Short & Sweet.

Dear Newgrounds,
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

This year has seriously flown by! With New York just around the corner, James and I have decided to take a small break from it all and go relax for a couple of days with family.

But before we do, (I'm writing this from said family's computer late at night) I wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and post up another song from my Christmas Album 'Twelve Days'. Not as a sales pitch, but as a gift of a tune for this awesome day.

BUT the file I brought with me won't upload... so here's the song on youtube. :D

Thank you all for your awesome messages, emails, reviews, comments and chats throughout 2011. I am looking forward to another wonderful year of getting to know you all better and sharing some more music that I happen to come up with, now that I'll be doing it full time in USA!! :D

I am really looking forward to our Roller Coaster Meet-ups...

Merry Christmas!!!

Dear Newgrounds

Merry Christmas!

It has been a long year, and I know that I have been promising a Christmas Album for at least 2 long years so I am happy to announce the release of my completed, 12 track Christmas Album 'Twelve Days' available in iTunes & My Store

Thank you to all of you who have waited for this album so patiently! And to those who haven't been so patient, I also want to thank you guys and girls (you know who you are) - because your words of encouragement and "hurry up Hania!" drove me to actually get this finished!

What I'm trying to say is, to all those around the world that supported me with your kindness and motivation, I thank you and feel truly blessed to have you in my life.

I hope this album adds to your Christmas Celebrations. I know there are a few songs on there that may seem rather unorthodox in the way I've re-created them, but just remember that I'm giving you myself when I make music - and what you hear; is honest and truly from my heart.

So I leave you with the hope that you download the album and enjoy every moment of it.

With Love,
Hania Lee

With a week to go, we've left telling everyone about this rather late...

James and I have decided to challenge ourselves for a second year in a row - to make 24 animations in 24 hours straight. We'll be live streaming for the whole 24 hours and chatting to all that come for a squizz to ask for ideas along the way.

We'd love to make this as interactive as possible.

Check out last years attempt:

Between now and next weekend, come up with some ideas to present to us during the 24 hours of challenge time. If your idea is awesome, we'll animate it and your name will go on the credits of the submission. :D

Try and be creative with your ideas but remember that we've got to get through 1 per hour (at least) so keep them punchy and not too elaborate.

James is just working out the last few details so I'll be posting a link to the livestream soon.

In other news, a Christmas Album is being released this year for you all. I've been working hard to be as creative as possible when composing covers for all our favourite (public domain) Christmas Carols. This will be released in December - I'll update with links when they're available.

I'm also releasing my album "Fear and War" in December this year. So there's a lot of new music heading your way.

Tarboy II is coming along nicely. We also have plans to have this completed by the end of the year however a release date has not been determined yet. As soon as we know, you'll know.

New York is just around the corner! We'll be calling USA home for at least 6 months as of early 2012. I am going to set up a Roller Coaster Date for everyone that wishes to come along and ride them with me. I am so completely obsessed with coasters it's not funny.

Six Flags Great Adventure in NJ will probably be the first place we'll meet - Six Flags Magic Mountain in CA will also require a visit as they have X2... and I must ride this. I'm tipping there will be multiple coaster excursions. *Fist Pump!

I'm also going to set up live performances so you can all chill while I sing for you. I'm not sure where or when - so any ideas are welcomed.

That about it for now, I'll speak to you all next week - 8am 3rd Dec Brisbane time - which means 2pm 2nd Dec LA Time / 5pm 2nd Dec NY Time and so on and so forth. Remember to check time zone differences so you don't miss out!

HERE'S where you can see me and hear what I'm donig.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/james-le e-animation is where you can see James draw :D

July Update !

Newgrounds Aussie Meet Up was fantastic!! It's so cool being able to meet like-minded artists that are so much fun to hang around and chill with. It is such a bonus that Newgrounds not only brings people together online, but then provides the opportunity for us to meet in person and really become friends :D

Thanks NG, Luis & RubberNinja for setting this up.

**While we were sitting at the bread shop, drawing, I noticed a pastry that really resembles the NG Tank... photo evidence attached!

Next up, Robot Day 2011! I didn't get a chance to go to the NG office this year for RD but I still had a heap of fun browsing the site, checking out the creations you all have posted in celebration of Robots :D Here's my contribution - RD2011 Hear you Scream

Now for the big news - James and I are preparing to relocate to New York. We have to wait until later this year to purchase tickets due to visa blah blah boring things but we're so excited!!

It will be our first White Christmas, not to mention I'm going to be living on roller coasters the whole time I'm there.

So we've basically got 7 months until we head over - lots to do before then! ... so I better go do it...

So a few things have occurred since my last post... Firstly, I'd like to thank the judges of the May Nac 2011: Acapella Theme Comp for enjoying 'Haru Song' enough to give me first place. Just so you know, I've purchased a kick-arse Newgrounds Tank Top from the Newgrounds Store with the winning Store Credit. :D

Which leads into the next bit of the update - I'll be wearing that top (probably under a million jumpers cause it's so freaking cold) at the Newgrounds Aussie Meet July 1st and 2nd in Melbourne, Australia. James and I will fly down on the Thursday night to start the celebrations - Jazza has kindly offered to accommodate us while we're there which means there will hopefully be a collab that comes of this trip... so stay tuned!

After attempting to quit my day job in the city, I failed miserably and stayed on part time - however, this means that I will at least get 4 days of music time per week (if I do music on weekends) instead of just having the weekend where all I want to do is sleep.

My album will finally be completed really soon so get your paypal accounts at the ready, cause I am going to do the whole 'I need to pay my bills at some stage' thing and actually sell this album as opposed to giving it out for free like the Tarboy Album and Bonus Tracks. :D

My facebook account is doing well - got a whole bunch of friends from around the world chatting to me on regular occasions which is awesome as I'm really into connecting with fans. You guys and girls are what drives me to continue making what I make - so if you're keen to chat or just say hello at some point, I'm on FB Chat every few days: Add Me?

James and I are already planning this years 24 in 24 (see last years attempt here). So stay tuned for updates on what day and time we'll be starting - we'll be doing a live feed as we did last year where you can offer up your ideas on chat as we animate and create music live with the intent on creating 24 animations in 24 hours straight! We're thinking of doing Livestream this year instead of Stickcam.

That's about it for now.

So I've created a Facebook Account for you all to join and chat to me as a lot of people are trying to add my personal account which is something I still want to keep personal...

Feel free to ask me questions or just chat randomly with me when you're online. I'll keep the account updated with what's going in my life, photos etc at least once every day or two. :)

Woo! 3 hours and a song is made. FREEDOM FIGHTER RACING

I decided to do shots of Johnny Walker this rainy night and while doing so, felt it was mandatory to write a song about racing cars.

Enjoy!

So it's been a really long time since I've actually sat down on my computer and did some music! Today is my birthday and I put aside a few hours to create an experimental piece. It's called Tempted To Say.

James showed me some music by Puscifer which really got me thinking about a different style of music. I wanted to experiment with something cold and electronic, while keeping the depthy vocal melody that I so much enjoy. :D

I'm hoping to get something out for Christmas but I can't say for sure as time is not my friend these days :( I am trying to bribe time with chocolate though, so here's to hoping ;)

Merry Christmas!

-hania

The game Alice is Dead 3 is out so make sure you go play it! Very cool game and very cool people to have worked with.

The 24 animation in 24 hours challenge is done and it was AMAZING!!! The community that came to support us were awesome! We met a whole bunch of great people with fantastic ideas and they really helped with the process

So thanks to everyone that came to watch! You really did help!!!

.
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We didn't have space to mention what animations everyone inspired on the film, so here's the list:

Hobo with Balloons - Garenarussion

Bean boy terrorises city - FunnyHB

Banana Time Machine - oOTheForsakenOneOo

Pie in face & Explodes - KillswitchParadox

Revenge of the Taco - KillswitchParadox

Explosion Runner - (started off as shark with sunglasses - JonBro)
(then turned into the guy being an explosions with sunglasses - Crapatflash_CS)
(then turned into the guy running from an explosion - KillswitchParadox)

Computer Eats Cow - tontie777

Zombie Muffin - Danny

Space Ship - (Started off being Aliens - Trixen (Brendan Barry-Cotter))
(then the idea of spiders came about - SatanicGoomba)

Butterfly - Grimaldo

Head Shot - (Started off as tomato sauce - Eammy)
(Turned into hot sauce - Danny)

Voice acting for the Toast & Cloud animations - Trixen (Brendan Barry-Cotter)

Here's some art that I really liked (and remembered to write the link down). I know there were others that drew while we were doing this, so if you have a link, let me know !

The music was so much fun to make too! While juggling reading the chat and helping James out with ideas and what-not, (getting food and coffee...) I managed to create 25 pieces of music, varying in mood for each animation James was creating. I've collated them all (as well as the intro and credit music) and they're available here to download

What's next? Well, I've got 3 projects that I have to finish without delay so I'm going to go off into my cave and do them. After that, 2 albums to finish and a Christmas Album as December is almost upon us!

Another thank you to all who came to support us! We'll be doing this again for sure!