jklind

Mimi!

It's very easy for me to sit back and enjoy doing nothing, at the moment - or spend time playing WoW - so I figured it was well past time I developed one of my Mimi sketches a little further, if only as a warmup.

December, for sure! (maybe)

Having over a month of free time feels weird, after working at a break-neck pace for most of the year, and having every other break cut short...  The trifecta of a demanding client, the pandemic, and an election year all wiped me out enough that I still feel exhausted.

A downside to having so much time off, is knowing that it won't be enough for the things I want to catch up on.  If I'd planned it in advance, maybe I'd have time to knock out a 3-4 page comic, and little else. ...

Reviewing the rig

While I'm still resting up and figuring out what I want to work on for the next month or so, one of the easier things I can get out of the way is a review of Daisy's rig. My biggest concern is whether the rig can do what I want or need it to do, and if if can't, what will it take to get it there?

The teaser animation I'd planned was pretty simple - Daisy would lean into view, smile and wave, then slap a "coming soon" sticker onto the screen. Originally I'd intended to frame it so her br...

A chance to catch my breath?

It's been a couple of days since my last animation was approved for this phase of my contract, but I'm still waiting for the all-clear.  Last week my boss mentioned more rigging work possibly coming in, but I haven't heard anything more on that. So I don't know yet if I'm off for the rest of the year or not...

Considering how burned out I've been by this contract, my first order of business is to try and relax for at least a few days. Even just looking at my backlogged to-do list h...

What might have been

I was hoping my final assignment for this month would be easy enough that I'd have time for my Halloween idea, but nothing has ever been easy with this client...

I may try to recycle some or all of this later, but for now, here is what I had planned -

Page 1

• Viewed from over Mary's shoulder, customers and staff at the diner are freaking out as she enters. Daisy has her back turned, so she doesn't see what everyone is screaming about.  And neithe...
  2020-10-29 12:50:51 +0000 UTC View Post

Mmaaaybe there's still time?

For a "light" month, October has been exhausting.  Between animating and providing technical support for the rest of my team, when I do have some free time I don't much (or any) energy for personal work.

With Halloween coming up, I have one idea for a very short comic. If getting it done in time isn't feasible, I can tweak it to work just after Halloween, or even in December. December might work better, since it's looking like I'll have the entire month off.

Regardless of how...

Some new mischief

This month may not be as exhausting as I was anticipating, although the animation I'm working on right now will probably make me lose more hair before it's done...

To help keep me sane, I've started concepting Daisy's grandparents, from her mom's side.

Pic Unrelated

Page 1 - Mary strolls into the diner, apparently oblivious to the fact that she's in her wolf form. Everyone freaks out.  As she sits down at the bar, Mary asks Daisy what's got everyone so worked up. Daisy screams, takes a step too far backward, and falls off her platform.  Mary, finally realizing she's in her wolf form, grumbles "oh, right. We're still doing the thing where this ain't canon..."

Page 2 - As Mary looks over the counter to chec...

For SCIENCE!

Quarantine makes you do some weird stuff...

September Scribbles

Good - having a couple of hours to scribble whatever stupid things enter into my skull.

Bad - doing so on a packed flight home to Florida, trying not to think about getting sick.

There are a few things in this batch of scribbles I'd like to fully draw, when I have time. That's been the trick since March, and may be for some time still - my boss says that once this phase of the contract is complete, the client already has another 4-5 months worth of work lined up for us. On one han...

Let's just skip to Halloween

 Update time!  My contract is back on again this month, and goes through mid-October...  I should just start making plans for Halloween right now.   On the bright side, my goal of animating Daisy is getting closer & closer to happening - currently there are only 3 major items on my to-do list, and her rig is essentially finished!

Something else I'm working on, is a rough 3D model of one of the sets from Disneyland's old America Sings attraction. This may be ...

Face Time!

I talk and talk about working on Daisy's rig, now I'm finally working on one of the more intimidating parts - her facial expressions!

Unless some part of her rig is so drastically broken that I can't move forward, my intention now is to save script updates for later, and focus on just getting Daisy finished.  I have roughly two weeks before the next phase of my contract starts, so it'd be nice to have Daisy ready before then...

Hey there!

This week I'm pushing forward on a less-than-fun animation, so I had to draw some sanity-restoring Daisy!

The End Is Nigh?

I'm filing this under "rumors & speculation", because I haven't been able to verify it from any credible sources - Patreon supposedly lost a huge lawsuit, that could end up crippling them financially. Gloom & doom, yada yada...

Again, none of this has been verified by any news sources I'd consider credible.  Even if it is true, odds are Patreon will appeal the ruling as far as they can, to either have it overturned or to have their penalty drastically reduced. Failing that,...

Some things for my free time

Having this contract resume a month sooner than expected had me pretty pissed off, at first. I'd already made plans, and then a day later had to scrap them. Money is money, though...

First on the docket is a pinup or two of Daisy doing a hand-stand, because I can't stress enough how fun gravity can be!  Was hoping to get it drawn this weekend, but for now the plan is to rest up and prepare for the stress ahead.

The other thing is just an idea for Daisy's character picker. Now...

Figure unboxing - Cattleya

Finally cut together the Cattleya video!

Well hey there!

"hang in there!"

Spoke too soon

So, I have some good news and bad news. The good news is my UI designer for Maya is more or less complete!  The bad news is rather than having the month of August off, now it looks like I'll be back to work on Monday, on ONE animation that may take a full month to complete...

...I'm seriously debating whether the money this client is paying is worth the frustration. Nearly every animation up to this point has felt like I was being punished for serious shortcomings on their end, and...

Road Fatigue

After spending the last few weeks in Michigan, I'm now back in Florida!  And will be heading north again in 2-3 weeks, to take my niece home.  Driving 18-20 hours is not exactly fun, but I trust it more than flying at the moment, even if every stop for gas feels like a game of "OH SHIT IS THIS WHERE I GET THE COVID?!"

The past week or so has been fairly productive, though I may not want to congratulate myself just yet - I've been working on getting my Maya UI designer script t...

Figure unboxing - Deadpool

A new figure thing is up - Deadpool: Breaking the Fourth Wall, by Good Smile Company!

I'm still figuring out how I want to do these, especially when I don't have much to offer in the way of commentary.  For this one, the first minute is a sort of highlights reel, with everything that I have to say about it. 

Doing the thing

Hey, I can still draw! And if I want this colored in time for the 4th, I have something to do tomorrow!

 Updated - DONE! 

Updated again - Now with 10% more 'Muricah

Which one's next?

I'm in the process of filling up my display case at my home-away-from-home, and recording videos of the unboxing, along with turntable views...  The kicker is that in a couple of weeks, I'll have to put them back in their boxes before I head back home. But at least the videos will help me figure out HOW some of them need to be wrapped up.  The question is, which video do I cut together first? (Deadpool isn't an option, because his video is already in the works.  And the Poison ...

Campaign Paused

Friendly reminder - my Patreon campaign has been paused for the past few months. I've been too busy - and lately, burned out - to produce much in the way of new content, so it made sense to just turn billing off for the time being. New patrons are still billed up front, though, and that's out of my control.

I still post updates and the occasional sketch when I can, but I may keep billing disabled until I know I can give my personal work my full attention again.

Another figure thingy

I've been on a bit of a hiatus this month.  The contract work wore me out, and everything else that's been going on hasn't helped.  It does look like the contract may not resume until August, though, so perhaps next month I'll get my mojo back. For this month, I'm just going to keep billing disabled.

I might not be drawing or doing anything 3D at the moment, but I do still have some things in the works. Right now, I'm editing together my next unboxing thing for Youtube - a two...

Something a little different

I might've mentioned this before - recently I had this idea of posting unboxing videos of my figures on Youtube. Moving out of my apartment, some figures were more difficult than others to get back into their boxes, so a video showing where everything went might've helped. These videos are also something I can do in my spare time, when the contract leaves me with little or no energy for anything else.

For this first one, I'd originally recorded a different intro. Something like "who's r...

Working through exhaustion

As worn out as I am, I still need to plan ahead for when the work starts up again.  To make my job a little easier, I decided to write a picker window for the rig I've been using.  This might've been helpful on the last big scene I'd animated - 4 characters packed into a small space made it difficult to tell their controls apart.

Planning even further ahead, I'd like to get my UI designer script to a point where it can save me from having to write another picker by hand. The c...

I made a Pillowfort!

All the cool kids were doing it!

Hello, burnout

The past week or so has really been something...

The latest phase of my contract is finished, and if I'm lucky I'll have the next month off.  I could certainly use it, because the job has burned me out. It pays well, though, and there's more lined up, so I may need to use this break not just to recharge, but also to write some new tools to try to make the work easier. Anything to make it so that I can still find time to draw, and have the energy to do so.

In the meantime... &...

Digital Suggestion Boxilizer Thingamajig

I woke up this morning with an idea - a Python script to generate ideas for me, for those times when I really need the help.  I've seen other artists do something similar - Callmepo was the first I can remember, writing character names, costumes, and activities onto poker chips and placing those into separate bags.  My script would basically be a digital version of that.

Unfortunately I've still got contract work to do, so I can't put much thought into this script right now. T...

I thought I was distracted before

The past week has been exhausting - in addition to another frustrating animation set, I've been moving out of my apartment.  The move has taken longer than expected, because you never realize how much crap you have until you need to move it all.  The heavy stuff is all out of the way, at least. If I ever have to move a couch in or out of a second-story apartment, it'll be far too soon...

This week, I'm back to work on that animation set. So far it's mostly just tedious copying...