Heynow, Newgrounds!

Pardon the brevity of this intro, I didn't have enough morning to write a longer one. (To paraphrase...)

Shortly after returning to the NG fray last December I began writing an essay intended to serve as my reintroduction. Numerous revisions, proofreads, and a catastrophic hard drive failure later it's ready to publish. Enjoy this glance at my time in the Flash community, peppered with cameos of noteworthy people, places, and events.

With no further tweaking and advanced thanks for your reading I am pleased to finally present...

DYNAKYRIS@NG: A History 

         The world ended in the final weeks of summer 2001. 

         Various 9|11 remembrances and counterattacks appeared on a Flash website I’d known in passing.  Among these, a personal favorite was a game featuring a rabid Red Riding Hood slaughtering the one claiming responsibility.  On the lighter side, an outstanding music video introduced me to Incubus while aiming to dignify the “All Your Base” meme of prior seasons.  

         These works, among many others, reminded me of the potential of Flash and prompted my return to this program which had puzzled me a year before.  Having finally grasped a sense of the basics—thanks, Ned—I began playing around with Macromedia Flash 5 and my Profile registration on Newgrounds.com would shortly follow: DYNAKYRIS, after my tale of a giant dinosauroid mech.  

         Through months of experimental fun and folly, that spring a post on a CastleVania forum, a scene I knew through my own fansite, would spark the first epic animated fanart I’d bring to full term by summer’s beginning.  ParoVadius: THE MOVIE!!! hadn’t gone over as I hoped—one goal among many was one-upping Randy Solem of VGDC fame in the midst of a feud—and I soon recognized its flaws and set to work repairing them as inspiration compelled me towards about a half-dozen other Flash directions.  

         By this point a dancing banana had affirmed its place in Internet Meme History.  

         I’d been a participant of CastleVania forums for about a year by then, but for artwork and Flash animation I found community in Texas Mafia, whose climate seemed more mature compared to Newgrounds’ forums.  As my Flash efforts mounted across 2002 I began considering a new website to showcase them.  DYNAKYRIS’ etc. debuted in the summer of 2003, some time after I squashed the beef with Randy and began providing aesthetic advice on his works-in-progress; the site’s name was partially suggested by him, in fact.  

         As I focused on the work of building the new site I was primarily, amid other potential venues, a Texas Mafia supporter.  A personal miscalculation along the way, however, would ultimately render participation unfeasible and, following the surprising success of my last release of that era, After ParoVadius (initially an exclusive later met with praise from NG’s crowd), I’d return to the offline lab full-time to recoup, rebuild, and render ParoVadius RESET for an audience of one.  

         I attempted finding consistent community post-Texas Mafia to minor avail and the drive subsided as I leaned into furthering the RESET saga alongside other priorities.  In addition to endless eyecandy, visits to 4chan later provided a way to observe the current pulse of Flash technique, trends, and tune tastes during my time in the San Francisco Bay Area and all-to-soon return to New York City; the regularity of my Flash output would eventually diminish to nil as I struggled for a paycheck relevant to the Fine Arts Degree and Student Loan Debt I had earned.  

         ParoVadius CONTINUE and START, respectively the third and first chapters of what became the six-part tale sparked by RESET, were immediate casualties of this era.  I managed to retool the last scene of START as ParoVadius pRESET, a trailer heralding RESET’s arrival to Newgrounds (after Tom Fulp’s generous adjustment of the 5MB upload cap) where, a year after its release on my Flash site (known by then as DYNAKYRIS), it was met with high regard there and beyond.  

         I ultimately settled into retail and romance and things were well enough that I found time, energy, and attention to work a thing or few until all unraveled.  iPhone, Android, and pissed avians had sprouted wings by then and I’d refuse rumblings of Flash’s “end” as YouTube rose to prominence.  In the meantime I’d been so removed from what I do best I couldn’t account for the Flash climate, though 4chan did remain a regular touchpoint—Newgrounds rarely.  

         The Mayan Calendar approached its climax.  

         My grandmother, always around but most present during my formative years, had begun experiencing a decline in her body and mind which would run a half-decade.  

         Shortly after this countdown began, I awoke one day to discover we lost Randy Solem.  In the years since I would witness Wreck-it Ralph, Sonic’s various theatrical and Smash Bros. appearances (!), and, most recently, the first trailer for Illumination’s forthcoming Mario movie, each time bringing to mind, “Randy woulda loved this...”  

         I continued navigating various disruptions within Life’s whirlwind and struggled to keep consistently creative.  As Social Media had long dissolved the practicality of AIM Buddy Lists and Internet Forums, Reddit and tumblr (to a much lesser extent) seemed of use as shit hit the fan non-stop; I narrowly managed to join the 2013 NYC Newgrounds Meetup where I personally thanked Tom for his long-term passion project (as well as the RESET solid).  

         In 2011, about a year after the iPad’s debut ignored what I saw as an obvious application (an alternative to a long-desired Wacom Cintiq), Autodesk SketchBook on iPod Touch realized my dream of naturally drawing on a screen, albeit an impractically miniscule one.  A Galaxy Note 10.1 joined my toolkit on Christmas 2013, solving that hangup, and in the meantime I had found myself a pilot of the Silver Snakes in the New York City Underground, a job which facilitated victory over my loan and, at long last, an upgrade of my Wacom Graphire2 to a Cintiq 13HD.  By this point, however, Flash animation had long taken a back seat to developing other tales I desire to tell (to say little of the complications imposed by the job schedule).  

         About a year later a job accident afforded the opportunity to reacquaint myself with my inherent pursuits as well as be present to tell Grammy “goodbye...and thank you”.  

         My decision to return to the Underground in an altered capacity was informed by the chance the new station would allow more time towards my aims.  Various circumstances across the five years since have shown this challenge has not eased. 

         As for the contemporary world: Big Tech would continue doing its damnedest to enslave attention and tune temperament; a Reality Show Producer (tasked with our nuclear arsenal) would wield his keyboards to monger civil discontent; various dimensions of unrest and destructive ideologies would become the order of the day; mankind would navigate an epoch-marking plague which appears to have largely subsided three years out.  

         Playing my (sanitized) hand best I could, I’d soon find myself up against the most complicated and harrowing adversities of recent memory...  Only recently have I emerged from this personal Hell to arrive at the place I can truly call my own for the first time since those Bay Area months; a relative Locus of Control.  

         Along the move I happened to notice AI suddenly disrupting visual creatives in a similar way photography threatened painters centuries ago...(and about five minutes ago a revolutionary chatbot rewrote our AI picture in a relative instant.)  

         Mid-December 2022.  

         The task of amending my inert Newgrounds Profile languished on my to-do list for months.  I’d been thinking about how else to show off some fanarts when, during a recent Happy Hour, I happened to press Play on a YouTube video sitting on the Watch Later queue for a few weeks.  

         Newgrounds and the Golden Age of Flash Animation by Slush (@fdigital) was a look back at the history of the Flash scene I once knew.  A love letter the length of a TV episode, it was a joy to witness such a well-crafted expose featuring dozens of familiar scenes.  As its timeline progressed I reflected on my own path in relation to it.  At a certain point, though, I couldn’t help wondering...where are all the Sprite Movies?  

         Then...there they were...and there Randy was.  

         I was thus reminded how, within the maelstrom of recent ages, I’d forgotten there had always been a place I could hang my art and enjoy new discoveries.  After some consideration I decided, as I continued to rebuild offline and on, to give the long-standing community of Newgrounds its due attention.  

         Much has changed and improved since I first joined at the world’s end and I intend to make the most of this gem however and whenever I can.  

         ...priorities and free time permitting, of course.  

         See you there.