Just wondering, who would you say is the biggest inspiration in what you guys do today? For me, my biggest inspiration has to be Alvin Earthworm, since my series is based off his series, and his work is the one that introduced me to the sprite community that I know and love today. So, who's yours?
Hey, same here. I always thought Alvin’s animation skills were on a whole other level and I could never decipher how he did it. I definitely learned a lot from studying how he did 2.5D in his animations. I’d say the people who inspire me the most these days are the good folks at both SleepyCabin and GameGrumps. I listen to both as much as I listen to music, not just for background noise but just for a nice thing to listen and laugh to. Check em out, if you haven’t.
Alvin was my childhood c: Anyways, back when I was I think Middle School, I really liked scrolling around Maple Vids, though I stopped watching anything Maple related from sophomore year until my senior year. One day I felt like rewatching some Spritefan2 stuff and other sprite anims for the heck of looking back, then saw Alicia Vs. Neil everywhere (Like legit, every other MS vid, it was there on the side) in my recommended videos, saw it, loved it, scrolled more around anims, loved Deadly Runners and a few other anims that popped up, like the Gen Collab, OMM, thought I had enough patience to try dropping bitmaps everywhere, and here I am.
I think it's safe to say Alvin Earthworm is a kool kid. Adding to what Aidan said, I thought his parallax was insanity. That's probably why it took 1 year per episode right there. Aside from Alvin Earthworm, I remember the Power Star series, "It's Freakin Mario" and non-sprite channels like PivotMasterDX and PivotPro333. How stickfigures grew me into sprites is anybody's guess.
OHMYGOSH I love this question, I'd been wanting to ask this: Does anyone remember StuidAndCheese? Super old MS animator, like 2010 and/or earlier. Their series/videos introduced me to MS animations and inspired me to try them! They quit ages ago though ;_; and since then, Klaziki has been my biggest inspiration. Spoiler: Their channel is gone now too, but here's what they looked like i guess I had this sitting around for an old video I never ended up even making about how I started.
Anyone who posted animations regularly in the forums when I was starting out. The difference between Bannedstory animations on youtube and the forums was like night and day. Forum animations tended to be more technical so it was a huge influence on me while I was a little noob, lol.
When I was first starting out, LGDVeggetto, Shortfactor, D-sun, Shadefalcon, and Alvin were definitely my top inspirations. Those guys made some really insane shit in their day, and I'll always remember how they influenced me. These days, Zack, Aquila, and Chris (Auramaster/Tyler) are my inspiration to continue and my motivation to improve. I really don't know where I'd be as an animator if I didn't have guys like them setting the bar so high for me.
When I was growing up, I really loved drawing and stuff. But, it went from a love to a career goal when I saw this amazing movie : This movie single–handedly made me want to become an animator and to study the arts when I was younger. To this day I still occasionally watch it to inspire me to keep trying at what I'm doing. Other then that though there are some amazing artists that also inspire me like Toonimated, Luxtempestas and Leslie Hung (She did the art in a comic I love, I don't think she has an art blog?). There are also some shows that have inspired me like Steven Universe, Adventure Time and Gurren Lagann. Basically there is an entire diagram of people who make me want to do what I do.
There are a lot of people whose work and path to success I aspire to, but if we want to talk about the beginning, it all strangely started with Dray86. Watching his MapleStory videos in elementary really got me thinking about film and animation as a craft and art form beyond just entertainment. The fact that he was able to execute such incredible spectacle and storytelling with Maple sprites was mind-blowing at the time, and I've had an obsession with creating my own visual and auditory narratives since. It's interesting because this is something I would never tell my professors or producers since they might judge my tastes and career interests poorly lol
Sai, Hunter and Asasinsonic. I was a fan of asasinsonic for awhile and he posted a mbr he had vs Hunter and on hunter's character was this domo hat that sai had made, me being the hype beast myspace user at the time I was like, i need that hat. So i joined MM and got immersed by the forum and stayed for the community, also Sai's sprites got me into spriting that led me getting into digital art then now im in an art college perusing my dream to be a concept artist.
Blez, Ainn and Joey + more for inspo for learning/doing animation and for just 'normal life stuff' would be Yeller, Josh, Taylor, Nozomi <3 and Aaron. (there is a lot of more people who help with my depression and eating disorder such is uh.. Joey, Blez, Taylor, Yeller, Andrew and Ainn + nozomi!)
