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View Profile Esn
Feel free to PM me if you want to see the scores to any of my music.

Male

Student

Toronto, ON

Joined on 4/6/04

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Esn's News

Posted by Esn - June 26th, 2010


I made a new site specifically for the comics I make.

http://www.thebrooksreflections.com/

If you like them, subscribe to the RSS feed to receive a notice when there's an update.


Posted by Esn - July 4th, 2009


I've been uploading a few comics to the art portal lately, so I thought it would be appropriate to post something like this. This is a list of the comics I follow online, mostly through isitfunnytoday.com, the rest through RSS feeds (in either case, I get notified when there's an update). "Webcomics" and "syndicated comics that can be followed online" are both included, because I don't think there's a great difference between the two. Some of these I like a lot, while others I like just enough to subscribe to and not much more.

Mainly story-based:
Aardehn
The Abominable Charles Christopher
Kukuburi
One Swoop Fell
That Ur-Quan Master
Ugly Girl

Mainly "gag-a-day":
Abstruse Goose
Basic Instructions
Bellen!
Cat and Girl
Cheer Up Emo Kid
Dilbert
Dinosaur Comics
Garfield Minus Garfield
Journey to Mt. Moriah
Kate Beaton
A Lawyer, a Doctor and a Cop
Mimi & Eunice
This Modern World
Moe Comics
My Medicated Cartoon Life
Optipess
Piled Higher and Deeper
POPsickleSTICK
POPstrip
Questionable Content
Rat Tangent
Rooster Teeth
Sandra and Woo
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Simulated Comic Product
Sinfest
Summer on the Brandywine
Tiny Ghosts
Will Laren
Wondermark
xkcd

Non-updating/very-slow-updating:
A Lesson Is Learned
The Boids!
Cat Rackham
Copper
Gone with the Blastwave
Papercut
The Perry Bible Fellowship
The Strange High House in the Mist
The Wrong Hero
Zip and Li'l Bit

Generally, I would say that I like comics that are sometimes smarter than I am (i.e. Cat and Girl) more than comics that are sometimes dumber than I am (i.e. Sandra and Woo - to be honest, I mainly follow that one because I like the art). The former gives me, as a reader, something to reach for; a direction in which to go. The latter asks me to go back on the path from which I came; to fall backward into senility.

I don't know if that holds true for other people or not.


Posted by Esn - June 21st, 2009


The recent Newgrounds survey had the following question at the end:
If you would like to provide any feedback or suggestions for Newgrounds, please do so here:

This is what I wrote (edited into bulletins):

1. Treat the music portal seriously, not just as a source of free music for Flash authors - we have some amazing artists there, they deserve it.

2. Give users EXPERIENCE POINTS for voting on music or art submissions, just like they get for voting on Flash submissions. That may encourage voting on new submissions (how come 200 people vote for each new crappy flash, but new music submissions are lucky to get a few votes?).

3. Make the experience points system for each portal separate - someone who has a highly-weighed vote because he votes a lot on Flash may not know anything about music, so his vote should not be weighed more until he votes on a lot of music.

4. Make a "judgment period" for the Music Portal (that might also induce more people to vote).

5. MAKE A YOUTUBE-LIKE OR DEVIANTART-LIKE SUBSCRIPTIONS SYSTEM!!! PLEASE!!! THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING, all the other websites have it. RSS is okay, but really limiting because you can't customize it. I'd like to be able to, for example, subscribe to USER-A's news and music, but not his flashes, USER-B's art, but not his music, etc. and have a record of everything that I've subscribed to, including a way to see whether I've watched an item yet or not (regular text if page has been visited, bold text otherwise).

6. Have an at least somewhat-customized ad system for the Flash portal, for example by allowing a submitting user to pick a keyword that best describes his submission, which will then make correspondingly-themed ads show up, instead of the same ads for the whole website.

7. Allow posts I made on other people's news items to be accessed from the userpage (like reviews and forum posts are).

8. Also, I'm sure you're working on this, but allow "favourite art" and "art reviews" to be accessed from the userpage.


Posted by Esn - May 5th, 2009


I've recently uploaded to Youtube some audio from the York University Brass Ensemble concert which happened this past February (just 2 weeks back from the strike!), in which I play the tuba and euphonium:

http://www.youtube.com/user/baldabrass

I think "Stardust" came out the best:

.
/* */
If you're in the area, consider coming to our next (and possibly final) concert on Monday May 11, 12:30 pm, Tribute Communities Recital Hall, Accolade East Building, York University. Admission is free!


Posted by Esn - April 1st, 2009


I would like to bring attention to animation that is not on front page:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
169385

Today is proper day for watching.

EDIT: It's on the front page now.


Posted by Esn - December 21st, 2008


I can't believe I actually finished it in time, before tomorrow's plane flight!

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
474831

I had this idea since October 28, 2007 (see my review of "Rain in the Night" on that date). In December, I resolved to quickly learn Flash from scratch (I had an old copy of Flash MX), learn how to paint in ArtRage (the best, most intuitive and most affordable painting program ever), and make a little film in time for Christmas. I came close, too; I got about 75-80% done, overcoming various technical obstacles (I'm not sure if this kind of technique has even been done in Flash before).

Of course, you can only release a Christmas film at Christmas time, so that was that. I kept working on it every so often throughout 2008, and really began working on it a few weeks ago after the first heavy snows started falling on Toronto. My last two days were spent being entirely frustrated with actionscript (the snow), but with the help of some nice people from kirupa's forum and Vector from the Brackenwood forum, I finally muddled my way through, in the nick of time. (I knew absolutely NOTHING about actionscript 3 days ago)

Anyway, just waiting for the first reviews to come in...

By the way, if anyone's reading this, check out MJTTOMB's other compositions too. He's really good, and I say this as a composer myself (I also have some songs uploaded to Newgrounds). I also listened to his "Surrounded by Snow" while painting some of the scenes in the film.


Posted by Esn - November 5th, 2008


It's been a long time since I did the monthly voting thing on Newgrounds (which only the top 2000 active monthly users can do). Not since before the summer, at least. These are my choices for this month, from #1-#10 (I didn't vote for any games, but I did watch most of the eligible movies). There were some really nice submissions, especially the top 5 picks.

1. Fallen Angel Ep. 1 (Pt2)
2. Fallen Angel Ep. 1 (Pt1)
3. Sketched - Pregnancy Test
4. Custodial Catastrophe
5. Ghost Crush.
6. Angry Dog - Lizard Dome
7. The Life-Shroom Sprint
8. Gunk! in Abductard
9. Rockoons 2
10. The Sun Portal

Other submissions that were close to being on the list:
Orlando's Joint #10
SRM Call of Duty 4
Shamoozal: GFGames #4
One Big Morphing Orgasm

The order isn't perfect or objective, but it's hard to keep things straight after watching so many films in a row. Also, #10 was maybe not objectively better than the ones that almost made it in, but I really liked how imaginative it was.


Posted by Esn - May 5th, 2008


"Tales from the Steelworks" and "Of Hippos and Rainy Days". Two pieces which are quite unlike each other...

Also, there's a project which should be finished soon. MJTTOMB did his part long ago, but I've been slow with finishing mine. Well, it'll be finished soon, but it'll only be released at Christmas time. :)


Posted by Esn - January 10th, 2008


New piece, folks. At over 7 minutes, it's my longest one yet (although two of those minutes are the older piece "Fall of Grace", which I've wanted to turn into something bigger for quite a while).

Actually, I have a whole number of pieces that I could release, but I want to learn how to edit sound files better first... i.e. does anybody know how I could add a sound to a WAV file without replacing the other sounds playing at the same time, and whether there is a free program that can do this?

This latest piece is actually a project for university (although it's my own fault for making everything more difficult for myself than necessary... I could've done a 4th of the work if I had wanted). In order to not be too late for the deadline, I've had to temporarily abandon another project which I'm really eager to finish and get out.

It's a collaboration of sorts with MJTTOMB. Look for that sometime soon.


Posted by Esn - November 15th, 2007


I've uploaded a new piece into the classical section. It's a rather slow piece. It's actually more in the Baroque style (even though it's not quite a fugue), yet from what I can tell by listening to the recent submissions that surround it, it's one of the few that actually deserves to be in the "classical" section (i.e. it doesn't sound like it was made with synthesizers and meant to be head-banged to). Or perhaps it's out of place here (as I write this, two people have voted and its score is 0.66/5).

Anyway, there's not much to say right now... I think it's one of my favourites among my own work so far. I'm finding that I actually like writing in the Baroque style, which is so different from what I had done before.

I have a concert coming up this Friday in which my composition Blue Brass March (for a brass ensemble of six players) will be played. It's in a completely different style than most things I've submitted here. I'll be playing the tuba. Come on over if you live near York University in Toronto - the concert's free. :) There's an event profile on Facebook over here.