More on my Big Dumb Project (Pixiv Fanbox)

I know I said I'd be back after Christmas, but I just need to post this and get it out of my drafts because I keep editing and adding more to it and it's driving me a little nutty. I'm not good with this sort of thing. Merry Christmas, anyway. For this post, I'm not gonna do much in the way of "teasing" characters. Just straight up revealing characters here. I will do some teasing here or there in the future, just for some obfuscation of some characters, but that's for my own amusement more than anything. Some of you might be a bit disintersted with me talking about my project, but I assure you that my 5th Anniversary of posting my crap on the internet will be substantial and an event to be sure. A strange one, yeah, and I've got no clue how it will turn out or be received. But I do think there will be a little bit of something for everyone. At least as far as Final Fantasy is concerned. Right now, I'm referring to it as my "Big Dumb Project" just because that's what it ostensibly is, but it does have a proper name. It's not a plain ol' "5th Anniversary Celebration!", either. There's a proper name to it, stupid as though it may be. Only reason why I'm not revealing it just yet is that I want to tease some people's minds a bit before the grand reveal.

It's been an idea I've had for a little while now, although the basis of this idea has been around for a few years honestly. The current iteration, though, has only come around in the past month. Can't remember exactly when the idea finally solidified itself as something I decided I was going to do, but my "Planning" document was created on November 18th, so I've been set on this for a little while. It's just something to amuse myself, since being in the position that I am in can be a bit... repetitive. I don't plan to drastically alter my content or do this sort of stuff all the time. In fact, this is probably just gonna be a completely 'one-off' event that will never get a sequel. But it's something different for a change, even if at the end of the day there will still be plenty of my usual stuff mixed in(since that is what I enjoy making).

It's undergone a lot of different changes and revisions. Some were just recent, even. I've only really just started actively working on the project a little more than a week ago, and like I expected, it's mostly what I'm working on instead of my other stuff. I'm currently in phase 2 of the 3(possibly 4, but 4th should realistically be "release", or at the very least the "beta test") phase long process. 1st was planning the thing. Right now is just setup. That's why there isn't a whole lot going on in these previews.

But I have technically started on a few things that will be mostly restricted to phase 3 of the project. I think most people would expect Phase 3 to be the hardest part, and it might turn out to be, but for me... Phase 2 is where things are the real slog. It's where all the 'prep-work' is done. Phase 3 will be smoother sailing, by far. What little I've worked on that constitutes phase 3 is much more fun and quick than all the Phase 2 stuff. And I have only just gotten into the real "meat" of Phase 2(rigging). Yes, there will be some new characters featured in this project. I'll show a couple of them later in the post, but there will be more than just them. Some will get properly teased with mystery filters in later posts, just for fun.

Originally, the entire thing was going to be based on that initial tease I had. The whole theater thing with the pink dress. I've since revamped it, and now there are four "themes". I considered more, but that would also take more work, so I'm just sticking with four for now. You'll notice there's a few reoccurring costumes/settings, and that's just what I mean with 'themes'. Still haven't really figured out a good background for the tiny top and shorts one, but I'll think about it some more I suppose. Regardless, keeping things 'the same' like that makes things easier to set up in the long run. I'm still in "phase 2" so there's still time for me to expand on it if I feel like it. Probably not, though. I'd like to be done with Phase 2 by the end of the year instead of it going into January.

I will admit that I'm leaning heavily into the extremely horny tiny top and shorts from Venus Vacation, partially because it is so horny which makes it very "motivating" to work with, but also because it's the easiest to work with and stick onto a character. Well, easiest when comparing the two sorts. The apron is easier to actually fit on a character, since it's just an apron, but actually working with it is much harder. In terms of ease of fitting on a chracter, it's like apron > tiny top and shorts > princess >> wedding dress. In terms of ease of posing and working with after the fact, it's tiny top and shorts > wedding dress(weirdly) >> apron > princess. And now you see why I abandoned my original intention of the princess theme. But yeah, beyond just the easier side of things, it's a very horny outfit. And while I have many other motivating factors for this whole project, horniness is still a big one. And, really, a lot of people wouldn't even complain if they were all nude, and this outfit is pretty close to it so most people probably wouldn't even care if just did this outfit. Even now I can't help but debate whether or not I should just go all in on it.

As for why I don't go for the character's original/default outfit: beyond the fact that I originally intended this to have a specific theme that has more or less been delegated to an after-thought(though still existing in spirit), that just adds way, waaay more work and complexity to what I want to do. Having consistent outfits across all the characters means I will quickly learn the dos and don'ts of the outfit, allowing me to work quicker as I go. A lot of the original outfits of these characters are a pain in the ass to work with, so that will really bog things down and make some characters an absolute nightmare to work on. This way, they're all the same and once I've gotten the handle of things I'll be able to get into the flow and stay in the flow. No sudden road blocks due to someone's outfit. Only roadblock that'll actually come up might be the hair, since that can still be an issue for some characters, but overall I'll be in a better spot than also having to deal with the outfit giving me headaches.

But with this post, I've shown off some more characters, in addition to the four I've shown off previously. How many characters do you reckon I want to feature? How many characters do you reckon I will actually end up featuring? Because I am not sure I'll be able to go all the way with what I have planned. But part of this is just an experiment to see just how much I can actually do in a couple of months. I'm cutting all the corners, taking all the shortcuts, and maximizing efficiency as much as I possibly can. This is one of those things that's not only just a '5-year celebration', but a test for myself to see just how much my speed has improved over the years, and how much I've learned in the art of efficient procrastination without completely sacrificing quality.

Although, I would say prepare for some shoddiness here or there. It's part and parcel to cut a corner too far here or there. I'll do my best not to, but I can't promise anything.

Anyway, enough rambling. Merry Christmas, everyone.