I’m not sure if I can salvage files from the corrupted disk, but I found some files in another External that has some of my projects. I still have Gavreels Animated Short files.  I’m also Happy my Character Bios and especially my Story Bible is intact for The Forest Harbinger. The foundation is still there!

I want to thank all the new and old subscribers, as your contribution helped me pay for this HDD! You truly invested in me, and I cannot tell you how grateful I am for it. I really thought I’d have to pivot careers when my PC stopped working. I genuinely did not know where I was going to get the funds. Then I remembered Patreon and Subscribestar funds have been accruing. The one or two and sometimes 3 subscribers I’ve had these past few months really saved my ass. It was very scary to say the least as an animator in both SFW and NSFW spaces. But yall really came through. Thank you from the bottom of my heart…

 Rejoice! The Forest continues on!

 

This computer scare made me realize how vulnerable I am as a creator right now. Time is too short to sit on our hands when it comes to our passions. With that said, expect to see more Lore content coming out about The Forest and its inhabitants. There’s an animatic I’ve been holding onto for a while that I have not shared due to fear of how it will be received. But with this new perspective and a few tweaks, I think I’m just going to go for it. More on that later!

 

Hades Animated Short situation...

The progress I made on Hades is all but gone except for a few playblast of animations I’ve shared amongst friends. I should be able to salvage those, however the biggest loss was the storyboard imo. I’ll also have to recreate the reference videos I made for accuracy. 
I still want to work on it, but it’s going to take a while longer than what I planned. It had me wondering how us Wanderers would feel about me working on prioritizing the Gavreel Short instead of Hades since I still have those files. It would come out sooner since the storyboard is still intact along with the animation files. I’ll still be making Looped animations for us to nibble on while those projects are cooking of course. As always, Lmk what you think!

My HDD got corrupted and I have lost all my files. Thankfully the computer is still opperational. I just need to scavenge for the funds to get a new HDD.

This obviously will put a delay on the Hades animation... Among other things...since, y'know... I will have to start from scratch. 🙃

BUT! I should have my new drive within the week. So fingers crossed.

Lets call this...a Fresh Start 🙂

Quite a few things I wanted to touch on today.

For one, I wanted to once again thank those who have supported me throughout these past few years. It genuinely means the world that you take time to support my work and my artistic journey. If it were not for you, I certainly would have given up by now. 

Every supporter counts. The Forest lives because of you.

 With a few more members, even just 2 or 3 for next month, I can start doing polls for future animations! I'm thinking first 3 days will be for members to cast their votes. That's fair right? We'll workshop it.

Voice acting is completed (finally). The video drops this Monday! Managed to sneak in some voice acting when I finally got the place to myself. It's becoming more and more obvious I will not be able to consistently voice act my own creations in this environment (I fear my neighbors are getting suspicious >_>)

With that said, I've been saving money from what work I've been able to get and might get the opportunity to commission a voice actor into the fray!
I cannot promise consistent voice acting for all my animations as that could get expensive quick, but I can at least for next Month! More reason to lock in and join The Forest Wanderers.

Hypothetically though, based on previous numbers... 15-20 members should be enough cushion for potential fees for simple VO. If we can get there, we'd be golden! And it's only up from there~

The plan right now is to put all the money I make from this right back into production, at least until it is sustainable. I think it's only fair I give the best product I can before I start making a profit.

Ultimately, I want to make sure you all feel you're apart of the process and I feel I have not been proactive in that feild. I want to make sure that The Forest is providing exactly what you are looking for. So if you like what you see, and want to see more of your fantasies come to life, nows your chance. We're full throttle now!

Sincerely, Styx

I believe I spoke on this before, but work has been trickling in a bit more lately which is definitely been keeping the lights paid for the past few months. Still looking for alternative viable means of income which is why I have been so inactive lately. I'm working on a system to where I can still get work out while tasking myself with other things...Maybe I'll post every Monday or Wednesday? I hear Wednesday is a good day to post- Updates, Life stuff, Art stuff...you know the usual.
Regardless, I'm giving myself the time constraint to get the Castlevania Animation with Adouard and the Night Creature out by the 15th.  My fans have supported me when no one else could/would and I definitely appreciate every one of you that has stuck around for the ride. So I should honor that generosity. :)

I have some other ideas for the rest of the month, but we'll see where the wind blows when we get there.

Side note, I want to do a poll for the  next animation at 5 Paid subscribers (or another odd number). Is that too soon? Perhaps that number is too small for a poll but I never thought I'd get one patreon, and now I got a WHOLE 2 haha! I'm pretty happy about you guys liking my work so I might be jumping the gun. What do you guys think?