February 2023 Update Newsletter

Hello everyone!! Thank you for joining the Patreon!

I’m super excited for this to be a place where I post all my works-in-progress, sneak peeks, behind the scenes, and other fun stuff. Showing my process is one of my favorite things to do on the internet, so being able to have a place specifically for that is really cool.

This is the first in an at least monthly “update” series that explains what we’re working on and what we have planned. I may do them more often, but I want to at least guarantee them once a month! 

Future updates may not be quite as long as this one, I just have a lot to talk about.

Upcoming Videos

We currently have two videos in the works:

Animating LEGS (Weight and Walk Cycles)

• Script: 100%
• Voiceover: 100%
• Editing: 75%
• Animation: 0%

Next in the “Animating the Body” series, with the most of the editing done! I wanted to get it done before February so I could announce the Patreon in it, but this ended up being an extremely busy month for me which you'll read below. Plus I was visiting family for my birthday!

This one focuses on walk cycles and communicating a character’s weight. It’s much more technical than the Arms video, and it talks about a lot more objective, “concrete” animation fundamentals compared to Animating Arms.

Oh Canada! The Short Films of the NFB

Art by Sproutlines (Melanie Tan)

• Script: 100%
• Voiceover: 100%
• Editing: 15%
• Art/Animation: 20%

The first supporter funded video, primarily funded by previous Superchat support! 

Thank you again to all those who supported me in streams -- you will be thanked directly in the video! With your help, this video will be primarily edited by my partner while I'm busy with other videos, and I plan for it to have professionally translated Québécois French subtitles!

This is another analysis video in the vein of the Henry Selick video. It’s about The National Film Board of Canada (the NFB), who produce a very high amount of critically acclaimed animated short films every year. They’re a subject I’ve been really excited to cover since before I started the channel!

This is also the first video edited by Mel while I simultaneously work on a tutorial video. Mel normally works freelance in the animation industry, but because of supporter funds, she can focus on this as a part-time job. She is also providing her own art, which I think adds a lot to the experience!

This way, we can both work on a video simultaneously — the analysis videos don’t need much specific editing from me beyond the voiceover and script, while the tutorial videos require me to carefully think out every visual.

I also love adding costumes and additional art and props to these videos so they feel a bit more unique, rather than just video clips with Doodley appearing sometimes.

I'm planning for this to be the cadence for videos going forward: while I'm getting main tutorials done, Mel is editing together an analysis video. And when I'm done with a tutorial, I can hop right into the animation of the analysis video!

This video will hopefully be done in February.

Future Videos

I also want to mention a bunch of videos I'm excited to make that I have some work done on. I hope you look forward to them!

3D Modelling from Just A Cube

• Script: 50%
• Voiceover: 0%
• Editing: 0%
• Art/Animation: 5%

This will be the tutorial that follows Animating Legs, and it focuses on poly modelling/box modelling. My hope is that it explains modelling as simply as possible while still getting into the nitty gritty, starting from just a simple cube.

I did a bit of work on this already because I was asked by a friend of mine to do an article for her website, hence the gif above. That article is a very condensed version of the first portion of the video. The article isn't live yet, but I'll let y'all know when it is!

Children's Animation Deserves Better

• Script: 80%
• Voiceover: 0%
• Editing: 0%
• Art/Animation: 0%

I'm still figuring out the title of this one -- it was originally "Children's Animation Deserves Better Than Cocomelon", but putting Cocomelon in the title will probably send it to "Made for Kids" purgatory no matter what I do. I think I might go with this title and put a cryptic watermelon or something in the thumbnail.

Basically, this one's a comparison of children's media that is very enriching or educational without being condescending or mind numbing. The main focus is on the shows Bluey, Wordgirl and Crashbox. Basically, children's animation that I find really valuable and enriching in comparison to Cocomelon.

I have almost all of the script done, and it'll be the second analysis video after the NFB one.

Learn 3D Programs With Your Local Library

• Script: 0%
• Voiceover: 0%
• Editing: 0%
• Art/Animation: 0%

No work on this one yet -- it's really just a short PSA. But I'm mentioning it because you can take advantage of it right now!

This is about how you can access the learning website Lynda.com for free with a library card.

Well...it's actually "Linkedin Learning" now, because Microsoft bought Lynda.com and attached it to Linkedin, which is cringe and I hate it.

But anyway, libraries have offered this for FREE for years, and it's literally how I learned 3D! Their tutorials are really high quality and an excellent, free alternative to something like Skillshare. 

I hate that Microsoft attached it to Linkedin because it makes it seem like it's all business learning, but Lynda was and still is an amazing resource to learn 3D art and animation, so the fact that libraries offer it for free is fantastic. Plus, you support the library directly!

You just need a library card, which you can often do virtually. So even if your local library doesn't offer it, you can probably get a virtual card from the biggest city in your state, then sign up. For people living in Massachusetts, for example, you can get a Boston Public Library card virtually.

I want to make this video ASAP so I might do it in-between work in February or March.

The Increasingly Inaccurately Titled 100k QnA

• Script: 0%
• Voiceover: 0%
• Editing: 0%
• Art/Animation: 0%

No work on this yet either! But I'm hoping to be a ways into it in March, so we'll track it's progress then. I just wanted to mention it, since it was already announced!

Additional Supporter and Ad Revenue Funded Things

This is additional stuff that I plan on doing with supporter and ad revenue funds!

Music from Jayfoo

Jayfoo and I are planning on releasing a "soundtrack" album officially! No set release date on that, but it will be supported in part by you guys.

He wants to remaster a selection of tracks for an official release and I want to support him in being able to focus on that -- like me, he works full-time in the film scoring industry outside of making music for the channel.

Video Subtitles

I plan to translate the main tutorials professionally. I'm in touch with a friend who has done professional translation work to translate Animating Arms and Animating Legs into Spanish!

I want to get these done professionally and pay people I trust to do them right. If you have any recommendations of professional translators, feel free to let me know. After Spanish, I'll explore additional subtitle languages in the future such as French and Portuguese, mainly focusing on common languages that lack a lot of ESL speakers. (Sorry Swedish.)

Way off in the future, I hope to be able to do full video localizations, with translated visuals. I'm focusing on languages/demographics that don't show up in my analytics, because (via survivorship bias) it means they aren't able to find my videos. Right now, my highest priority for a full localization is Japanese, as I believe that language will benefit the most from a full visual and audio localization.

Commissioned Emotes

I also plan on commissioning new Gimberly emotes for the Discord server and streams! We have a severe lack of emotes featuring her, but it's tough to have the rig read at small emote scales, so I figured I could get them hand drawn instead. I have a friend who is available to do these that is regularly commissioned Twitch emotes.

Improving the BRB Screen

I've mentioned on stream a few times that I want to hire someone to improve the BRB screen.

I have a friend I've been chatting with who is very capable of doing this -- right now, he suggested using this plugin, but my hope is to improve it beyond that! I want it to bounce pixel perfect off the sides of the screen and maybe even play a victory sound with confetti when it hits the corner.

Gimberly v2

I've been asked in a few places about Gimberly v2 and I wanted to make a note about her: I plan on creating that next version of the rig over this year. I mentioned in the Gimberly video that it would be released around 100k, but that very quickly came before I knew it.

It'll take a lot of work to get the rig to where I want it to be, and my hope is for it to be released around the channel's anniversary in October. I'll be detailing some of that work and beta testing it with those in the "Super Doodles" tier, but I'll provide updates every now and then in these posts!

Merch

Merch! I love designing stuff that become real things you can hold. It brings me a lot of joy, so I'm getting a head start on it.

Note that everything here was purchased with my own full-time work savings! As mentioned on the main Patreon page, everything from Super Chats, ad revenue, and the like is going straight into the channel in various ways.

I want the store and everything on it to be carefully designed and personalized, not just a Redbubble upload thing. We will be shipping everything ourselves, and it will be primarily Mel handling it. We've done this before so we have some experience with it, and are pretty confident we can handle it. 

And we want to make the unboxing/opening fun and personable to everyone. Backing cards, thank you notes, extra stickers and buttons, the works.

To start, we will do stickers, pins, and washi tape. They're the easiest to ship in a small envelope. Eventually, we'll determine if more complex stuff is possible -- I really wanna make those Gimberly red and blue grid socks!

I am hoping to get the shop online late February, if not March.

Pins

Here's one of the pins that arrived!

Normally I'm iffy on "character head" pins, but with Doodley I'm able to make a really affordable pin because his design is super simple: one ink, soft enamel, 1.5 inches and black dye metal. You literally can't have it any cheaper than that! So I didn't want to pass it up for those who want something affordable and simple. Plus, I wanted it as a lapel pin for myself anyhow.

The other two pins that are coming in are "premium" hard enamel pins. I wanted these to be extra fancy. Since these aren't done yet, I'm just gonna show a sneak peek instead. The final designs will be a surprise when the shop goes live!

By the way, I had a few pins for sale before. They show up at the end of the Animating Arms video, the Blender Donut and Default Cube pins. I don't plan on restocking these online once they're sold out, so the remaining stock will be final!

Stickers

Stickers! Not much to say here. These are professionally printed. I made a lot. Maybe too much. See if you can pick out the designs from these photos.

Yes, I made a No Meshes sticker. I have no idea if people will want one. But I figured people would ask me for one if I didn't, so you're welcome.

I have one more sticker design not pictured here that we still need to figure out, since we're probably gonna do it homemade on our sticker cutter. 

It is a sticker sheet. So you can peel each sticker off individually.

It is somewhat self explanatory.

Yes.

This sticker sheet is exactly what you think it is.

Washi Tape

This will also be a surprise! But here's another sneak peek: one of three designs.

I have no idea if washi tape will even connect with my primary audience, but who cares, I wanted to make it! Mel and I love washi tape and we wanted some to ship merch with anyways. I hope you like it.

Plushies

This is something I want to do eventually, but it will take time. I get a lot of requests for it and I want it to happen just as much as you do! I collect plushies, and it's always a dream of mine to have a plushie of my own character, so getting it right is really important to me.

I don't want to go through Makeship so it doesn't end up being a time-sensitive, one-time offer. I love Makeship and own several plushies from them, but it would be a shame to have them be limited when Doodley and Gimberly are main characters that will exist throughout the entire channel's existence.

As a result, I need to talk to various manufacturers and designers and work with them to do it right. I have a few friends who have designed plushies that I plan on talking to.

With that in mind, it might be a while. But I hope you look forward to it!

Recap

If you read all that, thank you! If not, no worries. Here's a recap:

• Two videos in active production: Animating Legs, releasing soon, and a video about the National Film Board of Canada which is funded directly by Super Chats and ad revenue!
• Several future videos in the works: An analysis of children's animation, a deep 3D poly-modelling tutorial, a PSA about learning 3D programs with your local library, and the 100k QnA
• Supporter-funded projects and improvements, such as Spanish translated subtitles, a Doodley soundtrack album release from Jayfoo, an improved stream BRB screen, and commissioned stream/Discord emotes
• Gimberly v2 will be a year-long project and hopefully release around October
• Merch coming! Pins, stickers and washi tape. Launches late February/early March
• Plushie someday, but not any time soon as I need to do research on manufacturers and designers

See you all soon! Feel free to ask me any questions here in the comments or the supporters channel on Discord.