beetlebomb
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So What's The Deal With Animations?
🕑 Added 2022-12-21 16:00:05 +0000 UTCHey, everyone!
You may have noticed a slight hiatus in last Friday's(JRK) and Monday's(HS) story updates. While this isn't the first time this has happened, and many of you have kindly informed me not to worry about it, I'm making this post to shed some light on why this occurred, how it can be avoided in the future, and what I propose as a solution moving forward.
I'll have a TL;DR at the bottom of this post for those that wish to get a quick briefing! :)
Animations Take a Long Time
Last October was my 2-year anniversary of being a 3D artist. I cannot believe how fast time has flown since I first stepped into the craft! And so much has changed in such a short amount of time too!
I enjoy making all forms of artwork. 3D stories, comics, animations, AI images, and more! I'm SO grateful that I've got my hands on so many exciting and rewarding crafts! Quite frankly, I want to do them all. But, as has been proven to me repeatedly, there can only be 24 hours in a day. I must choose what gets completed and what takes a second priority.
This upcoming Tracer animation is about... 60% done? In an ideal world, I believe I could have it finished with beautiful audio in about a week and a half. And our large Lara Croft animation? That's about 80% done! So what's the holdup, you ask?
I'm meticulous when it comes to the details of my content. I can oftentimes spend hours on end sculpting the heavenly booba of one of our favorite girls before deciding it's just right. The same goes for animations. I want my character's movements to feel alive and real. Not stiff! And THAT'S the problem. Polishing these animations, regardless of how short I try to make them, has been consuming my time like a black hole.
Time waits for no one-- including my Patreon posting schedule! There's nothing worse than seeing an empty block of time between posts, and it drives me nuts. I'm happy when you all are happy, and that means a healthy flow of content at all times.
The Solution - More Content for Everyone
My story panels will always be my highest priority. It is the lifeblood of my passion as a storyteller and artist. That said, we need animations too. But how?
One day, either Haley's Secret or Jacob and the Raven's Kiss will come to an end. When that time comes, I would like to spend that downtime closing out my existing animation projects. I believe this to be a healthy win-win for everyone involved.
Also, moving forward, not all of my future stories will necessarily need to be 9 trillion panels long! What's wrong with you, Beetlebomb!? Perhaps a healthy mix of long and short stories is the key to this content balance! :)
The benefits of this decision should be immediately apparent as you'll see all other avenues of my content creation become more productive! Yay!
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Tl;DR: Blender animations will be paused until one of our existing stories comes to an end. This is to insure story panels receive regular, uninterrupted updates. All other forms of Beetlebomb content(lineups, extras, AI image packs, mini-stories, and more) WILL continue to be produced!
Thank you, as always, for your amazing support! And as always, please feel free to leave a comment. I would love to hear from you.
Comments
hehyeah
With your level of quality and detail the shorter stories are definitely still much appreciated. I really love all the spinoff specials as well as The Bathhouse. The AI thing was really good as well if that helps you gain any more time for what you really want to focus on (idk how much work that was for you, not trying to be rude cause it was high quality lol). Regardless your work never disappoints no matter how long it takes!
stevebasic
keep on keeping on brother. Fan for life.
evid23
I remember talking to you once about this I think. Everyone loves a long epic story, but short stories have their place and can be quite good to break the pace
Tobi
I can only concur. Although I really liked your previous animations and was looking forward to the Lara Croft animation, I am very happy with your decision. I fully understand that your work takes time. One can really see that you are meticulous with it, and I think that's why we're all here. Imho you are the greatest growth/expansion artist and your content is really worth the wait.
GrowTifa
Sounds like you got just a little too over ambitious with your time. It happens to the best of us. Your content is always worth the wait! You're doing things right by taking your time to produce quality content that you're personally happy with.
RogueFMG
This sounds like a great approach. I always look forward to a Beetle update and it sounds like there might be a few more of them on the horizon. Hell yes.
