Progress Report - May 6, 2021 (Patreon)

Hello, everyone!

It's been a milestone week on the Rachel/Chaos project: I have finally finished all of the montage sex sequences, and have begun work on the unique animations.

I have also found a new mechanism that seems to work quite well for reigning in my procrastination: unplugging my Ethernet. 

Click here for a 58-second video showing off a bunch of new animation! The bulk of this sequence was all done in a single setting. That one session was more productive than the entire week before it. And I plan to do it again this weekend.

The timing is whack on some of these sequences, since there is dialogue scattered among these sequences that I don't have recorded yet. So I just block out a single-second pause as a placeholder for where the dialogue goes, and then keep going.

My goal for this week is to finish this transition from vaginal montage loops to anal montage loops. There's a bit more unique animation to do, notably of him changing the pose to be holding her legs and finally pulling her ponytail.

If this weekend is as productive as that single Ethernet-less session was earlier this past week, though, then I will likely be able to hammer out that entire sequence right quick. In which case, I will begin working on more unique/semi-narrative sex animations.

Beyond Rachaos, I have been feeling restless about producing content. It's been 3 months since the on-stream Marie video was released, and 6 months since the Liziverse video was released! 2 of those vacant months were spent working on the DVa comic, and it really is by all means as content-complete as a video proper (honestly it probably has more content than any video I've released sans Blue Star Episode 3 - I can easily see a video adaptation of that comic exceeding 20 minutes in runtime).

But that doesn't change the fact that I feel that my primary export is fully-voiced, fully-animated videos. And in that department I've been lacking, and Rachaos is in no position to fill that gap any time soon. I don't see it being ready before July rolls around.

So I've been pursuing, prototyping, and scrapping a lot of ideas. My original idea was to build a "Micro" animation - a single animation loop, with narrative backed into it through dirty talk or ambient storytelling. But the problem is that I have a really hard time paring ideas down to such concise packages, without feeling like I'm butchering the idea, or that the idea isn't worth the time investment in the first place.

But earlier today, I managed to come up with an idea that I think will work. The idea itself isn't a "micro", but is more of a short - think the videos I started out making, before Radio Silence was released. The idea in full I think would be a rather large time investment, which at first disheartened me, but then I came up with an idea I want to experiment with:

What if I were to make a pared-down version of it quickly and release that, and use it to gauge interest in building the full idea? Dohohoho, delightfully devilish, LordAardvark.

It is worth noting that when I say a pared-down version, I mean that it will be a narrative-complete experience: It will have its setup, action, and conclusion; a fully self-contained story, no cliffhangers or loose threads hanging. But it will be very anemic, with only the barest minimum narrative to progress the plot, virtually no character development or world-building to speak of, and only a single animation sequence as opposed to a complete sequence.

In total, I expect this pared-down version to have a runtime somewhere between 1 and 2 minutes, if not even shorter.

By comparison, the full exploration of the idea would be more of an "extended edition". It will expand on the narrative; have more character development, world-building, and banter; and a much-extended sex sequence, fully exploring and appreciating its premise. It won't fundamentally change the story presented, but will simply have more of it to enjoy.

I am rather curious to see how this idea would play out in practice, and anyone whose followed me for a while now will know that curiosity is probably the single most powerful motivator to drive me. I love to experiment and try out new things, see what works and what doesn't.

I am in the process of putting together a storyboard for the full video. I am taking lessons from the Witcher storyboard, and am not going to actually take the time to pose out all of the sex sequences - I'm just going to shorthand the storyboard with the references that I use to build the poses and animations anyways. I am confident that I will be able to recreate any poses I have in mind without concern, especially after how well the deluge of 50+ unique sex poses for the Witcher project went.

I am hoping to have that storyboard done by Monday evening. I might even get it done sooner. Once the full storyboard is done, I am going to also make a second storyboard, paring down the beats of that original storyboard. I will then present both storyboards, both to you all here on the WIP tier as early-access, and then to the general public if the initial reaction is positive enough to encourage me to pursue it.

The storyboards will be my guide on building the animations, and so they will be pretty accurate reflections of the composition and complexity of the videos. The pared-down storyboard is the animation that will be released, and if people like it and want to see the full video, then the full storyboard will be that full animation.

I am hoping that the pared-down animation will only take about a week for me to produce--and if my voice actors' schedules allow it, then hopefully release at the end of said week. That being said, I haven't even approached voice talent for the project yet - I want to have that storyboard done, to share with them so they're fully aware of what I am asking for.

As a final note, I am putting the Gaige comic idea back on the shelf. I like the idea, but not enough to quell the frustration I'm feeling about not releasing any animations in the past few months. Hopefully this short video production will help assuage that feeling, and allow me to feel justified in pursuing another comic.

That's all for now! Until next week, everyone!