The title of this may have been misleading. I'm not doing NATA this year, and here is my reasoning: I've been spending a lot of time making videos in one month, and there is always a limit to what can be accomplished in that time. There were themes from my NATA entries last year that I think I could have done more with in a different context. So, I'd like to spend more time on something and see a concept through to the end with more detail and attention. I've been doing little bits and pieces for that recently.

That'll take a while, though, so in the mean time, I'm available to help with music or consult story or something for NATA if you think that'd be useful. I'll also continue to run collabs in between rounds like the ones from last year. For the uninitiated, the idea is that we give a simple action or animation concept and then you make a short little loop about that. Don't worry about it not being super great quality, the point is for it to be a quick, fun little side project. In the NATA skype group we've decided the theme for the first one will likely have something to do with head turns. More details on that as the NATA deadline for the first round nears.

For the past few days, I've been in Waterloo, Ontario competing in the Skills Canada animation competition. You go there in teams of two and have around five hours to animate to an audio clip (similar to the 11 second club, except sometimes they want it shorter or longer depending on how they feel.) I've been going with luuuka and here are some of the things we've made:

This is our video from the regional competition. I made the half of the scenes and Luka made half. We also couldn't install our tablet drivers so we were stuck in mouse mode, eughh.

This is our video from provincials. I animated the guy and the planes, Luka animated the girl and drew the backgrounds. The animatic we had to submit along with the video is available here on my alternate youtube channel, where animation tests and school assignments go to die.

These are pretty fun to make so there will maybe be more later. 

I've also officially accepted my offer to the University of Waterloo's Software Engineering program, so I'll be there in the fall! Is there anyone else on Newgrounds currently there or will be later?

Lastly, I've started making music again, although right now I'm going through remaking some older things that I've done. This is mainly a way to get me back thinking creatively after coming out of a not-so-great period. More original stuff will happen eventually.

Talk to you guys later!

(also I'll be 18 by the Ontario election in June so I can vote. oh god, the responsibility)