Asandir's interviews with Newgrounds forum users
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[ Part 1 ] + [ Part 2 ]
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This week's interview features the user DrClay.
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When did you find Newgrounds and why did you join? Why did you choose the username DarkMage13 and why did you change it to DrClay?
"DarkMage13 was a name I used for a lot of things. Before I joined Newgrounds, I used to make little cartoons within different programs; I’ll get more into that later. Anyway, DarkMage is just a name I picked for those types of cartoons. I also would use this alias for playing games like Battlefield 1942 and StarCraft. The idea of DarkMage made me picture a night in dark armor. I was just some dumb kid trying to sound badass.
The reason I changed it to DrClay because I was annoyed at having a number in my name and I also had the intention of trying out Claymation, as I was inspired by Knox. However that didn’t go so well. But I decided to stick with the name DrClay since people started to get to know me under that name.
I’ve had some people tell me they thought DarkMage was a bit more interesting but I thought it was rather cheesy. Like a name that was trying to be epic rather than actually being so. Also before anyone asks, the number within the name DarkMage13 had nothing to do with my age. I was 16 years old when I created the account. The only reason the number was part of the name was because “DarkMage” was apparently already taken. Why I picked 13 is beyond me."
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Do you think that you changed over the time you were here, as user, or also in real life?
"Oh of course! What user wouldn’t of?
Back when I first signed up, I was immature and ignorant on how the site worked.
Whenever someone would say “Noob” I would take offense to it and lash out at that user.
Sometimes I would also try to be a jerk to someone on the forum in an attempt to be funny.
After a while I realized that it wasn’t cool to do that and I matured into a much more different user.
I feel that Newgrounds showed me on how the world really works.
As a new user you are bound to deal with a lot of people who are going to poke fun at you for being the new guy, that you can’t expect something for nothing. You can’t just automatically become the popular guy, and you can’t just send in anything in the portal and get rewarded for it. You got to work hard and never give up. It took a little adjusting but eventually I became a little more familiar with the site and its users. I feel that it helped me mature into a better person."
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Are there any other users that you like, and how do they affect you?
"There are two users who basically are the reason why I’m even on this site. Knox and Randy-Solem. If I didn’t come across their work then I probably wouldn’t have found this site. Knox is the reason why I am even under the name “DrClay” because like I said earlier, he inspired me to try out Claymation. His work was really hilarious and a lot more different than anyone else’s content. Even now sometimes I like to kick back and watch one of his classics. They might be simple but they are classics.
Randy inspired me to do sprite animation. Not only was his work something I wasn’t used to seeing but it was also a nostalgic trip of all the memories playing the games that the sprites were from. Rise of the Mushroom Kingdom was one of the first cartoons I saw and it really made me amazed to how much of a story he made. Even though the art wasn’t his original work I believe he did a great job. I also loved his Mario VS Sonic cartoon as well. When I heard the news of his passing I was shocked. Randy had a large impact on me and is the reason why my first animation is a sprite animation…
I wish the best for his loved ones.
I also have some acquaintances on the forum like LiquidFire and Lionelion."
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Are there any users that you would consider enemies or that you just don't like?
"I never had the intention of making enemies on the site and I don’t really have a dislike towards any user. I’m not really someone to find a reason to dislike someone because I feel that is disrespectful and just childish.
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What is your opinion about the forums? Is there one forum that you prefer? And is there another forum user that you want to see getting interviewed by me?
Meh, I think the forums have really slowed down. Things aren’t that active and it just seems a lot more boring. I usually only post if the topic is interesting, something I am familure with, or something that I find amusing like a photoshop topic. I don’t know if the forums have grown old on me or maybe it just isn’t that interesting as it used to be.
Around 2007 and such I think the forum was a lot more active. Maybe it was just because there was a lot more interesting users or maybe it was when the site was more popular. It just seemed like it was a lot nicer and more fun back in the day then it is now.
I tend to browse the general forum just because some topics that might be interesting tend to show up in that section. I also browse the video game forum because who doesn’t like talking about video games? Though I don’t post that often. As for another user to be interviewed, I honestly wouldn’t know because I am not sure if they have already been interviewed already."
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I guess that you have an opinion about the moderators of Newgrounds. Do you think that they do a great job or not?
"I never had a negative opinion towards the mods. Not even the really strict ones that a lot of users hate like EyeLovePoozy or bigbadron. I feel the mods do a decent job keeping to forums clean. If I was to say anything , I think the forums have become a lot less strict. Occasionally I come across a topic that just seems like its spam or a waste. There are also some users who I feel would have been banned if it was 2006. But other than that I think it’s alright."
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Would you like to become a moderator on Newgrounds? If so, what kind of moderator?
"I never really thought about it. If I was offered to become one I would probably accept, I like to help out with the site and such if possible. As for what kind of mod, I don’t really know. I never really felt I was active enough to really become a mod. I don’t really have a perception on whether if I was a mod or not."
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You were a member before the redesign 2007. Tell me how you experienced Newgrounds back then and what changes you liked about the redesign.
"Well, If I remember correctly the site was changed a little before the actual redesign took place. I think at one point the header of the site was changed to how it was in 2007 about a month or two before the redesign took place. I really approved of the redesign though. In the old layout I found the header of the site to be a little confusing, I don’t think there was even a button for the collections page. The new header seemed a lot more convenient and organized. The look of the site was really well done and wasn’t too different from the original layout. I liked that even though it was a new layout it still was keeping with the original style of the site. It didn’t look or feel like a completely different site it felt like the same site just in an HD format.
The audio portal also had a nice little way of scrolling through the song rather than just having a play button. I also liked the visualizer that was added for when you played a song. Another nice feature was that they would have best songs of the week be playing on the front page. Originally it was just Paragonx9’s music. While I do agree her music is awesome, it was a nice way to give a shout out to other users in this method.
I also liked how were given a user page profile. It was a lot nicer looking then the original user page in 2005. I also liked Bytesize, it was a nice little preview on what the site had to offer. Sadly it isn’t on the page anymore but users can still find it on Tom’s account.
There was a few things that I didn’t like as well…
For example, the audio portal no longer showed the featured artist at the top of the page. Instead they were cast aside to the lower right corner of the page. I felt that pretty much made a lot of artist that were featured get overlooked. The idea of having the featured artist on the page made it more noticeable and made users more aware of that artist.
Another thing I didn’t like was that each song was in its own page. In the old layout, the whole library of the user’s music was displayed on a single page so you can easily cycle through a list of songs rather than having load one song, go back to the user account, load the next song and repeat.
I also didn’t like how a lot of features and content was removed or toned down. For example, in the old layout if you blammed a cartoon or protected one you would get a small animation showing the content being saved or removed. I also miss the whistle animation. It was a funny little gimmick that I miss.
All and all there was a lot of nice new bells and whistles and it really did well for the site.
But there was a lot of little things that were removed that I missed.
Still there was a lot more good then there was bad."
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The last redesign happened 2012. Tell me what you think about it. What do you like and what is not so good?
"Yeah I do. I think the staff did a great job with developing all the new features they’ve introduced in the past two years. I like how users are no longer limited to flash format when it comes to uploading content and can upload video files. This really helps those who do not own Adobe Flash yet wish to entertain. It also helps users who upload both to Newgrounds and to Youtube. Instead of making two versions, people can easily just upload the same version on both sites. And for users who still use flash, there is a backup plan for when your cartoon lags a lot.
I also like how we can now have our own user icons for the forum. Yes they are a simple thing but I still like it.
I also like how we are now notified when someone replies to us on the forum, as well as providing a review or comment on our blog. In my opinion, that’s been long overdue.
If I were to say that something wasn’t good it would be more of a nitpicking thing and nothing that I feel is a HUGE issue. One thing I can say is I kind of have mixed feelings for the visual appearance of the site, almost like it’s a bit of an overkill. I liked the simplicity of the old design and now it just seems like a completely different design rather than a tribute to its old style. But maybe that is what the staff was going for, something new rather then something remade. And I don’t think it’s bad, it’s just different.
The collections seem a lot more clunked together at times and it’s sometimes a little difficult for me to locate where one particular collection would be because it’s apparently within another collection. For example, the politics collection is within the culture collection. I kind of liked it when each major collection had its own section on the page itself. Where you could easily just scroll your eyes over the featured collections instead of looking within other collection pages to find a certain collection. But like I said, these are more or less nitpicking and don’t really effect my experience on the site.
If I was to actually pick something that I feel is a bit of an issue it would be that I hope to see the video format developed a bit more. Users tend to like creating links within their videos using buttons, like how youtube has annotations. I hope that Newgrounds eventually does that as well.
Speaking of Youtube, in the past few months Youtube has changed terribly with their new rules and automated copyright claim accounts and it seems almost a risk just to make a small reference. Even things like royalty free music can cause a red flag at times. With that, I hope Newgrounds doesn’t make the same mistake."
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You are a successful animator. When did you start animating?
"First I just want to say thanks for the kind words. I never really saw myself as a successful animator honestly. For as long as I can remember I’ve always been doing some kind of animating. I even used to make little stop motions with my toys back when I was 10 years old. For a while I was just being a regular dumb kid. I didn’t even overdub the stopmotion, I did it during each take of the movement. In other words, I would speak a sentence, move the toy, and finish a sentence. When I was 11 I was sitting in computer class at school and I saw a cartoon with this sock puppet type character on the screen of some girl in front of me. I asked her what the site was and she told me “Homestarrunner.” I even remember the cartoon that she was watching, it was the one where Homestar is doing a commercial for his website but keeps screwing up.
That’s right, Homestarrunner is what introduced me to flash. Although I didn’t know what flash was or even how it worked, but I was witnessing cartoons on the internet. Which believe it or not, was a big thing at the time. I remember I used to think they would animate this content in something like MS Paint and such, something that required them to draw every frame of animation and would mash them together with voices and music using a slideshow type software. Eventually I find out that the program is called “Flash” and I discover other artist along the line. Knox, Randy-Solem, and a few others.
I came across a program called “Moho” which I thought was what people were using. Because the program had an option to “Export as flash” However it isn’t that good. If you want to animate I wouldn’t recommend this program. It’s rather outdated and hasn’t aged well.
After a while I discover Adobe Flash. I have to say when I first started using Adobe Flash it was really frustrating. I couldn’t figure out how to do anything… But with practice I eventually caught on. And that’s basically it. From animating with toys to animating with computers. If you ask me, not much has changed. Heh."
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How did you feel when you won your first Newgrounds Daily award for your submission That Mean Olde Villain?
That is one of my favorite shorts I’ve made. I made that in a short amount of time because I was having such fun doing it. When I submitted the cartoon I did some lurking on the portal and saw that I had the highest scoring flash that was sent in on that day. I was so excited because I thought I was going to win the daily first. And then El-Cid sent in his Bambee flash and I lost the daily first against it.
I’m gonna be honest, I was kind of annoyed about that. But, El-Cid did a great job and congrats to him.
I was still very happy to win the daily second because that was something I never got before. I never had a flash reach any of the daily top 5 and I felt really honored to get second place. I even saved a screen cap of the post at the time."
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Now the first part of the interview with DrClay is over, read Part 2 here.
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