May Schedule 2021

Hey folks! Hope everyone is doing well. There’s been a lot going on with my work lately. If you’re wondering why I haven’t released any original content in the past few weeks, it’s because I’m freelancing for an album project. I’m sharing my WIP on that with $5 and above patrons. I’ve explained the situation in those posts, but allow me to review for those not on the inside loop.

I normally avoid freelance work outside short term commissions, because I prefer to dedicate my time to original work and educational content. There’s nothing more satisfying than positively impacting lives with my OG content. Unfortunately, the time to profit ratio for that work leaves me in relative poverty. Therefore, I must take freelance work from time to time, but only if it aligns with my creative vision and principles, and pays well. Fortunately, this current job checks those boxes.

As for the job, I’m creating a series of 11 animated artworks for a music producer’s upcoming album. Each artwork represents a track, and will loosely tell the overall narrative of the album. There are basic guidelines for the work, but enough creative flexibility to call it a collaboration.

I can’t reveal the artist at this time since they haven’t even announced the title and release date yet. I hadn’t heard of the artist before, but they are apparently quite popular within the gaming community. Their music is wholesome, and a positive inspiration to many people. So, I can get down with that.

The artworks will eventually be released on youtube with the music, and will also be made into NFTs. Honestly, I had a great deal of trepidation to get involved with NFTs. Especially due to the environmental concerns, I felt it opposed my minimalistic lifestyle. However, as I researched it more I discovered it’s not all the doom and gloom the headlines would have you think. I still don’t feel great about the energy costs, but everything has a cost if you want to generate profit. Moreover, when handled with care and used for art with high earning potential, it’s possible to achieve a fairly efficient profit to energy waste ratio. I found this article most helpful, which gives a wide view of the argument, breaks things down into numbers, and supplies sources. http://sterlingcrispin.blogspot.com/2021/02/crypto-art-sky-is-not-falling.html?m=1

In the past I had a restrictionist mentality about how to address environmental concerns, but the evidence shows our best chance at survival lies in human innovation and continued growth. If I get rich, I’ll contribute to environmental researchers who are capable of engineering solutions to clean up human activities. That will do more for the environment than any limitations I put on my personal consumption. However, I still think individual actions play a role in environmental degradation, and I will always strive to live by modest means.

Anyway, enough on the serious issues. I just want people to know that despite the copious chaos being piped through algorithms, humanity actually has a tremendous amount of good going for it.

I’ll continue sharing the process of my artworks this month. That’s all I’ve officially put on the schedule, but I’ll have a big gamedev update in a full blog post for you soon. I'd like to sneak in some other bonus content, but no promises. I should be getting back to regular content next month, and I can’t wait. My head is exploding with ideas. Your continued support as I push through this job is huge!

From the bottom of my heart, thank you, patrons!