Category: YouTubers

Contests, Creators' Blog Guest Posts, Fan Art Features, YouTubers

Riding high on a Perfect Sky 🌤

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans! The forecast for this post seems to be showing a perfect sky—oh, but wait, it’s looking spooky later on—and with a side of something sticky? Hmm… let’s just pop in and see what’s up!

Some Poptropicans may know Perfect Sky — a Poptropica fan movie creator on YouTube who later became a PHB staff writer. She’s no longer active in the fandom, but her legacy recently resurfaced on the Pop Creators’ Blog in a guest post from Invisible Ring.

As Ring mentions, Perfect Sky made all sorts of Poptropica TV shows and movies, while the Pop Creators themselves could only dream of it (thanks for the shout-out to the PHB’s interviews with the CEO and the PHC!). You can read more from Ring here and browse Perfect Sky’s YouTube channel here. And just for a taste, here’s a trailer for one of her movies released in 2016, “The Archives of Cypress Cove Press.” 🎥✨

All this Poptropica video conviviality is just perfect timing with the backdrop of Poptropica Month, the month-long fan-run event of creating videos inspired by the game. We’re a little under halfway through September and the Pop Month 2021 playlist already has tons of videos to enjoy. Take some time this weekend to check ’em out and maybe even make your own. The sky’s the limit!

While we’re looking up at the skies, don’t forget the Red Baron is looking around for entries to her Red October Halloween costume design contest! To get your spooky senses flowing, the Creators’ Blog featured several enchanting entries they’ve received so far:

  • by Pink Singer
  • “Hungry Kung Fu Warrior” by Shiny Fang
  • “Flashy Werewolf” by Neat Gamer
  • “The Invisible Man” by Gentle Carrot
  • “The Tragic Puppet” by Smart Sinker

Remember, the deadline for this month’s contest is the coming Tuesday, Sept 14 at 8 pm PST, and there will be not one, but SIX winners who’ll get their costumes in the game! Be sure to read all the details on the official blog and submit your creation(s) through Pop’s submissions portal. Poptropicans, dare to dream! 💭✏️

There’s more art to be inspired by over on Instagram! Poptropica’s latest stories include chaotic villain doodles, an infographic from a podcast about Hong Kong life (shoutout to my hometown!), and even a new TikTok about computer lab days (with a nostalgic Black Eyed Peas beat).

Speaking of TikTok, looks like Pop’s going viral — their latest video thanks viewers for 1,500+ followers, and at the time of this writing, they’re already up to 2,800+ followers. That’s a pretty huge leap from just two days ago when they were still at 700+ followers, and perhaps the big boost is owed to their recent TikTok about changing hair on 24 Carrot Island paired with a “good soup” line from Marvel. That video, which is currently their most played, was at 200K+ plays a couple days ago, and now the clip is at almost 500K. Well played, Poptropica! 👏👏

Wrapping up this post is a quick mention for another guest post on the Creators’ Blog from yours truly — a Poptropica sticker haul! (You might’ve seen it here on the PHB, too.) Wherever you prefer to read this little merch review, I hope the Poptropica joy sticks with you. ✨💙

Thanks for popping by, and stay awesome, Poptropicans! ✌️

~🐠

Guest Posts, My Dream Island, YouTubers

My Dream Island: Megatropolis by Invisible Ring

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Invisible Ring. Enjoy!

Hey there, Poptropicans! It’s been a while, but I think I am ready to showcase my dream island!

Maybe a few of you already know a thing or two about my dream island from my backwater YouTube channel, or from the Poppies 2021 nominations. My original submission to Poptropica’s 2020 Dream Island Contest is found in this little video right here:

 …It was the rush job of a lifetime. All those pages on the video were burned through in the last three weeks of the contest… during finals at the end of the school semester… while trying to make daily holiday advent videos at the SAME TIME!! …Although I was proud of what I made at the time, I almost lost my mind doing it!

The contest came and went, and although this island didn’t win, I’m glad it didn’t, because it gave me the chance to finish what I started. From the beginning of January 2021 all the way to the end of May, I fine-tuned my quest and completed my dream island once and for all. The last thing I did was compile my whole island story into new YouTube videos.

I’m much happier with these videos than I was with that old submission video. (I can’t even look at what’s in the old submission video anymore!) Anyway, enjoy Megatropolis Island told through comic panels in this trailer, five chapters, and even a bonus:

So, my dream island is complete at last, and I think it’s gonna blow your mind. But if you don’t have time to view it now, feel free to subscribe to my channel and check out my dream island comic videos (and any of my other videos) anytime you like!

Please let me know what you think of my dream island, either in this PHB comment section or in the comment sections of my videos! Thank you, and Pop to you later!

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Invisible Ring. If you did, you might also enjoy other posts in our My Dream Island series, such as the Poppies award-winning Cherryfall Island by Smart Icicle. And consider sharing yours!

The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. Interested in writing for the PHB? We’d love to hear from you! 📰✨

YouTubers

Video-making tips for Poptropica Month 2021 🎥✨

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Theo’s Ghost. Enjoy!

Hello again PHB readers! Whether you’re still enjoying summer break, going back to school, or don’t have a school to go back to, I hope you’re having a great August!

This August at the Dimension Bros YouTube channel, Isaac and I are taking a short break from making videos. Fear not, because we’re returning next month, and this time we want you to join us!

Next month, for Poptropica’s birthday in September, fans are celebrating is Poptropica Month. The video above explains it all, but the gist is that during September, Poptropica fans are invited to upload their own Poptropica YouTube videos for our Pop Month 2021 playlist!

Now the point of this guest blog isn’t just to advertise the project (we already did that last year). Most people’s Pop Month videos last year were their first time uploading to YouTube, so I thought I’d give some video-making advice to the next generation of Pop Month participants. Hopefully, it might give you a bit of confidence!

Note: This event is typically for ages 13+, but you are younger than 13, you can have an older sibling or parent/guardian submit your video for you.

1. 🤔 Coming Up With Ideas

You might know everything there is to know about filming, editing, and uploading, but all of that knowledge is useless if you can’t come up with an idea for what to make! Coming up with a good video idea can be tricky, but luckily you have all the inspiration you need with the Poptropica Month 2020 playlist. 

There’s a lot more possibility than a Thinknoodles-esque walkthrough — anything can be a Poptropica video! If you make digital art, you can do a speedpaint! If you have a clubhouse, you can give us a video tour! If you just like playing the game, you can make a gaming video! And if you still can’t think of a good idea, maybe try asking others for ideas. Some of our favorite Dimension Bros videos were ideas we got from other people’s suggestions, so it doesn’t hurt to ask.

A Poptropica speedpaint fan video

2. 🎬 Recording Your Video

The most exciting part of making a video is filming it! And believe it or not, this is probably the easiest step once you have your video plan thought-out and ready to go.

The tricky part can be determining what hardware and software to use for your video, but we’ve got you covered here:

For IRL videos, just use your phone/tablet/computer camera. Most cameras built into devices are pretty good quality. You don’t need to go get a new special video camera.

For gameplay videos, OBS Studio is a great screen recording software (that can also be used for streaming). It’s completely free and there are plenty of tutorials online on getting it set up.

For videos with voiceover, a good software to use is Audacity, as it lets you really edit your audio to where you’re happiest with it. And if you have a Mac, QuickTime Player (which is already on your system) does audio recordings as well.

A Poptropica fan video with voiceover

3. 🎥 Editing Your Video

This is the part of the process that can make or break your video.  Editing is not as simple as the previous two steps, but it’s just as important.  Unless you filmed your entire video in one perfect take, some editing will be required for your video.

Our officially endorsed editing software at Dimension Bros is iMovie for Apple devices. Every single DB video was edited with iMovie, and it hasn’t steered us wrong yet! If you have an iPhone, iPad, or any type of Mac computer, iMovie is completely free and might even already be installed.  It’s fairly easy to learn, and it can help you make some great videos! 

If you don’t have a device that can use iMovie, a bit of internet research can point you to some free video editing software.

Final Cut: Edit or forget it.

4. ⬆️ Uploading Your Video

The home stretch! Uploading your video can be an excruciating task, as you just want it to be out in the world already!!! 

As for giving your video a title and a thumbnail, that’s totally your call on what you think is best for the video. But there are a couple parts the uploading process worth noting if you’re participating in Pop Month.

First, when uploading to YouTube, do not set your video as “made for kids,” even if your video is kid-friendly. Videos that are marked “made for kids” can’t be added to playlists, so if you want to officially be a part of the Pop Month collab, your video cannot be set as “made for kids.”

Second, don’t forget to set the category of the video as “Gaming > Poptropica”!  Even if your video isn’t of you playing Poptropica, it’s still a video about the game, and using the right category helps make your video easier for other Poptropicans to find.

Other than these two things, everything else is your choice, like the title, the thumbnail image, or whether or not you allow comments. It’s your video after all!

Now if all of that seems daunting, worry not. There is another way to participate in Poptropica Month besides making a full YouTube video, and that’s Instagram! Throughout September, we’ll be compiling all your different Poptropica Instagram posts, so that at the end of the month we can make a slideshow of all your works to put on YouTube. 

To join, just post something to Instagram about Poptropica this September, tag the DB Instagram account (@dimension_bros), and use #PoptropicaMonth. Simple as that! We’ll be sharing every Pop Month post to our Instagram story, and saving all of them in a highlight reel, so follow us if you want to keep track of Poptropica Month posts.

So that’s about it! Poptropica Month 2021 is less than two weeks away, and we’re looking forward to seeing what videos/posts come out this year! 

We have some exciting stuff planned for Dimension Bros videos, but we’re sure some of you have exciting stuff of your own planned too. And to those not participating, enjoy all of the Poptropica content coming your way this September!

Sound Affects: It affects us all very deeply.

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Theo’s Ghost. If you did, you might also enjoy another post of his: the Poppies-winning Gamer Clubhouse Tour.

The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. Interested in writing for the PHB? We’d love to hear from you! 📰✨

Nabooti Island, Social Media, YouTubers

Looking back on good times with Jeff Kinney and Dimension Bros 🐦📺

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, we’re throwing in some throwback talk from a few familiar faces: Jeff Kinney, creator of Poptropica; and the Dimension Bros, who make Poptropica and other fandom videos. Let’s pop right in!

The other day, Jeff Kinney (@wimpykid) responded to a Poptropica fan account on Twitter dedicated solely to bringing Nabooti Island back, saying: “Nabooti was a good one.” He also commented on a separate short thread about losing game progress while playing the island when it first released in 2008, calling it a “tragic tale.”

It may not sound unusual for Poptropica’s founder to tweet about the game he created, but Senpai Jeff’s public comments about Poptropica are sadly few and far between these days. Although he served as its creative director since its beginning, he’s not involved with Poptropica these days, and most of his Twitter activity goes to his more popular creation, Diary of a Wimpy Kid. But with #Poptropica tweets recently showing they still have some star power left, maybe it’s worth a little more attention now!

Who remembers The Poptropica Timeline? The Dimension Bros on YouTube recently dropped an updated version of their first ever video, which won Best Fan Video at last year’s Poppies, the PHB’s annual Poptropica fan awards. With the Poppies coming up again in July, catch up on what’s sure to be another contender for the award:

Note for our younger PHB readers: While the Dimension Bros channel does have plenty of Poptropica videos, not all of them are kid-friendly, and generally are for ages 13+. The above video is fine for all ages.

The Dimension Bros also just announced that Poptropica Month will be returning this September—with a twist. While last year’s month-long celebration of fan-made videos honored Poptropica’s 13th birthday, this year’s theme will be “Poptropica Month (In Memoriam),” in recognition of the disappointment of a huge chunk of the game being lost in the Flash-to-Haxe transition.

Although September is a whole season away, it’s never too early to start thinking about what Poptropica videos you’d like to create and share with the world when the time comes. Remember, you can still play the old islands through the mobile app and Flashpoint, and keep petitioning for their return to the main web version of the game.

Let the memory of Poptropica live on!

~🐠

Creators' Blog Guest Posts, Social Media, YouTubers

Think this music has a nice Ring to it 🎶

Slanted Fish

What’s that melodious music playing throughout our island adventures? That’s the topic of the latest guest post on the Creators’ Blog, brought to you by one not-so-unseen Invisible Ring.

As Ring shares, you can find a huge library of Poptropica music freely available on composer Jeff Heim’s Soundcloud playlist. Give it a listen:

Here on the PHB, we’ve been fans of Jeff Heim’s popping tunes for quite some time. PHB readers even voted his Monster Carnival Main Theme for Best Soundtrack in our first ever Poppies fan awards event back in 2015, plus Jeff Heim was the first Pop Creator to ever comment on the PHB in all its years of existence. Lots of love to our man Jeff! 💙

Anyway, back to the guest post. Ring writes, “I used to revisit Mystery of the Map, Monkey Wrench, and other islands again and again just to hear those sweet sounds!” Though most of the islands are now gone until further notice, Heim’s Soundcloud preserves much of their musical memory. (And there’s more on the PHB’s Music page, too!)

You might also recognize this karaoke party scene from Invisible Ring’s Party Clubhouse Tour she shared on the PHB a while back. In case you missed it, she’s also shared a castle and regular room from her clubhouse. Incredibly, a fourth one is on its way, so stay tuned for that!

On the same day, the Creators’ Blog also dropped a sentimental post for Thinknoodles, the longtime Poptropica YouTuber, and his recent release of an OG-style Fairytale Island playthrough. The PHB covered this a few days ago, but in case you missed it, check out the vid below:

It’s a little amusing to see the Creators gushing so hard with sentences like, “Please tell us we’re not the only ones that are starstruck! 🤩” One might wonder how this could possibly be the same Creators team who just last week forgot about Betty Jetty, an iconic villain from Super Power Island. Are they compensating? 😉

But the praises for Thinknoodles also offer some hope that perhaps there are still some OG Pop Creators around who understand what made the game so special, which has been a concern among the fandom particularly since the involuntary exodus of several talented Creators in 2018 and the questionable direction of the game ever since.

And yet, our unnamed blogger from Pop HQ boldly claims, “…to think the best is still yet to come! 🥺💙”

We certainly hope so, Poptropica.

~🐠