So! It's officially been one year since I joined Newgrounds. Thats nuts! Time is flying by for sure. Let's see what I did this year!
Starting off, this year I focused on my 3D rigging skills. I spent weeks breaking down rigs, studying them, and piecing my own. I really went in and put elbow-grease that I normally didn't do and with that I've made a giant step in my 3D medium!
I mainly learned a lot about face rigs, constraints, and a ton of fancy blender bone stuff. Cooper here was my first major rigging accomplishment this year
With more improvement and iteration in Richard
and pushed even further with Zane Little's commission!
Now, I didn't learn these new rigging techniques for nothing, this year I had also gotten more into animation!
To break in, I melted Cooper's brain! This was just a practice animation, to get a feel for animating more than just a walk cycle. For what it was, I'm honestly surprised the animation did as well as it did here.
I also animated Richard giving a quick greeting. Practice animation again! although this one was considerably more challenging than Cooper's. This was the first time I actually animated a character doing something with more personality. The way he walked, and his facial expressions. It took me a while to get down.
I was also picked up by YouTube Shorts Creator, Stay Shorts, to animate for his channel! It was my first side job animating. I felt really self-conscious about taking it, I didn't see my animation skills being ready. However, I'm glad I did! It helped me get used to animation and improve my work along with working with another person. I've made A LOT of animations for their channel and I'm currently making a reel featuring some of my favorites
In April, I had begun work on my BIG animation project, a full 3 minute-ish short featuring Cooper! I foolishly said it'd be done in around 3 months, then I said at the end of this year and... Oh boy. Happens to every animator, right? I'm still working on it. The animation is a little over half-way done now. I'm actually excited it for it, I'm proud of what I'm making so far, and I can't wait for people to see it! All I can say now is I'll try to get it done ASAP.
This year I did a few more commissions! Including a couple users here on NGs like 9Hammer, and ZaneLittle! I wish I could take more, but I only have so much time in the day between work and my own projects.
Maybe after my big animation project, I'll be open to commissions again!
I've also thought about opening a Ko-Fi or a Patreon or something, to take more time off work and focus on my 3D projects, but I don't know. I feel like I haven't proved my worth for one yet.
I also got the lucky draw for User of the Day! Thats awesome! It really is an honor to be featured here on New Grounds! This site genuinely has the best and most interactive community I've seen! The artworks and animations here really inspire me to create!
I only participated in one collab this year, being the Homer Collab, but I'm hoping in 2025 I'll be able to take part in more!
2024 was genuinely a great year for me! I even specifically remember feeling like I was at the top of the world in a lot of days. Not like I'm usually a downer or anything, but I just felt more than happy with my life.
I'm excited for 2025
AtomicInc 
thatoneguy003 
idimension 
GameBoyFireworks