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Hello again,

Thanks for all your feedback on our earlier post regarding the format for next months miniatures. We posted up the preview of the proposed format in advance to see what people thought before the July billing cycle. 

As the feedback is generally negative, it's either a bad idea, not what a majority of you want, or we did not properly explain the advantages.

Our team spend a lot of time in CAD software including Blender but we appreciate most patrons don't and will be understandably hesitant about new ways of working with our designs.

We will commence reworking all the components for July's Hazmat in the standard fully multi-part format, which will require a few small adjustments to the designs but no major changes.

With regret, we will now not be releasing the complete "ready to print" models in any format as part of next months release. I sincerely apologise to any Patrons who read the first post and were excited.  We will consider various options for making them available outside of the regular months content and update when we have a solution.

Thanks

Team Anvil



Comments

Anonymous

That's a shame, but I understand your position. Thanks for keeping us updated and the minis look awesome!

Jeff Griffin

That sucks. I liked the new idea.

Jesse Hammil

The idea sounded cool. Either way I am looking forward to the new models :) Would there be a way to make both ways available or would that be too much work?

Anonymous

I would have waited at least 24 hours before reversing your decision, but it's done now. I wouldn't have minded looking at using Blender, so hopefully this is an option down the road.

Anonymous

I can't speak for everyone, but for me one of the major attractions of this Patreon is the bits, not the models

Anonymous

Thank you so much for your willingness to respond to feedback.

Loci77

I didn't comment untimely, but I was looking forward to that release, that said I have some experience in blender

Anonymous

It sounded awesome. Maybe another time, or a side thing. I'd love to learn to use blender more.

Anonymous

That's too bad. Printing a whole mini instead of parts and not having to do assembly while still having the full range of options would have been ideal.

CycyX

Sorry for your wasted efforts. Your approach was fine, but it was not what your patrons are looking for... :/

Anonymous

I liked the idea and was kinda excited for it but at the same time I was worried about backwards compatibility with the other ranges. I like mixing and matching between your regular resin range and all of the months I've backed so far but also am not afraid of blender work. It would be nice if there was a best of both worlds approach you could try

anvildigitalforge

Still gotta try and get the release out on schedule which gives us mere days now.. had to make a call.

Anonymous

Thank you for your willingness to change. The components aspect of the ranges is fantastic, so single piece ready to print would have done your amazing ranges of parts a disservice. But that's obviously just my opinion. I do feel for the patrons who were excited for the new format but at least this way we all get a compromise that doesn't take anything away besides a little convenience.

Stephen Rider

I'm bummed, I'm also willing to pay a premium for the .blend unit builders.

Andrew Dickinson

I can see the value to some of single part minis, but the drawbacks just outweigh the positives for me by a country mile. Glad to see you responding to feedback, I'll be keeping my sub going.

Anonymous

I was looking forward to the new way!! I'm not big on blender, but overlapping all the bases so the pieces align for one print sounds awesome

Steve Howland

Sad, I'd also purchase blend files if you plan to offer them. One of the main reasons I got into 3d printing was the endless possibilities and customized minis. I hope you sell this on your website

Anonymous

Can I suggest, still going ahead with the tutorial. I have used blender to a degree but not with various mesh segments and would like to practice, so if this happens in the future I am already prepared, then possibly drop in one complete miniature each month that we can take apart to practice with.

Anonymous

Trying new things is scary, but if it's a good idea, it'll work itself out. Impressed with the responsiveness to feedback, even if I disagree with the ultimate decision. The good ones listen and react. Keep it up.

anvildigitalforge

most months already contain at least some multi part/multishell characters. And yes, we will do the tutorial still :)

Jaecen

It's unfortunate you decided to reverse this decision so quickly instead of clarifying your goal. I think a lot of the negative feedback was misunderstandings that you were getting rid of modularity, which is not the case. Please reconsider. The 3D printed mini space is still very new and there are lots of opportunities to improve the process over the traditional physical paradigms. Ideas like this are what will make 3D printing better and this Patreon stand out in the ever-growing crowd.

Anonymous

You guys should consider something heroforge-y for the all digital single pose approach, I suspect a lot of people would be interested in designing their own mini for prinitng from the catalouge of available digital parts. For myself however, the benefit of the Anvil range has always been the modularity and since this patreon started that applies to post print too. I have a massive screw chest with all the tiny compartments filled with parts from every range released so far and can pretty much whip up a mini as needed and still have the option of customising the parts as needed prior to printing If I need something different. The Blender approach, while it has merit just takes too much of both the praticality of printing for potential uses and from the hobby aspect of miniature building.

Anonymous

The bits is why I joined. Will I learn blender some day? Yes. Would the new path add value to the Patreon? Yes. Keep the old format and add the new. Let us make the decision. More options is good.

anvildigitalforge

Yep I agree, we will take the time to get more feedback and explain the idea fully and find a way forwards.

Anonymous

Kind of a shame! I was very interested to see the blender solution play out. I suppose I do have the mech to work with though to get the idea of how it would have gone.

Anonymous

THIS is why I continue to support Anvil. You're a company that listens to it's fans. Thank you.

Anonymous

Thank you for listening to fans and patreons (even though i disagree with them and was looking forward to blender). It is rare for this to happen and you should know you got a lot of loyalty for it. That said, i hope there is a future for your promised blender tutorials, i really want to learn and was VERY excited at the possibility. Cheers and keep on being awesome!

Sezoxeufu

The blender files as an extra tier maybe would be good, though I suspect it would be a much higher tier than just double the current one?

Anonymous

Thank you for changing the july release to fit better with what most people want, but id be really excited to see the release of the "blender version" sometime down the road, perhaps as a booster pack with just the bodys and suit equipment? Either way, thank you for being a really upstanding company, your models are always great and someday ill own every item on the forge XD

Anonymous

I like this idea a lot. I would certainly join, as I love having bits to chop and glue, but the blender file options are too cool to pass up.

Anonymous

While I originally wasn't super excited with the new change, I was willing to give it a chance to see how it would develop and evolve. I feel like too many people had knee jerk reactions and had strong opinions. I hope this doesn't discourage you guys to experiment and create new ideas, the 3d printing scene is still in it's infancy and there's more to be discovered. Any change or different way of approaching things, good or bad, can only benefit the industry.

Anonymous

That’s devastating sorry Team Anvil I was really excited for the one print idea

Anonymous

Yes, i think it could have been explained better to people who didnt use the mech in blender, they saw "one piece" and remembered the horrors of old gw pewter days, not realising they could rather easily do more wit this format, plus still save the files seperately if needed. if you made teh pack already ill take it as you intended lol. thanks anyway and good luck next month

Anonymous

I can't speak for everyone, but here are my concerns regarding your new concept, maybe it will help rework the idea: -Backwards compatibility with prior sets (I like mixing and matching to increase variety) -Ability to print some individual parts mirrored to increase variety further (Might be possible with your proposed solution in Blender, but you would need to explain in more detail what can and can't be done easily that way) -Minor variations in posing even with the same parts (see parentheses above) -"Crude" kitbashing with knife/greenstuff for further variation (f.e. LMG on female body, despite having only a male arms option; pretty sure that part would be more of a hassle in Blender than doing it physically for inexperienced people)

Alexander

It would be a good idea to provide both option for one or two months so people can see what it's actually all about. If people can try the blender option while not 'risking' their regular release they might not have so strong negative responses to it.

Dirk Schwenke

Please make both options avalibe so that people can test the "blender way". I like the option to "model" with blender a figure without any gapes and espacially the user-friendly supporting would be a good solution.

Anonymous

as others have mentioned i would happily take both the blender the file and the normal format, for me as long as the multishells in blender mean i can still just print the arms and weapons(from the images it looks like the could i assume they they still have moddeled connecters you normally use) separate for example so i can kit bash them with previous and future kits i would be happy with it, but then again i am comfortable kit bashing both digitally and the old fashioned way.

Ingvent

It is unfortunate ou had to chance to the tradicional model. Maybe there is a way in wich you can lets us taste that "blender way"

Adam CARROLL

Well that’s a shame. I always pre assemble digitally and that seems like it would have been much easier. Oh well. Great idea. Thanks for trying

Joe Mansfield

This is really a good idea. I don't think a lot of people actually UNDERSTOOD what their choice was here. I'd love to know how many commenters were aware that Blender is ABSOLUTELY FREE!!! Not some half-assed version that only does the stuff nobody really wants but THE WHOLE ENCHILADA is yours to download and install whenever you want.

Anonymous

You guys are the only patreon I have that talk about "multishell" models, I have no idea what they and as such have been hesitant about printing anything over the last few months, I have seen talk of a "handy guide" but no idea where it has been hidden, certainly has not been put front and center. I had the intent to watch some instructional videos on youtube about Blender during lockdown but it never happened. Now I am busy and hobby time has all but vanished. Maybe if you do a series of very basic instructional videos and slowly build up to complex stuff. Maybe a video every month that teaches you how to do certain new things with that months release. Spoon feed me in little chunks so I am not spending 25min of my evenings 30min of hobby time trying to figure out blender. Give me a 3 min video telling me how to put a hat on, or change a gun, then another one telling me how to swop arms or something.

anvildigitalforge

The advanced kit bashing section of our light mech tutorial video has some useful info. but yes we will repackage it into a more beginner friendly format! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yubc0k_wlcE

Anonymous

Was looking at this and thought finally a chance to lurn blender.

Anonymous

Then I thought I love kit bashing I think iam on a lose lose with this one

Anonymous

Was at work during the whole original discussion, would have loved to have the blender files. Would it be possible to have a double pay tier for the people whom want the blender option? Would it be to much work if not enough people choose that?

Rick Petersen

I, for one, appreciate your multi-shell models. Watched a five minute video and was working with them easily in Meshmixer right after.

Anonymous

Having edited other models from you with Meshmixer, the ability to swap/remove bits to customize the final results is fantastic. Would definitely like to see that option in future releases. It is entirely too easy to do...