MHFAP! Direct - Huge Bunch of Announcements

 Hey guys, since Nintendo is refusing to give the people what they want, a  massive Nintendo Direct where they announce tons of new shit, I thought  I'd fill the gap and have a MHFAP! Direct in blog form and announce  everything that's going on with me, and stuff that is coming up very  soon on the horizon.
 

The kicker? For once, ITS ALL MOSTLY GOOD NEWS.
 

My financial situation may be improving. My fiance is starting a new  full time job that pays $16 an hour, vs her current one that pays $11  and is only a part time one. While I'm not going to go and make tons of  promises, this should ease my situation a lot more and hopefully get the  feeling of the constant albatross off of my neck. I'm not promising  that the comic will return the second things feel 'better'. Over the  last couple of months its made me realize that the main comic and the  main story are way too big for me to feasibly make on the type of budget  and time I have available. My visions for it are so huge and demanding  that expecting me to make it on $300 a month while also having to do  shitloads of commissions? Completely unrealistic. And NO, I will not  downsize my visions to make the comic easier to make. I am passion  driven, and want to make my huge epic harem action comedy adventure the  way I envision it.
 

So rather than start up chapter 6 again where I left off, I want to take  some time to *really* build up the MHFAP! brand and try as hard as I  can to get the Patreon up by a couple hundred dollars. We're currently  at like $270 a month and while the ideal situation is 1000 a month  minimum, I'd like to try and make a break for $500-600.
 

I don't want to start the comic up again, have something bad happen and  suddenly have to pause it again. Every time that happens to me it's SO  fucking emotionally draining. So I'm going to start planting seeds to  prevent this from happening. I don't know when I intend to return to the  main comic yet. In all honesty it's pretty far in the back of my mind  because I'm sick of the sadness that not being able to work on it gives  me, so I'd rather not think about it until I'm in a situation where I  can keep making it in comfort and stability.
 

What kind of content can you expect from me soon, then?
 

MHFAP! Arena Launch
(I actually really need feedback on this section so please read it and tell me your thoughts)
 

We are finally ready to start doing Arena fight arts. We have a growing  pool of chars with Arena Bios (with more on the way), I have a really  nice 3D model for a standard ring (we'll make more for special themed  Arenas) and I have the structure for these fully thought out... Well,  mostly thought out. 2 OC owners pay me for one match. One match is two  pictures. I'd like to expand this to three pictures in the future but  two pictures is already a LOT to ask people to pay for. So if the Arena  matches bring me a lot of Patreon money and I can offer the matches  cheaper to buyers, I'd love to start doing 3 per match because IDEALLY  it would look like this-
 

1st Pic - A neutral-ish pic of the two characters fighting, one might have the upper hand but it's not concrete
Pause a few days for Patreon Voting for who wins.
 

2nd Pic - Not currently in the plans since it'd drive the cost up for  the buyers even more (unless they're ok with that), but when I can I'd  like to make a decisive picture of who wins, the moment they win.
 

Pause for Round 2 of Patreon Voting, this time Patrons, probably of a  slightly higher tier will get access to a poll featuring 5 options.
 

3rd Pic- The results of the Domination Poll.
 

Lets say we had Hero vs Tali, and you all voted for Hero to win, the options might be something like.
 

How does Hero dominate the Loser? Vote Now!
 

1. Hero mating presses Tali in the center of the ring for everyone to  watch, the commentator driving her to embarassment as the floor drips  with Hero's cum.
2. Hero grabs Tali by her hair crest and facefucks her, her drool messily falling down like crazy onto the ring.
3. Hero gets on top of the ropes and fucks Tali from behind, showing her  off to the audience and telling everyone that this bird belongs to him.
4. Hero *anally fucks Tali while spanking her, and forces her to tell the crowd how much she loves her ass being fucked.
5. Hero uses Dickers to fuck both her holes, as well as placing one on  the floor in front of her so she can suck him off, total three hole  domination.
 

(*Yes, I will include token anal options even though it's not my thing  lmao, as this is about you, the voters. I won't offer things I'm not  into though, like no pegging on Hero if he loses. But I'll try and be  more open to ideas than I usually am.)
 

I currently do not know how I will set these polls up. I'd like the voting tiers to be like,
 

$1 vote on who wins.
$5 Vote on the Domination Results.
$10 You get a second vote on the Domination Result. (Maybe a second on  who wins but that'd skew things more towards the popular characters, I'm  afraid? Thoughts?)
 

I think if the Arena Matches catch on, they'd start making a lot of  money for me which I can eventually use to lower the prices on Arena  Matches, and more importantly, start to put the profits back into making  the main comic.
 

I'm stressed that probably can't include the victory picture very much  right now as it would make the entire match a lot more structured, but  we'll see. Give me your thoughts on this because currently a 2 picture  match is already planned to be like $160-200 split between two people.  If anyone knows how to set up secure voting polls like this where I can  essentially give certain people two votes, please let me know.
 

The important part is that Arena stuff should be fairly easy for me to  make, and it interests me a lot. I have more plans for the more funding I  get, such as tag battles, including referee OCs, fight posters and  themed matches, and since I have a colorist on board I expect we could  easily do a minimum of one match a week. For how the pics will be  released, everyone will get to see them fully uncensored. But the public  versions will have little overlays on the bottom telling them to go  vote for who wins on Patreon, and in the case of the matches being 3  pics, the 2nd one would list the domination options. Any $1 Patron would  get access to the pics without the overlays/MHFAP! Logo.
 

Please let me know any thoughts you have on the upcoming Arena system,  as I could definitely use some help on maximizing profits, and  potentially devising a system to ensure that Character votes are  balanced, so that popular characters don't win every time.

Futura and Rizl Kink Comics
These have been paid for and I'll try to get them out within a week.  Almost done setting up Rizl's. I shoulda started them sooner but I had  an off couple of days at the start of the week and I'm catching up now.

More Training Art from my Assistant, Aljune
My assistant as you've seen me post, is learning a lot of anatomy and  lighting things from me right now. He's doing these at an absurdly low  price because of exchange rates, and I'm having him study ref pics but  using MHFAP! characters to better teach him how to draw all my various  girls. Since he's so cheap, fast, talented and reliable, and the  exchange rate for him is SO good that I can basically keep him on as a  full time employee, he's going to continue creating content for me in  between his work coloring shit for me. This should create a steady  stream of content that I can post as filler material, so I hope you guys  like it!
 

More GWA Scripts?
Maybe. I'm not in a huge rush to make more. I have a half finished one  that I might touch up soon but when I wrote 4 back to back I think i  slightly got it out of my system for the most part. I still enjoy it  though and I will probably do more in the future when I need a break  from everything else.
 

MHFAP! Fapcast?
Not returning any time soon for reasons I've already said. Audio porn is  still a passion of mine, but not only is my audio mixer completely  devoid of enough drive to work on it, I need the money that goes into  making them more for my own living expenses. I launched the Fapcast at  the dawn of the pandemic thinking things wouldn't be as bad as they  ended up being. It was a vanity project so that I could fap to my own  chars in audio format lol. I will resume this in the distant future when  I can properly fund such a monument to my own hubris.
 

MHFAP! ...Spotify Playlists? Wha?
 

I'm doing this kinda as a joke but I'm currently building playlists of  songs that represent Hero, Tali, Futura and Rizl lol. Not songs they'd  listen to per se, but ones that say something about them. Tastes in  music are very eclectic but you're more than welcome to show me a song  you think fits one of the mains. But don't be mad if I don't like it or  anything. It's not something I'm taking very seriously, just a small  jokey thing I'm doing on the side when listening to music as I draw. I  just thought it'd be fun to release them when big enough so you can see  how I view my characters on a deeper level. The names and themes of  these playlists are as follows;
 

Hero - No Pressure
A slightly whiplash-y combination of jokey songs that accentuate his  over the top swagger, bravado and love for sex before dragging you down  to show his sensative side and bring attention to the fact that most of  his behaviour is an act, and he's a lot more scared and alone than he  lets on.
 

Tali - Suggestive Chirpings
Primarily bright, warm and loving songs with a leaning towars pop that  can get a bit sexual while also coupled with deeper tunes that are meant  to show her many anxieties and lack of self confidence.
 

Rizl - Angry Lizard Noises
Mixing songs that emphasize her torn emotions on the new state of her  life (primarily her relationship with her new lover...) and songs that  hint at a much deeper inner conflict that we've yet to see unfold in the  pages of MHFAP!, Rizl's playlist is full of a lot of angry, conflicted  emotions that land somewhere between love and hate.
 

Futura - Programmed This Way
With a heavy techno/futuristic lean, we explore the exasperation Futura  struggles with as part of her relationship with Hero as well as her more  hidden fears regarding the cold, distant self view she has of herself.
 

These are all pretty heavy themes and I have no idea where to find music  for each one so as I've said feel free to suggest things lol. Also, the  first track on each playlist can be considered their honest to god  themesong, the song that I think represents them more than anything  else.
 

As a small preview, this is the song I most view as 'Hero's Theme Song'.  It's a surprisingly heartfelt song that shows how desperate he is for  love- but emphasizes that just because he's desperate about it doesn't  mean he isn't wholeheartedly genuine in his feelings for every girl that  he loves fully, whether its core Harem members or the more 'honorary  Harem' level OCs like Bella, Nona, Saber, Levy and so on. The song is  obviously only about one girl, but in my context it's supposed to  represent his love for all the important girls in his life.
 

MHFAP! OC Stuff-
 

(This section is really long so feel free to skip it if me talking about my creative process does not interest you lol)
 

I want to make slightly less new OCs for one thing. Some days it feels  like 90% of my art is new character sheets and it feels like I'll never  get popular when that's the majority of the things I make. I'll be  prioritizing new fans who don't yet have MHFAP! OCs and want them, or  current fans who don't have a lot of OCs. And for the record I owe  UrbanWulf a lot of OCs that he's already paid for, not ones that I said  I'd do eventually, but ones that are fully paid and he is fine with  waiting till I'm ready to do them. So if you see me making a big batch  of OCs for Urban I'm not breaking my word and making special exceptions  for him.
 

Part of the reason I want to do less OCs right now is admittedly the  awkwardness of pricing them, and the burnout that character design  places on me. Designing new OCs is something I love but they take more  effort than any other type of art I do. I have to, in this order,
 

1, Do a thumbnail sketch and try out lots of different combinations of  features, outfits and hairstyles, and then the even more difficult stage  of testing out tons of color schemes.
 

2, Create a detailed model for the char in my posing program, Design  Doll, and potentially have my 3D assistant make me whatever sort of 3D  props they might need. (Weapons, wings, standout features like that.)
 

3, Pose and then sketch the character. I try to be loose with this stage  to be fast but it's tricky finding the balance between how little  detail I need to do lineart and have it still look good.
 

4, Lineart, the most annoying stage. I consider myself decent at lineart  but it's no denying that it's tedious to draw the exact same thing over  top of the thing that you just drew. That's why I experiment with using  less and less detain in my sketches these days.
 

5, Fully flatcolor it in the way my colorist likes. Not the worst part  but he likes it in a really annoying way, in separate folders for each  part of the character lmao.
 

6, Formerly color it, now I have my assistant Aljune do this part, but  considering I was originally looking for an assistant to both do lineart  AND coloring, it doesn't save as much time as I originally wanted when  you factor in how much time the other steps take.
 

7, Place her on the ref sheet, fill out all the info boxes and write the  character a 350-ish word bio for her. I should mention that formatting  text in my program, Clip Studio 5, is fucking nightmarish and annoying  lol. Might have to eventually experiment with a better formatting thing  but I digress.
 

8, Share her on all my different social media sites.
 

Now you might have just thought to yourself that that takes a lot of  fucking work just for one character. You're right. And how much do I  typically charge for chars? $60 for a 'simple' char. You know, not  absurdly detailed or a really hard to draw species. And I should say  that $60 is like the absolute minimum I want for that much damn work  considering each new char can take multiple hours, and now that I have  Aljune I'm only getting $45 per char and that's frankly not quite as  good.
 

But I'm in a tricky situation. $60 is already a lot of money- that's an  entire new video game for fuck's sake. I already felt bad enough when I  raised it from 50 to 60 a few months back. I don't want to have to  increase it for standard chars if I can help it.
 

My business is reliant on selling chars to my fans, so that they can go  on to create content of their chars without me, thus creating free  advertising for the MHFAP! brand as well as them wanting me to draw them  with other MHFAP! OCs, and the main chars, creating endless content and  a steady stream of pay. So I want the basic price to be as reasonable  as I can possibly make it...
 

I would rather wait and do more new OCs when I'm in a position financially where I can take the hit.
 

Another big reason I get burned out on OCs is that I have so many fans  who want all these different species and I want to make them all as  happy as I can- and I'm extremely grateful that they all want to give me  money knowing I'll make something they enjoy- but I'm just not able to  force myself to want to make every single idea they have. I'm bad at  saying no. Like, really bad. The fact that someone wants to give me  money to have a char in my world and setting that they have a say in  means a lot to me but sometimes it leads to me saying yes to something I  don't think would be that fun or drawing a character I don't have much  interest in drawing more.
 

I feel bad about some of the things that result from this. Namely when  you see me do a revamp of an older OC. Even if they're always 100%  happier with the new version of their character post redesign, the fact  that I say 'I'm sorry but I really don't like this character design, I  was less skilled and she doesn't fit in with my current design standards  so I'd like you to pay me (discounted) so I can try it again. My  earlier designs were soooo all over the place. At the time I only did  them at $30 per char, so the quality was a shotgun blast. I was under  constant financial pressure and didn't spend as long on each single char  as I do now. That's why when I revamp some characters they look a LOT  more like the actual species they're supposed to be based on.
 

Biggest example is Vespula here, who was supposed to be a Wasp. In her original  I made her limbs look like weird stylized armor and because I didn't  properly study the species in question I for some reason made her  stinger fluffy. The new, revamped  Vespula I made a few weeks ago is one of the most dramatic revamps I've  done because it kept the core features of the char but reworked almost  every single aspect of her anatomy to make her actually look like a  Wasp.
 

I just hate that I have a really high standard for my quality and it's  one of those things that's just me being hard on myself for no reason.  My fans are always happy when I say I want to revamp one of their chars  but to me it just feels like 'hey I don't wanna draw your char again  till you pay me again'!
 

It's like I keep saying, I stress constantly about the people who  support me and want to keep them happy, when in reality I'd probably be  happier if I only designed adopts or something. Blehhh.
 

I didn't mean to ramble on so long about this but the OC shit has been  stressing me out significantly lately because as of late it feels like  90% of my art is new chars, and I'll never get more popular just from  that y'know?
 

IN SUMMARY-
 

TL;DR I am starting to feel my drive to accomplish shit coming back, but  I'm tired of new OCs and shit. You can expect a lot of interesting  things in the pipeline.
I intended this blog to be a lot simpler but I ended up using it to  brainstorm my own thoughts as well as transparently vent about some  stuff while giving you a clear view of the future of MHFAP! content.
 

Anyway this has been Reggie Fils-Aime and thank you for watching this MHFAP! Direct.