Update and WIP (Patreon)

The Samus animation is courtesy of BayernSFM, someone I have had the pleasure of working with since the beginning. I am only now starting the animation conversion, as I spent most of the day learning the ins and outs of normal mapping relative to SFM (it's a big different working on materials instead of straight textures, but allows for a lot of customization). I've been working on a model with ScoutsSFM that I plan to release to the public once I have finished upscaling the textures and fixing the problems with said textures by hand. WHICH means I'll be buying a drawing tablet sooner than later. I've gone too long without a way of drawing. This will not only allow me to edit models, but fix mistakes in post way quicker.

The other picture is a partial scene build of Grout's Mansion from Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. I was going to use it in a longer video that KDE was animating and sounding, and I would be lighting, building, and converting, but we're going to use a different scene build for the sake of time. I'll most likely still release this on SFMLab once I am done upscaling and correcting textures. It's not a perfect port, or a perfect scene build, but anyone who played through the game will recognize it for sure and I think it would be fun, even if just for posters.

Replying to some of your questions and comments from last time:

Can I tell you more about the new studio release?
WELL, I am not supposed to yet as we haven't released the new studio release. but the votes are in and it looks like Sylvanas will be our next guest star.

Storyline, length, etc...?
We don't have anything established along the lines of story yet, although it will surely take place in the WoW universe. Length will always be a minimum of 1:30 minutes for our studio releases. Short enough that it's not going to take a year to release, but long enough that it's not just a bunch of loops thrown together. I'd like to see this become even longer, but we're still a very small studio in terms of members and finances. I remember back when I did this all by myself and the clips were barely 30 seconds.

What do you mean when you say you will be posting the new MEGA link sometime this week for the new month?
I release a new link for the MEGA archive every month. This link gives our Comatose supporters access to every animation we have released in a quick, searchable form to download from. This means EVERY animation, including VR, non-VR, 1080p, 4K, alternate angles, studio release, etc. is available for download or viewing. I also upload the posters I make for each scene, along with the advertisement for spreading the word at other sites. Patreon is a great site for hosting and sharing, but it's search features are a bit sluggish with its tags, so the MEGA archive helps alleviate this. You can search by artist, character, and position generally speaking.

I think it's to be expected to get a lukewarm reception to a Female PoV animation, VR or otherwise.
I was speaking more to fact that our presence online is associated with multiple artists and not my particular animation work or releases. but I think you're right. As usual, we're striving to try new things and be different from the rest of the crowd. We're going to continue releasing female PoV animations, as well as trying new things with said animations. I planned to start one this week at Karissa's request, but I am going to move it to next week as I have spent too much time already on the new model as well as scene building and studio release prep-work. I still need to finish setting her model up before I can do something with it in SFM!

Content creation can feel like a slog so hopefully these kinds of works help break up any feelings of stagnation for you all.
I'm lucky to have so many different and varied artists to work with, honestly. The only time it feels like a "slog" is when I just don't want to work! When I first started this I only had a couple artists and works to choose from. Now it's a matter of just figuring out what my brain is ready for on a particular day, and getting myself into that working mindset and staying focused. I've stopped fighting myself on what I want to do, and now I work on what I am passionate about. And I think that shows in the quality improvement in our videos. I always remind the studio staff that I want them to have fun with this job. YES, it is a job. But I want them to have fun with it. It sounds so cheesy to say, and I've heard it said at previous jobs I worked as a tool for manipulation, but I don't want it to be like that. I want our staff to be taken care of and get paid to do what they love.

I think that's enough for now. I'll be sure to check in this weekend, or next week at the latest. I'll have one more animation ready by the end of this weekend. I'm not sure which one yet, but definitely something by Stoned Dude. Talk to you later, and thank you for your support!

-Dark Zalivstok