This year I've been trying to make a bit of an effort to restore some of my old cartoons from college. For the most part that just means swapping out copyrighted music, but in one particular case (a cartoon I made as my senior project called The Actor) it'll require a complete overhaul of the audio, which will also mean I'll need to go and reedit for timing purposes. While I'm at it, I figure I might do a little polishing to the animation itself. It's not going to be a full blown remake or anything, but I just wanted replace a couple ill conceived shots and refine a few others.

This cartoon was extremely important to me at the time because it was the first time I'd really allowed myself to let loose with the writing, and the result was every bit as somber, nihilist, and dreary as I felt inside back then. I put a lot of pain into it, going so far as to cast my ex in a small role just to make it hurt that much more. Looking back now, I don't know if I'm all that proud of it anymore, but I still think it helped it realize how deeply broken a person I was, and it eventually led to some personal reflection and self improvement. I find myself in a much better place now, even if I still have an inclination toward the dramatic and macabre.

Anyway, I've reuploaded a couple of my old cartoons (in both flash and video formats) so far, which can be viewed below. @quebi was also kind enough to work up a new score to Lifeless, which I think is a big improvement on the original.

I also wanted to take some time to do another round of on some underappreciated artists I've discovered browsing the portals:

The first is @pilldroid who has this wonderfully edgy, punk, multimedia sort of approach to their work, and the results are consistently fascinating to me. Really punchy, impactful color schemes, and energetic linework. Love their stuff.

Next, we've got @jotchua who's got this adorable art style and a knack for great expressions and fun character designs.

A bit of a disturbing content/gore warning on this one, but @DecapiTATO always makes it look SO PRETTY. I love their color palettes, and gleefully unhinged imagination. Transfixing stuff.

And then last we've got @hugojunstrand I genuinely don't understand why they aren't more popular already, because their animation, composition, and character design skills are all off the charts. Beautiful, awe-inspiring work all around.