okcerk.com to be born!

This is just a sneak peak of what I'm finishing in the following days. I believe this is the 5th website design I've made during my lifetime, always with the same purpose: Upload the things I love to make. All my creations will be uploaded here: 2D animations, comics, sketches and other related stuff.
I figured it was time to make a comeback and finally get back to the roots, to the things I really really love. To begin with I'll be uploading the good old Escuadron 37 (Squad 37) episodes that remained in my YouTube account together with some sketches I've made in the last year. Right after, I'll be planning on uploading my most recent comic book pages -- probably after going through some simple digitization process. I'm also making the final episode for Escuadron but that will take longer, I want to close the series with a legit episode.
It's taken me some time to finish this idea since I'm a busy dude who works a lot and does not have much time or is too tired in the evenings to keep working. Hopefully I'll learn to manage my times one day :P

Here's what it will kinda look like:

Squad 37 sub-section in okcerk.com

The website will indeed be: okcerk.com (yes, I got to that point in life where I finally got a .com domain!)

Here is some history of how I got here:

I started making Flash animations after watching an episode of The Simpsons where Bart was watching TV and some internet cartoonist shows Bin Laden in a blender. Pretty hilarious I thought. The next day I purchased a pirated copy of Macromedia Flash MX (yes, I'm that old). I started making very short cartoons while learning how to use Flash. One of my first ones was three very short and crappy episodes of a mouse that found different ways of dying. A couple of weeks afterwards, I was making my first episode of Power Rangers Ultimatum, which I uploaded to my very first site.

Back in the good old days -- in 2004 my first website was hosted for free in okcerk.galeon.com, which I wonder if it still exists today. Because it was fully free, I had to deal with lots of added ads that made the whole thing very annoying, but it filled its purpose. That was the golden age of Flash animations in Argentina, originally leaded by Alejo y Valentina. We were about 15 or more animators between ages 14 to 25 I would say, spending our free time making cartoons while still living at our parents's home.

From 2003 to 2007 I made four Power Rangers Ultimatum episodes (three main ones and a special one). After that I thought it was time I stopped parodying the Power Rangers and start making something with my own characters. I was sitting in my classroom and drew almost all of the main characters for Escuadron 37. The next day I started animating the first episode. The idea was to make something simpler by having all the characters locked down in a spaceship. This way the same backgrounds would be repeated across the episodes. However, one always wants to improve quality and story, etc, etc and it always becomes a harder job for good.

My first Flash series: Power Rangers Ultimatum

During this phase and after a few design changes, I got the okcerk.com.ar domain for free. I'm not sure if Argentina still gives out these domains for free, but that was the case back then. Of course, now I was paying for hosting, but I had access to some extra money. This phase was great, I got to learn a lot more and my website was almost fully made in Flash (99%).

The second episode of Escuadron 37 got delayed for over a year cause I became an exchange student in the US. When I got back home, I finished it and released a total of 9 episodes (2007 to 2012). Eventually, I didn't pay my hosting and the interest on Flash animations decreased a lot. Most (not to say all) of the 2D Argentinian cartoon sites are dead today, none remained which is a shame since there was good stuff back in the days.

I never stopped drawing during my spare time, but I did stop animating for a long period where I went to university and later moved to Canada and then the US, where I currently reside. However, for the last year I've felt more and more the need of going back to what I really love. This new phase probably won't be as good as the one from 10 years ago, but hopefully it makes my days happier and maybe I get to meet cool people in the same environment.

The site will be live in the following weeks!

Cheers,
A.