A painstaking day ensues. Ideas flow like water, but the hand cannot grasp them. It is the way of the Animator. I spent my day Sunday frantically looking for a professional to interview. Finding myself to far gone to find any sort of establishment that would house a creative soul; I soon looked toward the internet. Newgrounds.com was the place to be. Animators new and old send their works through The Portal each and every day. People watch, then people vote on if their long, or surprisingly short work time really paid off. If its rating is above a 1.6 out of 5, then their work gets showcased to the rest of the thousands of users keeping Newgrounds alive. But if the pendulum falls, and their score is less that the evil 1.6, then down to the depths it descends. Where a short message and a list of reviews tell the sad tale of a work that will never be. It's a perfect place to find the best of the best, and that is exactly what I needed.

Who could fill the shoes of what I needed though? Where do I exactly draw the line between Amateur and Professional? That is where my journey started. I took a look inside my profile MTCronky and checked up on my favorite authors. Many names pop up and it's almost intimidating to even want to ask these gods among mere mortals like myself if I could even waste a minute of their times with mundane questions of the origins of their skills. But much like Rocky in all, what 6 of his movies now? I pushed myself to ask for their permission to interview. It was just a short click away to hit the Send a Personal Message (Or PM) button, but believe me, it was the longest mouse movement I ever thought I would experience.

Now I know what you must be thinking, "Adam, you were said to at LEAST talk on the phone with a professional". Well, to that I say tough luck. The phone was not an option in this game of cat and mouse, since as much as I like long distance charges, I don't. Back to the story at hand; my first person of chance was a man that goes by the name The-Swain. He is the popular creator of 2 series: Blockhead and Mastermind; both masterpieces in their own sense. Not only showing the creative mind of this capable fellow, but also showing the process of bettering yourself each and every step you take in your practice of your skills. I sent him a message telling him that for a school project I needed to interview a professional and if he would help my cause. He replied a few hours later saying that he could manage that. I was psyched, not only did I go out on a limb to ask someone I idolize as a professional of my given passion, but he didn't mind to help at all. I then typed up some questions; you can see the jest of what I asked through example of the next artist I will talk about on the pages I also turned in. Needless to say, it was a wild trip to get to that point at all.

My journey did not end there, for in that long wait for a reply I became skeptical. What if the agreement to help me was just a clever visage? Plans and plots to ruin my dreams began forming in my head as I spiraled into a depression of the disappointment sort. I decided, with the help of MizRoxyanne and shluvenz to find more artists to interview JUST in case my shot to the top took me on a fast dive to the ground. Another pop onto my Favorite Authors list brought up the all too famous RubberNinja. His real name being Ross, but I could not be troubled with such minuet details. Another question later and I got a reply almost instantly. Exaggerated you say? Possibly, but none the less it was pretty fast. He gave me the go ahead to ask away to my minds content, so I held him to it. This discussion definitely attached to this paper asked him everything from, "How he came to be and animator", to, "Has popularity burdened your entire way of working". Again, like lightning he replied. I got the answers I was looking for, and to add to the greatness, he thought it was good enough to put up on his site www.Gamertonight.net, a true honor indeed. I learned a lot from him too. How just fiddling around in your given medium for animating can ultimately lead to you getting better. That ideas come and go like wildfire, or supposedly like the sun if you live in Portland. It was a learning lesson in its finest form.

Lessons being learned wont end this story here though. I began to dream big, as I looked back at the list of favorite authors; one stood out. JohnnyUtah, creator of the series: "Tankmen". Sleepless nights and fevered dreams went by at the thought of speaking with this individual. But who am I to deserve the right, nay the ability to talk to such a well known author among the Newgrounds community? As it is, I have contributed nothing of my own to the blessed red carpet that lines the PHP/HTML of the site. But my ego was raring because of the response I had gotten from RubberNinja. If one shepherd of the sheep-like Newgrounds community would respond, what says another wont? Again I hit the PM Button and again I typed my woeful message in hopes that my fable would entice the brain of the reader enough to feel for my cause.

Minutes felt like hours, and hours much like days as time went by sitting and waiting at my inbox. F5 was, at that point, my best friend, and the suspense that the site gives you is almost unbearable. Every time I hit that refresh key it would stall, as if to push my head into believing more was being loaded than before. Alas, my dreams would shatter the instant that little bar at the bottom right would say, "Done". It was a long wait, but it would be worth it in the end.

Finally, after forcing my eyes off the computer enough to take a shower and make myself some sandwiches I came back to a huge surprise; a reply from the one and only JohnnyUtah. I was ecstatic and could not believe a king would meddle with such lowly peasants. Much like a small child on Christmas (Or anything you celebrate like so) I spent no time at all to rip open that message... virtually, to see what entailed. The words were like a spot of sunshine on my darkened and dismal hopes. "Sure, no problem", he generally said. It was then that I learned a valuable lesson. Who says he doesn't find himself in my own shoes? You can be the most famous person in the world, but if you are so famous, who do you look up to? Everyone has a mentor, or a person that they seek guidance through. So helping me by answering a few questions was not as big a deal as I made it out to be. Though I will admit, if knowing this fact was evident before I started; my wait would have been a lot less fun. Everything was working in total conjunction.

Eventually though, even a roller coaster comes to a halt. With that, so does this story. A pocketful of lessons learned and a lot of time wasted staring at a screen. These are the things that happened that fateful Sunday. If you learn one thing from this tale, learn this: Even a Professional is an Amateur in their own eyes and if you believe hard enough in your own ideas; even flowing water can be grasped, if only for a second.