Who Am I? (Vlog Script)

The following is the script I'd written for this vlog/video-essay on my personal channel.

Hey wassup everyone, this is MetalGamer here – oh wait, I can’t say that anymore…

[HARD CUT]

Hey wassup everyone, this is Ralphael. And do you guys remember that melodramatic “Final Channel Update” I uploaded a while back? It’s hard to believe that was more than two years ago at this point. Also, that sucker went on to have a significantly higher viewer to subscriber ratio than any of my regular videos at the time, which is quite ironic in hindsight. Perhaps I should consider quitting YouTube more often.

But anyway, that’s beside the point. The point is I’m back! … Well, to a certain extent. To another extent I’ve been back for a long time. Those of you who subscribed to my new channel (Pacheco Projects & Productions or P^3 for short) have probably already noticed that we’ve been uploading quality weekly content there for months now. I say “we” because the channel is a co-venture between my sibling and I, and we hope to open it to more collaborators in the future. But for now, every week we’re putting out all sorts of creative and production-based videos. And I must say: with the greater emphasis on creative content, I’ve found the work I’m doing over on that channel far more fulfilling than almost everything I’ve done on this channel. So with that being said, if you want to see the passion projects my sibling and I are churning out every single week, then a highly recommend subscribing to that channel if you haven’t already.

So anyway, now that I’ve done the sales pitch, let me try and contribute to the topic at hand, and that is: Who. Am. I?

That seems like a very simple question but the truth is I’ve found myself at a bit of a crossroad in my life’s journey. Like I said in that final update video, the main reason I quit YouTube was to focus on my academics, but for reasons I won’t get into that ended up falling through and I am no longer in college. Which was strange for someone like me whose whole life had been academics up until that point. Throughout my secondary education, I dedicated myself to being the best student I could possibly be and for me: higher education was the endgame. So to have that swept out from under me was a jarring possibility at the time. But, I had faith. And I’m certainly not the type to stop learning just because I’m not in school. So I’ve still been trying to expand my horizons and teach myself all sorts of skills since I dropped out.

And that brings me to where I’m at now: the crossroads I spoke of earlier. I’ve been having a bit of an identity crisis, in a way. My mind spends lots of time fluctuating around the existential quandary of who I am and who I’m meant to be. Am I a writer? Am I a filmmaker? Am I both? [insert porque no los dos?] And this is all coming on the heels of wanting to be a game developer, while simultaneously BEING something of an online entertainer on our Twitch livestreams.

So those are the facts, but the question still remains: Who am I? Well, I’m an artist to be sure, but is that too broad? I think not. In fact, if you ask me: why should the term “artist” be a limiting factor? That seems antithetical don’t you think? To quote the late philosopher Bruce Lee [insert Bruce Lee pic]: “There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.” We live in an age where information is more accessible than ever, and thus skills and crafts are more learnable than they’ve ever been. In celebration of that, we shouldn’t limit ourselves to the options the road gives us. Instead, we should carve our own path across the landscape and have faith that our lives will be guided to finding their fulfillment. To quote one of my recently deceased personal heroes [insert Monty Oum pic]: Just “keep moving forward.” So yeah, I’ll continue aspiring to be a writer, since I’m fascinated by storytelling and I’ve identified as one for as long as I’ve known how to write. And yeah, I’ll continue honing my craft as a filmmaker. And I’ll keep doing both of these with the infinite sphere of online digital media as my platform. Because creativity is my calling, but being limited to a medium, is simply not.

We have in each of us the powerful opportunity to crush that limitation, and that’s what I’ve conceded to do. So who am I? I’m Ralphael Pacheco. And I’m all of the above. You can find me around the interwebs, links in the description if you’re interested. God bless.

LINKS

My primary channel P^3: https://www.youtube.com/user/MGMachinima/

My Twitch channel P^2: http://www.twitch.tv/p_squared

My Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRaphPatch

State of the Union, May 29th 2015

So I've kept myself rather busy as of late. So busy, in fact, that I had forgotten to write last month's State of the Union entirely. Just starting this off and already there's inconsistencies. Way to go, me. 

Recent Events

Well, I may have missed the monthly update post, but at least I took the time to thoroughly examine all of the Easter Eggs throughout the awesome Marvel/Netflix show Daredevil, which was quite a fun exercise for a massive Marvel geek such as myself. If you haven't already checked that out, click here. 

Speaking of Marvel, The Avengers: Age of Ultron came out at the beginning of the month. Don't get me wrong, it was a fun and entertaining movie, but on the whole I was rather disappointed. It seemed to be more concerned with expanding the MCU's lore and setting up future installments than telling its own story. One of the things that impressed me about the first film was how well Joss Whedon balanced the ensemble cast, giving an equal amount of focus to each character. However, this sequel seemed to have an opposite effect, with a cast so large that there's an equal lack of focus for each of our heroes. But with that being said, it's still a great movie featuring some iconic comic characters (*cough* Vision) that I never thought I'd get to see proper portrayals of on the big screen. In the end, I think this film is only guilty of not blowing me away as the first one did, but it's still a far far cry from terrible, and I'm looking forward to the future of the MCU that has been set up in this film. 

P³

Though we've been lacking in live action content as of late, there's still been plenty of things to watch on our YouTube channel. Most notably a new series we've started up called War Stories, where I basically take awesome moments and challenges from our live streams and edit them into narrative-driven highlight videos. I was really inspired by the way one of my favorite youtubers, Maximillian Dood, used editing to turn regular gameplay into intense short films in his Boss Rage and Hype and Rage Compilation series. I loved the concept, and I figured that since I'm an experienced editor I could attempt to do a similar sort of thing. Anyway, the first two are from a challenge we did in Mortal Kombat X and an adventure one of our mods sent us on in Minecraft. The Minecraft adventure is particularly awesome, and I put a lot of work into both of them, so I recommend you check them out if you haven't already. 

We're also working on a very big and very special project that will be uploaded to the channel sometime down the line. It's a submission for RoosterTeeth's RvB Season 13 music video contest, and we're definitely giving it our all. It's without a doubt our single most ambitious video to date, so be looking forward to that in the coming weeks. 

Photo Shoot

Loryn's been working hard at graphic design for our stream channel. We recently did a photo shoot to get elements for our offline image (which can be seen here provided we're not streaming), and there were quite a few good shots. Here are a couple samples featuring yours truly. The rest can be found on Loryn's Deviant Art. 

P²

We've had more success than I'd anticipated with streaming on Twitch. It's been only 2 months, but we're already up past 1,000 total views and 30 followers. We've also become quite adept at handling the mobs of trolls that flood our stream a couple times a week. In fact, I'd like to share a rather beautiful story that occurred on stream in regards to that. 

The Parable of Ciaran

You see, on May 1st we were doing one of our regular Friday night Chill Streams when we were introduced to a viewer we'd never before seen: Niglet123456789 (whose very name reeked of internet buffoonery). And sure enough, with Loryn hosting the stream, it didn't take long for him to descend into incessant derogatory remarks regarding his "gender fluid" association. We eventually had to put him in timeout, but still Loryn remained calm, level-headed and respectful the whole time.

On the next Chill Stream, I was playing Mortal Kombat X by my lonesome when Niglet returned. Of course, at the time I wasn't too thrilled to see his name pop into the chat, but as Loryn did, I tried to remain cool and courteous. The first question he asks is if Loryn was there. I truthfully said no. At that point I was certain he only wanted to continue trolling and antagonizing, so it came as a shock when he instead said he wanted to apologize for his previous behavior. I also recall him mentioning that our channel was "impossible to find on Xbox One..." When I checked later that night, I confirmed that he had not actually followed our channel, which led me to an astounding conclusion: On the internet, where nobody is accountable for anything and anyone can be as derogatory as they wish, this man went far out of his way to deliver an apology... And why? Well, as he'd once stated, because Loryn showed him reason and respect, even when he had not done the same in return.

On May 8th, the next Chill Stream, he showed up in our chat once again. We talked for quite some time throughout the stream. In fact, he was the only person who stayed for almost the entirety of it (which ended up being upwards of 5 or 6 hours). On that day he learned a lot about us, and us about him. We found out his real name is Ciaran. He told us all manner of things about himself and his Scottish culture, and by the end of it the three of us had grown into close friends.

"It's incredible," he'd said towards the end of the stream. "How a few people who've never even met can talk like we've been friends."

"It is," I said. "If you ask me, that's the beauty of the internet, and the age we live in."

Following that stream, Ciaran created a new account name and was promoted to moderator status on our channel. He's been a regular ever since.

I hope it's all right with Ciaran, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to share that story. Through compassion we nurtured one man's transformation from troll, to follower, to friend, to moderator. Different worldviews may interpret this story in different ways, and that's fine, but I personally saw nothing less than God working in someone's heart and mind. But either way, I think it's a potent illustration of the power love and respect holds over argument and strife. If Loryn had chosen to do the worldly thing and butt heads with him at the first sign of conflict, then how different would things have turned out? Would we ever have gained such a loyal follower and friend? I shudder to think about it.

There's an important moral to be learned from this story. I think it's a moral so many people throughout the world need to know. We live in a world plagued by conflict, where everyone is pitted against one another and we're encouraged to attack the ideals of those who disagree with us. I can go on and on about the topic of coexistence (heck, I wrote a whole speech about it in my senior year of high school), but instead I'll leave you with this: How many problems can be solved if we simply offer kindness and respect to everyone, regardless of whether their preference or worldview aligns with our own?  As we'd realized during the stream, the internet is a powerful tool that bridges cultural and geographical boundaries and brings us all to the same place. Use it spread kindness, and the results will change people.

~ Ralphael Pacheco ~

May 29th, 2015

A Complete Chronological List of Easter Eggs in Marvel's Daredevil

It's no secret that I've been a huge Marvel fan for as long as I can remember. So with Marvel's Daredevil (the first of five Marvel-based Netflix series set to contribute to the Marvel Cinematic Universe [MCU]) now out for the world to see, I figured it was an appropriate time to set my knowledge to the task of assembling a complete list of easter eggs I've found throughout the show's 13 episodes.

Of course, 13 hours worth of narrative is a lot of information to sift through and, seeing as the show is chock-full of minor/obscure references, I've no doubt missed or omitted a great number of them. However, to keep this list as complete as can possibly be, I'll continually update it if more secrets are discovered or brought to my attention.

With that being said, here's a complete list of easter eggs I've either found or heard of, in the chronological order that they appear in the show.

*WARNING*

SPOILERS AHEAD

Atlas

At multiple points throughout the series, the office adjacent from Nelson & Murdock can be seen sporting a logo that reads "Atlas Investments." The design bears a striking resemblance to the logo of Atlas Comics, the real-life company that would go on to become Marvel Comics during a rebranding in the early 1960's. 

Carl "Crusher" Creel

In Episode 2 ("Cut Man") Jack Murdock is booked for a big match with a man only referred to as Creel. A closer examination of the posters around the gym confirm this to be Carl "Crusher" Creel, a boxer from the comics who goes on to to become the super-villain known as the Absorbing Man. 

Bullseye

This one is a bit of a longshot, but popular speculation is that the sniper that shoots Detective Blake in Episode 6 ("Condemned") is our first look at the classic Daredevil villain Bullseye. I personally didn't catch this one on my first viewing, but it would certainly explain why one can see what appears to be a playing card in his bag. 

"The War"

Throughout Episode 7 ("Stick") Stick continuously refers to an ongoing "war" that he was trying to prepare Matt for. This war is briefly mentioned once again when Daredevil fights Nobu in Episode 9 ("Speak of the Devil"). In the comics, Stick is the leader of a secret warrior group known as the Chaste, that has rivaled a secret ninja society known as the Hand for many generations. Although neither the Hand nor the Chaste are ever directly mentioned, it is heavily suggested that their rivalry has always been in play even in the MCU.

Also, Nobu's attire during the fight in Episode 9 is a blatant reference to the uniform worn by Hand ninjas in the comics. I think by this point it's safe to assume that Nobu is the first Hand member we've encountered in the MCU, and I have no doubt his superiors will play a bigger role as we progress deeper into Daredevil lore in future seasons.

Elektra Natchios

Episode 10 ("Nelson v. Murdock") features a plethora of revealing flashbacks, one of which indicates that Matt took Spanish in college only to get closer with an unnamed Greek woman whom Foggy describes as "smokin'." Although this is a far cry from confirmation, it is widely believed that the Greek woman is none other than Daredevil's on-again, off-again love-interest/arch-nemesis Elektra, who is of Greek descent in the comics. She was also originally trained by Stick, who was introduced earlier in the series. And seeing as she goes on to become one of the lead assassins of the Hand, this season has done plenty to pave the way for her official introduction to the MCU. 

Roxxon Energy Corporation

In another flashback from Episode 10 ("Nelson v. Murdock"), the law firm at which Matt and Foggy interned is revealed to have at one point represented the Roxxon Corporation. This might be a rather obscure reference for most viewers, but comic book fans may recognize this as the name of a massive, ethically shady corporation from the comic book continuity. It had also been passively mentioned at other points throughout the MCU, including the Iron Man trilogy. 

The Steel Serpent

This symbol could be seen on all of the heroin throughout the show, but it was really put in focus when Daredevil brought it to the attention of Ben Urich in Episode 12 ("The Ones We Leave Behind"). 

Hardcore Iron Fist fans such as myself will probably recognize this symbol as that of Davos the Steel Serpent, one of Iron Fist's most prominent villains. 

Later on in Episode 12, Madam Gao tells Leland Owlsley that her home is "a considerable distance farther" than China. Aside from packing her drugs with a Steel Serpent label and managing to knock Daredevil on his butt, this is our biggest hint that she's an otherworldly native. But from where? Ku'n Lun? Ku'n Zi? Is she working with Davos? Crane Mother? Both? She mentions that the heroin business is not her primary purpose for being there, but then what is? Is she simply establishing the Steel Serpent's presence on Earth? The enigmatic Madam Gao and her business leaves us with plenty of unanswered questions. There are only a few things we know for certain: (A) Madam Gao is definitely from one of the seven capital cities of heaven, and (B) It's still possible that they are looking to base the upcoming Iron Fist Netflix series mostly on the Immortal Iron Fist by Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction, in which the Steel Serpent plays a very big role. 

Whatever the case may be, the set up they do in this show has gotten this Iron Fist fan excited! 

Gladiator

In Episode 11 ("The Path of the Righteous") Daredevil faces off against Melvin Potter, the man who was introduced earlier as the designer responsible for Wilson Fisk's armored suits. We also see him providing the same service for Matt when he later designs the iconic red Daredevil outfit. In the comics, the name Melvin Potter is also synonymous with a super-hero costume designer turned villain named Gladiator. As depicted above, one can see evidence of him designing the Gladiator suit in his shop during Episode 13 ("Daredevil"). 

Stilt Man

It seems Melvin Potter's workshop is a haven for easter eggs, as a prototype for Stilt Man's legs can also be seen in the background of Episode 13 ("Daredevil"). 

Stan Lee Cameo

It was a lot easier to miss, but it seems Stan Lee's tradition of Marvel cameos lives on. Though the legendary Silver-Age writer is usually given a walk-on role with at least one line, this time he was limited to a framed picture in the background of the police station in Episode 13 ("Daredevil").

- Ralphael Pacheco -

April 14th, 2015

Behind the Scenes: Snowscape

In reviewing my previous post, I came to realize that it was rather rushed and had ultimately become just a shameless promotion blurb. Of course, I began this blog with the intent of having more opportunities to write and share details/insights on my creative endeavors, so I was rather disappointed with myself to say the least. While broadly summarizing recent events was in fact the purpose of that post, I can't help but feel there were things I wanted to get into with more specificity. Particularly the brief paragraph I'd allotted to discuss my newest short, Snowscape.

With that being said, Snowscape was a simple idea that had come across my mind sometime in mid February. Being in Central Pennsylvania, there was a lot of snow coming down around that time, and I wanted to shoot a film that takes advantage of the seasonal aesthetic. I also knew that my sibling, Loryn Pacheco, was very eager to choreograph some more fight scenes, as it had been a good 6 months since our last live action collaboration on Duel.

Anyway, I came up with a concept that would make heavy use of the beautiful snowy landscapes that our area has to offer. I set aside an entire morning to write out a rough script and send it over to Loryn. Before I even started writing, I had a definite location in mind. Stover's Dam is a wonderful open park only a few miles from our home. As you've probably already noticed, the frozen lake and wooden bridge play an integral part in our imagery at the start of the short. Even while writing I was already imagining the compositions we could capture with the location.

From there, I started working with Loryn on action design. The scenarios had already been written in the script, but it was her responsibility to choreograph the fight scene that follows the "snowball shootout." In the script I described our characters as fighting with Mixed Martial Arts, with my character specializing Jiu-Jitsu/Boxing, and Loryn's character specializing in Jiu-Jitsu/Judo. I catered to her strengths when deciding what fighting styles to include, since her studies were mainly focused on Judo at the time. Anyway, with that information she choreographed a great fight scene that comprises the meat of the film. 

With the script and choreography in place, we continued rehearsing the fight until a fresh layer of snow had fallen, at which point we made our trek to the park and began principal photography. Needless to say, the frigid temperatures made production a nightmare. We were appropriately clothed, but the strong winds and the Jiu-jitsu ground-fighting made us numb at regular intervals. Whenever it became too much, we walked back to the car, defrosted ourselves in the heater, and went right back to filming. During the writing phase, the idea was to make the fight ridiculous and messy, with both of us rolling around in the snow as we tussle. Clearly, that idea had come back to bite me, but hopefully it came across well on-screen. 

Anyway, we continued filming one day at a time. We utterly refused to shoot on days when the temperature went below freezing, which unfortunately happened more often than not. Sometimes there would be whole weeks between filming for this very reason. We wrapped principal photography in early March and focused on editing and post-production from that point on. 

As there were often days of downtime between shoots, I'd already edited much of the footage before we even wrapped. Nonetheless, there was still a lot of work to do. 

For the first time, I put a lot of thought into color correction for this project. I was originally considering taking the traditional coloring route of lowering the saturation so I can have greater control. However, I quickly found that this aesthetic didn't match the comical mood we were going for (not to mention, a lower saturation doesn't make too big of a difference when most of the screen is white). So instead I over-saturated the colors with blue shadows and yellow-ish highlights. Of the two pictures above, the one on top has no color correction, and the one on the bottom has the full correction seen in the finished project. 

Since we filmed at different times on different days, the lighting would often be drastically different between certain shots. I tried my best to compensate with color correction and gamma adjustment, but ultimately there were still some things that couldn't be fixed in the final product. However, for the average viewer the differences are negligible and would probably come off as a minor continuity errors at most. 

The rest of the post-production is pretty self-explanatory. I cut the scenes together, recorded dialogue, put in music, sound effects, foley, Wilhelm screams, etc... I also dedicated a day to animating a quick intro for our production group in Blender, which ultimately turned out pretty "meh" but it serves it's purpose. 

On the soundtrack front, I can't say enough good things about Ross Bugden. He's an independent musician who creates royalty free orchestral music on his YouTube channel (linked on his name above). As you can see in the credits, I used quite a few of his tracks in this short, and it's an understatement to say that he provides a valuable service for low-end content creators such as myself. Also, fans of Payday 2 may recognize the music during the fight scene as the track from the Death Wish trailer, composed by the ingenious Simon Viklund. I had a lot of trouble finding music that wouldn't receive a content ID match while also matching the tempo of the fight, but thankfully Viklund's awesome work came to the rescue. 

Anyway, that's the story of how Snowscape came to fruition. I hope this provides some insights for those who were curious. The obligatory closing statement is that it was a fun time and a blast to create, but honestly: it was freezing and painful and I hope to never do it again. Thanks for reading! 

- Ralphael Pacheco -

April 11th, 2015

State of the Union, Mar 28 2015

So it's been a good long while since I last wrote anything on this blog (a month and change, as of now), so I decided it's about time I get off my lazy butt and start writing some stuff. 

I've been meaning to post regular updates of sorts under the title "State of the Union," as I'd once started to do when I tried out tumblr as my platform. So I suppose this shall be my attempt at an inaugural version of that idea (wow, so many political analogies to be made). Anyway, I want to try and do these at least once per month, and seeing as it's already the 28th I suppose they'll all be landing around the end of each month. Anyway, without further ado, here's the latest happenings. 

Snowscape

Snowscape, the short that I'd previously teased, is now officially up on YouTube, making it our first project to be released under the P³ title that Loryn and I settled on. We even have a simple (kinda bad) intro graphic animated by yours truly! Anyway, it was very painful to film in freezing temperatures for days on end, so if you haven't already, feel free to check it out. 

We definitely plan on continuing to produce live action content, and hopefully grow as filmmakers as we progress. 

P²

Earlier this month, Loryn and I started doing regular gameplay streams on Twitch. This is something that we've been meaning to do for a while, and it's actually been quite fun. 

The idea for the name came when I suggested to Loryn that we call our YouTube channel Pacheco Projects & Productions, or P³ for short. She then proposed that we keep our Twitch in the same style of naming, except instead doing productions we're just playing video games. So we called it P², which works on multiple levels. First of all, it's short for Pacheco's Play, and secondly, we are two siblings running the stream, so essentially we are 2 Pacheco's. Anyway, I thought that was really clever. 

If you haven't already, feel free to check out our Twitch. As of now we're streaming four nights a week, so there's plenty of opportunities to drop by! 

In Closing

Anyway, I think that about summarizes all the major events that have occurred as of late. I'm still working hard at my novel and hoping/praying to get it published within the year. I've also endeavored to begin learning more about screenplay as an art, in the hopes of writing my own in the near future. 

Like I said, that's about all I have to say for now. I'll try to keep these short and sweet, but hopefully this gives you an idea of where I stand in my journey at the moment. 

Take care, God bless. 

- Ralphael Pacheco -

March 28th, 2015

The Best of Monty Oum

In my previous post I specified a "Best of Monty Oum" video that I'd created in memory of the great animator/choreographer. Unfortunately, upon its initial upload, it was blocked worldwide for its RoosterTeeth content ID match (which I found completely understandable). But fortunately, that turned out to be only a temporary measure as the tribute is now publicly viewable on our YouTube channel, P³.

As stated in the previous post, Monty Oum was a big inspiration to me creatively. With his "Keep Moving Forward" mantra spreading like wildfire following his passing, I can't help but feel charged to more vigorously pursue my creative passions.

With that being said, this past week has been very eventful for me. I got to the end of the second draft of my first novel; my sister Loryn designed a new logo and banner for our channel (which can be seen here); we set up a twitch account on which we plan to start streaming regularly (click here); and last but not least, we spent a day filming a new live action short that we plan on uploading to the channel. Sadly, we couldn't finish shooting in just one day, and the frigid weather might not permit us to resume shooting for at least another week. However, what little we were able to get done is already looking rather amazing. Here's a little sneak preview:

Anyway, there are many great things to come. Around the last new year, I was looking forward and unofficially dubbed 2015 as the "Year of Awesome." Although it has gotten off to a rough start with the death of a personal hero and numerous other tragedies befalling the world, I still think this year has a shot at living up to the title. With hope, the warm, positive moments will go on to outshine the negatives. And perhaps even the negatives will go on to be seen as positives.

God bless.

- Ralphael Pacheco -

February 23rd, 2015

RIP Monty Oum

I'm afraid this blog shall be opening on a rather solemn note, as a single event has been the main occupant of my mind over this past week.

For those who have not yet heard, famed web animator Monty Oum passed away on February 1st, 2015. He was 33 years old.

I still remember not wanting to believe it when I first found out. On several occasions I was moved to tears just thinking about him. I know everyone has already expressed their grief by this time, and I don't mean to beat this subject to death, but he was such a personal hero of mine that I can't help but dwell.

Monty was not only a huge inspiration to me creatively, but also what I consider to be one of the most underrated fight choreographers of our generation. I find it rather unfortunate that he failed to find recognition in the martial arts filmmaking community within his lifetime, but it is my hope that his work continues to reach and inspire people long after his passing. So who knows, perhaps that is still within the realm of possibility.

I'm not sure if it has yet been mentioned by others, but I noticed that Monty was only 1 year older than Bruce Lee was at the time of their respective deaths. I can't help but feel like that's an interesting coincidence, seeing as they both managed to revolutionize the art of on-screen action in their own unique way, despite living such short lives. Moreover, they both seemed to have an eerie recognition of how brief life tended to be, and so they pushed to accomplish as much as they could in the time that they had (see below). Not sure if I'm connecting wild dots here, but I feel like it's an appropriate analogy.

I'd always wanted to meet Monty in person and express my gratitude for how much he's motivated me as a creative individual, and it saddens me that I no longer have that opportunity. I can only hope that his influence lives on in the stories and projects that I bring into this world.

Also, I should mention that I spent the past week editing together a little Best of Monty Oum video, but due to Rooster Teeth's copyright policies I'm not able to upload it to youtube without it getting blocked worldwide. But still, it felt good to create, even if it'll never see the light of day. I won't persist in trying in trying to get it out, as that would contradict Monty's mantra of "Keeping Moving Forward." I feel like he'd be disappointed if anyone spent too much time trying to honor him instead of going on and making new things.

Anyway, I just wanted to say my final goodbyes. The world has lost a great creative mind this year. From both myself and my sister Loryn: 

We love you Monty. Now get some sleep. 

- Ralphael Pacheco -

February 8th, 2015

(Artwork by Loryn Pacheco)

For those unfamiliar with his work, listed below are some of my personal favorites.

Of course, he created so many awesome things in his life that it's impossible to include everything,

so if you're interested, then I highly recommend going out and finding his stuff for yourself.