so bad news

im ditching this project.

after a week of back and forth with this artist, which, i have to say was BONKERS.
let me tell you the full story.

as you know, we where making this.

and this artist shows up with the first draft

so right out the gate, thats not the same expression. like .... AT ALL.

thats what that is. not sexy.
so its clear from day 1, this artist does not have an eye for.... human expressions.

then we went through several revisions where im trying to direct him to make it more anime and not "i just woke up on the side of the road. where are my kidneys?"

as you can see from the cat animorphs

we where making progress. but like... not fast enough. cause like, i can guide a project, but i cant be the eyes for talent. the artist has to have an eye for what they are making. i cant back seat drive because when that happens, you just have someone doing exactly what they are told with no brain power. and you get this.

so this was over 3 days. this artist was going full speed. every time they revised, they where making more changes to the body. and if i didnt complain, they assumed everything was approved.

then they turned this in as a final step. they where ready to start cutting up the project thinking this was ok.

and now im like, how can someone look at this and go "yeah, thats good work"

the breaking point came when i told you all, i think im getting scammed. 🤣
i dont know if he was stalking, but he saw that message here on patreon, and i woke up to a long message about how disrespectful it is. he says hes not good at anime style. this is his first time. and bla bla bla. capped off with a

nice.
so i dont know why i tried to hang on. i told him i was doing this on behalf of all of you. if he cant do it, i have to find someone else to do it. they deserve to be kept in the loop. and also that i am very close with you all, and i share everything, and often times you all have great feedback that i miss. i did it for this project too, but before i could bring up your tips, everything was falling apart.
but i offered to have him work with our other artists if hes having trouble. cause, i mean... CLEARLY

so he apologized and wants to keep working. so he comes back with improvements to the face. showing, he could do this all along.

i tell him thats better than it was.
but now hes on my shit radar. and i just keep looking at that other artwork. i pointed out that the feet where unfinished.

and he goes, "oh, i didnt see that. i will of course fix that. "

what do you mean you didnt see that?

YOU PAINTED THE TOES ON ONE OF THE FEET! THATS NOT POSSIBLE. there is no physical way for a human to paint only 1 foot and not notice the toes.
so now we are thinking ai is involved. it HAS to be.
i got other artists involved now, and they are thinking its AI also.

but i dont say much. let him actually try and impress me. he turns in another version.

ok, not bad. its way better than it was. but fine, lets try and work with this. so i start giving a breakdown of what is needed. the hair is super plain. if we print this, its going to be a nightmare.

we gotta fix the hair. the feet look WAY to big. sasquach style.
and he comes back with "why are we redoing work. if you approve a step, then its done. we should not be going back." and im thinking, i never approved anything, and there where BIGGER ISSUES

but im still a teacher. so i pull up tutorials on how to make good anime hair. there is a special technique in blender for how to do it.

it involves making a jagged shape, and then extending it along a curve. it looks really good.
then, im going through his portfolio, cause i looked at his work before highering him.

HE ALREADY KNOWS HOW TO DO THIS!
which means only 2 things. hes ether just being incredibly lazy and hope i dont notice, or its ai and hes scamming me.

so at this point im fed up with this. im tired of being nice and holding his hand. we paid half up front cause his portfolio looked good.

so finaly he sends another proof.

and its clear, stuff just aint right. it looks better, but why do we have BENT hair? and half of the hair is in the body.
so im telling our other artist about all this, and he pulls out GRAPHICS

and at that point, i was like, thats it. lets just walk away from this.
its clear that hes ether not really trying, or does not have an eye for this stuff. or its AI.
so i write a break up message.
i never heard back, which is fine.
but thats all that happened. its been a very stressful time.
no i will not be remaking her.
this fox is dead to me.