The State of EVERYTHING

Hey all! I don't have the time for a video update but I wanted to be clear on the status of everything. All my art, Nazo and original, etc.

Since the pandemic kicked off in the states, I have been working from home and the silver lining was that "Welp, at least I can work on Nazo before or after work since I don't have to commute!" And for a little bit, that was the case, I was seeing actually voice lines get used and spoiler-y scenes get touched. I also found time to do OC/other fan art (reminder that this is not a Nazo Patreon, it's also for art I do outside of work) and it was cool.

But then work days started blurring in to my off-time days. I would pick up freelance to work during the night to help beef up my storyboarding portfolio. Keeping up with household needs sometimes cut in to work and I caught myself working past the set office hours here and there. One of the advantages I had working in a studio was having a dedicated work space for my day job and then using my portable drawing computer to do my personal stuff, but now that ALL my work is done in my personal space, I'm honestly more burnt out working on the same set up for day job stuff and personal/Nazo work.

This is compounded by the fact that I started my first lead job back in November, as a Lead Storyboard Revisionist at Titmouse, which is very rewarding but super demanding. Add on a new puppy (definitely something I could only get during Covid), I have had little time or energy to draw, even the "thirst drawings" I would put on social media.

So what do all these paragraphs mean? Is Nazo dead? Nah, as of now I am still looking forward to how it will look animated, but I need to drive home that I have absolutely zero expectations this will be done any time soon and have no idea when it will be. "Hire people" is a solution for parts of the project, which I have already done to small chunks but at the end of the day I would still have work checking, correspondence, and general busywork.

The goal of this Patreon was a glorified tip jar for my personal animation/artistic endeavors, with little glimpses of behind the scenes thought processes and art not shared to the public, or at least shared earlier than the public. However, I know Nazo is the main draw here for many of you, so if you feel the highly reduced productivity of the project is too big of a drawback, I entirely understand! I pause payments on months that receive no posts but I know that has happened more frequently than before.

As for the funds, I pretty much sit on them until I pay for voice actors, software, etc. The last time I had to use some of it was to Upgrade to Toon Boom Harmony 20. Just reiterating that any amount of money you pay me goes directly towards the art I make.

"Coming 2019" seems like a naive dream at this point haha. I'm so sorry for those who were hoping for a new chapter of Nazo at the turn of the decade, or just wanted to see cool art from me on a frequent basis (Eclipse Force where you at 👀). Ultimately I just want to be transparent on where I am artistically and mentally, and to let you all make decisions base on that!