Thread by @HyperJerk, So, over the weekend I finished off my last bit of work [...]

So, over the weekend I finished off my last bit of work for @DEATHBATTLE as a contracted sprite artist.

This will be a mega-thread of my experiences over the last 4 years, including some of my favourite work.

So back in 2015, I was helping my buddy @CVAnimation by making backgrounds and bits for his sprite animations. This being a backdrop of inkopolis for one of his Splatoon parodies.

Not long after, he managed to get a job as an animator for Death Battle!

Jump to 2016, I was commissioned to make sprites for a DBX joke fight about the U.S. elections, back when it was all fun and games.

Just head swaps of Scott Pilgrim sprites, but I still think they're pretty accurate. U.S. late night TV hosts should have hired me.

After that I was brought onto a contract to produce custom pixel art for Death Battle and DBX fights.

Starting off with Luis making Scrooge vs. Shovel Knight with the idea of keeping to the NES style. This is still my favourite fight cuz of how much focus was on the style.

I had a lot of free time to work on Death Battle in the first couple of years. This resulted in me insisting on putting a huge amount of effort on some of the finishers.

For example, these raw animations from Ace vs. Natsu and Naruto vs. Ichigo:

I pushed this free time over it's limit when the DB team were commissioned to produce a music video for @TheSword 's Used Future album in 2018.

I worked with @FreakZoneGames to produce all-original art work for this music video.

The Used Future music video required me to pull a good few all-nighters and even sneak work in on my work laptop during my lunch break at my day job.

But it was an incredible experience and it really challenged me.

It also got me some work with FreakZone Games too B-)

Here's some noticeable sprites from fights after the music video

Next came a passion project for Luis. A hand-drawn animated Death Battle for Samurai Jack. He pushed himself to direct and animate this fight, it turned out amazing and boosted his career.

I helped make the backgrounds, see this concept from when the fight was set in the desert.

Skipping ahead to Mob vs. Tatsumaki, this was the first fight for a while where I had the time to spend on an ambitious bit of animation and I still really like how a lot of the close-ups in this episode came out

At the beginning of 2020 I told the crew this would be the last year I can afford spending my free time on the show, as I wanted to move onto making art for my own enjoyment.

We spent 2020 transitioning to new sprite artists who have done a large part of the work this season.

Zuko vs. Todoroki, Crona vs. Venom, the Boys, Rock Lee vs. Sanji, and more episodes from this season have been part of that transition. Some of my work will carry on into the next season, but you'll not notice any drastic changes after my departure.

Now for some sappiness. This job was what kept me afloat for the last 4 years. Only recently has my day-job progressed enough where I don't need a second income to support myself and my fiancee.

I never would have been able to go to Japan without this job. Nor would I have been able to save up enough for a house as soon as I did. It's been a life-changer and I am extremely grateful to have had this opportunity.

But, money aside, what's more important is that it's kept me and Luis as working partners, same as we had been back when we both worked together to create Garrymon back in 2009.

Left: Us working on Garrymon c. 2011
Right: Us working on Death Battle c. 2018
(Bakuman reference)

And though I'm departing Death Battle, me and Luis will continue to work together on projects. I don't think we'll ever not be working together on something.

If you find a friend whose ambition matches yours, keep them around for the love of god.

Love you, man

Back to pixel art.

Over this time, this job has also improved my art skills, and for that I'm eternally grateful.

With the tight deadlines, you learn how to produce artwork efficiently.

But now without tight scheduling and more freedom I want to experiment with pixel art and just enjoy it for myself.

The skills I've learned over the last 4 years have been super valuable.

Ontop of the valuable experience, working with my best friend and having a reliable income, I got to fulfil my teenage dream of working for ScrewAttack.

Although not the same company as they were back in 2008, it's the people who matter most.

Getting to work with people I used to idolise as a teenager like @BenBSinger @NervousNick and @ChadJamesRT was a blast. If not for current global event it would have been great to have come visit the studio last year.

Here's some bonus stuff from miscellaneous episodes:

And another bonus. See, I like bums. Nice juicy bums.

So whenever I'm tasked to draw the back side of a character, I make life difficult for Luis and the animators by giving characters nice plump rumps.

And I may or may not have asked the new artists to carry this tradition on

I did say this was a mega thread. And I think I've exhausted everything I can say about my time working on Death Battle.

Another thanks to everyone who is or has been part of the team and all the talented people I've worked with over the last four years!

If there's anything I missed, or if you have any questions, let me know. It's like 1am now and I've been compiling old sprites for the last 4 hours and I may have neglected something.

Good night!

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