Poool (formerly Poool157) is an American SFM and GMOD Splanimator. He is known as one of the fathers of the Splatoon community, beginning his career around its formation and becoming a notable influencer in the span of a year.
First joining YouTube in April of 2008, he uploaded his first video in July of 2009, his first splanimation in November of 2015 and his latest animation (and video overall) in March of 2018 [Octoling: Innocent 2 (Part 3/5)]
Poool began having various spurts of activity following his start in college in 2017, before disappearing altogether in 2018. He returned in 2021 to announce his plans to return to YouTube, posting his official return animation in 2024.
As of 2023, he is currently the fourth most subscribed Splatsource animator, as well as the second to pass 100K subscribers.
History
2008 - 2015: Debut as a gamer and first animations
Poool created his YouTube channel on April 6, 2008, and began uploading in 2009. His earliest videos contain several gameplays of older games from the time period suck as Stick RPG and Chaos Faction. His playthroughs would soon evolve to more popular modern games such as Skyrim, Octodad, and The Stanley Parable.
When Poool was 18, he began to practice posing in Garry's Mod, which he used to create humorous scenes. Shortly after he discovered Alex Spider's video, "Daily Squid Sisters," which lead him to the Splatsource community, which Poool was eager to join due to its small size at the time. Despite not initially having ideas, he decided to recreate the Big City Slider commercial with Splatoon characters using the Stop Motion Helper. On November 3, 2015, after 7 years of playthroughs, he posted a video testing his newfound GMOD ability, indicating a future in animations. 2 days later he released the finished animation, "Big City Slider Station."
On November 15, Poool released his first full fledged splanimation, Splat Ops 3, which featured an inkling in a role of a character from Call of Duty: Black Ops III. The video was a success, and as of 2021, has racked up 1.2M views.
2016: New milestones, Octoling Innocent, and transition to SFM
Octoling Hangout
In January 2016, Poool reached 5,000 subscribers, which was celebrated with the 5K Subscriber Dance released on January 17. On February 14, Poool debuted his first official Splatoon series titled Octoling: Innocent, which was released in 3 segmented parts. The series has recieved critical acclaim across the community, praised as one of Poool's best works, as well as the community as a whole.
On April 15, Poool released a video titled, "New World," where he and other characters wake up in the "new world" of SFM, signifying his transition from animation platforms. One month later, he debuted his SFM work in another 3 part series known as Octoling Hangout, which concluded on September 30. Like Octoling: Innocent, the series gathered much acclaim, with each video reaching over 1 million views.
On July 22, The Enhanced Squid Sisters models released on the Steam workshop, with Poool credited as one of the creators of the model.
On December 19, he began a sequel series to Octoling Innocent, set to be a 5 part series titled Octoling: Innocent 2, marking the first debut of the mini franchise in SFM. On New Years Eve, Poool releaed a compilation of his best moments through the year. In the description of the video, Poool talks about his love for 2016 and the community, describing it as a place he never thought he would be able to call home.
2017 - 2018: YouTube hiatus, DeviantArt career, and hiatus
Poool's final post before his hiatus, released on Deviant Art in December 2018
On January 27, 2017, Poool released a video called If My Characters Had Voices... . After a month long gap, the second part of Octoling Innocent 2 was released that March. Following this video, Poool went on a YouTube hiatus with no explanation really given at the time. With many school projects lining up, Poool became mostly active on DeviantArt, posting many SFM images throughout the year of 2017, some to showcase future projects, while others were used as school projects.
Poool's profile picture during his hiatus, used from around 2020-2024.
11 months after his last video, Octoling Innocent 2's third part released on March 2, 2018. Poool explained he gave every free moment to this video, dodging such as "hundreds of crashes, corruptions, college, etc." to make sure it released. Folllowing the release of this video, Poool returned to DeviantArt for more posts through the year. Poool's most recent post on DeviantArt and the community as a whole was a post celebrating Christmas in 2018. For 3 years, Poool did not return to any of his social media profiles related to Splatoon and no explanation was offered as to why. Rumors circulated that Poool had received a job at Pixar, which prevented him from doing more Splatoon work due to his new schedule. However, no such evidence has supported this.
At an unknown point following 2018, Poool's profile picture changed from his inksona to an anime asthetic, though he did not post anything afterward.
2021-present: Return to animation
On July 8, 2021, Poool made a community update post, where he explained his absence occured due to his college work taking up most of his time. He also mentioned that he would continue to finish Octoling Innocent 2 should the fans desire its completion, and that he would experiment with platforms such as Blender, though it would possibly lead him to do more non-Splatoon content. The following day, Poool changed his channel name to remove the "157".
On January 24, 2024, Poool posted his first new animation after 6 years of inactivity.
Legacy
Poool's inksona, which has been used in several videos following his temporary hiatus
Much like Alex Spider, Poool has been praised as one of the founders of the community and one of its major influences. In particular, his SFM videos have garnered lots of attention as a community model for how to create quality videos in the Splatoon community. Despite his long hiatus, Poool's inksona has been used in many videos and posts by more recent members in the recent years. In 2020, his channel managed to reach 100K subscribers, making him only the second Splanimator since Alex to reach this milestone. However, Poool has not commented on this fact.
List of series
Poool's primary cast of characters.
List of animations that follow a story
- Splat Ops 3
- Life is Splatoon
- Dealing with Squid Ink Stains
- Home Invasion
- Octoling: Handsome Catch
- Ink's Edge
List of animations that are non-canon
- If My Characters Had Voices...
- Last Minute Gift
Other videos
- Stop Motion Animation Test
- Big City Slider Station
- The Enhanced Replacer
- Squidsmas Message
- Motivational Inkling
- 5K Subscriber Dance
- 10K Subscriber Q&A
- Your Questions Answered
- New World
- Animated Octoling Hair
- 2016 Wrap-Up Compilation
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