May Updates

-- 5/26 --

Sombra Voice Actress

I have been working with MizzPeachy for Sombra and she has been very promising. Not all of what I need has been gathered, she recorded enough to get started on the intro, and some of the 1st animation segment.

A few days later she tweeted that she has to take some time away. I don't know what happened, hopefully nothing tragic. I plan on reaching out to her when she comes back to get the other lines.

Similar things like this appear to be happening to a lot of people all over. My guess is that people are burning out and need a break.

Until that time I will animate what I can. It isn't much, but I have to work with what I got. 

Dva Animation

This is going really well and making good progress. I am still animating the lipsyncing and runing some simulations but I could have an animation WIP to show sometime next week or have the chance to refine it more. 

The 5th peice is a POV and I will release the entire animation when its done - thats all 5 segments and an intro.

Mercy Animatic

Expect this to be finished some time in the next 2 days before the polls open up. I am rebuilding the detail poll after pulling a lot of the shots for planning purposes.

-- 5/17 --

Billing this Summer

I have mixed news that I hope you can understand as patrons.

• I have to move this summer. It will likely be at the end of June. I don't know how long it will take but I will try to do it as fast as I can, and get back up and running. I have to go very far to find something I can afford. If you live in America you probably know what I am talking about.
• I cannot continue to promise an animation will be done every 30 days. I have talked about this in the past and there is no avoiding it now. I have to face reality. With the way things are going I have to adopt a 30 day support model and release when things are done. Thats really all I can say. If you don't like that, I understand. If you are supportive of that, I can't express to you how much I appreciate it.
• I will resume billing on June 1st but I will not have an animation until mid June at the earliest. I have been working hard in that time to secure resources to make the rest of the year as effective as possible, and I have been making models and scenes for these animations. It's a lot of work to produce this quality alone. planning shots, getting talent, paying for things upfront and rigging multiple faces for lip sync... its a lot of work. I believe that asking to be paid for that is reasonable. We all benifit from this happening. I want to keep open communication with Patrons so that everyone can be aware and plan accordingly.

I know patrons will leave because of this. Everyone has to decide for themselves. If you like quality and you're tired of stale garbage, supporting me is the best way around that. If you like an artist that is active and communicates and actually listens, I am here. I have to do this to allow this service that I offer to grow and evolve.

If you want 30 day content of IP's that are protected by legal grey areas then I ask that you support someone else. This is only possible because I am a single person. the minute I get help it will all fall apart and I can be pursued by the parent companies like what happened to Studio Fow. Which means the time needed must exceed 30 days. I won't continue to value engineer things backwards - it is compromising the art. I am telling this to you so that if the decission I have made upsets you, you have advanced notice to make changes. For those who are supportive, I must thank you. It means a great deal to me.

Dva Animation

I have a solid track recorded and can start animating to it now. this includes the Monthly content as well as a short intro, everything needed to create a nice little animation when everything is sewn together. I went to Oolay Tiger for it and she did a great job, and delivered in great time! I am working on this now and will update you when I have more to share, probably some time in June.

Sombra Animation

I don't have everything that I need to start animating yet. I reached out to Leo Greystone and he delivered on all of McCree's lines, that guy is rock solid. Finding a Sombra VA has been challenging. I am working with multiple people right now to get something but the month is halfway over and I'm not animating yet.

I won't have a final rendered Sombra animation by the end of the month. I am at the mercy of others right now and there is jack shit that I can do about it until I get performances recorded. all I can say is that by going through this pain now, we are spared of it happening later.

Other animations

Most of the animatics have been updated and added to the spreadsheet, you can find that post here. I am trying to finish the Mercy animatic so that I can reach out to Bordeaux for the performances on Widow and Mercy and finish those tracks together.  

Polls open on June 1st

I am going to change some things to reflect a few changes. 

• Big fans will get a seperate post with the links in which they can vote. It will be locked and hidden from Huge fans.
• Huge fans will have thier own post that they can view and will need to vote through those links only.
• Huge fans only need to vote once in thier poll. I will apply a 3x multiplier to thier Character ballot. this is the best way to keep this organized.

-- Original Post --

The Dva Animation

--TL;DR--
Pixie is out. I am replacing her. Dva Animation is delayed until June.
-----------

Pixie did not deliver on any voice acting. We have nothing right now. She forgot about us. and waited until last night to cancel everything. I know life happens, I get it. Her failure to talk about it though - weeks after the matter -  is really not cool and its a bad relationship. She said she really wants to do this, but not enough to remember it I guess. I was basically sent to the back of the queue for waiting... she told me to submit a form after we have been talking for weeks and planning this for months... like, If you don't want to work with me just say that, don't lie about it.

Pixie is exceptionally talented, so I really did not want to do this. But this is not fair to patrons and It pisses me off that we have all been forgotten/discounted after doing 4 consistent animations together, and we knew there would be a 5th. So I am replacing her and I am going to change the way voting works so it doesn't happen again.

I have to cancel my plans for June to compensate for this... I'm sorry everyone. I wish this didn't happen.

I am concerned with how risky it is if any given voice artist doesn't deliver. Thats not fair to you, its not fair to me, and its not even in thier own interest because it would have been returning business otherwise. (they make more money and get more attention when I go back to them on a monthly basis)

Going forward

This is what I can control and what I can do about it;

• Because we all want more dialouge I will pay VAs to record everything ahead of time and we can avoid this situation. This will reduce dependancy, it does not eliminate it.
• The top 3 winners of the detail poll are going to be the scenes I animate. So you have to vote in advance so that I can plan in advance. 
• I am going to do this to Sombra's animation immediately. 
• Existing animations like Widowmaker, Mercy, and Brigitte, will also have scenes chosen from the highest voted scenes in the detail poll. I will have to pick these myself to best make sense of the existing animation.
• I will update you with my plans around this shortly, its a lot to do but it must be done upfront. 

I don't like altering the monthly incentive but this needs to be addressed.

Animatics + Voting

These are a lot like storyboards, they tell you the stroy of the character with very little information. It also helps voice artists give better performances. Its also safe for Patreon community guidelines, so I can communicate to you what shots won, what we plan to do, and so forth. I will make these for every character before I animate them, for the soul purpose of communication. This is the new way of doing things now.

I am going to tag a single post that will manage the links to all of the animatics/shots patrons have voted for. More on that later. 

• You can use these animatics to help you decide voting in the character poll.
• Huge fans still call the shots. But now they call 3 shots at a time, in a single month.
• one shot release per month,just like before, but now you have the potential to know which shot for which character.
• If the same character wins the next month- there is no detail poll. The shots would already have been voted for.
• Huge fans are getting 3 character votes. This compensates for patrons who may not have been around to decide the shots that others before them voted for. 

Sombra Intro - Animatic

This is for the intro animation that will set up the series of shots patrons voted for. I don't know when I can finish the intro animations. But there will be one for Sombra. There might be some for others.. I can't say.

I made this before I decided to make changes to voting. I will make updates on this shortly.

Sombra model is complete

I'm proud of the quality on this one, when I make her move I think Sombra fans will melt. I'm not even a Sombra fan and I'm turned on. 

Sombra Voice Actress

I was going to reach out to Juicy Bee casting to get someone who can pronounce a convincing accent. Thats Pixie's joint... so I might not now. After I update the animatic I am going to post it to twitter and ask for auditions. The less we depend on others the better off we are.