gabbykobold

[gabbykobold]

One last doodle before I start storyboarding!

[gabbykobold]

Another character! Funny, this one took the longest to draw so far, even though she's only going to play a small roll in my animation project XD

[gabbykobold]

Another character for my project...

[gabbykobold]

I call him Wince, and he's a character for a project I'm working on!

[gabbykobold]

Just some simple concept drawings of a slime character for the next project I'm working on.

[gabbykobold]

Animation is Calling Me

It’s been nearly 10 years since I created my last animation... I’ve been exploring many other things in that time, but in the realm of content creation, nothing has brought me as much joy and fulfillment as creating animations. Yeah, they take a long time to create. Yeah, they’re difficult to monetize. Yeah, I might spend dozens of hours on one, only for it to flop. But... I remember when animation was a big part of who I was. It WAS who I was. So why did I stop? I ask that rhetorically, of course. I know I’ve been messing around with other means of expression, but once again... none of them have given me what animation has.

I do feel the sting of regret though. I think about all these years... How many animations could I have created in that time? How far could I have gone? But no... I shouldn’t dwell on it; what’s passed is past. Perhaps I needed to explore? Perhaps I needed to dabble in all the things that didn’t bring me fulfillment to make me truly realize how important animation is to me? And there’s no time like the present to get started. As the saying goes: The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the 2nd best time is now.

I have plenty of ideas... I suppose that’s why I dabbled in comics. I wanted to be able to get those ideas out quickly. But... I dunno, I just didn’t enjoy the process of making them. But I do like the story I got going. Misadventures of a Level 1 Kobold. I want to make that the first animation project that I work on. But instead of trying to tell one big epic tale, I want to focus on short form storytelling. Episodic animated shorts. Yes, there can be an overarching story, but I want each one to be able to stand on its own.

I think the biggest challenge I’ll face going into this will be learning Blender’s animation tools. I spent years working with Flash, but I’ve since grown weary of... well, Adobe being Adobe. I’ve migrated over to Blender, but while I’ve been doing a lot of drawing with the Grease Pencil tool, I’ve yet to experiment with animating it. I suppose the best way to learn is to dive right in.

And so, the time to start is now. Write a script. Draw a storyboard. Put together an animatic. And then bring it all to life with animation!

[gabbykobold]

Animation...

With that... I think I'm going to ease off comics and focus on my real passion... animation. Short form storytelling in video format.

[gabbykobold]

And now back to our Kobold and Goblin! They trek through the woods and finally arrive at the Monster Village!

Read this comic from the beginning on Newgrounds!

[gabbykobold]

So, Twitter is Basically Dead to Me

Twitter, or uh... "X" has become an even bigger cesspool than it's ever been. Sure, it's always been bad, but I feel like it's finally crossed a few lines, even by my incredibly low standards. I've finally made the decision to stop using it. That being said, I'll probably be more active in posting things here on Tumblr in its stead.

[gabbykobold]

Meanwhile, back at home, Roderick's dying father, the King, seeks to appoint a new successor to the throne, in Roderick's absence.

Read this comic from the beginning on Newgrounds!

[gabbykobold]

I Want to Create Videos Again...

Hello, Kobold Friends. It’s been... an awfully long time since I’ve uploaded anything to my YouTube channel, or any other video platform for that matter... But now... now I find myself wanting to start again. But start again on what, exactly? That is something I’m still unsure about. I know over the years I’ve come back again and again... wanting to try something new, but eventually I just... give up before I produce anything worthwhile. And now... now I’m just here to say that I don’t know what I’m going to do next. I have the desire to create once more, but I can’t seem to break free of this slump... of this creator’s block.

I’ve tried all sorts of videos over the years. Memes, Garry’s Mod machinima, 3D animation, 2D animation, video essays, streaming... Looking back... I found the most enjoyment in the machinima and the animated shorts. They also seemed to generate the most engagement. And that’s really what this is all about right? Interacting with viewers. Audience participation. Hell, I think the most fun I’ve had working on any project was that Tumblr ask blog I did back in the day. Anybody remember those things?? Are those things even relevant anymore? And... well, I guess that leads me into my next apprehension.

YouTube is changing so much all the time. And not just YouTube as a platform, but the Internet as a whole. Society as a whole. The world changes fast. And frankly... it’s pretty hard to keep up with it all! It’s hard to keep up with what’s relevant. What will drive engagement. Now... I don’t care about getting a ton of views, but it is nice to not be completely invisible... Like I said, interacting with the community is the best part of content creation, and so I want to create the type of content which will ultimately lead to that. And that brings me back to my original dilemma... What SHOULD I create next?

I’ve... admittedly been down this thought process many times before. I’ve done many brainstorming sessions, made bullet lists, fiddled around in video editors... but I feel like I keep running into a wall. Perhaps... the answer really is to go back?

Go back... maybe not entirely, but take inspiration from the videos that I enjoyed most? Once again, those Garry’s Mod videos and animated shorts were a great joy to work on, and the people on YouTube seemed to really enjoy them, so perhaps the answer is in them? Perhaps Shorts are the answer? Maybe trying to do long form videos was my most fundamental mistake? In the past, my greatest joy and success in content creation came from telling bite-sized stories. And while platforms have changed, I feel like there will always be a place for short form storytelling.

Storytelling... perhaps that’s it? I just need to tell stories like I used to! Of course, nowadays short form videos fall into the realm of TikToks and YouTube Shorts... I may need to get accustomed to the vertical format... but perhaps that’d be worth it? If anybody’s still reading at this point, I would love to hear your feedback. Should I really go back? Should shorts be the focus of my content going forward? Were bite-sized stories my greatest strength over the years?

I certainly have a lot to think about, but I think I’ll wrap this up for now. I want to create again. I plan to create again. Maybe I’ll start by re-downloading Garry’s Mod? Maybe I’ll finally get around to toying with Blender’s animation tools? Perhaps both? Whatever I do, all I know is that I HAVE to start creating things again.

[gabbykobold]

It's amazing how sometimes you create a sketch that looks really good, but the moment you start doing line art, it suddenly looks like shit.

[gabbykobold]

It's been nice and cool today over here... at least relatively speaking. Was nice being able to go outside without feeling like I'm melting.

[gabbykobold]

The concept was simple: A deceptively strong Kobold with the power to take on Dragons. As an extra tidbit of lore, Evalyn is Gabby's (my sona's) mother. I plan to use Evalyn a little bit later in my Level-1 Kobold comic!

[gabbykobold]

Often times I have trouble motivating myself to draw, but whenever I do, I always feel so good. So alive.

[gabbykobold]

i know we joke about cis artists having the weirdest sense of anatomy, but also even when the anatomy is fine, no one seems to want to draw women doing normal things

[gabbykobold]

I got excited seeing lower temperatures on my weather app today, only to go outside and find that the air is a soppy humid soup =w=