project

NoGood Radio

I didn't set out to create NoGood Radio, it just kind of happened. A random sketch turned into a frame-by-frame animation, which became so complex that it took six weeks to complete. I got the idea to use the animation as a 24/7 live stream background during the process. It's simply more fun to work in a 3400+ layers monster of a Photoshop file when you have an end goal in mind.

The eight-second looping animation consists of a static illustration overlaid with animated interfaces. I love adding simple animations to my drawings, and already had some experience with animating in Photoshop. However, I never made anything this complex. I created the animated displays in separate files, using a straight-on point of view. I later aligned them with the static illustration's perspective. Details like the subtly moving dust particles and the tree in the background were added in After Effects.

Initial NoGood Radio sketch
NoGood Radio linework NoGood Radio shading NoGood Radio colored NoGood Radio rendered

While creating the animation I figured out how to set up a 24/7 channel. I bought a M2 Mac Mini to run the stream, which is probably overkill. I considered getting a NUC but found those were roughly in the same price range and also required me to relearn Windows. So I opted for convenience and overkill.

The setup is pretty straight forward. I use OBS to stream and Advanced Scene Switcher to alternate between day and night scenes. Tuna displays the current track. Most overlays are based on text files or browser sources. A custom python script created by Gzuus displays information about my node and the bitcoin network.

NoGood Radio alternate background

The channel launched on Youtube in 2023 but moved to zap.stream, a nostr-integrated streaming platform, after a couple of months. At first I ran an Owncast streaming server on a VPS, but now I stream directly to zap.stream.

I've made several updates to the animation since the channel's launch. The first version was a lot simpler than the current background. I also added several alternate backgrounds. Similar to Sovereign Electronics, the project has become a NoGood household brand and often shows up in other illustrations. NoGood Radio merch, such as stickers and zines, are availabe in the shop.

NoGood Radio stickers

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