Thursday, April 28, 2011

Congratulations TheSwagganator!

TheSwagganator and I have known each other for quite some time now. He was one of the first YTPers I met when I opened my first Youtube account. We weren't very close at first, and it was more of a fan/YTPer connection, with me being the fanboy as usual. When I closed my first account due to extreme complications in my life at the time, TheSwagganator was one of the people who made me most want to come back. So when I did come back, he became one of the first original Little Dragons. I've watched this guy go from less than 100 subscribers, all the way to 1000 subscribers, and he deserves every one of them. I watched him change from being a spa-dinner styled WMMer to a Vegas master of sentence mixing and visuals. He's worked hard and thanks to that effort, he is now getting the attention he deserves. I'm willing to say that in 2012, if he sticks around for that long, he'll start to become a really big name in YTP. I decided to ask him a few questions to commemorate this great achievement.

"Now you've finally broken into 4 digits of subscribers, while I on the other hand have only managed to write half of this interview and lose it all at the touch of a button. But hey, that's completely irrelevant. So let's get down to questions."

1. What inspired you to make YTPs, how did you find it?

The first YouTube Poop I saw was on a friend of mine's channel. Finding it pretty funny, I looked up more YouTube poops. The first videos I saw were all flash-based Hotel Mario poops. (There were a lot of flash poops back in '09) Eventually, I got the idea that I should make my own videos with Windows Movie Maker, and so that's how I began.

2. Who is your favorite YTPer and what is your favorite YTP?

I don't think I could pick just one person as my "favorite YTPer". When I first started watching YTP, my favorite poopers were guys like SGhonk and Themysteriouspirate. At one point, I was even a huge Lugialga fan. Now, though, it's hard to say. Madanonymous, of course, would be an obvious choice, as I cannot even begin to fathom how much work must be put into his videos. DinnerWarrior, though, is consistently one of the best poopers, and I love his brilliant sentence mixing. As for my "favorite YTP of all time" I suppose IAmTheGang's "The King". It's a YTP classic, as far as I'm concerned.

3. If you had to choose one person to thank for helping you get this far, whether it be in real life or on the internet, who would you thank?

A multitude of people have helped me out at different steps along the way... therangenub, Animatics1Solstice, Sebobum... these guys all watched my videos before they were popular, and if it weren't for them, I would probably have never started. Joethebluedragon helped me connect with other poopers in the community, and has been a great help to me. And then there's all the "crazy fans" that keep fueling my oversized ego. Without them, I would have quit a long time ago.

4. If you had to choose between only using visual effects or only using sentence mixing, which would you choose?

Well, you know that I'd never limit myself to only one style. Each video I make experiments with several different styles, some more visual based, some more "memetic", and some with mostly sentence-mixing. If I HAD to pick one, I would pick sentence mixing, as it is a universal humor that, although it can be difficult to produce, it can be hilarious if done properly.

5. What are your upcoming plans? Do you have any information about your subscriber special you wouldn't mind sharing?
[The question was asked before he released his subscriber special. It can be found on his channel or if you come at the right time, it may be still auto-playing on my channel]

Well, my subscriber special has already been released, so there's not much point in talking about that. I would like to say, however, that I will be uploading videos more regularly now that I have software to work with. So expect to see more videos soon. They could be anything from effects poops to more sentence mixing.

6. What is the thing that you love the most about YTP and its community?

I like how many poopers selflessly make videos for the entertainment of others. Some YouTubers get profit for their videos, but for poopers, it's solely for the lulz.

7. Your style has definitely changed over the past couple of months. What would you say was the cause of this?

Two reasons: The first reason, to be honest, was because I just grew bored from making simple audio replacement poops and wanted to try new things. I soon learned how great sentence mixing could be, and used that more frequently. The first video that I tried this I believe was "Morshu's Day Off". The sentence mixing was pretty choppy in this video, but it was a huge leap forward for me. The second reason was that I started using Vegas instead of WMM. This really gave me the opportunity to try new things, like masking heads, and using improved effects.

8. You used Windows Movie Maker for a long time now, but now you use Vegas. How great would you say this changed how you made YTPs? What advice could you give to people still using WMM?

Vegas really expanded my horizons and added a new dimension to my videos. I don't think I could ever go back to using WMM ever again. I rely on Vegas's effects, its multilayer editing, and video masking to make my videos entertaining. WMM has its drawbacks, but I would recommend it for anyone who doesn't have that much experience, or is only beginning to dip their toes in the waters of YTP. It's easy to use, and best of all, it's free.

9. What is your favorite YTP source you have ever used?

In case you can't tell from watching my videos, my favorite source is the Zelda CD-i cutscenes. While I'm not a spa-dinnerfag anymore, I'll always be a CD-ifag. Overused as it may be, its familiarity makes it easy to understand, and fairly easy to sentence mix.

10. How does it feel to have come this far? What is going on in your mind right now knowing that you got 1000 people who subscribed to you?

I never thought that I would get this far, nor did I really ever aim for it. I just wanted to make people laugh, nothing less, and nothing more. I guess now that I have come this far, I can do this on a wider scale though.

Joe's Irrelevant Bonus Question (extra points for answering): As you used to be an amazing WMM user, do you support Joe's ideas that with enough practice and effort, that he can become a great YTPer up to the level of Vegas users by using Windows Movie Maker? 

Well, it is quite possible to make decent sentence mixing in WMM. Vegas doesn't actually make sentence mixing any easier. And if you have the help of external programs, such as PhotoShop, PowerPoint, even Paint... that helps quite a bit. So unless you need to make an Imaperson-esque video, yes, WMM is very usable, even if it may take a little extra work on your part.
(My Translation of that: Well, myself and many others proved that it was definitely a possibility, so yes. However, Joe, you will always be a bad YTPer, it's embedded into your blood, no matter what video editor you use.)

And there you have it!

Links:
His channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheSwagganator

Subscriber Special: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-Bz-aToBoY

Favorite YTP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT5Sr0NKAZY
TheSwagganator on The Little Dragons: http://thelittledragons.webs.com/apps/profile/44164055/