December Update - Monthly Round Up and Future Plans

It's scary how quickly December has come around.  There's a run down of all the usual stuff below and a bit of an update of the direction I'd like to head in a bit further down that I'd love to hear your opinions on.

November Content - Now Expired

November is done and gone which means the monthly sculpt disappears along with it. The new content link for December will be live on December 3rd. If you missed out on November's content then know that I'm almost done with my website. Got a few more things to tweak but it should be live by the New Year. Sarysa was a challenging print, but with a bit of work she came together rather well - with the exception of the primer which got towards the end of the can and ended up with a bit of a weird surface.

Poll Winner: Molly Mayhem

Looks like some cybernetic badassery has been called for and I am SO looking forward to working on this sculpt.  She's going to be a lot of fun to work on. Naturally she will be available in SFW and NSFW versions. She will be available January 3rd.

The new addition is a dryad by the name of Autumn. Some may have noticed that Jasmine has also disappeared from this poll. She rarely got any love and so I decided to switch her out for another option: Maya, the extremely curvy Priestess of the Kraken cult.

Model of the Month: Saskia

All done and ready to go, already test printed her myself and I'm happy with the results. I made a modification to the wrench as it was a single part but now I've separated the head from the grip as it caused issues being able to slide it into place without potentially snapping the wrench.  All the accessories for the base are separate so you can choose whether you want to add them or not and arrange them how you'd like. Only thing to note is your results may vary with the cocktail stick in her mouth and the grab bars on her hip device as they're very very delicate and small (and my fingers are not either of those).

She is available as single piece (SFW and NSFW) and multi-part with the additional option of pre-supported STLs.  Please remember that the pre-supported files are experimental. I cannot guarantee perfect results for your printer, I only know that they worked perfectly fine for me on my Phrozen Shuffle with ParaLED 2 upgrade, using Ameralabs AMD3 resin at 2 second exposure time at 30um (for the figure) and 3 second exposure time at 50um (for the base and accessories).  You will need to add your own vent holes before printing with them.

The Christmas Gift: Vivi from Final Fantasy IX

I've spent a few lunch breaks over the last few months having a bit of fun sculpting Vivi from Final Fantasy IX.  He's probably one of my favourite characters from a Final Fantasy game and FF9 is most definitely my favourite of them all. I thought I'd share him with you guys as a Christmas gift and a thank you for supporting me thus far. Currently he is only available as a multi-part print (with pre-supported files as an option), however I'm hoping to have the single part piece ready for you guys in time for the content drop on December 3rd. He will be available throughout December.

I've done a print of him but it's still in the process of clean up right now but everything seems to come out alright.  I'll know for sure when i manage to work on him further.

The Trove - Surtr Update

So when I first made Surtr I didn't account for smaller z-axis build volumes than my Shuffle. So that led to folks having to scale down Surtr due to needing to print one of the flame elements at a smaller scale.  I've updated the problem pieces to be printable in two parts now, meaning it should be printable on z-axis heights of 150mm and possibly lower if angled correctly.  

Usual Content Stuff

The rest of the content is all done and will be available on December 3rd.  This includes the usual renders that accompany the monthly model and all the work in progress shots compiled together as well as high res versions of the poll sketches.

My Plan for Next Year

As any of you guys who regularly chat on Discord know, I'm thoroughly enjoying doing this and I'm super thankful for everyone here for supporting me so far.  I've been thinking about what next year will bring and where I can go from here.

Potential Kickstarter for Resin Kits

As much as I love printing my own work, I'd love to be able to sell physical copies for those who don't have 3d printers and without having to spend several dozen hours individually making each one out of fairly brittle and easily broken resin (I already lack time to sleep). 

I will be approaching several producers of resin kits to explore this idea further.  I will also most likely make the STLs available as a pledge option too for those who'd like another chance at getting a model you may have missed.

Print Themes

I hope you guys don't mind me indulging myself with a bit of the old artistic language I picked up at university as a means of exploring some ideas.  I'd love your feedback on this.

So far I've been trying to make my characters appealing with various themes (sci-fi, fantasy, etc) and that won't be stopping. However, instead of trying to fill the stereotypes (barbarian chick, succubus, etc), I'd like to be far less specifically defined.  This is where things get a little bit artsy fartsy.  I'm a massive fan of Luis Royo and Frank Frazetta, both for different reasons. I love how Frazetta gets power across in his paintings, while I love the sensuality and eroticism in Royo's works, and I think they both embody the idea of pin-ups in that sense.  What I'm looking to do is to focus less on the "Fantasy/sci-fi archetype but with boobs out" approach that I'm currently doing.  

When Royo paints his characters, even when they're not wearing much at all, it seems natural. Almost like the nudity and sensuality is a common and unremarkable thing in the worlds his characters occupy.  And that's a similar idea I'd like to get across. Naturally I'd still do a SFW version, because not everyone would be into that.  I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

A Potential Side Line

In private messages on Discord there are a few who have expressed interest in content that ventures further into the NSFW category, doing away with even the possibility of a SFW as an option...if you catch my drift.  Now, I don't want to make this a focus of mine as I don't know whether my audience would appreciate a sudden dive into pure naughtiness. However, if people want it then I would consider doing it as a side line option and potentially making a second Patreon with the "Per Release" option. There's no way I could currently release multiple sculpts, but working on something different from time to time to take a break from my main line stuff would be nice. Since I wouldn't be releasing something like that each month, the pay per release option with releases every 2 or 3 months is an idea I'm currently entertaining.  Again, thoughts on this would be most welcome!

And Finally...

I hope you all have a fantastic holiday season. Whatever you celebrate, whenever you celebrate it, and with whomever you celebrate it with I hope you all have a fantastic month!