#I’ve made a few finished pmvs. A few animated parts.

[lionblaze03-2]

holy shit guys. My YouTube is ten years old now. I’ve been posting about these fucking cats for ten goddamn years straight. That’s HALF OF MY ENTIRE LIFE. I’ve spent half of my entire life on that god forsaken platform making videos about fucking kitty cats killing each other. And you know what? I wouldn’t have it any other way 💖happy ten years me you did it. Still out there creating, always will. It’s been a crazy ten years. Here’s to ten more!

[zee-rambles]

Hey! Its the anon that reached out about the idea of doing a MAP call. Sorry I didn’t explain earlier, I’ve been having a ton of brainfog. M.A.P. stands for multi-animator project. Usually a MAP is set to a song, which is then split into different parts and each person animates a part which are then collected and edited together to make up the whole song. I’m bad at explaining so I’ll provide some examples. Some maps have storyboards, while others just have scripts, and anything maps usually just have a color pallet. They can have a variety of skill levels as well as topics and songs

Here’s a nice color pallet themed map for an example of a finished product (https://youtu.be/EA5KYLyVlmA)

Here’s a PMV map because they’re not all fully animated (https://youtu.be/AA1Bckqam7Q)

Here’s a breakdown of how to host a map (https://youtu.be/5jvX5x7Amvg)

Hopefully you don’t feel any pressure to do anything, I just wanted to try to give you some resources to explore maps in case you were curious.

Anyways I hope you have a wonderful day and keep up the good work with trying to get a season 3!

So…I don’t know much about animating. I’ve made a few gifs, but that’s about it. I’m not sure how I would do a multianimator project, but it would LOVE if fans did that for Rise. Right now, I’m holding a DTIY contest…though I dunno if anyone is interested in that…heh…so I don’t even know if I will do a MAP call in the future.

But hey, if there is an idea you have for Rise…DO IT! Not only will you express yourself artistically, but the more content out there the better! Thanks for explaining, and I do hope we get a season 3! We can’t give up! Keep Rise going, before, during, and after Mutant Mayhem, recommend it to new TMNT fans after MM and we still have a chance!

[pjwarriorcats]

Profile Piece: Nifty-Senpai

Of all of the big names involved in the jumpstart of the Warriors fandom into the colossal online community that it now is, Nifty-Senpai (aka Nifty or Jessica) is one of the few original content creators still posting Warriors related content.

[Alt Text: Nifty Senpai's Icon of a cartoon cat wearing a red scarf. Image credit: Nifty Senpai]

Nifty began their career on Youtube posting short animations in 2009, and continued to grow and improve as an animator throughout the years. In the process, Nifty built a sizable platform, consisting now of 137K subscribers on Youtube and 15.6k followers on Twitter.

Nifty is responsible for a number of well-known and well-loved MAPs (Multi-Animator Projects) and MAP parts, PMVs (Picture-Music-Videos), and animations. Some notable examples include their "Little Pistol" Bluestar animatic, the "Everything Moves" Sol MAP, the "Always Gold" Gray Wing and Clear Sky MAP, and, most recently, the incredible StarClan's Chosen MAP. All of these projects made waves in the fandom and were highly anticipated from their very first announcement. Nifty organized and took part in all of these projects, producing extremely high-quality community creations on-par with professional-level 2D animation productions. And all of it was done on volunteer time and effort. The escalation of skill and quality, as well as Nifty’s ability to direct so many animators and keep everything so coherent and readable to the audience (the StarClan’s Chosen MAP had an extraordinary number of 121 animators all working together under their direction) from their start on Youtube to now is incredible. I highly recommend giving any of these animation projects a watch if you haven't seen them already.

Nifty’s MAP projects have been able to attain a very impressive level of coherency and consistency, thanks in part to another project of theirs. Over the years, Nifty has drawn and posted a hugely expansive archive of Warriors designs, both character designs and location designs, that is completely free to access and utilize with credit. There are hundreds upon hundreds of resources created by Nifty that they have made completely free to use as reference in anyone’s Warriors fan project. This remains one of the most massive and impactful contributions to the fandom to date; Nifty’s designs have been used in numerous other projects, including certain parts of The Time Machine MAP, certain characters in the yet-to-be-finished "How to Save a Life" Medicine Cat MAP, the "Let Go" Grey Wing and Clear Sky MAP, and more. Many artists have created designs for the Warriors characters, and many allow others to use those designs for free, but no one has made such a vast collection as Nifty. I’ve included a few of my favorite designs below!

[Alt text: A drawing of a calico cat with a fluffy ginger tail lying down. Image credit: Nifty Senpai; post link]

[Alt text: A drawing of a golden-brown tabby cat with a crooked jaw. Image credit: Nifty Senpai; post link]

[Alt text: a drawing of a grey tabby cat with a reddish-ginger tail and ears. Image credit: Nifty Senpai; post link]

[Alt text: a thin greenish-grey cat with pointed markings and spiky fur tufts. Image credit: Nifty Senpai; post link]

[lunathewafflelord]

Me: okay I’m finally going to get started on my Song of the Eared Robot animation!

Me: wait I actually need a model of (…) to make it.

Me: well I could just sketch out an animatic first and then get started on the MMD frames not requiring that model

Me: -ends up not doing anything related to the animation for a few months-

Me now: WHY HAVEN’T I WORKED ON THIS ANIMATION I WAS SO EXCITED TO MAKE IT!!!

for all of you unaware I want to do an animation to the song Song of the Eared Robot since the lyrics fit N very well. I’m thinking it’ll be PMV styled and made in MMD, with a few parts being hand drawn and some being animated (like a scene where N’s hair is blowing).  But I’ve just. Not done anything related to it. This happens every time I want to make an animation. I start a few frames and get really into it, take a break, then I forget about it and never finish it. Sometimes I remember it a while later but my style has changed a lot and I can’t really add more to it without it looking out of place.

Frick.

(If anyone here knows how to rip models from games, I need the model of N’s room in order to make a few scenes for the animation. If anyone is willing to port it to MMD or at least Blender I’d appreciate it very much!

[arashikitten]

Taking a quick break from Monkie kid content, I would like to talk about Warrior Cats! Specifically, the YouTube animation community for Warrior cats!

I’ve been watching the YouTube Warriors community since about 2014, when it was really starting to pick up steam. My first MAP, at least the first one I think I watched, was WhiskerMoon’s We All Still Die MAP in 2015 and Colacatinthehat’s Buy The Stars Hollyleaf and Ivypool MAP. Since then, I’ve been avidly following the warriors YouTube community, constantly searching and waiting for new MAPs to come out, and watching the AMVs and PMVs made by individual animators.

But despite the constant flow of unique, interesting concepts and ideas from this community, there wasn’t much in the way of horror. There was the occasional Halloween MAP, sure, but those didn’t really scare me all that much. The only MAP that actually gave me shivers was Northflower’s Brokenstar MAP, Along Came a Spider about two years ago, but there wasn’t really anything else. Nothing that made me afraid to go to sleep at night.

...At least, that was the case until recently.

A couple of months ago, in late July, I discovered a YouTube animator by the name of Razmerry through their Ashfur MAP, Daisy Bell, and while it didn’t scare me in the way Along Came A Spider did, it still very much unsettled me. The music, combined with the creepy concept, went a long way in making me feel uneasy and nervous, kind of like the beginning of a horror movie.

So I decided to look a bit deeper. Perhaps Razmerry had some more creepy Warriors content, something truly terrifying.

And that’s how I stumbled upon their Warriors au PMV, New Normal.

Now, before you go and watch it, there are a few warnings I need to put out. Firstly, a blood and gore warning. Seriously, if you are triggered by blood, gore, and anything else along those lines, DO NOT WATCH THIS PMV. It has a lot of it, and I even felt a bit sick while watching it. Secondly, if self-harm is a trigger, stay away from this PMV! There is some self-harm toward the end of the PMV, so if it triggers you, DON’T WATCH! Finally, if you are under the age of 13, DO NOT WATCH THIS PMV!! THERE IS A LOT OF DISTURBING CONTENT THAT IS NOT SUITED FOR CHILDREN, SO IF YOU ARE YOUNGER THAN 13, DO NOT WATCH!!

Ok? Ok.

The au depicted in New Normal is a Power of Three au, where Lionblaze, Jayfeather, and Dovewing have their powers cranked up to eleven, and are slowly driven insane by them. Jayfeather can feel every emotion of every cat around him just as strongly as if they were his own, leaving him unable to decipher which feelings are his, and which ones aren’t. Lionblaze is so strong that he breaks everything he touches, including other cats, and Dovewing has my personal nightmare of being able to every little thing very loudly all the time. The three of them slowly go insane, and Lionblaze ends up killing literally just about everyone in Thunderclan.

When I first watched this PMV, I could not sleep that night. Seriously it messed me way up, and even now, a month later, I still can’t watch it all the way through without pausing.

There’s also Sweetfrost’s MAP It’s Alright, which is for the same au and was finished a little over a week ago. Just as terrifying as the PMV, and an end credits scene that legit gave me nightmares.

Finally there’s Northflower’s newest MAP, a Mosskit Halloween MAP called The Ghost. It’s not done yet, as there are still some parts that haven’t been completed, but it’s very eerie from what I’ve seen and the music puts me on edge in the best possible way. Not quite as unsettling as Jack Stauber’s music, but still creepy.

Overall, I’d say that the new trend in horror Warriors content is interesting, and a trend that I hope continues on for awhile.