Hello NGs,

I feel like it's been forever since my last post. I was trying to wait until I had more news on the Sci-Fi project, but I've got other stuff to discuss first.

YouTube Channel

Check it out here.

Everyone's doing it! Don't you want to be cool like them?! I've had a youtube channel for a while, but never really bothered to do anything with it until now. This is mainly because I SUCK at exporting .fla projects as video. No matter how I do it, I can't get it to look as clear and gorgeous as some others can.

Regardless, working with what I have, I put Madness Heist up in what seems to be fairly decent quality. But I honestly think it could look alot better. You be the judge.

Watch Madness Heist on Youtube.

Moving on...

Sci-Fi Project

I've decided to do a Sci-Fi for my latest project. I wish I could say I look forward to it. In a sense I do, but there has to be a SHITLOAD of prep work if I'm going to do it right. It's difficult to solidify a sci-fi story for a flash without it turning into some kind of series. I like the idea of just having ONE thing for people to see, like a movie, not a TV series.

However, every idea I have for this thing equates to at least 20-30 minutes in runtime, which we all know flash seizures over. SO, my idea is this...

I'm thinking of doing some kind of "prologue" to the movie to sort of practice my FBF skills. I really want to improve my art/animation quality for this one. Before I can do that, I've gotta invest in a Wacom Cintiq. The Bamboo just isn't cutting it anymore.

Finally, the idea is to involve other animators in the project. In what way? I'm not sure yet. Depends who actually wants to be involved and how much work they want to put into it. In any case, this thing has to be a collaborative work.

In my next post, I'll put up some concept art I've been working on. Until then!

-Matt Hunter

P.S. If you guys haven't played Arkham City yet, GO FUCKING PLAY IT! Seriously, go play it. Greatest story/ending in any video game in the history of time. Also nails the Batman universe to the teeth. Go play it NOW! Come on, just look at that sweet picture.

Hello Newgrounders!

Madness Day 2011 Results
So the results are in and Madness Heist finished 3RD! I am more than pleased about this.

All props go to my wonderful cast, RicePirate, Motley-Fool, Apatheria, and Shock-Dingo. And of course, my brother MrRedstone for scoring the whole thing.

Madness Heist Upcoming Merchandise

Special Edition DVD:

To show my appreciation to this community and anyone who enjoyed the movie, I am putting together a DVD with a shit-load of special features (audio commentary, cast/crew interviews, bonus trailers, art gallery, etc.). I'm still waiting on some interview testimonials from the cast, so I'll post more on that in my next post. If anyone wants one, let me know through the comments on this post or through PM so I know how many I have to put together when it's finished.

Poster by TheShadling:

Shadman put together a SUPER BADASS poster for the movie. It will not only be the DVD cover art, but the poster art as well. During last week's broadcast, Tom took a look at it and I'm fairly confident he liked it. Now, I can't sell these off to you guys because it would be ultra-expensive, so CONVINCE TOM to put it in the store! If you really want one, that is. If not, that's cool too XD.

Moving Forward

I mentioned in a post a while back that I was going to "retire" after the completion of this movie. Due to the great reception of Madness Heist and all the support of the NG community, I am retracting this statement. Fuck retiring. With pretty much everyone on this sight being so awesome and welcoming (especially RicePirate), I feel I owe you guys more.

On that note, I have a few "potential" projects that I'm thinking of developing and trying to decide which to do first...

Madness Heist Sequel
I've been against this from the beginning. I'm not a big fan of doing sequels, but I've gotten alot of requests to do one. As against it as I was, I have come up with a rough concept that I think could work. It would be sort of a prequel/sequel, meaning some of it would take place after Madness Heist and a majority of it before. It would dive into the backgrounds of Red, Carl, Summers, and Evans' rise to power. This would be a MUCH bigger project so I'm not even thinking about it right now. If anything, it would be for MD 2013. But who knows.

Sci-Fi Project
This one I'd be more up for. My past few movies have been in the crime/action/drama genre and I really want to branch out and switch it up by taking on a new genre. This would challenge me to really improve my visuals. Plus I want to try maybe collaborating with another artist. I think that would be a fun experience.

Collaborating/Producing?
This would be a bit more immediate. I really want to do my part for the NG community and think it would be fun to help out with certain projects of artists I respect. I'd love to write some stuff for people/animate/collaborate/whatever. I also love "promoting" stuff so I'd love to produce and help get people's movies out there by making trailers and what not.

ANYWAY, Holy Christ this is a long post. I need to wrap it up here. I'll end by expressing how much appreciation I have for the NG community (artists/viewers alike) and thank you all for being the reason I do this stuff and helping me continue to grow as an animator. THANK YOU.

P.S. Check out the sweet poster below and get Tom to put it in the store!

-Matt Hunter

Hello you mad bastards!

Madness Heist is officially up. THANK YOU SO MUCH Tom for front paging it so quickly. I have so much to say about this project, but I'm so overwhelmed with excitement.

WATCH IT!!!

I need to give huge special thanks to my wonderful cast and crew. The AWESOME voice actors are RicePirate, Motley-Fool, Apatheria, and Shock-Dingo. Work with them! They will turn your movie to gold.

The ENTIRE musical score was composed specifically for this movie by my brother Mason Hunter, AKA MrRedstone. I think he did a fantastic job as well. He knew exactly what I wanted without me even having to tell him. Check him out.

Moving on, since I was waiting so anxiously for this Madness Day, I'm throwing a small party at my house to celebrate the Madness. We're all going to get hammered and watch Madness all night. Best night ever, in my opinion.

MORE PROMO STUFF!

Enjoy the movie guys! I REALLY hope you like it!

-Matt Hunter

Hello once more, Newgrounders!

I am proud to say that my upcoming Madness Day submission "Madness Heist" is officially complete.

I must thank Xionico for making that possible. I was having a bunch of Actionscript issues (what else is new?) and he helped me through them. Everything is working fine. Knock on wood.

I still have to design the menu, but I'm trying to leave some stuff to do so I don't go crazy with boredom waiting for Madness Day. I've never completed something and then waited to release it so it's tough :D.

I am also proud to announce that this is my first feature to ever feature a 100% original score. And I must say, the music turned out fantastic. My brother, Mr.Redstone spent a great deal of time making it entirely authentic and it adds a great deal to the movie. I'm also VERY pleased with the way the voices turned out. I think I had an extremely talented cast for this one (RicePirate, Apatheria, Motley-Fool, and Shock-Dingo).

Since the movie is done, I thought long and hard about making another trailer, but I don't want to give too much away. So instead, I tossed the trailer on YouTube for easier access. I'm still on the fence about putting the actual feature on YouTube though. Not 100% on the quality, but we'll see.

I also put a new banner up. Check it out at the top of the page.

Anyway, here's the trailer...

I also threw together another poster. Nothing fancy or anything. I tried to be a little more modern noir (if that makes any sense) with this one. Lemme know what you think.

That's all for now. See you all on Madness Day!

-Matt Hunter

Hello Newgrounders,

Well, it's been about two weeks and it's time for another update. I just FINALLY finished one of the most challenging scenes for Madness Heist, so it should be smooth sailing from here. I should have it completed by next week. I've never sat on submitting a movie for a certain date, so it's going to be rough. Which brings me to my next topic...

If anyone is interested (which I doubt), I'm looking for someone (or perhaps multiple people) to animate an elaborate poster and/or menu image for my Madness Day submission. My skills with photoshop/illustrator are novice to say the least. I think it would be wonderful if I had a really visually striking poster with a lot of detail to get people hyped up for this movie (I've spent about 6 damn months on it).

SO...if there's anyone out there with some impressive illustration skills that is up to the task, PLEASE let me know. I assure you, your generosity in this matter will not go unnoticed. The other plus is, YOU CAN SUBMIT IT FOR MADNESS DAY! YAY!!!

Post comments right here at the bottom, PM me or send me an email (mocproductionsflash@gmail.com) if this tickles your fancy.

WAIT A SEC!

Everyone's probably thinking "wtf he tells us to make a poster without telling us what it should look like???". Thing here is, I'd like for you guys to have as much creative control as possible. If you scramble through my last few posts, you'll see the posters I've done. If anyone wants to "revamp" any of those posters and do them with more detail, I'm TOTALLY up for that. If you want to take the character design and make an image of your own, that's awesome too. Just PLEASE don't send me crap. If you have little to no skills, don't bother. Sorry. That sounded mean...but seriously.

I've posted a new poster down at the bottom to get a better look at the characters.

Anyway, if anyone wants more info, you know what to do. Hope to hear from at least a few people soon.

A few side-notes:

After MUCH anticipation, I checked out Xionic Madness 4 Part 1 by Xionico a few days ago. It was orgasmic to say the least. So if you haven't checked it out yet, GO DO IT NOW!!!

There's also another Madness gem I found a while back that I've forgotten to mention called Madness Amelioration. I loved this one and I don't think it got enough credit when it was released, so check that one out too.

I digress...

One more thing for the people interested in poster designing, don't worry about putting any text on it, I'd rather just a solid image, but if you're going to make one, please make it poster dimensions/shaped.

That's all for now. Happy Clock Day tomorrow!

-Matt Hunter

Hello, Newgrounders!

Just finished checking out the tail end of the broadcast. It sucks I usually work Fridays because those are fun to check out and chat with Tom and other Newgrounds members. I was psyched to hear Tom liked my trailer. Speaking of which, CHECK THE TRAILER OUT!

Watch it now!!!

I've been slaving over my computer screen every chance I get working on this bad boy, so hopefully it turns out the way I want it to. Currently I'm working on a pivotal action sequence which will probably take me all of next week. Luckily I have some time off of work.

In the midst of all this work, I've been doing some "research" and watching all the Madness movies I can stumble across. One I particularly enjoyed was Dusk of the Madness. I was blown away by this one. Everyone should check it out. Great animation, great sound effects, and EXCELLENT music.

Speaking of music, I'm SUPER excited about my brother MrRedstone's musical score for the movie so far. Very cinematic, yet Madness-esque. Everyone should check out his page (you'll get to see some album cover art as well). I want the score to be a cross between the music of "Run Lola Run" and "Heat". So far, he's pulled it off beautifully.

As of right now, I STILL plan on retiring after this flash, but we'll discuss that later.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE check out that trailer and let me know what you think.

I've posted 3 posters so far, so this time, how bout a screenshot?

-Matt Hunter

Hello Newgrounders,

Let's start with the good news...

I'm officially finished casting voices for my upcoming Madness Day flash "Madness Heist". After a rather rough casting process, I feel now that I have a complete all-star cast. I'm extremely lucky to have the voice talents that I do. All of them give five-star performances in my opinion.

The official main cast consists of RicePirate, Motley-Fool, Apatheria, and Shock-Dingo.

The animation is coming along quite nicely. Although I must say I really miss Flash 8 back when the program was still owned by Macromedia. I've been using Adobe Flash CS5 and it's just not the same. It seems to freeze up a lot more often than Flash 8 ever did. However, I am doing some pretty graphic/sound intensive stuff, so maybe that's why.

Anyway, if all goes according to plan (which it surely won't), I'll have all my action sequences done within the next two weeks. Once all that is done, I can finally release a trailer. I'd really like to use a particular track that happens to be copyrighted material. This didn't used to be a problem, but I think Newgrounds is cracking down on that stuff. I could be wrong. Maybe someone can shed some light on that subject?

And now for the (sort of) bad news...

As of right now, I plan to "retire" from flash after this movie is complete. I'm starting to realize I have less and less time to work on these kinds of things. I have a full time job and I start college at Columbia in the fall. Both of those things are going to drain the life right out of me, and I don't see that changing for a very long time. Maybe someday I'll go back to it, but once this flash is finished, so am I.

I think this project is an appropriate one to be my last. I'm doing everything I've ever wanted to do in a flash from the very beginning: paying homage to the "Madness" series, directing voice actors, animating elaborate action sequences, and (hopefully) bringing a great cinematic experience to a wonderful audience.

I'll elaborate more on this when the time comes, but for now, enjoy the new POSTER.

I have to give props to blubbity for suggesting this concept for a poster. I think it turned out nicely. My main reason for putting it together was just to show off the names of the great cast I have for this movie.

Until next time,

-Matt Hunter

Well, things are coming along with the new project so I figure I'll post some new info.

The animating process is coming along, but like every flash I've done, it's taking up more time than I anticipated.

As far as voice-casting goes, I'm very excited to be working with Shock-Dingo again. I also have RicePirate on board, which is fantastic to say the least. Damn workaholic.

I am still casting so check out the Audition Thread if you're interested. I am still taking auditions for the characters "ORANGE" and "EVANS".

I will also say, after doing my research and checking out the gazillions of Madness movies on this site, the one I'm doing will be VERY different from the usual Madness. It's not going to be a typical side scroller like most are. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't paranoid about people having a problem with that.

My goal, as with all of my previous projects, is to make the experience of this flash as cinematic as possible. While Madness typically concentrates on ultra-violence, high body count, and just fun over-the-topness, I think it will be interesting to portray it in a new light.

One of my key inspirations for this style is Xionico's "Xionic Madness" series. I love the style of those and how much emphasis is put on story.

Outside of the animating world, another huge inspiration for me is Michael Mann's "Heat". If you haven't seen it, you must. Al Pacino vs. Robert DeNiro and one of the greatest bank robbery/shootouts every portrayed on screen.

Anyway, that's all for now. I'm hoping to get a trailer out by July. I've also thrown up another poster for the flick. Nothing fancy, but I think it's sufficient for now.

Let me know what you guys think!

-Matt Hunter

Hello again Newgrounders,

I've decided to reveal some news about my newest project. It's still in the early stages of development, but I'm rather excited about it. Unlike my last one, Gotham Heat, this is one where I just want to let go and have fun. What better to do it with than with a Madness themed project. I've always been a huge fan of the Madness series. It was part of what inspired me to animate with flash in the first place.

I'll try to give some info without giving too much away:

While this is a Madness "themed" project, it doesn't exactly take place in the Madness world or follow the Madness story-line. Instead, I want to create something original within the Madness universe using the unique character design. This comes with a great deal of challenges, but I'm a firm believer that constantly challenging yourself as an animator is what keeps things fresh. For instance: this time around, I plan to involve an elaborate car chase. Not one that involves alot of speed, but a great deal of destruction. I think violence and destruction are key ingredients for anything Madness themed.

The title of the project, as of right now, is "Madness Heist". From the title, you can guess what the story is going to be like. I want to take the story of a crew on a heist and bring it into the Madness universe.

While the aim is to stay original, I do want to pay homage to many of the films I am influenced by, including Michael Mann's "Heat" and Tom Tykwer's "Run Lola Run".

Another new challenge will be the music. With the newest enforcements regarding copyrighted music, I've decided to get someone to score the whole thing. That person would be my brother, Mason Hunter (NG username; MrRedstone). He has as much passion for music as I do for film and animation. He's already put together some sample tracks that I am more than satisfied with.

And lastly, of course, I will require voice actors for the project. A significantly larger variety than my last project. It is for this reason that I am posting all of this news. If anyone is interested, I'll be completing the script within the next two weeks, so look for that. If you'd like to express interest before the script comes out, feel free to PM with your email and I'll send you some sample lines.

Also, if you're a big Madness fan, and possibly have some insight on the project or would like to contribute in any way other than voice acting, feel free to post here or PM me.

On that note, I've attached a "teaser" poster for the project for you guys to take a look at. It's really over-the-top, but that's what I want the project to be, so hopefully it works. If any of you illustrators out there want to put together an elaborate poster for the project (with due credit, of course), I'll be looking for someone to do that as well. That will be further down the road, though.

Please guys, if you have any thoughts or suggestions, feel free to comment here. I've always loved the openness of the Newgrounds community and would love to hear your input.

-Matt Hunter

Hello Newgrounders,

In my last post, I mentioned that I had JohnnyAtomic working on a poster for my latest flash, Gotham Heat. Well, I'm happy to say it's finally complete. I've posted the picture down at the bottom. I think he did a great job in the detail of Batman's suit as well as the red sky. He's a fantastic artist so you guys should check out some of his other stuff as well.

If any of you are wondering, what is Gotham Heat, it's a post-Dark Knight story depicting the Gotham Police Department's hunt for Batman. I've posted a link and embedded a trailer below if you're interested.

Watch Gotham Heat

.
/* */
Anyway. I hope you guys enjoyed this "promotional" post. I promise, all new stuff from here on out.

-Matt Hunter