Read the article and stick around for info on a giveaway
The creative entrepreneur of Smashified
In 2006, the fan community for Super Smash Bros. wasn’t that widely known, but one talent always stuck with the community, whether it was underground or popular. That talent was ArtsyOmni, known for starting a series called Smashified, where he and a group of other artists create characters to demonstrate how they would look like in a Smash game. When he’s not at his day job, he’s often found working at his computer desk on art. Sometimes he’ll make his way out to a convention.
ArtsyOmni’s full name is Omni Jacala; he’s 24 and currently resides in South Carolina. He’s a professional graphic designer and illustrator, and he’s been active on YouTube for the past year and a half. He loves making art as a profession – when he’s not doing that, he’s making music as a hobby. When he’s not doing that, he sometimes plays video games. His schedule even leads him hard pressed to find time to talk about his past in interviews or work towards his future ambitions – but that’s slowly changing.
This is where Omni started; only few were around to remember this (including myself)
Omni started by playing Super Smash Bros. on the N64 when he was in 4th grade. His favorite character ended up being Kirby, and similar to many other kids, he spammed the stone attack as much as possible.
He got started in the Smash Community in 2006 by going on the NSider forums (subsequently the fan-run Nsider2 forums when Nsider closed down). Back then, he went by the alias “HextupleyooDOT” and dedicated himself to a long-term project where he would create Kirby Hats of various possible characters based on popular request. He also created some art parodying the official Brawl website for characters like Geno, Bomberman, and Galacta Knight.
And then there’s that one day where things got slightly bigger than expected
Omni is generally unsure of how to talk about how he got his big break without seeming self-infatuated, but it came from creating the infamous Rayman DLC leak. He used this as leverage to start his series Smashified. Diving into a familiar territory like he did with Brawl was no surprise to him, but what was unexpected was how quickly the fake leak that he made hit headlines.
“The Rayman leak was created specifically to draw attention to the Smashified series. My (horribly flawed) thought process was that if I could convince people that the Rayman leak was real, then I’d be qualified to create subsequent character renders in the Smash 4 style. I suppose it worked, despite the disappointment of many Rayman fans. I still don’t quite know how I feel about it all these months later.”
While he was reeling in the aftermath of the Rayman leak reveal, he got in contact with one of his artist friends, Chris Szczesiul, and together they teamed up to continue the Smashified series as a joint effort. They began seeking additional talent and gradually grew out to several members. Nathaniel Platier and Mykal Williams, two of their musicians, reached out via email early on; for Omni, it helped to discover that Nathaniel lived in the same city as him. RetroSpecter reached out and asked if he could use the word “Smashified” in his music video titles on YouTube, but Omni liked his music and asked if he just wanted to work with them directly. Andrew Coleman, the team’s 3D generalist, contacted via email to let the team in on his progress of a 3D model of Isaac. Sean Hicks came to Omni’s attention when both Sean and Smashified inadvertently created Smash 4 style Banjo Kazooie renders at the same time.
He started to realize his artistic ability around the age of 12, when Sonic Adventure 2: Battle released on the Gamecube. He got involved in a lot of online forums similar to NSider, like Sonic Stadium and Game Talk. Like many other young Sonic fans, he would create “original characters” by editing sprites from various Sonic games. Sprite editing led to original pixel art, and eventually he got his hands on a copy of Adobe Photoshop CS1. His digital art skills continued to grow steadily as he strove to imitate artwork from his favorite games.
When it comes to his own creative process, his biggest motivations are competition and imitation. Throughout his artistic career, he would see artists creating work beyond his skill level at the time, so he made it a personal goal to create artwork solely to “surpass” them. He also loves to create artwork that explores the idea of combining two styles together - by rendering characters that he enjoys into the style of other games, or even replicating a style, he finds himself very inspired. He even carries this philosophy over to making music, where he tries to reimagine existing tunes in the style of other music, such as Splatshine.
His process with Smashified is a little bit different since he’s working with six other people. The team begins by planning out how they want to adapt a character’s design into the Smash style, and then they create thumbnails, sketches, and/or model sheets, depending on what the process demands. From there, they delegate rendering or modeling processes among the artists, while the musicians cook up an appropriate musical arrangement for the character. The entire process of the character is recorded and a pair of videos is released: one accompanied by music and the other by artist commentary (sometimes with an occasional guest).
“Obviously, the excitement for Smash 4 has steadily declined since its release and subsequent DLC. As such, we’re making a concerted effort to broaden our content in various ways. Ultimately, as gamers and Nintendo fans in general, we do have an interest in creating artwork inspired by other franchises.”
The team’s first foray into non-Smash related content was their Satoru Iwata tribute, which was a series of artwork that they created to be used for the 17th issue of Nintendo Force Magazine. Another project outside of Smash Bros is Splatshine, which revolves around the idea of crossing Splatoon with Super Mario Sunshine.
He doesn’t know if they’ll always be creating Smashified artwork in the foreseeable future, but Omni does say that there is more Smashified content in the works, and that fans of the series can look forward to more frequent live streams for Trophies and potentially more frequent uploads. Adapting to a large team can be quite chaotic.
“Smash Con was quite a surreal experience for me. As exhibitors, it got a bit stressful at times, but it was definitely worth it,” he said. “I was able to meet so many of my online friends and so many really awesome fans of the series!” Overall, he was glad to be held in high esteem by many of the attendees; he has plans to go again next year. For other conventions, he’s considering MAGfest and PAX East, but he has yet to make any commitments.
Ultimately for Omni, his passion is in games and art, and his end goal is to be creating artwork for games, preferably as an art director for an indie studio. Even before Smashified began, he worked on various game projects. “I’d like to be able to dedicate myself to game development fully at some point. That probably means that my time creating Smashified characters is limited, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.”
Omni always remembers where he started out and how far he’s come. To all artists starting out, he implores them to become very comfortable with failure, especially if they have a well-developed sense of artistic taste. “It can be difficult knowing that your own work doesn’t stack up to the work of others, but making mistakes is the only way to grow. Sometimes the mistake is thinking that you’re all that, only to be shut down by an artist that’s wiser than you. Sometimes that means enduring the constant struggle of completing work and then looking back a day later and seeing nothing but the flaws.” His philosophy on failure is simple – to not let failure be an enemy, because an artist and failure will spend a lot of time together, and failure only has the best interest of a creator at heart.
For the entire community, Smash Bros. or not, despite finding it sappy, Omni implores everyone to find ways to be a force of positivity to the people around them. He’s found that even the people that don’t have any kind of notable influence or difference in their community can make a difference, especially for the people close to them or in their circles. It can be as simple as not being an insufferable jerk in YouTube comments or Twitter.
Omni’s social media pages can be found at his website ArtsyOmni.com, with his Twitter, Soundcloud, BandCamp, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitch all going by ArtsyOmni and his DeviantArt as Hextupleyoodot.
Smashified can be found here, alongside their Patreon, Twitter, and DeviantArt pages.
The official SmashBoards x ArtsyOmni giveaway can be found here - the winner gets to choose their own trophy to be featured in Smashified!
The creative entrepreneur of Smashified
In 2006, the fan community for Super Smash Bros. wasn’t that widely known, but one talent always stuck with the community, whether it was underground or popular. That talent was ArtsyOmni, known for starting a series called Smashified, where he and a group of other artists create characters to demonstrate how they would look like in a Smash game. When he’s not at his day job, he’s often found working at his computer desk on art. Sometimes he’ll make his way out to a convention.
ArtsyOmni’s full name is Omni Jacala; he’s 24 and currently resides in South Carolina. He’s a professional graphic designer and illustrator, and he’s been active on YouTube for the past year and a half. He loves making art as a profession – when he’s not doing that, he’s making music as a hobby. When he’s not doing that, he sometimes plays video games. His schedule even leads him hard pressed to find time to talk about his past in interviews or work towards his future ambitions – but that’s slowly changing.
Everyone Starts Somewhere
This is where Omni started; only few were around to remember this (including myself)
Omni started by playing Super Smash Bros. on the N64 when he was in 4th grade. His favorite character ended up being Kirby, and similar to many other kids, he spammed the stone attack as much as possible.
He got started in the Smash Community in 2006 by going on the NSider forums (subsequently the fan-run Nsider2 forums when Nsider closed down). Back then, he went by the alias “HextupleyooDOT” and dedicated himself to a long-term project where he would create Kirby Hats of various possible characters based on popular request. He also created some art parodying the official Brawl website for characters like Geno, Bomberman, and Galacta Knight.
From Known Fake to Accidental Fooling & Smashified
And then there’s that one day where things got slightly bigger than expected
Omni is generally unsure of how to talk about how he got his big break without seeming self-infatuated, but it came from creating the infamous Rayman DLC leak. He used this as leverage to start his series Smashified. Diving into a familiar territory like he did with Brawl was no surprise to him, but what was unexpected was how quickly the fake leak that he made hit headlines.
“The Rayman leak was created specifically to draw attention to the Smashified series. My (horribly flawed) thought process was that if I could convince people that the Rayman leak was real, then I’d be qualified to create subsequent character renders in the Smash 4 style. I suppose it worked, despite the disappointment of many Rayman fans. I still don’t quite know how I feel about it all these months later.”
While he was reeling in the aftermath of the Rayman leak reveal, he got in contact with one of his artist friends, Chris Szczesiul, and together they teamed up to continue the Smashified series as a joint effort. They began seeking additional talent and gradually grew out to several members. Nathaniel Platier and Mykal Williams, two of their musicians, reached out via email early on; for Omni, it helped to discover that Nathaniel lived in the same city as him. RetroSpecter reached out and asked if he could use the word “Smashified” in his music video titles on YouTube, but Omni liked his music and asked if he just wanted to work with them directly. Andrew Coleman, the team’s 3D generalist, contacted via email to let the team in on his progress of a 3D model of Isaac. Sean Hicks came to Omni’s attention when both Sean and Smashified inadvertently created Smash 4 style Banjo Kazooie renders at the same time.
Inside the Mind of ArtsyOmni
ArtsyOmni's usual habitat
Omni got started by doodling nonsense with crayons. Whenever his family went out to eat and there was a coloring kid’s menu, he would be very particular about coloring “inside the lines”; he also made it a point to do those “connect the dots” drawings properly. He has vivid memories of printing out artwork from the Magi-Nation trading card games and learning how to trace them as quickly as he could.
ArtsyOmni's usual habitat
He started to realize his artistic ability around the age of 12, when Sonic Adventure 2: Battle released on the Gamecube. He got involved in a lot of online forums similar to NSider, like Sonic Stadium and Game Talk. Like many other young Sonic fans, he would create “original characters” by editing sprites from various Sonic games. Sprite editing led to original pixel art, and eventually he got his hands on a copy of Adobe Photoshop CS1. His digital art skills continued to grow steadily as he strove to imitate artwork from his favorite games.
When it comes to his own creative process, his biggest motivations are competition and imitation. Throughout his artistic career, he would see artists creating work beyond his skill level at the time, so he made it a personal goal to create artwork solely to “surpass” them. He also loves to create artwork that explores the idea of combining two styles together - by rendering characters that he enjoys into the style of other games, or even replicating a style, he finds himself very inspired. He even carries this philosophy over to making music, where he tries to reimagine existing tunes in the style of other music, such as Splatshine.
His process with Smashified is a little bit different since he’s working with six other people. The team begins by planning out how they want to adapt a character’s design into the Smash style, and then they create thumbnails, sketches, and/or model sheets, depending on what the process demands. From there, they delegate rendering or modeling processes among the artists, while the musicians cook up an appropriate musical arrangement for the character. The entire process of the character is recorded and a pair of videos is released: one accompanied by music and the other by artist commentary (sometimes with an occasional guest).
Only One Direction to Go from Here
Most of the Smashified team at Super Smash Con (and some fans)
Most of the Smashified team at Super Smash Con (and some fans)
“Obviously, the excitement for Smash 4 has steadily declined since its release and subsequent DLC. As such, we’re making a concerted effort to broaden our content in various ways. Ultimately, as gamers and Nintendo fans in general, we do have an interest in creating artwork inspired by other franchises.”
The team’s first foray into non-Smash related content was their Satoru Iwata tribute, which was a series of artwork that they created to be used for the 17th issue of Nintendo Force Magazine. Another project outside of Smash Bros is Splatshine, which revolves around the idea of crossing Splatoon with Super Mario Sunshine.
He doesn’t know if they’ll always be creating Smashified artwork in the foreseeable future, but Omni does say that there is more Smashified content in the works, and that fans of the series can look forward to more frequent live streams for Trophies and potentially more frequent uploads. Adapting to a large team can be quite chaotic.
“Smash Con was quite a surreal experience for me. As exhibitors, it got a bit stressful at times, but it was definitely worth it,” he said. “I was able to meet so many of my online friends and so many really awesome fans of the series!” Overall, he was glad to be held in high esteem by many of the attendees; he has plans to go again next year. For other conventions, he’s considering MAGfest and PAX East, but he has yet to make any commitments.
Ultimately for Omni, his passion is in games and art, and his end goal is to be creating artwork for games, preferably as an art director for an indie studio. Even before Smashified began, he worked on various game projects. “I’d like to be able to dedicate myself to game development fully at some point. That probably means that my time creating Smashified characters is limited, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.”
Continuing Forward
One of Omni's pieces from back in 2009
One of Omni's pieces from back in 2009
Omni always remembers where he started out and how far he’s come. To all artists starting out, he implores them to become very comfortable with failure, especially if they have a well-developed sense of artistic taste. “It can be difficult knowing that your own work doesn’t stack up to the work of others, but making mistakes is the only way to grow. Sometimes the mistake is thinking that you’re all that, only to be shut down by an artist that’s wiser than you. Sometimes that means enduring the constant struggle of completing work and then looking back a day later and seeing nothing but the flaws.” His philosophy on failure is simple – to not let failure be an enemy, because an artist and failure will spend a lot of time together, and failure only has the best interest of a creator at heart.
For the entire community, Smash Bros. or not, despite finding it sappy, Omni implores everyone to find ways to be a force of positivity to the people around them. He’s found that even the people that don’t have any kind of notable influence or difference in their community can make a difference, especially for the people close to them or in their circles. It can be as simple as not being an insufferable jerk in YouTube comments or Twitter.
Omni’s social media pages can be found at his website ArtsyOmni.com, with his Twitter, Soundcloud, BandCamp, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitch all going by ArtsyOmni and his DeviantArt as Hextupleyoodot.
Smashified can be found here, alongside their Patreon, Twitter, and DeviantArt pages.
The official SmashBoards x ArtsyOmni giveaway can be found here - the winner gets to choose their own trophy to be featured in Smashified!
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