Shiala: The Mirage Anniversary

• Tomorrow marks a full year since I released my first subscription-based animation. In celebration, I now re-release it for free (minus the bonus content). No, not everything will go free eventually. Just this one since it was the first.

Crossing the Line: Release

Somewhere on Illum, Samara, an Asari Justicar, finds herself in an unusual situation; but at least she isn't alone?

• This is the Free Release video. An alternate angle/side will be finished later today or tomorrow and posted for Tier 3 (Investor) Subscribers.
• The alternate angle is full length as well. This is 'technically' a double release. I had thought it was shorter, but Crossing is actually average length for my videos so far.
• This is Part 1. Later additions will be added in time, showing more progression with the situation. Most things I create have that concept in mind; sequels. Due to locks and constraints, I'll have to remake the machine again for them, but that shouldn't be too much of an issue.
• I've stopped using the 3, 2, 1, intro bit. It's not really suitable for all things. Fallout or Old Style Film, sure, but future settings like Mass Effect? Comics? Not so much.
•  I was going to list Likes/Dislikes, but my opinion matters not now. Hopefully you like it more than dislike.

Weekly WIP #21

• Backgrounds. A lot of small things can add up to very large effects. Take background characters. Even if subtle, small, far off, and not the focus; background characters help bring the scene to life. The more the better, right? I dunno. 23 is how many are in Crossing the Line, and it's been a chore to animated them, even slightly, since there's so many. Getting them in camera angles without taking away from the main focus, Samara, has been a challenge too. Going back and watching Shiala: The Mirage, for example, I feel like too much focus was on the background. I would say I need to balance that, but I don't. I need to focus more on the main. 7 more to go on Crossing, some camera angle adjustments, lights adjusted, and is should be about ready to render, finally.

•  Speaking of background characters; The Board Members of Heat Inc. are also nearly set fully for Hostile Takeover. Far less in number, coming it at just 8. They're a bit closer in view though, so they've needed better animations and more refinement.

•   Having said that, I'm going to either spend less time on the background or just have less characters in it. Sometimes more makes sense, other times not so much. Maybe it will just depend on the scene. I also have new ideas on ways to compose animations and I'm going to try it out on the projects that come after these. Hopefully, it will speed up the process and just make things better all around.

•  I admit I've had trouble staying focused on a specific project right now, bouncing from thing to thing and starting lots of new ones. I started another one just last night. Downside, obviously, is things get finished/released slower. Upside, I have several things to be working on, so, there isn't a lack of things to do.

• For those who are new here or those who didn't notice, I updated the 'about me' bit on the front page to simply read 'working on several projects' rather than a 'main' one. I've stopped projects (Marvel Misadventure), rushed them (Aloy: Breeding Cauldron) and just overly burnt out and screwed up others (Max: A Long Night) because of the 'main' concept, feeling stuck on them even when/if they just aren't clicking for me. Now I just feel like I'm too slow instead of stuck too, so, that's a win.

•  I'm hoping to have something ready for release soon, preferably month's end.

Weekly WIP #17

• That's right; progress on three projects listed in order of how much progress (top = the most).

• Hostile Takeover is currently a lot of fun to work on, thus it being the most progressed this week. I just pulled an all-night session on it, which is why I'm posting this so early. Hell, in just a few days it's become one of my best animations to date. I intend on creating a release trailer for it, something I've not gotten around to before; I've only created posters so far. That's still a ways off though. I had to completely remake the texture edits 3 times on Scarlet; around 14 textures each time. Something somewhere kept throwing off the coloring and seams along the torso were very visible. All is sorted now though.

• Christmas 2022 has another full angle set and more camera corrections. I scrapped the idea of something extra going on in the background. In the end it just didn't jive. I'm going to focus more on it until it's finished.

• Crossing the Line was mostly camera fixes and fighting with the animations on the chains, so not a lot overall with it, but some progress all the same.

• I've always listed a 'main' project, but I'm going to stop doing that. Instead, it will just be a list of current projects being worked on. Being able to shift projects helps me not tire on one or get so frustrated with something like animating a chain that I just wanna scrap the whole thing.

• To clarify, since I've had a few people ask, I don't set timeframes/tables for anything other than holiday themed ones, since they should be finished by the holiday date. I didn't get this year's Halloween ready, so I didn't release one. I've rushed a few projects, feeling I was slacking or just not making enough general progress, and they suffered for it. Other ones, like Marvel Misadventures, just never clicked, so it's on hold. Some minor ideas, like Hostile Takeover, suddenly becomes the thing to work on and explode into much larger things.

• That pretty much sums up this week's SFMing. I've not hunted for music in a while, so that might be something to do soonish. Eventually I'll post another poll too. Maybe a 'which song?' one.

Weekly WIP #12

• Light Test Clip:

•  Sound Test Clip:

•  Billboard Video/Misc: