January 2025 Update
Ok, back into the swing of things.
I took it easy this month since I was putting off a lot of personal stuff to get that Bordello animation done. That means I've been mostly just doing model work, updating software, and figuring out what I want to do next - and how I want to do it.
First off, as far as models go, I'm planning on a few more Overwatch models and another BG3 model update. The BG3 models will include a bunch of quality of life changes, rigging improvements, topology changes, extra characters, and an entirely separate model for all of the male characters. Meanwhile, I've started working on Marvel Rivals models. I've been planning on looking into them for a while, but the game came out at a pretty inopportune time for me so I had to put it off. They should be a fun challenge, since I've been looking for a reason to get into more stylized graphics. I've been observing how other artists have handled the challenge and I've started to develop some ideas.
As far as animations go, first I'm planning on doing another Overwatch animation - similar to my Widow and Tracer ones. It'll probably involve more characters but keep a similar style. After that I don't really have any big ideas other than a Bordello entry. But in the meantime we have the animation challenges, so you can look forward to those and pin-ups as well. Speaking of the meantime, there are some other things I've been thinking about doing.
First, I'd like to overhaul the $10 tier a bit and offer more since it's a bit old at this point. So I had the idea to make 'open animations'. Essentially these would be short, no-frills animations (think simple pin-ups) released every now and then whose project files would be available to everyone in that tier. I get a ton of messages all the time asking to see how I work or what my .blend files look like, and so I thought this might be a good and easy way of getting those materials out there. The main purpose would be to show people how I work, so I could do things like walk through my process in the post, separate the animation into different sections so you can see how it looks during each step of the process, stuff like that. Maybe I could combine this with the pin-ups in some way, but we'll see.
Second, I noticed during any project that involves dialogue or any kind of storytelling, that I really need more practice in that department. Directing, blocking, animating conversations, cutting together traditional scenes; these are similar but different muscle groups from my regular work. As such, I really feel like I need to exercise them more. I want to get good at that kind of work, and one way to do that is by doing it more. So, similar to the animation challenges, I though it might be nice to take on some more mid-sized projects that effectively do that.
So what would that entail? Well, my idea was to do short (mostly) softcore scenes in the Bordello storyline that I've developed. By softcore I mean the work is still likely to be erotic (involving nudity, sexual themes, etc.), but with less of an emphasis on full sexual encounters. This opens me up to a lot more ideas, but more importantly it saves me a ton of time. I've said this a lot before, but sex scenes take a ton more work than... everything else. So I could shoot for these scenes being around 1 to 2 minutes without them taking over my entire life for months at a time. Since I'm able to do at least that much during those 3-day CYOA animation challenges - with sex scenes - I figured I could set aside a week every now and then to do one of these. By taking on whole scenes, I'd be opening the door to plenty of things I don't often get to do. Plus, if you're into the Bordello then you'll get some neat vignettes. Plus plus, the animation challenges have been great for motivating me so I thought this might serve as an additional boost. Anyways, it's just an idea I had so I'm not certain about it yet.
Right, that's all I can think of for now. I have a few more posts to make that concern different subjects, so this one is more about how I plan to move forward. Thanks for the support, and thanks for sticking around.
Ok, back into the swing of things.
I took it easy this month since I was putting off a lot of personal stuff to get that Bordello animation done. That means I've been mostly just doing model work, updating software, and figuring out what I want to do next - and how I want to do it.
First off, as far as models go, I'm planning on a few more Overwatch models and another BG3 model update. The BG3 models will include a bunch of quality of life changes, rigging improvements, topology changes, extra characters, and an entirely separate model for all of the male characters. Meanwhile, I've started working on Marvel Rivals models. I've been planning on looking into them for a while, but the game came out at a pretty inopportune time for me so I had to put it off. They should be a fun challenge, since I've been looking for a reason to get into more stylized graphics. I've been observing how other artists have handled the challenge and I've started to develop some ideas.
As far as animations go, first I'm planning on doing another Overwatch animation - similar to my Widow and Tracer ones. It'll probably involve more characters but keep a similar style. After that I don't really have any big ideas other than a Bordello entry. But in the meantime we have the animation challenges, so you can look forward to those and pin-ups as well. Speaking of the meantime, there are some other things I've been thinking about doing.
First, I'd like to overhaul the $10 tier a bit and offer more since it's a bit old at this point. So I had the idea to make 'open animations'. Essentially these would be short, no-frills animations (think simple pin-ups) released every now and then whose project files would be available to everyone in that tier. I get a ton of messages all the time asking to see how I work or what my .blend files look like, and so I thought this might be a good and easy way of getting those materials out there. The main purpose would be to show people how I work, so I could do things like walk through my process in the post, separate the animation into different sections so you can see how it looks during each step of the process, stuff like that. Maybe I could combine this with the pin-ups in some way, but we'll see.
Second, I noticed during any project that involves dialogue or any kind of storytelling, that I really need more practice in that department. Directing, blocking, animating conversations, cutting together traditional scenes; these are similar but different muscle groups from my regular work. As such, I really feel like I need to exercise them more. I want to get good at that kind of work, and one way to do that is by doing it more. So, similar to the animation challenges, I though it might be nice to take on some more mid-sized projects that effectively do that.
So what would that entail? Well, my idea was to do short (mostly) softcore scenes in the Bordello storyline that I've developed. By softcore I mean the work is still likely to be erotic (involving nudity, sexual themes, etc.), but with less of an emphasis on full sexual encounters. This opens me up to a lot more ideas, but more importantly it saves me a ton of time. I've said this a lot before, but sex scenes take a ton more work than... everything else. So I could shoot for these scenes being around 1 to 2 minutes without them taking over my entire life for months at a time. Since I'm able to do at least that much during those 3-day CYOA animation challenges - with sex scenes - I figured I could set aside a week every now and then to do one of these. By taking on whole scenes, I'd be opening the door to plenty of things I don't often get to do. Plus, if you're into the Bordello then you'll get some neat vignettes. Plus plus, the animation challenges have been great for motivating me so I thought this might serve as an additional boost. Anyways, it's just an idea I had so I'm not certain about it yet.
Right, that's all I can think of for now. I have a few more posts to make that concern different subjects, so this one is more about how I plan to move forward. Thanks for the support, and thanks for sticking around.
