State of the Patreon December 2023, and Monthly Video Announcement (Patreon)

Hello everyone!

This will be semi-blog semi-announcement video for the goings on and what's happening with me and my work. I'm going to keep it professional but I also want you guys to understand my headspace and why things are happening as they are. This is a joint conversation between me as a small business owner and me as an artist. So let's begin.

First up is bad news. I'll unfortunately have to cancel the December Monthly video. I had been sick for the past 5 days and even while typing this I'm still recovering to an extent. This past weekend was supposed to be my productive week in which a chunk of the video was meant to be done, and I slept through it, and since it's a Christmas video, I wanted it out on the 25th. That definitely won't happen. 

Now I could start working hard on it starting tomorrow and power through to get it in by New Year's. However, I won't do so, because a) My wife is now sick, so I must take care of her b) I need to spend time with family this Christmas, as I'm at a turning point in familial structures and c) I just...really don't want to do it. I know when a video is threatening me with burnout. I've faced it before, and this project has death written all over it.

At the least, I'll provide the script for what I had in mind for it. I also have the voice lines bought and paid for so I may use them for future projects. You can see it in the link here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Mdrje0rc5OHv46X-GM1XRzjZqn6dXMu5/view?usp=drive_link

I apologize for not being able to make this project work. This technically makes 2 videos out of 12 this month that I wasn't able to complete, although at least for the July Video that was more for time restrictions than my own mental block. But at least for that, I do have an intention on finishing Prototype Girls.

On that, I will at least say that I will continue work on Prototype Girls in the new year. I do feel it's pressure coming so I can see a part coming out in January or February. As I said before, this video was a folly of my feature creep, and the total run time will likely be 7-8 minutes when all put together. This has been something I've learned from my August-November videos. I make things manageable. So at least it'll put me at 11 out of 12. 

This is the audio of what I will be working on next. For those who are new to the #D9verse material, the Nomu in my work are reproduced clones of the originals, using human women to replenish their numbers. These Nomus are controlled by the pharmaceutical company DEC, and in the video, a captured Nejire, Camie and Mount Lady will meet the head villain, who for some reason looks like All Might. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12-BXgo9INdiMmAht3MatqCVU8NRsTptK/view?usp=drive_link

I'll update as I see fits.

So Demon Slayer had the most votes for favorite WIP to continue on, so I think I'll make it the pseudo-successor to the monthly video. The Count-As. I'm expanding it a little bit and I'm hoping to work on it for end of year or January, depending on when I get more voice lines in.

Commissions. I'm currently working on my current batch and hope to finish the loops in December and shorts early January. As it stands right now, the commission game has been a lot chiller than I expected, but that is mainly because I'm not making them monthly video length like I used to. Also, given what you've seen from my WIPs, I've had a problem with making little animations, maybe buying voicework to refine into a video, and then just stopping. I tend not to have that problem with commissions. I don't have to worry about my flimsy attention span to get a product finished and out there. That, if you've seen my Q&As, has been the death of lots of projects I've worked on the past couple of years. But with commissions I have duty, so I'm glad to make these, and I hope to have more frequent slot openings in the future.

More apologies. This is a more personal rambling so you can skip unless you're into that.

For those who saw my recent Q&A video, you may have gotten hints that I have been not too pleased with some folks in the community, whether it's on Patreon or on Twitter regarding suggestions for my work, or "would you ever do X character." It has gotten more frequent over time with new fans, and you may have seen it yourself. As much as I am willing to brush them off and tell them no, it still didn't feel right to call people out on it during the Q&A, especially since they were just questions, so I wanted to offer apologies for that. 

To sort of wrap everything together, I feel like I have been underperforming in order to bring out my content, while at the same time having the impulsivity to make new projects all the time. The WIP poll says it all. I somehow find a way to make a stack of work for myself at the drop of a hat, and it's mostly made for myself, something I wanted to make cause it sounded like a cool idea, but then it registers as another video I have to complete, something I have to do because I have now made a promise that something will come out. 

I think why I've been more hostile to folks who try to suggest things to me outside of suggestion polls is the notion that if I say yes to their questions and consider it, that'll just add another slab of something I have to do. I have to make or else I'll disappoint someone. I'm sure people are disappointed in no new Herogasm game starting in a while, or no Toga Origin animation that's been a popular in the suggestion polls. I'm sure reading the Christmas script will bring some disappointment as well as there's a lot of content in there. I feel like I've been making a bunch of content but still bumming people out.

My patreon numbers spiked in April 2023, right after the Pussycats video, and it's been plateaued at that amount ever since. I've made a lot of bangers since then, and my Twitter has grown exponentially since then, but I have hit a peak, and I've been wanting to break it for a while, but I always have the same amount of dropoff each month. I don't have the full data. 60-70% of this game is in a format that, as an artist, I don't fully grasp, but my go-to response has always been to make more product, make things that people want to join for, but I do fear that doing more things that are not MHA related makes people leave, and people who come in are only here for the one video and skedaddle as well. I wonder if I'm causing my own stagnation. I keep track of AT3D, who I consider a colleague, and his steady growth impresses me even when he branches out from his famous niche of Persona. It's something I want to get back for me too. I just need to know how.

To resolve everything, I think 2024 is going to be a time of cleansing. I'm going to focus on separating what has to come out and what's a silly haha fun vid. I need to organize properly, maintain the drives and the files so that everything is available. I need to get one or two moderators for the discord, anyone that wants to make my server a fun little place to hang out and keep things neat. I need to optimize the picarto stream so that I can make a more entertaining experience. I need to let Dominica9 operate as it needs to, rather than just stuffing it with more stuff I can't maintain. I am still grating against the limited amount of hours in the day that I can work on Dominica9, but I am going to work smarter, hopefully. This is 99% in my head.

Anyway, rambling over. Merry Christmas guys. I'm going to keep working on commission during the holidays, as they're not too imposing, and I'm looking forward to next year, when I don't have Covid. Cheers.