2019.11.04 Quick update from Ready, POLL RESULTS! (Patreon)

Thank you to all the new and returning patrons! YOUR help is getting us all upgraded with new art, animations and even COLOR ANIMATIONS!

First some housekeeping and then onto the news.

Housekeeping for new patrons who are looking for rewards and info, check these pages out:

• GET YOUR REWARDS! https://www.patreon.com/posts/26342996 
• First Patreon Movie DONE https://www.patreon.com/posts/29592980 
• Patreon Terms https://www.patreon.com/posts/23771170 
• Pirating is a "no-no" here https://www.patreon.com/posts/30789120 
• What I mean by "Sunday Night" https://www.patreon.com/posts/25741680 
• Comics FAQ https://www.patreon.com/posts/25075487 

Poll for Everyone Current Results

Top vote getters at this point are voice acting, color animations (in limited form) and from what I can tell, a shakeup of the cast of characters and story direction. Very good and let's see what we can do about all of that right now!

Voice Acting

Voice acting is being sussed out right now and my hope is to team up with a person or group and put custom voice acting in the animations. I want to add there is a bit of logistics needed here so bear with me. A lot of it revolves around me prepping a script (which currently comes in pretty late in the process) and re-integrating the vocals back into the animation (something I don’t currently do at all since it’s all text).

Point is, I might need some help doing this and an assistant or sound person might be the trick. This isn’t to say I can’t do this all myself (I can) but it would be a LOT smoother if I had more help. Not only a voice actor but a sound person. 

At any rate – it’s been heard and it’s on the list of to-dos.

Color Animations (this is a reprint from a message to the Animation Tier)

Based off the poll results it looks like color is a pretty well received idea for the animations as well as a desire for higher 'production values' (which translates to adding things like color). 

So, I said to myself if there is a combination of a) interest in color and b) a request for better production even if it meant shorter overall runtimes then WE MIGHT... we just might have a perfect storm for getting a full color monthly sequence. 

Allow me to elaborate

Here is a ROUGH plan. I will look to add a TINY bit of color into November’s animation. This would be one sequence MAYBE two. Short bits so I can get a feel for what it would take and how long it would take. Mostly the idea would be to color the clothing and a character (or something like that). 

I am not talking about going FULL GHIBLI and having these lush backgrounds and full painted characters. I will be easing into this one. 

So, we see how that looks AND how you like it and we touch base at the end of the month to see if you are enjoying the way things are. From there I would be moving forward with adding in more color sequences till we have an end to end colored sequence coming out each month. I want to be clear again when I say “color” I am talking about coloring the characters (skin, clothing) and maybe some of the effects and backgrounds. At this point I can’t say this is going to directly become amazing full color anime sequences in a month or two. It will take time and coloring is a process. I work to be efficient but coloring can be two, three or possible four times the amount of work that just penciling is. I am basing that off the color animated sequences I have done and my color panels in the comic. Comics and animations are NOT colored the same I know but there is some connection. I also did color a few early animations (at least in part) and that was a bit of work above and beyond line art. 

Why tell us all this Ready?!?!?! JUST GET ON WITH IT!!!!

Well, I am telling you because you need to know doing a lot of color sequences means the animation runtimes per month will probably drop a bit. I will do my DIZAMDEST to keep it high and bring in as much color as possible but it’s not impossible to see things like half or a quarter of the runtimes we get now. Just a forewarning.

Storylines/Characters outside the current GLab group

OK – this is another I was curious about and I think we can do something here as well. What this means (at least to me) is we put many of the current characters and settings on the backburner for a little bit to show some pure transformation fun. This would be something like “women growing in an elevator” or “women’s volleyball game goes crazy with growth” or even “birthday party for Joanna goes BIG” or something like that. These would be more like the very early animations I was doing where month to month it was fun new sequence and a bunch of new people.

I mention things like ‘outside the GLab universe’ and I want to clear that up. What I am talking about is really ‘outside the current settings and characters’. In a sense all the stories are taking place in the Growth Lab Universe. We would just pull away from Luna and the gang for a little while. I still see them popping in from time to time and maybe even having a run or two so it’s not like they are gone. There would still be a sense of an overall movie (as much as I can pull a narrative together that is)

OK – quick summary

1. Voice acting – on the list and being looked at. Translation, I’m seeing how I can do it and keep all the other plates spinning. One possibility is some sort of animation or sound assistant. Another is sprinkling voice acting into animation sporadically until the process can be resolved better.

2. There is a plan to add color sequences to the monthly animations. Color takes more time to implement so the runtimes will likely drop but the production will go up. PERSONALLY, I think color sequences might be an amazing boost to the current work. I would love to see where this goes.

3. Storylines will be pulled away from the main characters we have been seeing to focus on new and different character and settings. There will still be TONS of great growth, BE and FMG but it will change up from the usual GLab crew (at least for a little bit). For me, this could be a nice change of pace and shake the status quo up.

4. All this will be done in stages and the various tiers will be asked to give feedback along the way. There is always the option to ‘revert’ to this current save point or even change things up further depending on how things are received. 

Thank you again and comments or questions welcome!

-Ready