisingly, the characters weren’t in their late teens, they were 30, 60, and 70.  I stopped my practice teen voices and put my iPhone away.

While I was thrown for a loop, this was (admittedly) my comfort zone, in terms of voicing.  But there was one more surprise, however, this had nothing to do with the confusion over the roles I prepared for … the audition material had time-signatures.  After over two-hundred hours in the booth, I was still a total newb.

It made total sense, after the fact.  However, my lack of experience with time-signatures (is that even the word?) was a bit nerve wracking for about 10 minutes.  Luckily, I had 20 more minutes to get comfortable with the idea that everything I prepared for this audition was out the door.

The gentleman who auditioned me (as well as the engineer) were wonderfully supportive.  The audition went great and was really fun, though I didn’t get the part, I was told that I would definitely be hearing from them about future projects (which, of course, casting folks never have to say).

So sad that I’ll be so many miles away from NYC is just a short while.  Away from 4Kids and NYAVPOST … what to do?

Mainly an exercise in lip-syncing. What could be more boring than a joke about the weather. Meh. Audiences seem to identify with the cloud quite a bit. More strange, apparently this sort of weather is occurring all over the world (based on the reactions of the international community).

It’s not only polite. It’s the law.

I couldn’t help it. The MTA is notorious for having the most lack-luster half-assed graphic design strewn about it’s train car walls. Creativity is often forfeited to make way for crappy puns, ambiguous messaging, and stupid imagery. When I saw this poster, so many questions ran through my mind, namely :

Why is the guy green, and apparently a giant?