catastrophe
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Hello everyone! situation report
🕑 Added 2024-09-06 05:26:17 +0000 UTCWe experienced another delay, and I had hoped to publish this report before the end of last month. However, everything dragged on far longer than expected. Each time, it felt like "tomorrow we will definitely finish," but new problems and mistakes would arise, which I couldn’t resist fixing. Fortunately, we have finally completed the most difficult stage of the work.
I'll send the video via private messages—check them out for a link to download it. Here, I'm only sharing one picture to grab your attention. Now, let me walk you through what we've been working on all this time.
Chronology:
- My tablet broke down, and since it’s not sold in my country, customs delayed the replacement for a frustrating two weeks—on top of the delivery time via international mail.
- Not wanting to waste time, I decided to tackle a process we’d been postponing due to our reduced team size and heavy workload. This event became what we call a "magic kick"—a sign to get things moving.
- As many of you know, to make our work faster and maintain consistent character proportions (which can easily "drift" without 3D models), we use "3D dolls"—character models that help us maintain these proportions even in tricky angles. They also serve as advanced sketches. Unlike regular sketches, these 3D models allow us to move the camera, adjust the framing, and find the best angle without needing 10–20 sketches. It’s a painstaking process, sometimes taking several hours, but it results in more interesting scenes with fewer limitations than classic 2D approaches.
- The previous models we used were very simplified. They sped up our workflow but weren't polished enough to eliminate tedious revisions. These models had flaws—poor rigging, which we were just learning at the time—that added frustration to the process. With the rise of AI, we realized that 90% of our work was repetitive rendering that a computer could do in minutes, which became a growing source of irritation. However, AI isn't the perfect solution either, as many of you disapprove of it, and controlling small details with AI is still difficult. While there’s been significant progress, maintaining consistent character designs would require extensive training of custom modules.
Enhancing Our 3D Process:
- Instead of diving into AI, we decided to focus on improving our 3D models. We created detailed, high-quality models with a sophisticated rig. This took about two months, but we rushed, and after some time, other artists pointed out new mistakes, which we also noticed. While fewer than before, these errors were still noticeable, and we couldn’t resist fixing them.
- We had already announced our plan to update earlier pages of the comic to ensure a consistent, high-quality look. So, we started redoing the models in even greater detail, which ended up taking nearly five months. But the effort was worth it.
Financial Struggles:
- Due to various crises, including COVID-19, our funding collapsed, forcing us to downsize. The remaining team had to divide tasks, and we began working almost twice as long for slightly higher pay. This caused us to fall behind schedule, despite our best efforts. We even skipped rest to try and catch up, but this led to further delays.
- We eventually decided to optimize everything possible, and now the hardest part is behind us. You’ll soon see the difference (hopefully not just through an artist’s eyes!).
What's Next:
- We need to complete the sculpting of a few more characters for the upcoming scenes. The unfortunate timing of a large crowd scene has made it impossible to optimize as smoothly as we had hoped. If the script had fewer characters, you wouldn’t even notice the pause. Unfortunately, it will take about 1–2 weeks to finish rigging the characters, after which updates will resume. While our 2D drawing skills may have gotten a bit rusty, the improvements we’ve made will significantly speed up most stages of the work. This should eliminate future delays and allow us to reduce the backlog.
- Rest assured, for those of you who are club members, we will make up for every month you paid for without receiving content. Once we’ve cleared these hurdles, we’ll be moving faster than before.
3D Animation Possibilities:
- After resuming updates, you’ll notice the improvements in character design and our growing skills as artists. Part of our team will also be working on full-fledged 3D models with detailed rendering, including features like fur and muscle physics. This will be a test to see if a 3D video format could work for the club. If successful, it could bring out subtle nuances that are often missed in the comic format, allowing us to deliver a deeper, funnier, and more dramatic story.
We hope you’ll enjoy the 3D models so much that even fans of 2D who are skeptical of 3D might change their minds ;)
However, we won’t get ahead of ourselves—we still have a lot of work to finish.
Now, we’d love to hear your feedback on what you’ll see via the link in your private messages. Please be as detailed as possible—if you’re not too tired! Our whole team is eagerly awaiting your reviews. If there’s something about the new character designs that you don’t like, don’t hesitate to let us know. We can still make adjustments at this stage, so your opinions are crucial.
You can share your thoughts privately via direct messages or leave a public comment below this post. I’ll be checking regularly over the next couple of days and will try to respond as quickly as possible in between work.
One final note: The proportions of all hoofed characters have changed significantly for a variety of reasons. We’ve spent a lot of time experimenting with different options and settled on the version you’ll see. These characters are taller because their legs contain an extra segment, which makes them a bit awkward when sitting but gives them a younger, more athletic appearance. The previous versions, as many of you pointed out, looked too “old,” and we’ve addressed that issue. We’re now eagerly waiting to see if you’ll like this new version. If the majority doesn’t, we can still adjust their proportions. The improvements we’ve made allow us to do this quickly.
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Please check DM and share your feedback—whether it’s a simple "+" if you like it or a "-" if it doesn’t appeal to you. Even better, leave a few words explaining what you liked or disliked about the design. Your input will shape the future direction of this project!
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Comments
Mr Stealth
Dont really have much to say other than appreciating the update, given i noticed it being a little quiet over on Pixarmor, which now makes sense under the circumstances mentioned here.
