Project update
Not abandoned. Just needed a break.
Where have I been?
After pushing to release Chapter 2 and then having a lot of negative comments and review bombs I had to step away for a while. I knew people would leave the story over time, I just didn't think they'd make as much noise as they did when they left. However, based on the number of forum pages, I see there is still an active/loyal fan base and I appreciate you guys. But I can't bring myself to look at the reviews or go back and read all of the earlier posts for the sake of my own sanity. I still view this thread as belonging to you guys and I'm just a visitor but I'll participate a bit more and respond to questions and DM's when I can (No I won't tell you when the update is coming out. No I won't give away the plot.)
What have I been doing?
Mostly just working my house, lots of little projects I've neglected lately. I've also been do some writing on another story. It won't ever been rendered or made public but I like the creative process of building out the characters, plotting the story line and world building. I like taking some of those ideas and building test scenes in Daz to get a feel if my vision is possible. That's why a lot of MHB was rendered out of sequence. An idea gets me excited and I flesh out a test scene and next thing I know I'm rendering an entire scene.
What's the status of MHB?
The last couple weeks I've gotten back into the story. I've been going over the outline/script and starting to refine it more and finalizing the dialog. A subtle change in Chapter 1 or 2 can propagate through the story so I'm having to reconcile some things in Ch3 while still moving toward a known finale. I've also been working on doing the setup work for the next few scenes in Daz. Each scene needs the location, environment, characters, wardrobe, and accessories figured out plus a rough setting of cameras and lighting before any final posing and rendering can happen. I kind of like that process but I can easily spend an entire day just doing the setup of one scene. But I'm planning and starting to render this week.
Chapter 3 and beyond
Yes, a good chunk was already rendered but there is still a lot to do. Yes, this still deals a lot more with Hutch and I'm looking forward to tackling a complicated character, trying to convey the emotions welling within him. There are still some sexy scenes but fewer, making it much easier to render (sex scenes are fundamental to the story but they are not fun to make). It's hard to predict the amount of content that'll actually end up in the chapter but I'm guessing Chapter 3 will be about the same size as Chapter 2. I predict 4 will be a little smaller and 5 will be the shortest concentrating on just the finale. I originally had numerous gratuitous scenes that I'm cutting out so I can focus on the meat of the story. I think it makes the main story better and I think it's what the real fans want. Plus it simply cuts down on production time. I'm not trimming anything that drives the story, just the extra fluff.
So there you have it. Thanks for your patience and thanks for the well wishes some of you sent my way. Now it's time to get back to work.