Hey guys, been away for a while. I mean, not really, but you know what I mean. Haven't been as active.

Well, I'm working on a long-term project, one that looks like it's gonna take a very very very long time, and I couldn't be happier about it. I also couldn't be more scared. Long-form story telling isn't my forte, but you gotta start somewhere, so that's the plan. 

I'll be posting art and progress here, among other places (Patreon, youtube, twitter, whatever), but I figured I'd come back to my roots in taking on this endvour. 

I'm excited to share stuff, once production gets into full swing. For now I'm still catching up on shit and trying to sort out as many details as I can before diving in full time on it. 

Lookin' forward to seeing you guys around. Hugs y'all.

M

OMG, WHOTHEFUCKISTHISCLOWN?!

So I've been pretty shitty about keeping up to date with the going-ons, specifically here on Newgrounds.  I've been making stuff and not posting it here... like a fucking douche.  That's all gonna be dealt with shortly.  It's not for any lack of want: purely my being a lazy bitch (or being out of my mind busier than I've been in my life...one or the other).

That said, having twitter, facebook, youtube, patreon, sleepycabin, and newgrounds as points of contact is just stupid.  I can certainly take the time to post content, however, interacting with viewers and colleagues across half a dozen platforms is highly inefficient: so here's my plan...

> If you wanna poke me on social media : Twitter is the place, I'm not the best Facebooker

> To see updates of my latest projects : My Patreon activity feed is probably best

Between Youtube, Newgrounds, and Sleepycabin, I've been getting better at "replying" to folks, but part of that is gonna be streamlining everything else.

This whole house-cleaning attempt at efficiency may change down the road: that seems to be the theme of this year for me, so none of this is definitive, just trying new things until something "works". OK?!

Love 4ever&ever,

M

Where have I been? What am I doing?

I've been voicing a ton (some of it here on NG some for YT guys like LORE, HISHE, Slamacow, etc) ... but not animating much.  At least, not this month.  Though I do have a short toon almost ready... kinda.

This month I was designing and coding the frontend of Normalboots.com, a site for guys like JonTron, PBG, Projared, Continue and co.  It's a new site going through some initial growing pains, so not everything is perfect, but server-side issues are being addressed on a daily basis. It's only been a couple days.

I basically had a couple weeks to design it, so there's a lot I would like to tweak and touch up over time.  The basic layout is pretty clean (by request), but that's for the sponsored background ads that'll be coming soon.

For as many excuses as I'm putting forward, I am very proud of how it turned out.

I do have a lot of plans for animation stuff this year, just have to get all my other business in order.  Will very much be better about posting to NG too, I know I've been shit at that.

There's also some other exciting news, but I'll have to wait for the official announcement to share that!!

hugs guys, NG forever

M(rp)

NEW TOON : http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/624717
YOUTUBE : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mzq_xqu6nPQ
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Some folks have asked if this piece is an official promotional animation for Rayman Legends ... the short answer, is yes. It was part of their online marketing campaign to hire an animator to create a video geared towards the online community. That said, I didn't work directly with Ubisoft (though I had plenty of interaction with their marketing department as well as a rep for Michele (the creator of Rayman).

Unlike most parodies we do online, I didn't have complete creative control of this project. There were several hoops to jump through, the biggest ones (unfortunately) happening hours before the intended upload. They approached me for my personal spin, they accepted my concept and script, but ultimately when you deal with folks who don't live and breathe online content, there's a gap in the understanding process that can only be bridged by compromise.

This is the second commission I had (the first being the Splinter Cell piece), and I don't anticipate taking on another one of these for a little while (who knows lol). The pressure is huge. I'm pretty sure I now have a permanent eye twitch. It's just not about delivering a product that BOTH the audience AND the client are happy with, but more importantly (to me) was making sure my team (my friends) were getting taken care of.

The work is intense, and the pay is fine, but due to the amount, it takes much longer to reach our hands, and in the future I'm not even going to look at a contract unless there's a downpayment.

Stress and drama aside, I'm extremely proud of the finished project, and am honored and humbled to have had a chance to work with such talented friends. Hernan, Shadman, and Jon Babb ... seriously, amazing. Cory, Nevarky, Grim from the Splinter Cell project ... just so many awesome hard-working talented friends... I couldn't have done it without them.

Long live Newgrounds.

☠

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NEW VIDEO Splintercell: Blacklist (animated parody)
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One of two commissions for Ubisoft, this video was part of a youtube campaign to promote the release of the upcoming Tom Clancy game title, Splinter Cell: Blacklist. The campaign also featured four other online content creators who all had to animate or shoot a video based around the official transformation trailer.

While there’s a hot-blooded tale of dramatic lows and highs, that’s all the shit that doesn’t matter. Why bring it up? Because if you’re my friend or following me on twitter you probably witnessed me having a minor breakdown as I proceeded not to sleep for eight days. The point is: the video was completed with the help of my friends Cory, Nevarky, and Nico (as well as the support of many many others). And I personally feel it turned out great, especially given the nose-bleed nature of it’s literally last-minute completion.

I can’t express how thankful, humbled, honored, and lucky I am to have friends like I do now. These guys got my back without hesitation, and this wasn’t like asking some buddies to help me move apartments, this was a sleepless week of stressful full-force animation. On a very real note, it’s why I’ve leaned more and more in the direction of my Ricepirate persona, politely stepping aside from my old self. The crew of people I now call friends are some of the best, funniest, most hard working and talented people I’ve had the pleasure to collaborate with. </rant>

Got another commission planned for release next weeks. The fun just never ends.

Hey guys, been a while since I last updated! Things have been pretty hectic with work, commissions, life, stuff.

Got a number of projects in the works at the moment, and have been wrestling with making a very serious leap towards cutting down my business workload and shifting my energy to animation and more professional voice over stuff.

Youtube won't pay the bills, not yet. So as far as animation is concerned, I'll need to accept and likely seek out more work. We'll see how in depth I get with that, though.

A more clear and concrete path I'll be taking soon is getting a voice over agent here in Minneapolis. I've been doing fine with professional gigs via referrals and whatnot, but it's time to get more serious about it. I've avoided it since moving here, partially because I need to start all over from my connections in NYC. That said, it's a smaller town, and the likelihood of making some good connections quickly is pretty high.

As part of my effort to "getting more serious" about all this animation/voicing stuff, I've been working on a website for a couple weeks now ... still a ways to go, but check it out:

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http://yar.ricepirate.com/
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On a completely different note :THANKS FOR THE USER OF THE YEAR AWARD ... from 2011 lol Despite the amount of time that has passed, the excitement and appreciation hasn't worn a bit. I talk a little more about it on the site, if you care to read.

That's it, guys. Hugs and butt smacks. love you guys,

M

Workin' on solidifying an animated voice reel.

Here's a rough sampler of the some of the different kinds of voices I've done over the last couple years. Unfortunately, I had to cut a lot of stuff because I didn't want to bloat the video. It's "(beta)" because I still want to make a bunch of tweaks, so if there's any voices I've done that you think I should add (or remove), lemme know. Thanks, guys.

Additional Music by:
Kevin Macleod - www.youtube.com/user/kmmusic
Chris "Oney" O'Neill - www.youtube.com/user/oneyng

Speaking of Chris ... Stamper, Oney, Pebbles, and I made a short film about Potato Salad during my stay in Philly after Pico Day. Cory was there ... but he was busy animating hot chicks with huge penises doing animals in the butt.

>(^..^)<

Asslevania is a silly short about farts, vampires, and a game that I hold dear to my heart, Castlevania : Symphony of the Night (far from the best game I've played, I just had a lot of memories associated with it).

It was because of those memories that I created my first flash toon, published here on Newgrounds, CastleFailure : SotN. After reaching 100k subs on Youtube, I wanted to do something, at least remotely related to what got me started.

After a couple years of animating, I feel I've progressed, but clearly have so far to go. Seeing all the wonderful work my friends have done, I've quickly come to terms with the fact that I'll never be the funniest animator, or the most skilled animator, but the goal has never been to be best ... it's been to share laughs with you guys and personally grow as an artist, of which I feel I'm on the right path.

In other news! Pico Day was awesome! Meeting everyone was really wonderful, and much needed. Got to hang with Stamper, Chris, Zach, and Cory for a couple days. Man, I really miss the East Coast.

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(SKINHEADGROUNDS, from left to right : Stamper, myself, and JP)

It's been almost exactly 2.5 years since I signed up for newgrounds and submitted my first flash. The end.

I've posted a batman toon today, I'll be posting a really short short about broccoli tomorrow, and finally a parody of a fictional pokemon originally created by AlmightyHans and Stamper.

In a couple weeks, I'll be at MagFest with some of Newgrounds' old-timers, bunking with Rubber Ross, and irresponsibly inebriated with Stamper, Spaz, and whoever else likes to drink in the afternoon.

Mother fucking 2012 ... what a goddamn bitch crazy year of excellence and insanity. Here's to many more!

Hey guys, I've been pretty quiet on the newsfeed of late.

Things have just been crazy. I'm usually pretty vocal about updates and such (not sure how many people care), but it's been difficult to find the time to sit down and compile the work, my thoughts, my plans for the future blahblahblahblah...

So here's a quick breakdown of recent stuff following the release of Air Break and Trick Question ...

> Madness day : voicing : Paradigmadness
> 48 Hour movie Jam : voicing/writing/sound design : Too Scared to Poop
> Dudul : voicing : New Avenger
> Gonzo : voicing/writing : Dragon Ball Zee 2
> Spazkid/Stamper/Hans : voicing : Pokemon Spread
> Oney and Pebbles : voicing : Hellbenders - Applooza
> Rubert da Koopa
> Balthazar : voicing : Mugen character Vegeta Z2
> TwistedGrim (ninjaco) : voicing : Yoshi Drops
> Nick Deary : voicing : Batman and Pals
> Nalem : voicing : Draggin' Brawl Zzz
> Animeme : 20+ characters and counting
> Mondo Media : voicing : 3 episodes that should be airing soon
> Jae : voicing : PlungerDog 2
> Dark Knight Rises Total Spoilage (to be released soon)
> Working on a pilot for Mondo Media (signed contract, deadline Nov 5)
> Hernan Bruna (hbrunav) : voicing : epic toon to be released soon!

> Couple games should be coming out that I voiced for : Lucky Tower 2 and Armor Mayhem 2.

> Bunch of other projects that are still in the works by others and myself, that I shouldn't probably say much about.

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If anyone thought I was quiet on the site, I'm definitely still around, just been pulled in a couple different directions in terms of the voicing/animation stuff. And while I've been focusing on spreading my work across more of the internet, Newgrounds is and always will be home.

Long live Newgrounds.