Crush...Yiff...Destroy!

Skunkfuckers Inc. · Needs to get out more Joined: 20 Jan 2004 Posts: 1006

When I read the link to www.airtoons.com over in this thread, sad to say I skipped over it because I thought it was something else entirely.

What would that be? Eric. W. Schwartz's Aerotoons animation shorts, which can be found here (along with many other animations of his, including some creepy 'Amy the Squirrell almost gets date-raped, but halfway through the third attempt she decides she likes it' cartoons). My first thought was"Mommy, why does that girl not have a shirt on?", my second was that it's kind of sad that some of the Amy animations are by now fifteen years old, and in all that time he's not done much with those skills.

Was kind of cool to see Sabrina animated though.

SLaitila · Vociferator Joined: 03 Jun 2003 Posts: 490

The animations were actually rather tame, the one thing that disturbed me though was the the abysmal sound effects. And the fact that them toon girls were quite hot.

weird_guy_in_the_corner · Vociferator Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 708

Looking at the animations reminds me of how low Schwartz has fallen. And you were right about those sound effects.

ZenZhu · TOP POSTER! Joined: 22 Mar 2004 Posts: 1510

Looking at the toons, it strikes me that Schwartz could have done pretty much what he does.. minus the tentacle rape copyright-infringing spooge.. and had a decent shot at being an animator of some note outside of furry circles and people that masturbate while looking at pictures of Commodore 64s. If he hadn't whored out to the furries, he could have taken a stab at doing "edgier" cartoons in the same vein as Gary the Rat or Drawn Together. Eric's stuff has enough sexual overtones and hints of T&A that he could have had a niche with stuff on Spike TV and such. But.. as fate would have it... he's not edgy, just furry.

m_estrugo · Vociferator Joined: 13 Nov 2003 Posts: 534

Looking at the toons, it strikes me that Schwartz could have done pretty much what he does.. minus the tentacle rape copyright-infringing spooge.. and had a decent shot at being an animator of some note outside of furry circles and people that masturbate while looking at pictures of Commodore 64s. If he hadn't whored out to the furries, he could have taken a stab at doing "edgier" cartoons in the same vein as Gary the Rat or Drawn Together. Eric's stuff has enough sexual overtones and hints of T&A that he could have had a niche with stuff on Spike TV and such. But.. as fate would have it... he's not edgy, just furry.

Yeah, that's one of the things I regret the most. In fact, Schwartz was a promising artist, but I felt very disappointed by the decisions he took thru years.

Rankin · TOP POSTER! Joined: 03 Jan 2004 Posts: 1659

The animations were actually rather tame, the one thing that disturbed me though was the the abysmal sound effects. And the fact that them toon girls were quite hot.

It was done on an AMIGA 500/1000. WHAT KIND OF MULTIMEDIA DO YOU EXPECT FOR 1989 TECHNOLOGY THAT WASN'T DONE PROFESSIONALLY~?~?!!?!?1onwone

The MOD music was kind of crappy, but at the time it was pretty damned spiffy. Remember, this was around the time the Adlib came out for the PC, cost about $300 and only did some primitive FM synth. PC audio was that crappy little speaker.

On another rant, his animations were cuite, but he used ever trite joke in the book; I don't think that he can even TRY to do humour anymore; it's all tentacles and other forms of molestering.

Dogthing · Vociferator Joined: 26 Oct 2003 Posts: 700

Seeing the quality of those animations actually makes me admire pre-freaky-furry Schwartz some bit. Given time, effort, and some better tools, he could've been the one to produce a quality, mature mainstream anthro film, or something like that. As long as he was kept way, way away from all the freakishness of furrydom, he could've, oh, I don't know, set a standard or something.

SLaitila · Vociferator Joined: 03 Jun 2003 Posts: 490

It was done on an AMIGA 500/1000. WHAT KIND OF MULTIMEDIA DO YOU EXPECT FOR 1989 TECHNOLOGY THAT WASN'T DONE PROFESSIONALLY~?~?!!?!?1onwone

At least he seemed to use stereo effects. BOINKS KRSSHLS FPRAAANTS coming in random speakers.

Adjusting the volume and pan does a lot. Also a lot wrong.

ZenZhu · TOP POSTER! Joined: 22 Mar 2004 Posts: 1510

Seeing the quality of those animations actually makes me admire pre-freaky-furry Schwartz some bit. Given time, effort, and some better tools, he could've been the one to produce a quality, mature mainstream anthro film, or something like that. As long as he was kept way, way away from all the freakishness of furrydom, he could've, oh, I don't know, set a standard or something.

That's part of the thing... you look at his early stuff and it just... "feels"... more anthro and less furry. If he had gone on to be a mainstream animator/producer in the vein he was in in the late 80s, he may have actually had a shot at producing cartoons that were anthro, but wouldn't bear the stigma of "furry" in the minds of those media powers out there that are aware of such things.

m_estrugo · Vociferator Joined: 13 Nov 2003 Posts: 534

Seeing the quality of those animations actually makes me admire pre-freaky-furry Schwartz some bit. Given time, effort, and some better tools, he could've been the one to produce a quality, mature mainstream anthro film, or something like that. As long as he was kept way, way away from all the freakishness of furrydom, he could've, oh, I don't know, set a standard or something.

That's part of the thing... you look at his early stuff and it just... "feels"... more anthro and less furry. If he had gone on to be a mainstream animator/producer in the vein he was in in the late 80s, he may have actually had a shot at producing cartoons that were anthro, but wouldn't bear the stigma of "furry" in the minds of those media powers out there that are aware of such things.

Eric W. Schwartz's entry on the American Journal of Anthropomoorphics from the early/mid 90s mentioned he was "most widely known by his animations on the Commodore Amiga". I suppose they meant those animations; a real achievement back in the late 80s-early 90s, when computer-generated animation was still on its first steps. I'm glad to see those animations appearing here on CYD since I finally have the chance to see them for the first time.

When put on that context, what we see are little masterpieces, a collection of good ideas that showed Schwartz's skills as he squeezed all the juice from those old computers, and an excellent adition to any resumé in the early 90s. Schwartz entered the furry fandom with Amy the Squirrel and continued on the top of popularity thanks to strips like Sabrina Online, started in 1996, if I'm not wrong.

But those animations were made in 1990, 15 years ago. And technology has advanced incredibly fast on those years. Those animations, and the platform he used to make those animations, got outfaced in a matter of months as PCs continued accomplishing Moore's law.

Look at those animations nowadays. They look like a parody, with their pixelized look, their garbled sound, their slow pace. It looks like any 13 year old kid would be able to do something a bazillion times better with a pirated copy of Flash.

Imagine what if Schwartz bought an entry-level PC and took the little time to learn Flash, instead of refusing to admit Amigas are already a vintage system, much like old Atari 800s, Mac IIs or Commodore 64s. That he would have gone to create something on the likes of Homestar Runner or Happy Tree Friends. No, he choosed to stick with Amigas instead. And thus his potential market gradually reduced, to appeal a few thousands througout the world.

And, instead of going the "big animator" way, he chosed to cater to the little furry fandom and, well, I talked about that on another thread, so I'm not going to bother typing that again.

If I had the chance to speak to him, I'd just like to tell him a few words. Something in the likes of...

"Wake up, imbecile. this is 2005, not 1990. You are around 40 by now. You aren't a promising artist anymore, but a sorry excuse for a human being, living in a fancy world of dreams. Forget those idiotic furries and their freakish fetishes. Forget Sabrina Online. Forget those arcaic Amigas, we're in 2005, 2005, 2005. Get a decent computer, upgrade to 2005 and USE your fucking talent for good before it's too late.
YOU ARE RUNNING OUT OF TIME, YOU MORON!"

Who knows, maybe it isn't too late yet. But he refuses to hear, so there's nothing else to do. It's time to move on, to consider Schwartz as a lost case, and to find newer promises around.

Gargoyle · Vociferator Joined: 04 Sep 2004 Posts: 455

That's part of the thing... you look at his early stuff and it just... "feels"... more anthro and less furry. If he had gone on to be a mainstream animator/producer in the vein he was in in the late 80s, he may have actually had a shot at producing cartoons that were anthro, but wouldn't bear the stigma of "furry" in the minds of those media powers out there that are aware of such things.

Whenever somebody's saying "anthro", I see KAK sending her dog pics to the anthropology newsgroups.

Donotsue · Needs to get out more Joined: 17 Jan 2004 Posts: 884

Now what is this I find....?

http://zebragirl.keenspot.com/images/cross1.jpg thru 7.jpg

Chris Baird · Prattler Joined: 04 Aug 2003 Posts: 140

That he would have gone to create something on the likes of Homestar Runner or Happy Tree Friends. No, he choosed to stick with Amigas instead.

What I find really funny is how Schwartz actually had a job at Macromedia at the time there were developing on Macintoshes a product that would become Flash. Talk about your pissed-away opportunities!

Computolio · Needs to get out more Joined: 01 Jun 2003 Posts: 865

What I find really funny is how Schwartz actually had a job at Macromedia at the time there were developing on Macintoshes a product that would become Flash. Talk about your pissed-away opportunities!

No shit? That's fucking... What the hell was he DOING then? Schwartz has yet to even ACKNOWLEDGE THE EXISTENCE of Flash for fuck's sake.

Chris Baird · Prattler Joined: 04 Aug 2003 Posts: 140

What the hell was he DOING then?

http://rigby-jones.net/es/art/art/SellOut.gif ... As a MacLC owner at the time, I wasn't too impressed by the deliberately low-quality pic, and immediately went about converting the Aerotoons animations into a platform-neutral FLI format, deliberately disobeying his requests. :P

As I can best recall, it was an animation involving a worm on a fishing hook that he did for MM?

Yes, it was the Computer Animation equivalent of telling Paul Allen and Bill Gates to fuck off and die. lolz.

ZenZhu · TOP POSTER! Joined: 22 Mar 2004 Posts: 1510

Now what is this I find....?
http://zebragirl.keenspot.com/images/cross1.jpg thru 7.jpg

I believe you have found one of the lamest, self-serving crossover fan comics ever created by the highly technological process of cramming a crayon up one's nose and forcefully ejecting it at a piece of paper. The only thing that could have taken it down a couple more notches is if she had wrangled a three-way with Zig and Sabrina.