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JamesLee
Animation Director/ Producer

James Lee @JamesLee

Male

Animator

Queensland College of Art

Australia

Joined on 7/1/03

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JamesLee's News

Posted by JamesLee - July 5th, 2018


It's been a good month. The response to my latest video has been great, so I'm working on the next one. I'm going to keep up the experimental aspect as long as I can. There's a tendency to want to lock things down once I know something works with the audience. The part I enjoy most about these new projects is seeing how far I can push things. In the back of my mind, there's that feeling that I could easily go right off into the deep end, and lose a chunk of my audience.  Content with a strong opinion can be the most exciting, but it's also polarising. How do you cast a wide net and still say something worthwhile? Is it even worthwhile to have a message at a moment, when there seems to be some kind of message in everything we watch? 

Just some thoughts I'm kicking around at the moment.

In other news, Barack Fu has been released. It's a free DLC for Shaq Fu. We went with motion-comic style cinematics this time around. I finished these up just as I was finishing Overwatch Noir, and holy shit, was that the busiest time I've ever had. I think back to last year, and it's just a blur of pure grind. It's a relief to finally be back to getting things done and dusted.

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Posted by JamesLee - June 7th, 2018


Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn came out yesterday. My contribution clocks in at 16 minutes worth of 2D cinematic production, boarding directing and designing. My work even made it to the box cover!

The response has been pretty good so far. It's a relief to see it finally released

 It's been an awesome week all round. I just got back from long needed holiday in Bali. Overwatch Noir had it's age restriction removed on youtube, and it's gone somewhat viral one year after its release. I'm about to release a new video to NG and YT, as an introduction to a new vlogging/storytime series. Life is pretty good right now.

A few people have mentioned a new energy in the air around NG lately. Gotta say I noticed that too, it's going to be cool to see where things are heading on here.

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Posted by JamesLee - April 5th, 2018


I can finally tell you guys my work will be featuring heavily in Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn. I was director/producer for the 2D game cinematics. It kept the team and I busy for over a year. It was my first big project operating as a studio. The new trailer just launched, check it out!


7

Posted by JamesLee - February 15th, 2018






Its been a while everyone. I'm experimenting with a new format focussed around Vlogging. There's some interesting things I think I can do with it. This one isn't a great match for a Newgrounds submission I think, but the future vlogs will have a lot more animated/hybrid content, so I'll be submitting those here. I'm curious to know what you all think. Like it? Hate it? Meh? Since animation isn't really sustainable on youtube anymore, I'm trying to figure out a way to get content out faster without sacficing too much artistic credibility. This seems to be a fun way for me to vent my frustrations with the platform and the internet in general.      

 


2

Posted by JamesLee - August 2nd, 2017


A lot of people are asking me “Where’s Tarboy 2?” There’s going to be some new Tarboy footage coming out in my studio reel, but before people board the hype train for a sequel, I feel the need to explain a few things:

Soon after releasing the original film, there was a serious Tarboy game project in the works with an overseas development team, a well-known game designer and a major party’s involvement. Part way through the project, the developer had broken a critical agreement, and hadn’t delivered to what I felt was a passable standard.

At this stage, contractors were in dispute with the developer over pay, and the game designer had left, having not received his first cheque. I had already spent close to a year building a trailer for pitch materials, as well as the assets for the first level and much of the character animation. I still cringe a bit, thinking about the sheer volume of wasted art I had built for it. The developer did not accept my wish to terminate the project, and I spent many more months digging myself out of the legal hole to get the game rights back. It was an exhausting time.

Shortly after this, I began work on Tarboy 2, but I was burning out. I completed the first main sequence, but didn’t feel the quality was up to scratch. It just wasn’t in the spirit I had hoped for it, so I pulled the plug.

I’m not working on anything Tarboy related currently, just the odd artwork and branding content for my social media. I can’t realistically see myself getting back to it anytime in the short to medium term. I’m more interested in doing smaller illustrations, and seeing where experimentation takes me. I do have ideas for Tarboy-related shorts, but this isn’t something I can promise on, as I’ve experienced first-hand how announcing a project pre-emptively isn’t good for me, or the fans.

Working on anything Tarboy related is a bit of a mindfuck, juggling my own expectations on it, while knowing that the most dedicated of you have been waiting years. This isn’t to crap on anyone who’s asked about Tarboy 2, I did promise you guys a sequel, and the sheer love people still have for it years later is something that blows my mind.

I need to detach from the bad history surrounding Tarboy. I plan to focus exclusively on other projects. Hopefully this post will unglue some creative blockages and take some weight out of it all. This news has been a long time coming, but I felt it was important to let a few matters settle before speaking about it, just to get some distance from the mess of it all. It’s never been my intention to string anyone along, or drag out a long tease by posting dribs and drabs of seemingly Tarboy-esque, robot-themed content.

This post is to help clear the air so I can get on with what’s feeling eerily like a second creative phase in my career. It’s been ten years since I finished Tarboy, and looking back, it was the catalyst that started a lot of important things for me. But a lot of new things have begun to fall in to place, and I’ve never been more excited about where my animation could go. I have a new short ready for imminent release, and although it’s shorter, it’s probably my first film since Tarboy that’s taken that same level of focus and work.  Thanks to all the supporters of my work who’ve stuck around. It’s been a slow road getting here, but I think it will have been worth the wait.

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Posted by JamesLee - July 25th, 2017


I just submitted my new cartoon 'Meanwhile at Nintendo...". Ideally I'd like to do more of these small scale cartoons, they're really fun, and general audiences don't really seem to notice that there's practically no animation.
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/696939

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Aside from that, I'm gearing up for a new release in the next couple of weeks for something I've been working on for a while. For an Overwatch cartoon, it's probably the most detailed work I've produced for it's running length.

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Lochie Axon has redesigned my website, which I can't be more happy with. I've got a pretty large backlog of freelance projects that the public hasn't seen, and I'm glad to finally have somewhere appropriate to post them.
http://www.jameslee.art

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I've spent the last few weeks on a complete social media overhaul. My old branding always felt incomplete to me, and not exactly eye catching. Everything is consistent now, but holy shit I underestimated how much time it takes. Here's the banner I'll be using for my patreon page when it launches.

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It's taken a long time for me to finally get a handle on my online presense in between all of my freelance work, but damn if feels good to be submitting again.


2

Posted by JamesLee - February 3rd, 2016


I just submitted my first cartoon in over 2 years. Can't believe the time has gone so fast.

It's a pretty short one this time. It's a bit late for a topical video but the response is pretty good so far.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/669977

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Posted by JamesLee - August 13th, 2013


I just submitted it, check it out!
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/623335

I'm not sure what to expect submitting it here. It wasn't created for strait up entertainment like my other films, and I haven't seen much work on NG that was created for a cause, so I'm curious and nervous about what the reaction might be! It's also my first serious commissioned work that I've submitted to NG.

I'm gearing up to do another web cartoon soon. It's crazy that it's been 9 months since my last one. I haven't decided what it's going to be yet, but hopefully my time will free up in the next week or two to get started.

I have a couple of illustrations I've finished which I'll be submitting soon. :)

The animation I made for Amnesty International


1

Posted by JamesLee - May 29th, 2013


Made a new painting called 'Cello'. Check it out!

http://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/jameslee/cell o

I've been pretty busy with other projects, hence all the painting stuff, which is mostly a creative outlet to actually get some work submitted. I've been back to work on a large scale independent project, which is a collaboration between myself and another Newgrounds author. During the down time on that, I've been completing some freelance work, the latest of which is a documentary-animation which should be online sometime in the next month or so. I'll post here when it's up on the net!


1

Posted by JamesLee - May 16th, 2013


Just submitted some new art titled 'No One's Business'. Click here to check it out

I get very antsy when I'm stuck in the one style for too long, and lately I've been feeling a bit constrained with animation-ey type art. It gets cumbersome drawing a character and constantly having to think about how it all fits together and whether it makes logical sense. Had a lot of fun doing this, just throwing down lines with no real structure, not caring too much about stray details and keeping it very loose. I'm really wanting to take this style further, and hopefully incorporate it in to something animated somehow.

Lately I've been enjoying painting a lot more than animation. Thanks to everyone who waits patiently between my lengthy film updates!


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