Weekly Update - 169 (Patreon)

This weekend I took my usual break from updating comic pages to draw something else and I ended up delving once more into the wild world of animation. Then I made a thing for you all assuming that Patreon had an easy way to host short videos. It does not. And neither does FA? Like... what are these sites even doing, it's 2023 already nobody's posting STATIC images, data storage is practically free, AI is making artists irrelevant, get with the program already GAWDS!!!

*laughs in doomed*

I guess I'll just... share the animation on Telegram and Discord... maybe Twitter? I don't know. I don't really like Twitter any more. Something about it just feels off these days. Unstable and untrustworthy. I guess it might still be the easiest way to share stuff like this though. Alright I'll tweet it, I guess.

CLICKY DIS THING FOR ONE ANIMATE.

Riley Again?!

Yes. But it's not just because she's my favorite character. (should a creator even have favorites? the implications there are really...)

In my off time, I tend to enjoy drawing a character I haven't drawn for awhile, albeit still favoring the main cast above all else. Riley is not featured in the first four chapters of Volume #1 at all. She made her debut in Chapter 5, so lately I've been seeing and drawing a LOT of Kiva, Kiera and Max. I realize, of course, that lately it might seem Riley is all I've been sharing on Patreon and in other places, but I promise the other characters have been getting plenty of love for the book.

Volume #1

Anyway, there are 52 pages finished, which leaves only 20 pages remaining for me to tweak for Volume 1. At the current rate of progress, that puts us at about maybe 4-5 weeks left before I can pass it all over to the publisher for review and editing and printing! And like I mentioned (I think, last week? I don't remember), they've said to allow them 2 months from there before print, so looking at maybe a September release! A bit later than I'd hoped, but that's totally my fault, so oh well.

Once I hand off the finished pages to the publisher, I expect I can return to working on weekly comic posts, though I'm sure if any final tweaks need to be made for the book I'll have to pause for those. That point is also when I expect I'll be able to start talking about pricing and distribution!

I'll be honest, I don't expect to sell a lot of books, but that's never been the point of it. The point is to create something I can be proud of and share it with whoever is interested. So while most of the printed books will be paperback, I'm hoping to request they make at least a few hardcover books to give out to friends and family, and I'd also like to get a few extras to hand out and raffle off.

That's the plan anyway. Hopefully it works out that way!

Ramble:

ANIMATION.

What even is that, I don't know, I am not an animator! This thing is probably the first time I've created an animation, even a rough one, that I think looks fairly decent.  I've always felt as though if I ever reached a point where I was comfortable with my character style and drawing them in a variety of poses, then 2d animation would be the next logical step for me to really level up as an artist. (I mean I could work on my backgrounds more too, but that's less interesting to me. There's still a LOT of places I can improve in). So I had to at least dip my toe in and see what I could do with some real animation software. Honestly, thanks to the wealth of free tools and free animation tutorials, it was a lot easier to get something done than I expected it to be.

Is it a great animation? No, not by a long shot. It's rough, there's a lot of parts that don't move, and the ones that do still have their issues, but it's pretty decent, I think, for a complete and utter novice. The legs and the movement of that tail are all hand-drawn, frame by frame, and I'm actually pretty proud of them. The rest of it is just slight movements to give Riley some life up front, but even that is a little deceptively complex, because her hair swishes just slightly, delayed a frame after the movement of her head.

I gotta say, I LOVE seeing characters come to life like this. It should come as no surprise that I've been a fan of animation and animated characters since I was a small child, and being able to bring one of my own characters to life, even in a simple way is really quite liberating. Am I going to do more than this with these newfound powers I've discovered? Maybe. Possibly. I don't know. I won't rule anything out. Am I going to make a full animated series like Helluva Boss or even A Fox in Space? Nope. Not a chance. (What was that about not ruling anything out?) But seriously, realistically, at the present moment, I don't see it happening and at this very moment I'm not even sure I want anyone to imagine it ever could. I'm just one person, not a professional animation team, and I don't have the charisma or the knowhow to pull one together. The webcomic will have to suffice. If I make any animations, they will be little side-projects only. But hopefully they will be cute and fun!

Kind of funny though, someone on our Discord server was recently expressing the relief we all felt when we were done with school. But you know what? As I was trying to teach myself to animate this weekend, I remembered some of my art teachers and art professors that I had when I was going to school and I really missed that sort of instantaneous feedback they could offer. The way they would pace around the classroom and check out what each student was working on, stand over your shoulder and offer instant tips and advice. I really could have used that this weekend. It's lonely as a creator, and I don't have any clue what I'm doing. I can't tell you why some things work and why some things don't, because I simply don't have that insight. If I am going to look up the solution to a problem on my own, I have to first be able to identify the problem, and that's not always possible for a novice.

When I was going to school, I didn't take any 2D animation classes, a fact I now regret. I was more interested in 3D animation, but I was awful at it. 3D animation turned out to be way too technical for me. So it's probably a stretch, but honestly, if you or if anyone you know sees this thing I made and has any 2d animation advice, I'd be happy to hear it! My primary focus will continue to be my webcomic. It's my main thing, but I love learning and I'm always interested in learning more.