Updates! (Patreon)

Hey folks! It's been a bit since I had an episode ready to share, so I figured I'd catch you all up on what's in progress.

Next NFP episode: The Animation of Final Fantasy IV

This episode is coming together and is (I think) one of my best yet! It's taken longer than I hoped, but for a few good reasons.

The first reason is I've been trying to take slightly better care of myself. It's become increasingly apparent how much burnout has become a problem for me in the last couple years, and I've been taking measures both to recover and to build better working habits (therapy, time off, etc). Much as I hate how much it slowed progress on this video, I want to ensure I'm able to keep making videos like these long term.

The second reason is simply that I wasn't satisfied with my first attempt at the video. The quality of the footage I'd captured, the script... I felt I could do a lot better, and FF4 deserves it. So I've been re-recording and re-writing a LOT over the last few weeks. And I'm glad I did, because I noticed a lot of animation details I'd missed the first time. As a result, the completely-overhauled script is much stronger (and lengthier) than it was before.

I do apologize for the longer wait, but I hope the resulting video will be worth it.

What video comes after that?

I'm undecided! I'd originally planned to move right along to Final Fantasy V (and I still may), but I've also got some other ideas we could slot in, just for the sake of variety.

For example, I've decided I eventually want to make a video properly diving into the animation challenges of Pokémon games, because apparently that discourse will never end and there are a lot of interesting complexities to the problem that I don't often hear people discuss.

Alternatively, I could do another 12 Principles episode. Viewer interest in those is usually pretty low, but it's a series I'd still like to finish someday, regardless.

Or we could do some other short episode as a palette cleanser! Maybe looking at some neat element in a recent game or answering a common game animation question? Who knows! We'll see how I feel when the FF4 video is out.

Streaming!

I've decided I want to dip my toe into streaming on Twitch now and then, both for fun and for footage gathering! I mean, if I'm going to do another Pokémon video someday, that's a LOT of games I'm going to need to play for footage, so I might as well stream while I'm doing it.

We aren't fully set up yet, but I'll let you know when I plan to start! I have no idea how regularly I'll be able to stream, but it could be a lot of fun having folks to chat with while I gather footage or study the animation in new releases. I'll keep you posted!

I think that's it! I look forward to a day when I can eventually do this full time and have new episodes ready for you more frequently (without wrecking myself). But until then, thank you all so much for your patience and for supporting this series, because I love making it. And feel free to ask any questions you may have below!