2021: The patreon and you - I hope you like text edition

Too long; won’t read

That’s okay, there's a lot of words here! In short for 2021, I intend to:

· Study common animation methods, tools and develop my skillset in a more structural fashion so I can make better animations in a shorter time period.

· Create new character rigs, update existing ones and set aside half my work hours for this purpose. I cannot rely on Drake and Orca forever.

· Set deadlines for project milestones and work towards creating animations within a fixed time period. Working without a defined deadline results in endless “refinements”.

You can look forward to the Poll for the next NSFW animation before the start of the new year.

For now I wish you all a merry Christmas, and a happy 2021!

So you wanted the long version?

With the latest animation project awaiting audio but being otherwise completed and released a couple of days ago, I set out to perform some long overdue maintenance on my workstation, upgrading my project drive from a spinning hard drive to a spacious M.2. SSD for faster loading and saving of project materials.

Reinstalling Windows and what feels like 500 other programs gave me some time to contemplate where to take the Patreon from here. Normally this would be where I would announce a new poll for the next project and while that is coming, there are some changes on the way that I feel you should be aware of.

Working hard versus working smart

Towards the start of 2020, that blessed time in the distant past, I made a vow that “Fine Dining” would not take as long as the previous animation had, which had taken a year to complete. It goes without saying that I failed spectacularly. In hindsight, it was foolish of me to set out to do something differently when I did not know what I was doing wrong in the first place.

A few months ago, I figured it out. I can’t take the credit, somebody pointed me at a professional Maya animator who produces a YouTube series on animation and… long story short, it turns out that I don’t know how to animate!

Animate efficiently and effectively, that is. There are many basic techniques and tools that I am not using because I never considered them, and It has caused me a lot of grief. I aim to correct that, starting immediately I will be setting time aside to just study and learn how to be a better artist with as result, faster and better animations for you guys to enjoy.

It’s Drake’s world, you’re just living in it / Planet Drake

We all love Drake, Drake is the best, nobody ever laments seeing Drake in an animation but I don’t think he can carry the team forever. I think it is time I deliver on my promise to introduce some fresh blood and revitalize existing characters.

Female drake will accompany an updated male drake. Female orca will be updated to match male orca in terms of M A W fidelity and receive some other fixes. A new scalie from an existing IP will join, he is nearly complete, and no, its not Toothless. Finally, there’s an otter planned. Something I started years ago but abandoned because I couldn’t figure it out, but with access to more experience and skilled help, I’m confident that I can make it happen!

Previously I thought it possible to work on characters alongside / in-between animation projects, prioritizing the animations overall but spending time on characters here and there. That hasn’t worked, so I’ll be taking a drastic step and setting aside half of my time to character development until we’re in a better place with our roster.

Deadlines

I have found that I complete more work when there are deadlines to meet. The issue with merely setting out to work on something until it is finished, whether we’re talking about a small part of an animation or the entire thing is that when there is a potentially unlimited time to work on something, there is no pressure to stop when something is “good enough”, hence in the past I’ve spent time fine tuning things that really didn’t matter, in hindsight.

That doesn’t mean I will be setting deadlines for animation projects, at least not yet, it is something I will be working towards by systematically setting deadline for smaller portions of each project I work on. I have a hope this will allow me to speed up production of both animations and characters, allowing me ultimately, hopefully, to set deadlines for entire animations

In conclusion

I would like to thank all of you for your support, as always, I am immensely grateful for you bearing with me all these years and helping me to realize these projects.

Stay safe,

Tas