F.U.3: Call To Duty and F.U.3: Aaron of Duty are set for release on Newgrounds on December 16. I know that's a long time off, but I also know that I've been talking about this project for almost two years without anything to show. In fact, when I show what I do it still won't be 25% of what I wanted to ultimately show you.

So ease the inconvenience I've been making you huge fans feel, I have released a test screening on our website Ok5 Studios, just go to the Flash Theatre and click on the last link. Normally I try not to promote our site directly, but I want some feedback before December so I can make what final tweeks are needed. Aaron of Duty still has a little more work before it can be screened, then again it may not be screened before December.

So everyone who reads this, watch and give me some feedback. This has been a horribly stretched out process, and I'd be more than happy to put a bit of it behind me.

Today is the 3 year aniversary of the original F.U.'s daily 2nd place award. It just narrowly missed daily first and was beat out by a 30 second video of a dog being drowned in a bigger dogs dog food bowl.

Anyways, I found this a good time to announce some new projects. I counted and there are five in total. I tell you now not to get too excited, after all I've been saying things for two years now and then nothingness seems to follow.

You know about the F.U.3 parts 1 and 2. I can now stand proudly and say in all caps F.U. 3 PARTS 1 AND 2 WILL BE RELEASED ON SCHEDULE. Yes, there is just some finishing touches to both and they will be set for release on December 16. As for the other 5 parts...I will not speak of them for now.

The third project is the frequently mentioned The Polls Are Closed. As of right now I would say this is the most likely project to fall through the cracks because I don't have a working script, just a concept and that concept weighs heavily on the whether or not the viewer has previously seen The Polls Are Open, because they may not understand (and therefor be disgusted) the fact the Bin Laden is the president. I think it'll happen though. It's a short project that will take less than a day to put together. It's just a matter of finding that day. Look for it on USA Election Day (which I think is November 4).

Fourth is another previously mentioned project that has just broke ground today. It's working title was Registered Sneakers but now it has an official name: Part-Time Gemini. Basically it's an F.U. episode with an entirely different style. Look for it by the end of the year.

Finally, I give you the big gun. Luke and I had kicked around this idea for a while. I will ultimately make a front page post with the official announcement (which could come as early as next week), but for now I will just entice you. It's a re-imagining of a previous project. We got to think "If we take our art style now and apply it to a successful project of the past then that would make that project all the more successful... Well I thought about it for a while and experimented some and now I give you what I feel is a viable project. I'll not tell you what it is now, but I will tell you that if you watch all our videos, this exact frame by frame is in the video we are remaking. I'm sure you can peice it together from there.

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I have to thank Tom for included my work in the NG Bytesize viewer. It seems that any time I get down and out about doing Flash work, someone finds a way to suck me back in.

For right now, I am finishing up on some contract work that consumes most of my free time. Everything should be out of the way be the middle of August and, in addition to that, with gas prices the way they are my work schedule is switching to 4 10 hour days, which means I'll have an extra day per week to work on anything I want.

Because of Luke spawning recently, I can't promise you'll see much of F.U.3 anytime soon (though I'm still determined to get parts 1 and 2 out by the end of the year). I am planning an election day F.U. (because the pilot episode came out on election day 2004).

I am mostly trying the reinvent the F.U. series. No so much in format as in style and name. Luke and I have been kicking around the idea of doing a remake of the original F.U. with updated characters and a revised script. To date the original has been our biggest hit, yet the graphics look so stiff and dated (they were then) I want to give it a refreshing look. That's a project I'm considering for 2009.

I've also penned a script for another episode, though this doesn't have to be done as an F.U. episode. I've been toying around with the idea of doing animation through Photoshop. I was working on my own website (which is now postponned due to cash flow issues) and I did a few samples in Photoshop to great success.
Whatever this series is called, the name of the epsiode is called Registered Sneakers. We'll see how that goes in the future.

That's it for now. Check back in August for more. Maybe I'll actually have something started.

Hello Newgrounds!

It's been a little while, mostly because I've been busting my arse with work and such. You know, projects that I get paid for.

Anyways, I am pleased to presnt to everyone Smokes, which has been on my back burner for almost a year. I came up with this idea when I was working overnights at a gas station. I started working on this for a week or so before getting a job at the Moorefield Examiner, a newspaper in which I am a graphic designer for.

Things are going well now. Since this is out of the way I can turn my attention to brushing up the first two chapters of the F.U.3 saga, which may or may not ever be entirely completed. If not, I'll make the script available to you in some shape or form.

Not to be a downer, but I've not worked on Flash (of any kind) in the New Year. With F.U. all but on hold I'm looking for a new project - that is, I should be. So here are some ideas.

Amy - A story much in the vein of Tankmen about two warring factions that are fighting over absurd reasons. I have some clever dialog written, but the fact that it'll remind people of Tankmen is enough for me to push it aside.

Statistick = Just something I thought of based on the title (It's like statistic only with a k, which makes it obvious it's about stick figures) It could be a parody of stick movies, perhaps?

Angel Clip - This is something me and Luke were going to make into a graphic novel simply because it's a complex story with complex action. It has to do with angels protecting a boy, who will be a future leader during the apocalypse from demons.

Retrograde - This is a space epic I've been developing lately. It deals with a intergalactic convict and a rag-tag bunch he meets along the way trying to save a solar system with a dying sun. This is the set up for another movie I'd like to do called...

March into the Sea - This is based off Modest Mouse album "We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank," which is becoming one of my favorite albums ever. It deals with a group of fisherman who find a robot in the ocean and decide that it must be a god. The robot, however, has other ideas and reeks havoc over a small country town. A side note on this. The album in which it's based started out as a concept album in which this same story takes place. They're not using it, so I will.

Specter Street - About a group of spirits trapped in a small town in the 1960s trying to solve the mystery of why they were murdered in the future, and how the town and this time are involved in their deaths. This one actually went into flash development, but I never developed a style I really cared for.

I'm open to everyone's suggestions, so long as they aren't gay....or violent....or anti-religious.

These are all possibilities. I just want a short project for now that can be successful and build my confidence back. So I Can Get Some Real Work Done.
For now, here's a website I'm maintaining for work. I just want you to look at it cause the more hits it gets means the more awesome I'll look.
Lates

[below is some concept art Luke and I did for Angel Clip. We tried to sell this print at an art show to no avail]

I haven't really messed with Newgrounds in, well, forever. I'm working two jobs up until May. I'm saving up for a new vehicle and a new apartment in August. With this, of course, my production on flash projects is at a crawl. I did update my user graphics though!

On the artistic end (Luke's end) nothing much is happening either. I expect that the arrival of his spawn will kill these projects entirely. So as a contingency plan I give you F.U.3 OFFICIAL RELEASE DATES.

F.U.3 part 0 of 7 (Prologue) Release Date December 16, 2008
F.U.3 part 1 or 7 (Aaron of Duty) Release Date December 16, 2008
F.U.3 part 2 of 7 (A Gray Matter) Release Date December 17, 2008

The other four parts of F.U.3 are iffy at the moment. A Gray Matter hasn't even begun production yet, but it's relatively simple so I should be able to pull it off by then. Don't consider that one set in stone though. As for the first two, they are relatively finished now, I just have an agreement with Luke that I won't release any by themselves unless the event arises that we don't get them all finished by December (which seems likely to happen at this point).

In addition to this, expect The Polls Are Closed to come out on November 4, 2008.

I'd also like to do something in relation to the Writer's Strike. Maybe something along the lines of this week's Ok5 comic.

Hope all is well with everyone,
Mike

Edit: I'd also like to point out that I chose December 16 because that is the two-year anniversary of the day that I completed the script.

I'm still trying to get the finishing touches on the first part of F.U.3. I'm just swamped though, so I may not get a preview out till the end of January. Which was, by the way, everyone's Christmas present.

So to make it up to you, I have something else.

To save time and fuel costs driving to Fairmont, I've decided to cut a scene from the first part. I wasn't sure if this was going to fly when I wrote it, as it is a full blown musical number.

It takes place shortly after D enters Swiss territory and a sheep herder asks him why he was there. With an army backing him he breaks into song.

And the lyrics to this song are my Christmas present to you

PUTTING HOLES IN THE SWISS

Though I am just a lowly one-star general,
I have already mastered the art of war.
Your chances of survival, depend upon your rival.
And it's casualties you'll lack,
When your enemy won't fight back.

We're putting holes in the Swiss.
It's something you should miss,
We don't believe in prisoners of war.
Nothing would be finer,
Than leaving no survivors.
When we put holes in the Swiss.

Though the tide of war is fast incoming,
I enter the fray with sword held high.
Was fickle fascination, to overthrow a nation
We brought the heavy artillery
The W of M and D

Putting holes in the Swiss.
It's something you should miss,
We don't believe in prisoners of war.
Nothing could be finer,
Than leaving no survivors.
When we put holes in the Swiss.

There you have it. We did record this song and it will be in the final video in some shape or form (probably and credit music), but I just wasn't happy with the version we produced. First of all, it has all three of us singing in it when it should have been just D. It also wasn't the style of music, but actually wasn't the problem. Michael Stewart wrote the music, which was brilliant. I may post a short video clip of him recording the song on Youtube sometime. But I was thinking of something way over the top with a horn section and magnificently produced. We may rerecord it near the end of production, but we'll see. Things have been dragging on for too long.

Also, here's a new comic. If you want to see it on Ok5, you're welcome to do that too. Just click on some Google ads while your there. D needs monies to help pay for the site. I hope to get back into the mode of posting a comic once a week again.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

In addition to all NG users, I would also like to give a special Merry Christmas to the following:
jojoclown18 - For your support and designing the BNB walking/flying mechanics in F.U.3
Mr. Finland - The Most Attentive Fan I Could Ever Ask For
kangarooofdoom - Also known as Mrs. Mallow. For your love and support.
Lupedog - My F.U. Partner in Crime
zechsatreus - for keeping our site running, physically and financially.
and of course
Tom - for running the site and featuring Autoblowbile on the Front Page this year. (though I liked to have seen Antiheroes there instead)

I'm still working up a Christmas present for everyone. It may be another week or so before it's finished though. Luke's end is almost complete, but he's visiting family this week, so it won't be till later in the week that he'll be able to finish it. My end is looking promising as well, but tomorrow is the only free day I have to finish it up and figure there is more than a few days work there.

I won't say exactly what it is (though in older posts I already have) but I will tell you its something in the form of an F.U.3 preview.

I guess as a substitute present, I will tell you that there has been a new F.U. short planned for 2008. I know I said I wouldn't do any more until F.U.3 is finished, but this will be my only opportunity to do this one. It is slated for Election Day (Nov 4th, I think). To give you an idea, it is a sequel to 2004's The Polls are Open. It isn't a stretch of the imagination that this one will be tentatively titled The Polls Are Closed.

Anyways, Merry Christmas. Below is my Christmas card to all of you.

With all this excitement of LiLg being in the final 5 of the Kraft Cheese contest, I thought I would take the time to show off my video for that contest.

Even though it's a loser, I'm still proud of it.

I did it late one Saturday night in under three hours. Me and Traci were stressing about money so we thought this would be a perfect solution. It was nice to have that teamwork from her on a flash video. I wish we could do that more often ;D That's the first we've collaborated since The Darkness last Halloween.

I won't get into F.U.3 stuff right now as that if I said anything at this point it would be bad news. I'm starting a second job this weekend to pay off some of my debts (credit cars are bad, m'kay) so my free time may or may not be stunted. We'll just have to wait and see.

But for now, grilled cheese going about its morning routine!!!!!!!!

Thanks to your feedback, I'm going to go ahead as planned and release F.U.3 continuously throughout one week. I just hope everyone knows that it may still be a year off.

Things have gone good over the weekend. I got a lot done. I expect the first two parts (of seven) to be finished by New Years and I'm going to screen them to the people in Fairmont who have helped with production so far.

By the first of the year a may have a surprise waiting over on Ok5, a Christmas present if you will. But since I don't like to keep secrets I'll just go ahead and tell you that it will be the first part to F.U.3.
To give you some background, this first part is technically the "prologue" - basically giving the back story of how things come about in the next part. (It serves much like the game - to give you additional information. It wasn't written into the script until literally a week before we started recording dialog. Because of this, it won't be released in the same week as the others, instead it will come out a month ahead of the rest - and it will contain the F.U.3 trailer on the end of it. Its purpose is to entice Newgrounds viewers with what is to come.

I probably won't make another post until December. Until then, have fun.

Also, we found out Luke is going to be a dad. A good upswing on the year after having brain surgery. I make light of the situation below.

Mike