After dozens of trashed drafts, I've finally settled on a design for the ATP Hybrids that'll be showing up in Maxification: 2. Took a shit-ton of tweaking, but I'm happy with the results.

Just like last year, this'll be a list of all the movie submissions this MD that are worth reviewing. It won't be in any specific order, but scores will be applied to each project obviously. There's gonna be a few collabs I'm gonna leave out because I don't wanna just repeat some of my reviews from last year, so keep that in mind.

Soul Madness 2: It was...uh...something. I'm a big believer in giving this new generation of Madness toons a new dash of story spice, but this one went a little far. Far, FAR too much dialogue and characters standing around saying and doing nothing particularly interesting half of the time. I can tell the creator put plenty of thought into these walls of text, but there was plenty of fat to be shaved and more than enough time that could have been put to better use than this. I genuinely want to give Kanp the benefit of the doubt, but seeing as he also took a bunch of my buddy ShootThaCheese's sprites without permission, it definitely hurts the project's image. I hope for the best with this boi, but only time will tell if all this effort was worth it.

2.5/10

Madness New York Minute: Another solid solo project by our big boi Sentry. While still on the short side, (Hence the name), Sentry's signature environmental and vfx style pulls through beautifully. I hope that this project is a precursor for whatever larger project is down the pipeline, as what's on display here is appetizing enough to have me wait for more.

8/10

Kilroy Madness 3: The finale to the series that's kept the more starved Madness Days of the last few years alive has striked gold yet again. I don't wanna do a play-by-play of what I've already covered from Kilroy 2 last year, so I'll make it brief. As with all of Diotoon's Madness projects, his unique character style allows for far more dynamic poses and movements than what'd be usually possible with the standard madness formula. SFX and music are on-point, this time delivering some sexy custom tracks. A very solid end to an overall fantastic trilogy, I am excited to see what Dio cooks up next!

9/10

Abnormis - DEPARTURE: It's about time we got some fresh blood 'round here, and Zapchon delivers! As an entry-point to a new Madness Series, DEPARTURE does a fine job at setting up a Madness tale with some new flavor. Despite some rough patches within the animation/storytelling that could have been cleaned up, the project is very solid overall and delivers some unique visual flare with fast-paced action to boot. I'd suggest keepin' an eye on Zapchon's upcoming projects, the scent of potential is strong with this one.

7.9/10

Madness Powers - Devolution: Another surprisingly good solo project to inject some life into this MD. Although some of the art assets can be rough around the edges, the assets on display here are shockingly good, especially the heavy-armored dudes that show up mid-way through the project. Animation quality is around average, but can get pretty sloppy at some points.I can only hope that KorboDuo will continue his work on the series and deliver us an even better sequel next MD, as the ending to this one felt a bit rushed.

6.8/10

Madness Whitehank Zero - The Mulligan: Speaking of RUSHED. After the splash that White Hank 2 made last MD, hype was soaring for the finale. Unfortunately, while the project is definitely a worthwhile and fantastic experience, it doesn't surpass the 2nd entry in my opinion. From rough cuts, rushed scenes, and broken transitions, everything's just a little too rough around the edges for me to ignore. Everybody involved with the project gave it their all, and I can tell that there's some real soul in there, but at the moment the collab is best defined as a half-baked dessert. The chefs needed more time to prepare it, and the dish itself needed far more time in the oven. Even so, some of the fight scenes on display here involve moves and effects that I'd bet a good deal of Madness peeps have never seen before. The weapons testing room and Neo-Wank fight scenes are my absolute favorites, having the perfect mix of fun and violence with deliciously executed animation and timing. Phenomenal animation when it all works together, disappointing when it doesn't.

9.2/10

Singularity - Observation: A surprising entry by Ellvis, for a guy who usually sticks to collabs, this is a shockingly good solo movie to add some speedy-spice to this MD. I like the idea of the main character progressing in power as he goes through his design iterations over the years, it was a clever way of showing off the meta history behind 'em. As with all of Ellvis's recent animation, it's fast, fluid, and sexy as all hell. This was a pleasant surprise for this year and I hope he's got more solo projects down the production line.

8.7/10

Madness GOTO Heaven: A collab that came out of the blue, ironically so, given the abundance of the color. There are some very interesting ideas on display here, but they're far, far too rough to really get a good gauge on things. The visuals are a nice divergence from the standard Madness fare, I just wish that the animation was consistent enough to live up to these changes. Even so, I can still tell that there's been plenty of love and care put into this collab, with there being enough concepts to keep most people watching all the way through. The monster designs in particular were pretty interesting, I just wished that more was done with them. As for me, the rough and often unfinished looking scenes are the blemishes on what could have been a solid contender for a WANK competitor.

5.5/10

-IN CONCLUSION-

This Madness Day was a pretty good haul I'd say, plenty of new talent has made an appearance and the veterans continue to pump out pretty solid projects. A huge thanks to the community for still being alive all of these years, where most communities would have rotted away we somehow have persisted. Let's keep up that trend and make it to next MD without a hitch, I'll see you there! ~(˘▾˘~)

Sweet butterfingered Christ.

SOMEHOW, I managed to make it by the skin of my damn teeth.

HUGE thanks to everybody who's helped out with the project, even more-so with those who came in to help last-minute after certain -

c O m P l i C A t i O n S

- but anyways, I'm glad to see some new solo projects in the submissions, we need more of those 'round here. As with last year, I'll be making a detailed list of reviews for each submission his MD, so look forward to that. Else-wise, it's back to the grind. I'm switching from flash to another animation program, due to how unfathomably terrible it is compared to the alternatives. Probably going to be AE, but we'll see.

For everybody who's stuck around after all these years to keep this community alive, I thank you from the bottom of my cyborg heart!

Fanart by Cymbourine

And for those who've been sticking around for ME, my goals haven't shifted an inch since my MAX 2: Memo post. Don't expect anything less than perfection, and don't expect Madness to ever recover from the full film's release. Additionally, there will be a few M E G A spoilers that'll be released today as a form of insurance due to certain individuals betraying my trust. Spoilers are meaningless without context, but this is more for future-proofing my plans.

An additional thanks to mintyeggs for working with me on the promo art!

Go check out his other stuff, he's a sexy beast.

With all 'that said, HAPPY MADNESS DAY!

Backdoor bullshit is at its highest, the Introduction will be released later this day.

H O P E F U L L Y

!! UPLOADING NOW !!

Madness Day is fast approaching, the plan has been accelerated.

Beware those who seek to conspire and collaborate with the conniving, as it means the end of all we know.

PROTOCOL: BI-WEEKLY UPDATE - ACTIVATED

UPDATE PROTOCOL: COMPLETE

..........................................

RESUMING REGULAR OPERATIONS

As explained in my previous post, I cannot provide Maxification: 2 by this Madness Day, but can provide a supplement that'll hopefully hold most of you lovely people over 'till the full thing's done. To be specific, the entire introduction sequence for MAX: 2, with all the bells and whistles you'd expect and which is probably longer than most solo movies. There's plenty of polish to be done, but I'm confident that I can make the date. Failure is not an option and neither is slacking-off.

Oh yeah, and our 'ol buddy from Madness Deathwish will be making an appearance later in the full film. He'll have as many fun tricks as the rest of the ruffians, don't worry.

It would be safe to say that with how wildly out of control the production of MAX 2 has gotten, all of you who bother to follow me should be aware of the state of things. Development has being going fine, even though I'm not as far along as I'd like to be. There have been some minor inconveniences, but thankfully nothing even approaching the abominable marathon that it took for Paradigmadness 2 to see the light of day. For me, this whole project has long since evolved past whatever standards the community would expect from just another Madness toon. My wildest dreams and ideas that I've had since back before even my humble beginnings in this community will finally be shown to the world, but we both are unfortunately going to have to be patient. Rome wasn't built in a single day, and the objectively best Madness fan-project in the history of this community ain't gonna be any different. I love this community and everybody in it, so much so that I will polish MAX: 2 'till it fuckin' glows and bathes all of you in its divine light.

Along with my own efforts, I've been working alongside Darksignal, MatterOfTime, and Cethic to aid me where necessary on this overcomplicated beast. My trust has been betrayed more times than I can count by this point, but these guys have stuck with me through the worst of it and I have complete confidence in how the project will proceed. Additionally, Cryono will be returning yet again to deal some auditory wonders for the soundtrack once we're far enough along.

This only leaves one small question to ponder-

"What's the release date?"

In which I only have one thing to say-

"I have no fucking clue."

This project has outgrown even my own expectations and by this point there's no tellin' how long it is gonna be. Currently, I'm aiming for it to be roughly the length of ParadigMadness 2 (25 minutes), but by the time I get to where the current finale is planned I'll probably be past even that. This will be my magnum-opus, my sendoff to the community I've stuck around for during thick-and-thin, my love-letter to Krinkles and everybody else who's wished me luck over the years.

Thank you for being patient and sticking with me, I have absolutely zero intentions of letting any of you down.

Fucking HUGE thanks to Fleetwire / Cryono for givin' Abaddon his definitive form! The full res pic will be linked below, go give this boi some love!



This pic was originally gonna be tied-in with a Trailer for MAX 2 this summer, but certain...EVENTS, have put that plan on the back-burner. Expect more from me by this Madness Day.

Times have changed.