What do you MEAN my evil plans have been on hold for over a decade? Then why is the lair's electricity bill still going up?! "Super DX Massage Chair"? VENUSYYYYYYYY
CrashFan here, if any old forum members or magical sticks are lurking. Watched this a couple of times now, and it still warms my heart. Having a big community project like CMTV really brought the forum together in a special way. Cheers for all the good times! ❤
Honestly you're being too hard on yourself, the fact that you were making stuff like claymation that genuinely looked decent at such a young age during some older days of the Internet. I know the majority of people wouldn't even attempt something that ambitious at that age or time. It's genuinely impressive. You know what they say, you're your own harshest critic. I genuinely think you should be proud of yourself, sure it might not be amazing by today's time but for something of it's time made by a kid it's pretty cool. You started off amature but still above most others beginning and have now completely found your groove making some amazing essays.
Ah, the good ol' times of CMTV. Looking back, that was an incredible forum effort that I just don't think would ever happen to the same degree, these days (reddit or not). I have many fond memories from those episodes, with A CM Carol being a favourite for years after the series ended. I think the series ran its natural course in the end, even with all the changes happening. Thanks for the nostalgia ride, Bandicoot Mask!
This is so, so endearing to see, thank you so much for showing this. It's honestly not as embarrassing as you think it is! There's a certain charm to that still makes it's way through of old late 2000's internet that was so interesting! And way way WAY better and technically/artisitcally interesting than some of the awful shit I made, good god.
I see an incredible, collaborative passion project. The quality that was achieved with all parties working in their spare time is quite impressive. These clips make me very hungry for original B-Mask content. I would consume the heck out of a radio-play or something.
Man maybe I should just do it. Make some of my behind the scenes dreams real, shoot the core, pew pew. Either way it's extremely nice to read things like this and I really appreciate it, thank you.
Yes! I used to love Cortex N Chums back in the day. Inspired me to buy some silly putty and make my own little figures lol. Tara Cross' fan animations were awesome too, good times. I remember you in the Crashmania forums as well, you used to have crazy Crash-related arguments with a guy called Kingming lol.
The fact that I don't even remember who that was shows how clearly important that argument was. Good to see a fellow CM guy, hope this does that history justice!
I have to say despite probably not being very good in any professional sense its actually super impressive to see these really well designed fully realized clay models that move rather well being done by a teenager with little experience. I have been in a handful of friend created projects that fell through for a variety of reasons before they even got off the ground but the fact that you and your friends were focused enough to make this whole thing and for that long is super impressive and very cool. I probably wouldn't want to watch it either in adulthood but if I was a kid and part of those crash forums I could def see myself being super into it.
I was *not* expecting to hear about one of my first and oldest online friends Tara Cross in a video essay by one of my favourite YT video essayists. She could be really friendly and supportive and it was genuinely great seeing her significant growth as an artist. I even got a chance to have one of my own original Crash-characters (do not steal) to be a part of her Crunch-stories, before officially giving her away to Tara completely. That made witnessing the internet drama from the sidelines all the more difficult. I'm genuinely sad I missed out on your Cortex claymation at the time, especially since I genuinely scream laughed at that joke you shared on this video! I know sharing stuff from your teenage years feels particularly cringy but I must thank yoy for sharing it to us anyway!
Thanks for the feedback! It was really seeing what Tara did that made me want to do the same, and I'm actually sad we never interacted. She did see my cortex animations and comment on them one time but by that point I was trying to wash my hands of that stuff and move onto new things.
Awww, this is adorable! I love incomprehensible amateurish self-indulgent art like that and you are so right to be proud of it! Arguably, it's the purest kind of art there can be, isn't it?
Being a part of CMTV, even in a small capacity, led to great memories. It was a wild time, and I think I recall referring to it with much hyperbole as "our generations Easy Rider". Being a growing lad with internet I charged on a key and a laptop that belched smoke, having that community that was so hype about the next big video was exhilarating. I even remember my own dreadful fanfictions I posted on CM with great fondness, which started as just based on Crash Bandicoot, but later expanded to include the CMTV crew. Perhaps I only remember them with fondness because I haven't read them in 10+ years and they seem to have been nuked from the internet though. CMTV was a wild ride, and while everyone except CrashFan and HP Zoner sounded like 5 year olds, I was invested in a daft plot about magic sticks and alternate universes. This bedroom floor, 2000's-meme ridden claymation is still the sea-salt ice cream of my youth. Good show, old boy, what what.
Here's to another however many years of sending each other crap memes and stopping you from going into a reverie to salute whatever tune comes on the grammarphone
This may be one of the best videos you've ever done. It's such an earnest and involved retrospective on a slice of time on the internet and if anything makes your credibility greater! This is prime youtube history, it's genuinely heartwarming and cathartic and brings about so many positive feelings, reminded me of my own roots as a crash fan and as an amateur animator. I'm honestly still quite the amateur. God I remember that Crunch animated feature, peak fiction.
holy fuck. i was in CMTV... I think your claymation thing was one of the first things I ever voice acted in... EDIT: DR. TARONUKE HAHHAHA HOLY SHIT I recently watched your remembering Jak video and was thinking "wow this video is really good. why does the name B-Mask sound familiar", and when I was playing Crash Team Rumble with JB and Tony (Robokai) Yesterday they mentioned that you made a video about the stopmotion stuff, so I HAD TO look it up
Man, I grinned like an idiot this whole video. Even though I've never been on this forum, it makes me feel nostalgic. Peak 00's internet. Y'all look like you had an absolute blast!
Speaking as someone who has a lot of short lived passion projects buried under his old DeviantArt profile, it's actually super impressive seeing how far you managed to get with those vids and the amount of collaborators you managed to gather for them.
This was such a fun retrospective. I didn't even realise how much of this series I'd forgotten about in the past few years, and though I was only involved for a small part of it*, it makes me happy to see it get some wider recognition now that you've got this whole RUclips audience to share (some of) it with. I still wish I could go and watch the full thing, but oh well. * For anyone from the old forums who's curious about who I am (hello, by the way, hope you're all doing well): I'm Gamma (though I haven't used that as a username since I transitioned gender a few years ago). EDIT: Oh, and I'm so glad that of all posts, you chose to show 4848/leaving this childish website. That's a certified hood classic.
So glad you enjoyed it! I'm really glad we gave Gamma a full episode before bowing out, felt like we actually reached as many of the characters as possible before it ended and got a bigger scope of the board, so was always happy you got to be a part of the whole thing.
I gotta say, I think this is one of my favorite videos of yours so far. There's something about a story about a bunch of good friends who met online and made something that, while not perfect, was special to them at the time, really clicked with me. Through a series of convoluted actions which are tmi for a RUclips comment, I've made some of my closest friends through Discord, and now we all hang out on one small scale private server. We don't have a stop motion variety show, but we do text based RPs, planning elaborate ones, coming up with character relations in advance, tying up thematic elements for the story, etc. It's all quite nice. Meanwhile on top of that there's discussions on what we like and plenty of in jokes. Overall, while the tale doesn't end on the happiest note, I'm happy to hear it was both a good learning experience for you and that you keep in touch with some of the folks you called good friends back in the day. Sort of makes me want more B-Mask vids on personal stories to spice things up between the usual games, comics, and other media focused vids. I really liked the updated clay models you showed off towards the end for the reboot, they honestly looked quite nice imo. Thank you for this upload, it touched my cold dead heart in a strange way (despite the generational gap in our internet experiences, I was a real youngling when all of this was happening for you, lmao).
this video got me on the wayback machine looking up the old Zelda fan forum I used to be on. I *was* that little nerd that did, in fact, draw a 100+pg graphic novel based on the forum members and memes we created. There's just something special about the time where you have all the passion and time in the world to create something like this. Thank you for sharing!
This is the kind of stuff that makes me love the internet, just random people gathering around and creating random stuff for fun and sense of community. I loved this video, thank you B.
I'm surprised I never came across your old content back in the day, I considered myself a pretty big Crash fan back in the day and I know for a fact I would've eaten this stuff up.
Now that was a trip down memory lane. Having been around the forums during season 2, even if I wasn't really involved much, and being there pretty much because of CMTV, it's downright nostalgic to see all this, especially now that you gave context to some inside jokes I didn't get because I didn't know the history of the place and other things I missed thanks to not being fluent in english back then. Honestly, for as much as I can understand feeling cringe about old work, there are some things that still hold up very well, the zany writing and lore building especially. And given what happened during the time I was around, can't help but feel some blame over the issues that popped up involving you feeling stressed, so once again, for what its worth, I apologize for acting as stupidly as I did back then. Rock on, B-Mask, looking forward to your next videos, as usual.
I probably told you this before but I was way too hard on you, and everyone else. I deeply regret that I let my frustrations at my own problems come out on a place I otherwise liked and that fact you made a bunch of CMTV models of your own at the time was super flattering, as well as your own animations you had put together. Don't feel any guilt for just being another kid enjoying the ride. Just glad to see more people who remember being a part of this!
@@BMask Glad it's all good then, CMTV was a big inspiration for me back then, and I really regret the way I acted because of it, so it's good to be able to get some closure on all that, thank you!
Man those old clips at a minute in really took me back. 2008... God what a year. So many great gaming franchises were hitting their peak at that time. Metal Gear Solid 4, Assassin's Creed, Gears Of War, Grand Theft Auto 4, I could go on and on. And RUclips was so new and exciting and the possibilities were endless. The technology was primitive and the quality was horrible compared to today but it almost didn't matter. It was the prospect of finding a new content creator who was doing a hilarious silly skit or cool animation. There was no "RUclips grind" just people being creative and building a community with what little resources they had to work with. It truly was a magical time. I miss that era. I'm glad I was able to experience it.
So true. I didn't even realise this video would serve as a capsule of that era until people started commenting with their own experiences, really gives a voice to a time I didn't initially consider.
Aw. I missed so much of this by being a late joiner on the CM Forums (as Strixic, my usual screen name). You probably don't remember me but I had one long ridiculous argument with you about the depth of the characterisations in the ND games back then. I had no restraint whatsoever and very little self-awareness, and probably would've been a very toxic presence on the forums if I joined earlier or posted more, so it's probably good I didn't make it into CMTV to be honest! I must have seen one or two episodes but I had no idea how much content I missed out on. Forty stop motion animated episodes is a titanic effort for a teen to accomplish. I always found CMTV to be rather mysterious and I was absolutely charmed by all the designs for everybody, and the clay models. The show just flows with a sense of homebrew creativity and imagination, contributed to by a group of friends who were super enthusiastic. You cannot fudge that, or throw money at projects and end up with that effect. I would have been stoked to have been involved with a project like this as a kid. The memories end up priceless, too, as a tangible (almost) record of being in a group of friends at a special time, and that's yet another thing that can't be replicated. To an outsider like me it just seems like such a rad, singular little curiosity and I love that kind of stuff I think you may be a bit too self-critical when it comes to what you create. Polish is nice to have but I think fun and heart is what really makes creations come alive. There are some silly amateur webcomics, videos and art I value more than so much polished existing entertainment industry output because they really embody the soul of the individuals making them and have that 'group of friends trying to make each other laugh' energy. When individuals get together to make stuff for each other really special stuff happens, it's personal and authentic. And the CM community was a special lot. Which is what makes CMTV even more one of a kind, maybe even once in a lifetime. I've certainly never seen any other groups of young fans help put together a show quite like this If kids (or even adults) worry too much about being 'cringe' then there'll be less creations put out there, and we may miss out on some real gems. Of course, I'm hypocritical here because I haven't released any personal projects yet, in large part due to fear (and perfectionism). Oops I never knew HP 's whole screen name was Hidden Palace Zoner. Truly deep CM forum lore.
I dont know what you're on about mate, those stop motion videos you made have so much charm to them and legitimately endearing, you clearly put so much time and effort into it and it shows
Hey, I remember the CM Forums! It was pretty much my gateway to the internet back when I was about... 11?... wow. It was there that I came up with the username which I still use today. I even had some art featured on Polyrhythm's segment in the show. It was a drawing of the Crash and Dingodile boss fight, and I'll admit that I had my older sister do most of the drawing on that piece while I was more of the idea guy. All of you guys really made the CM forums feel like a wacky family, and I'm glad you captured that in this video!
Stunned to see someone who did art that made it onto the show in these comments. Thanks for the kind words and letting me know you're out there, kind of surreal honestly!
God, this is so charming, so cute and passionate. It made me feel nostalgic for my forum years; different forums, different theme, different people, but all the same. Wish I had been there, man, it looks like it was a fun ride.
This is just so overwhelmingly wholesome that whatever else I'm glad I learned this very deep lore just to hear about a group of friends being creative and a community together.
It's been such a long time I've seen anything regarding CMTV, it was very nostalgic to see you bring this up again. I had a lot of fun watching these back in the day.
Aww, man, I'm so glad I found your channel through your Crash 4 vid! Being a bit of a Crash connoisseur since the early years myself it is just genuinely enamoring to see just how closely our Crash community in my country mirrored that of the English community. All the coziness of the old forums with a dash of mid 2000s cringe sprinkled on top just brings so much nostalgia to me 😍
I think this may be your best video. The biographical nature of not only your own upbringing, but also as an archival for a niche corner of the internet is so well done. You spend a lot of time knocking down your work (which is clearly from a point of vulnerability), but I think the passion is inspiring! Really put a skip in my step, not going to lie. As another commenter put, this gives me an itch for more original, less referential work from you in the future. Every upload reaffirms the reason why you are the only creator I've supported on patreon, and this is a very special one. Excellent work, B- Mask
Wow, what a blast from the past - can't say I ever thought I'd see this stuff again! I used to be on the CM Forums back on the day, under the username Pog. I wouldn't blame you if didn't remember me though, I was mostly a lurker. I do remember a few interactions with you, talking about animation mostly. Anyway, just wanted to drop in and say I've continued to follow your work since then. It's been awesome watching you refine your craft and see your audience grow from the sidelines.
This ruled. :) Just...yeah. Retrospectives like this are a tricky thing to manage. Your time in the saddle re: essays coupled with the distance and time from the project combined to make a really genuine, and genuinely charming vid here. Thanks, man. :) ~Blinky
I know a lot of other comments have said the same thing, but this video is fantastic and you deserve to be proud of what you made. It reminds me of James Rolfe's Cinemassacre 200 video (one of my all-time favourites) It's inspiring to see people relentlessly create from their heart despite all limitations. It hits me especially hard as someone with a deep love for animation but having had the same realisation that It's not in the cards for me. Anyway yeah this is great stuff, dude.
Really love seeing your history on display. Its great that you can see the value of this time in your life when a lot of people may look at their old works, and it was inspiring to see how a small community can make something that did so much for it.
look... the stuff might not be like... the best internet content but it watching the clips feels really nostalgic in that early wave of internet way, the way early digital cameras and claymation looks being shot on digital cameras always brings me back to my childhood and the claymation animations i used to make. also some of these jokes genuinely got me the "weather over the sonic fanbase" bit got me good
This is an incredible time capsule of the early internet with harmless forums about video games and the friendships you made and the content that could be created there if you worked together and had creativity. I miss the days of the internet that allowed this.
Honestly, I really would love to see these videos up again, maybe remastered even, they genuinly look great for somethinga bunch of teens and this era of the internet makes me nostalgic.
Thank you for sharing this, I would have loved to experience stuff like this when I was younger, but I guess I was just a little too young and it was a little too late when I really got into things like RUclips and such… Sounds like you had a great time. Props to all of you for sticking with it for so long at that point in your lives!
You're probably my favourite creator on the site at this point. I love how genuine your stuff is and think it's so cool you decided to share this with us. I'm genuinely blown away by how cool it is that you were able to do that. Also the B-mask name lore is awesome. Thanks for letting us in on your fun past and can't wait for the next video.
@@BMask it just hit me hard with how you had to give up with stop motion, knowing one day I might need to move on from my dreams too. Made me rethink my day. Keep truckin' on.
@@JumboliciousJoshua I think it's worth knowing stop motion was never my one true dream- I think everyone has a couple things they really wanna do and in some weird way they often end up there. Life ain't done with either of us yet- plenty more surprises and adventures to come, so who knows where you'll end up!
Dude, thanks for sharing this. I've never been more proud to be a Crash fan than I am right now. I can't believe I never saw any of these growing up. Though, a few years down the track, I can say I definitely would have been a fan :)
Ahh sometimes it can be fun and funny to look back at the old things you've done years ago lol. Sometimes I feel that way as a writer looking back at old things I've written. Honestly, that stop-motion looks okay though lol! Stay well out there everybody, and God be with you, friends. ✝️ :)
I have to say, if anything this just makes me jealous of your formative years online. Mine were spent wanting to do shows, a bit like yours, either through clay or animations and just never having the people/support to do it (along with a lack of technical know how). To think your creativity helped bring a forum like that together is great.
Now, this is a treat I did not expect. Even if the stuff you made wasn't the best, it is very ambitious and those models are cool. If I had known about this stuff when I was a kid, I would have loved it. I tended to hand around the lego side when I was younger and watched a lot of forestfire101.
Oh my goodness, the claymation shows (ESPECIALLY CM TV) are so charming! Teenage you must’ve had so much passion (and free time) to create this honestly humongous project. It’s such an earnest show of the community developed then that, honestly, make me a bit jealous that I wasn’t a part of something like that. And god yeah I get you on leaving animation. It’s so colorful and lovely until you realize your hands have comical engine breaking sounds and smoke lines emitting out of it. But it’s such a worthwhile experience to have, especially as a kid. Maybe I should be kinder to my stupid endeavors as a kid as well. I haven’t given up on my superhero comic series yet!
I think what sticks with me is the line "I was so desperate to create" and how meaningful that sentiment is to the average creative. I've been "writing" a story for the past 2-8 years depending on where you consider the start of this idea it mine is, and I can't even say I've properly started. In the meantimej you're quick to discredit your work as not up to par with whatever standard you have for it, and yet, as someone who was never a part of this community nor have ever properly experienced CMTV, I hold a genuine fondness for it. This is my comfort video to return to when I have the need to feel at home and as I watch it my only feeling is envy in only being able to see CMTV through a window as it were. Anyways, Bmask, if I could offer one piece of unsolicited advice, it'd be to follow that desire, that need to create. For my sake as much as yours.
As the one who dramatically had to drop out before the first episode (SMAP), and felt a lot of anxiety and embarrassment over being a 13 year old without a microphone, I am just now finding out that you did have a character from a member without a microphone (conceptwindow). 14 years later and realizing I could have been part of this history all along… Miss these days. Sorry you incinerated my model.
As a fellow creative I can relate to hating your old work but duuude this stuff is really cute and charming and helped build you into the person you are today 💜
This was a heartwarming video. Side note: when I heard you say "finish what you start, even if it sucks" I thought you were going to reference Sly 4. The comparison felt too good not to make. I apologize for this off-topic side note as well, I binge the Sly videos on occasion so I got too much raccoon on the brain.
I loveeee this. One of my biggest regrets before becoming an adult was not be apart of more stuff online. I was on VAA a lot but so many projects would go under and I was(and still am lol) too anxious to just audition for whatever I could. Compared to now where I feel I have no time for anything, let alone the energy. Due to various reasons I 'learned' way too quickly about self doubt and it's messed a lot of things for me. for those like me, yeah it's gunna take a bit longer than 'normal people' to get things done. Keep at it, even if 5 hours of work takes 3 months to do. Try to learn how to forgive yourself, find what you need to be happier with yourself(that's legal lol).
As another person whose adolescence was spent trying to make stuff with friends met on niche video game forums, this was truly delightful. I don't think there is any vibe that is more endearing.
Well shit, as someone who also helped lead semi-cringey forum-community projects fall apart because I’d started focusing more on video essays and also school ended, I wasn’t expecting to relate to something this hard today. A shame I never saw this, I think I’d have gotten a kick out of it at that age.
As an animation-ish high school grad entering the college phase, hearing the part about realizing animating wasn't as worth it as you thought was very reassuring. This stage in life is arguably more confusing than the last, as at least in ('merican) high school you have 4 straight years to figure things out. But taking that extra step into higher education afterwards is more like an uncertain tip-toe, trying to balance new responsibilities on your sholders at the same time. Soon I'll have to experience that same prototype version of what industry animation and film making is like, and it's nice to know that no matter what it will say on the degree, it's up to me if that kind of work is worth pursuing. Sometimes the pressure of choosing a career when you're young and confused makes it seems like there's no option to opt out.
Whoah, I didn't know you did some DC things! Neat. And I think very often you're kind of beating your past self up over nothing. Cortex and chums is actually something I miss seeing, along with many of your claymation projects, and I would so love to see them get reuploaded no matter how much you think it may be embarassing nonsense. I like the bandiboys and embarassing nonsense, because that's the most earnest stuff with love loaded up into it, and that is something I will always favour far more than self-aggrandising snarkiness. I mean, what's with the sudden, almost phoned in, fabricated sounding shame over your past? Do you really believe in that fully, or are you just pretending for the sake of appeasing your inner critic? Take it from me, that's a bad relationship to have. Critic doesn't live you like I do. oh god that sounded less creepy before I typed it hhhhhhhhh im sorryyyyyyyyyyyy Omg yes Crash Mania and Tara's Crunch series, I still fondly watch these because I am a very proud dork, and it's like comfort food. And Smaz!! I miss him and it's so cool that you both got to be friends! I wish I could find his Twinsanity review again, I vaguely recall funny bits he made. I wish I could watch CMTV again too. It was a really cozy series, just a whole group of friends doing fun things together, and I was glad to get to watch that. Would love to see this reuploaded too. There's just do much I wish would come back, maybe as an archive at least!
You know I just realized what CM TV reminded me off: 31 Minutos. It was a news/comedy series popular in Latin America where all of the characters where puppets and other inanimate objects. It’s really good, even having original songs!
C'mon B-Mask, you need to give yourself much more credit- you've riled up a lot of people to make your a TV show you guys called your own. When I was 15 I could only make crunchy socks
BANDICOOT MASK?
Official b-mask lore
i was about to comment the same fucking thing
I’m glad someone else has the same instinct
OUGHHHHHHHHHHH
The sacred texts reveal only the truth
What do you MEAN my evil plans have been on hold for over a decade? Then why is the lair's electricity bill still going up?!
"Super DX Massage Chair"?
VENUSYYYYYYYY
I'm cackling like an idiot right now
CrashFan here, if any old forum members or magical sticks are lurking.
Watched this a couple of times now, and it still warms my heart. Having a big community project like CMTV really brought the forum together in a special way. Cheers for all the good times! ❤
Honestly you're being too hard on yourself, the fact that you were making stuff like claymation that genuinely looked decent at such a young age during some older days of the Internet.
I know the majority of people wouldn't even attempt something that ambitious at that age or time.
It's genuinely impressive.
You know what they say, you're your own harshest critic.
I genuinely think you should be proud of yourself, sure it might not be amazing by today's time but for something of it's time made by a kid it's pretty cool.
You started off amature but still above most others beginning and have now completely found your groove making some amazing essays.
Ah, the good ol' times of CMTV. Looking back, that was an incredible forum effort that I just don't think would ever happen to the same degree, these days (reddit or not). I have many fond memories from those episodes, with A CM Carol being a favourite for years after the series ended. I think the series ran its natural course in the end, even with all the changes happening. Thanks for the nostalgia ride, Bandicoot Mask!
You were a big part of what made it fun to do. Thanks for taking this idiot into the fold, king.
Sooooooooooooooooooo. You ever gonna release those old episodes from your DVD back onto da net?
Hmmmmmmm yes I think I'd enjoy that too. You up for it Masky m8?
This is so, so endearing to see, thank you so much for showing this. It's honestly not as embarrassing as you think it is! There's a certain charm to that still makes it's way through of old late 2000's internet that was so interesting! And way way WAY better and technically/artisitcally interesting than some of the awful shit I made, good god.
I see an incredible, collaborative passion project. The quality that was achieved with all parties working in their spare time is quite impressive.
These clips make me very hungry for original B-Mask content. I would consume the heck out of a radio-play or something.
Man maybe I should just do it. Make some of my behind the scenes dreams real, shoot the core, pew pew. Either way it's extremely nice to read things like this and I really appreciate it, thank you.
Yes! I used to love Cortex N Chums back in the day. Inspired me to buy some silly putty and make my own little figures lol. Tara Cross' fan animations were awesome too, good times. I remember you in the Crashmania forums as well, you used to have crazy Crash-related arguments with a guy called Kingming lol.
The fact that I don't even remember who that was shows how clearly important that argument was.
Good to see a fellow CM guy, hope this does that history justice!
I have to say despite probably not being very good in any professional sense its actually super impressive to see these really well designed fully realized clay models that move rather well being done by a teenager with little experience. I have been in a handful of friend created projects that fell through for a variety of reasons before they even got off the ground but the fact that you and your friends were focused enough to make this whole thing and for that long is super impressive and very cool. I probably wouldn't want to watch it either in adulthood but if I was a kid and part of those crash forums I could def see myself being super into it.
Huge wave of nostalgia seeing the old Proboards layout. This was delightful.
I may or may not have lurked in a certain board to see Nigel Kitching's answers to stuff...
@@BMask Inconsiderate of you to not stop by and say hi tbh, smh
I feel so stupid for not realizing what the B in B-Mask stood for
I was *not* expecting to hear about one of my first and oldest online friends Tara Cross in a video essay by one of my favourite YT video essayists. She could be really friendly and supportive and it was genuinely great seeing her significant growth as an artist. I even got a chance to have one of my own original Crash-characters (do not steal) to be a part of her Crunch-stories, before officially giving her away to Tara completely. That made witnessing the internet drama from the sidelines all the more difficult.
I'm genuinely sad I missed out on your Cortex claymation at the time, especially since I genuinely scream laughed at that joke you shared on this video! I know sharing stuff from your teenage years feels particularly cringy but I must thank yoy for sharing it to us anyway!
Thanks for the feedback! It was really seeing what Tara did that made me want to do the same, and I'm actually sad we never interacted. She did see my cortex animations and comment on them one time but by that point I was trying to wash my hands of that stuff and move onto new things.
Awww, this is adorable! I love incomprehensible amateurish self-indulgent art like that and you are so right to be proud of it! Arguably, it's the purest kind of art there can be, isn't it?
Being a part of CMTV, even in a small capacity, led to great memories. It was a wild time, and I think I recall referring to it with much hyperbole as "our generations Easy Rider". Being a growing lad with internet I charged on a key and a laptop that belched smoke, having that community that was so hype about the next big video was exhilarating. I even remember my own dreadful fanfictions I posted on CM with great fondness, which started as just based on Crash Bandicoot, but later expanded to include the CMTV crew. Perhaps I only remember them with fondness because I haven't read them in 10+ years and they seem to have been nuked from the internet though. CMTV was a wild ride, and while everyone except CrashFan and HP Zoner sounded like 5 year olds, I was invested in a daft plot about magic sticks and alternate universes. This bedroom floor, 2000's-meme ridden claymation is still the sea-salt ice cream of my youth. Good show, old boy, what what.
Here's to another however many years of sending each other crap memes and stopping you from going into a reverie to salute whatever tune comes on the grammarphone
This may be one of the best videos you've ever done. It's such an earnest and involved retrospective on a slice of time on the internet and if anything makes your credibility greater! This is prime youtube history, it's genuinely heartwarming and cathartic and brings about so many positive feelings, reminded me of my own roots as a crash fan and as an amateur animator. I'm honestly still quite the amateur. God I remember that Crunch animated feature, peak fiction.
holy fuck. i was in CMTV... I think your claymation thing was one of the first things I ever voice acted in...
EDIT: DR. TARONUKE HAHHAHA HOLY SHIT
I recently watched your remembering Jak video and was thinking "wow this video is really good. why does the name B-Mask sound familiar", and when I was playing Crash Team Rumble with JB and Tony (Robokai) Yesterday they mentioned that you made a video about the stopmotion stuff, so I HAD TO look it up
Man, I grinned like an idiot this whole video. Even though I've never been on this forum, it makes me feel nostalgic. Peak 00's internet. Y'all look like you had an absolute blast!
The B in B- Mask stands for Bandicoot, this is the deep lore we need Vaati
Speaking as someone who has a lot of short lived passion projects buried under his old DeviantArt profile, it's actually super impressive seeing how far you managed to get with those vids and the amount of collaborators you managed to gather for them.
STOP MOTION CORTEX CARTOON IS FIREEEEE looks like something off adult swim
This was such a fun retrospective. I didn't even realise how much of this series I'd forgotten about in the past few years, and though I was only involved for a small part of it*, it makes me happy to see it get some wider recognition now that you've got this whole RUclips audience to share (some of) it with. I still wish I could go and watch the full thing, but oh well.
* For anyone from the old forums who's curious about who I am (hello, by the way, hope you're all doing well): I'm Gamma (though I haven't used that as a username since I transitioned gender a few years ago).
EDIT: Oh, and I'm so glad that of all posts, you chose to show 4848/leaving this childish website. That's a certified hood classic.
So glad you enjoyed it! I'm really glad we gave Gamma a full episode before bowing out, felt like we actually reached as many of the characters as possible before it ended and got a bigger scope of the board, so was always happy you got to be a part of the whole thing.
I gotta say, I think this is one of my favorite videos of yours so far. There's something about a story about a bunch of good friends who met online and made something that, while not perfect, was special to them at the time, really clicked with me. Through a series of convoluted actions which are tmi for a RUclips comment, I've made some of my closest friends through Discord, and now we all hang out on one small scale private server. We don't have a stop motion variety show, but we do text based RPs, planning elaborate ones, coming up with character relations in advance, tying up thematic elements for the story, etc. It's all quite nice. Meanwhile on top of that there's discussions on what we like and plenty of in jokes.
Overall, while the tale doesn't end on the happiest note, I'm happy to hear it was both a good learning experience for you and that you keep in touch with some of the folks you called good friends back in the day. Sort of makes me want more B-Mask vids on personal stories to spice things up between the usual games, comics, and other media focused vids. I really liked the updated clay models you showed off towards the end for the reboot, they honestly looked quite nice imo. Thank you for this upload, it touched my cold dead heart in a strange way (despite the generational gap in our internet experiences, I was a real youngling when all of this was happening for you, lmao).
this video got me on the wayback machine looking up the old Zelda fan forum I used to be on. I *was* that little nerd that did, in fact, draw a 100+pg graphic novel based on the forum members and memes we created. There's just something special about the time where you have all the passion and time in the world to create something like this. Thank you for sharing!
"What's the weather like over the Sonic fanbase?"
"Stormy... forever."
Legitimately got a chuckle out of me!
This is the kind of stuff that makes me love the internet, just random people gathering around and creating random stuff for fun and sense of community. I loved this video, thank you B.
I'm surprised I never came across your old content back in the day, I considered myself a pretty big Crash fan back in the day and I know for a fact I would've eaten this stuff up.
Look's like new b-mask content is back on the menu boys
WOOO!
FISH PEOPLE
CM Forum gang. I loved that place back in the day, although one of the users was an absolute huge, hairy, talking-well, you know.
A name I earned...and deserved!
Now that was a trip down memory lane. Having been around the forums during season 2, even if I wasn't really involved much, and being there pretty much because of CMTV, it's downright nostalgic to see all this, especially now that you gave context to some inside jokes I didn't get because I didn't know the history of the place and other things I missed thanks to not being fluent in english back then. Honestly, for as much as I can understand feeling cringe about old work, there are some things that still hold up very well, the zany writing and lore building especially.
And given what happened during the time I was around, can't help but feel some blame over the issues that popped up involving you feeling stressed, so once again, for what its worth, I apologize for acting as stupidly as I did back then.
Rock on, B-Mask, looking forward to your next videos, as usual.
I probably told you this before but I was way too hard on you, and everyone else. I deeply regret that I let my frustrations at my own problems come out on a place I otherwise liked and that fact you made a bunch of CMTV models of your own at the time was super flattering, as well as your own animations you had put together.
Don't feel any guilt for just being another kid enjoying the ride. Just glad to see more people who remember being a part of this!
@@BMask Glad it's all good then, CMTV was a big inspiration for me back then, and I really regret the way I acted because of it, so it's good to be able to get some closure on all that, thank you!
Man those old clips at a minute in really took me back. 2008... God what a year. So many great gaming franchises were hitting their peak at that time. Metal Gear Solid 4, Assassin's Creed, Gears Of War, Grand Theft Auto 4, I could go on and on. And RUclips was so new and exciting and the possibilities were endless. The technology was primitive and the quality was horrible compared to today but it almost didn't matter. It was the prospect of finding a new content creator who was doing a hilarious silly skit or cool animation. There was no "RUclips grind" just people being creative and building a community with what little resources they had to work with. It truly was a magical time. I miss that era. I'm glad I was able to experience it.
So true. I didn't even realise this video would serve as a capsule of that era until people started commenting with their own experiences, really gives a voice to a time I didn't initially consider.
Aw. I missed so much of this by being a late joiner on the CM Forums (as Strixic, my usual screen name). You probably don't remember me but I had one long ridiculous argument with you about the depth of the characterisations in the ND games back then. I had no restraint whatsoever and very little self-awareness, and probably would've been a very toxic presence on the forums if I joined earlier or posted more, so it's probably good I didn't make it into CMTV to be honest!
I must have seen one or two episodes but I had no idea how much content I missed out on. Forty stop motion animated episodes is a titanic effort for a teen to accomplish. I always found CMTV to be rather mysterious and I was absolutely charmed by all the designs for everybody, and the clay models. The show just flows with a sense of homebrew creativity and imagination, contributed to by a group of friends who were super enthusiastic. You cannot fudge that, or throw money at projects and end up with that effect. I would have been stoked to have been involved with a project like this as a kid. The memories end up priceless, too, as a tangible (almost) record of being in a group of friends at a special time, and that's yet another thing that can't be replicated. To an outsider like me it just seems like such a rad, singular little curiosity and I love that kind of stuff
I think you may be a bit too self-critical when it comes to what you create. Polish is nice to have but I think fun and heart is what really makes creations come alive. There are some silly amateur webcomics, videos and art I value more than so much polished existing entertainment industry output because they really embody the soul of the individuals making them and have that 'group of friends trying to make each other laugh' energy. When individuals get together to make stuff for each other really special stuff happens, it's personal and authentic. And the CM community was a special lot. Which is what makes CMTV even more one of a kind, maybe even once in a lifetime. I've certainly never seen any other groups of young fans help put together a show quite like this
If kids (or even adults) worry too much about being 'cringe' then there'll be less creations put out there, and we may miss out on some real gems. Of course, I'm hypocritical here because I haven't released any personal projects yet, in large part due to fear (and perfectionism). Oops
I never knew HP 's whole screen name was Hidden Palace Zoner. Truly deep CM forum lore.
I dont know what you're on about mate, those stop motion videos you made have so much charm to them and legitimately endearing, you clearly put so much time and effort into it and it shows
Hey, I remember the CM Forums! It was pretty much my gateway to the internet back when I was about... 11?... wow. It was there that I came up with the username which I still use today.
I even had some art featured on Polyrhythm's segment in the show. It was a drawing of the Crash and Dingodile boss fight, and I'll admit that I had my older sister do most of the drawing on that piece while I was more of the idea guy.
All of you guys really made the CM forums feel like a wacky family, and I'm glad you captured that in this video!
Stunned to see someone who did art that made it onto the show in these comments. Thanks for the kind words and letting me know you're out there, kind of surreal honestly!
God, this is so charming, so cute and passionate. It made me feel nostalgic for my forum years; different forums, different theme, different people, but all the same.
Wish I had been there, man, it looks like it was a fun ride.
This is just so overwhelmingly wholesome that whatever else I'm glad I learned this very deep lore just to hear about a group of friends being creative and a community together.
It's been such a long time I've seen anything regarding CMTV, it was very nostalgic to see you bring this up again. I had a lot of fun watching these back in the day.
Aww, man, I'm so glad I found your channel through your Crash 4 vid! Being a bit of a Crash connoisseur since the early years myself it is just genuinely enamoring to see just how closely our Crash community in my country mirrored that of the English community. All the coziness of the old forums with a dash of mid 2000s cringe sprinkled on top just brings so much nostalgia to me 😍
I dunno, the old stopmotion stuff you did is charming.
The claymation stuff is genuinely cool
I think this may be your best video. The biographical nature of not only your own upbringing, but also as an archival for a niche corner of the internet is so well done.
You spend a lot of time knocking down your work (which is clearly from a point of vulnerability), but I think the passion is inspiring! Really put a skip in my step, not going to lie.
As another commenter put, this gives me an itch for more original, less referential work from you in the future.
Every upload reaffirms the reason why you are the only creator I've supported on patreon, and this is a very special one.
Excellent work, B- Mask
Wow, what a blast from the past - can't say I ever thought I'd see this stuff again! I used to be on the CM Forums back on the day, under the username Pog. I wouldn't blame you if didn't remember me though, I was mostly a lurker. I do remember a few interactions with you, talking about animation mostly. Anyway, just wanted to drop in and say I've continued to follow your work since then. It's been awesome watching you refine your craft and see your audience grow from the sidelines.
This ruled. :)
Just...yeah. Retrospectives like this are a tricky thing to manage. Your time in the saddle re: essays coupled with the distance and time from the project combined to make a really genuine, and genuinely charming vid here.
Thanks, man. :)
~Blinky
this is honestly super funny and entertaining. awesome work from you and the cm people!
I know a lot of other comments have said the same thing, but this video is fantastic and you deserve to be proud of what you made. It reminds me of James Rolfe's Cinemassacre 200 video (one of my all-time favourites) It's inspiring to see people relentlessly create from their heart despite all limitations. It hits me especially hard as someone with a deep love for animation but having had the same realisation that It's not in the cards for me. Anyway yeah this is great stuff, dude.
Really love seeing your history on display. Its great that you can see the value of this time in your life when a lot of people may look at their old works, and it was inspiring to see how a small community can make something that did so much for it.
look... the stuff might not be like... the best internet content but it watching the clips feels really nostalgic in that early wave of internet way, the way early digital cameras and claymation looks being shot on digital cameras always brings me back to my childhood and the claymation animations i used to make. also some of these jokes genuinely got me the "weather over the sonic fanbase" bit got me good
This is an incredible time capsule of the early internet with harmless forums about video games and the friendships you made and the content that could be created there if you worked together and had creativity. I miss the days of the internet that allowed this.
The stop-motion is genuinely good.
Honestly, I really would love to see these videos up again, maybe remastered even, they genuinly look great for somethinga bunch of teens and this era of the internet makes me nostalgic.
This is like Turning Red for people who wrote ed edd n eddy bionicle fanfiction
Perfect
Gotta love such an honest and endearing history dive from my favorite creator. This video made my evening. The clips from the show are hilarious.
Thank you for sharing this, I would have loved to experience stuff like this when I was younger, but I guess I was just a little too young and it was a little too late when I really got into things like RUclips and such… Sounds like you had a great time. Props to all of you for sticking with it for so long at that point in your lives!
This was genuinely an inspiring video. You're hands-down one of my favorite creators
This videos really cool. Making some nostalgic and giving people like me a look at things before our time.
Cringe all you want Mask, but Cortex N Chums has great looking models, and the impressions aren't half bad either!
omg CMTV is adorable and i love it
As someone who built a huge multiverse of stories filming my tv using the Mii Channel with a friend when I was a kid, I approve
You're probably my favourite creator on the site at this point. I love how genuine your stuff is and think it's so cool you decided to share this with us. I'm genuinely blown away by how cool it is that you were able to do that. Also the B-mask name lore is awesome. Thanks for letting us in on your fun past and can't wait for the next video.
6:43 NAME ORIGIN
I first discovered you through Cheshire Cat Studios of all things.
That ending was so damn depressing
Not for me. Very at peace with my decisions and optimistic about the future.
@@BMask it just hit me hard with how you had to give up with stop motion, knowing one day I might need to move on from my dreams too. Made me rethink my day. Keep truckin' on.
@@JumboliciousJoshua I think it's worth knowing stop motion was never my one true dream- I think everyone has a couple things they really wanna do and in some weird way they often end up there. Life ain't done with either of us yet- plenty more surprises and adventures to come, so who knows where you'll end up!
@@BMask
The B in b-mask is for bandicoot
The deep lore
There's something endearing to see a community forum come together to make a show like this. Even if it may be a bit cringy now.
Dude, thanks for sharing this. I've never been more proud to be a Crash fan than I am right now.
I can't believe I never saw any of these growing up. Though, a few years down the track, I can say I definitely would have been a fan :)
Nothing like being 30 years old and hit over the head with what you were doing at 15 :V
My man was refining his killer cortex impression
Ahh sometimes it can be fun and funny to look back at the old things you've done years ago lol. Sometimes I feel that way as a writer looking back at old things I've written. Honestly, that stop-motion looks okay though lol!
Stay well out there everybody, and God be with you, friends. ✝️ :)
I have to say, if anything this just makes me jealous of your formative years online. Mine were spent wanting to do shows, a bit like yours, either through clay or animations and just never having the people/support to do it (along with a lack of technical know how). To think your creativity helped bring a forum like that together is great.
Now, this is a treat I did not expect. Even if the stuff you made wasn't the best, it is very ambitious and those models are cool. If I had known about this stuff when I was a kid, I would have loved it. I tended to hand around the lego side when I was younger and watched a lot of forestfire101.
CMTV Reunion Episode when.
I never knew you were a theatre kid, and am so proud
Oh my goodness, the claymation shows (ESPECIALLY CM TV) are so charming! Teenage you must’ve had so much passion (and free time) to create this honestly humongous project. It’s such an earnest show of the community developed then that, honestly, make me a bit jealous that I wasn’t a part of something like that.
And god yeah I get you on leaving animation. It’s so colorful and lovely until you realize your hands have comical engine breaking sounds and smoke lines emitting out of it. But it’s such a worthwhile experience to have, especially as a kid. Maybe I should be kinder to my stupid endeavors as a kid as well. I haven’t given up on my superhero comic series yet!
I think what sticks with me is the line "I was so desperate to create" and how meaningful that sentiment is to the average creative. I've been "writing" a story for the past 2-8 years depending on where you consider the start of this idea it mine is, and I can't even say I've properly started. In the meantimej you're quick to discredit your work as not up to par with whatever standard you have for it, and yet, as someone who was never a part of this community nor have ever properly experienced CMTV, I hold a genuine fondness for it. This is my comfort video to return to when I have the need to feel at home and as I watch it my only feeling is envy in only being able to see CMTV through a window as it were. Anyways, Bmask, if I could offer one piece of unsolicited advice, it'd be to follow that desire, that need to create. For my sake as much as yours.
You sir are a fantastic creator love seeing the past and the future keep moving forward
I admire the effort and work as well passion you put into CMTV, like being able to work in a group effort and being able to pull off Claymation
As the one who dramatically had to drop out before the first episode (SMAP), and felt a lot of anxiety and embarrassment over being a 13 year old without a microphone, I am just now finding out that you did have a character from a member without a microphone (conceptwindow). 14 years later and realizing I could have been part of this history all along… Miss these days. Sorry you incinerated my model.
Dont worry dude your 15 minutes will come :)
As a fellow creative I can relate to hating your old work but duuude this stuff is really cute and charming and helped build you into the person you are today 💜
A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one
Hello there
the boys are back in town
I'm not a Crash fan at all, but this looked like it was the most fun shit in the world.
I literally put my hand over my agape mouth when "hosted by bandicootmask" came up on screen.
0:29 I used to really love your Epic Mickey: The History of Disney retrospective series when I was younger
Does anyone know why he stopped or why he's ashamed of it?
I don't care what you say how embarrassing it is I want to see these They look fun
Dude that CMTV thing is really cool!
This is absolutely delightful. I really love this.
Dude, these were super impressive, esp for a teenager. Those character designs are really charming!
I am very happy you are healthy and returning to making videos!
yooooooooooooooooooooo lego studios set? real shit
This was a heartwarming video. Side note: when I heard you say "finish what you start, even if it sucks" I thought you were going to reference Sly 4. The comparison felt too good not to make. I apologize for this off-topic side note as well, I binge the Sly videos on occasion so I got too much raccoon on the brain.
I loveeee this. One of my biggest regrets before becoming an adult was not be apart of more stuff online. I was on VAA a lot but so many projects would go under and I was(and still am lol) too anxious to just audition for whatever I could. Compared to now where I feel I have no time for anything, let alone the energy. Due to various reasons I 'learned' way too quickly about self doubt and it's messed a lot of things for me.
for those like me, yeah it's gunna take a bit longer than 'normal people' to get things done. Keep at it, even if 5 hours of work takes 3 months to do. Try to learn how to forgive yourself, find what you need to be happier with yourself(that's legal lol).
As another person whose adolescence was spent trying to make stuff with friends met on niche video game forums, this was truly delightful. I don't think there is any vibe that is more endearing.
I love your stop motion cartoon tbh it's brilliant
I mean this in the best way possible; that was a lot less cringe than I expected given the premise.
Christ that was you who did cortex N chums? Man I remember this like hell. God I feel old
Honestly this looks a lot better than what most 15 year olds made
Well shit, as someone who also helped lead semi-cringey forum-community projects fall apart because I’d started focusing more on video essays and also school ended, I wasn’t expecting to relate to something this hard today.
A shame I never saw this, I think I’d have gotten a kick out of it at that age.
This was really neat! Nice to look at someone’s 1st passion project.
(Say, in the future, will you be covering your work with Cheshi- *_gunshot_*)
Officer no need to check the body this man is very dead
(thank you ;))
As an animation-ish high school grad entering the college phase, hearing the part about realizing animating wasn't as worth it as you thought was very reassuring. This stage in life is arguably more confusing than the last, as at least in ('merican) high school you have 4 straight years to figure things out. But taking that extra step into higher education afterwards is more like an uncertain tip-toe, trying to balance new responsibilities on your sholders at the same time. Soon I'll have to experience that same prototype version of what industry animation and film making is like, and it's nice to know that no matter what it will say on the degree, it's up to me if that kind of work is worth pursuing. Sometimes the pressure of choosing a career when you're young and confused makes it seems like there's no option to opt out.
Whoah, I didn't know you did some DC things! Neat. And I think very often you're kind of beating your past self up over nothing.
Cortex and chums is actually something I miss seeing, along with many of your claymation projects, and I would so love to see them get reuploaded no matter how much you think it may be embarassing nonsense. I like the bandiboys and embarassing nonsense, because that's the most earnest stuff with love loaded up into it, and that is something I will always favour far more than self-aggrandising snarkiness. I mean, what's with the sudden, almost phoned in, fabricated sounding shame over your past? Do you really believe in that fully, or are you just pretending for the sake of appeasing your inner critic? Take it from me, that's a bad relationship to have. Critic doesn't live you like I do. oh god that sounded less creepy before I typed it hhhhhhhhh im sorryyyyyyyyyyyy
Omg yes Crash Mania and Tara's Crunch series, I still fondly watch these because I am a very proud dork, and it's like comfort food. And Smaz!! I miss him and it's so cool that you both got to be friends! I wish I could find his Twinsanity review again, I vaguely recall funny bits he made. I wish I could watch CMTV again too. It was a really cozy series, just a whole group of friends doing fun things together, and I was glad to get to watch that. Would love to see this reuploaded too. There's just do much I wish would come back, maybe as an archive at least!
You know I just realized what CM TV reminded me off: 31 Minutos.
It was a news/comedy series popular in Latin America where all of the characters where puppets and other inanimate objects. It’s really good, even having original songs!
Seeing all these forum guys reunite in the comments is so cool lol
C'mon B-Mask, you need to give yourself much more credit- you've riled up a lot of people to make your a TV show you guys called your own. When I was 15 I could only make crunchy socks