A Series of Fortunate Events (Patreon)

Lots has been going on here in the world of Spruce Moki Animation Studio. Let me just go through some of the big things so you're all kept up to date.

1. Poll Results
- The results of the poll asking which model I should make next in order of most votes to least: Spruce, Dutch, Vin, Glas, Spruce Cousin (Douglas possibly), Max, Vernon. And then the following are write in suggestions: '98 Zilla, big chubby bull, someone's own character, Eevee, Spyro or Spirit, giant wolf, updated Ranger, hippogryph.
- We had 100 pollsters! And actually the 100th voter was responsible for breaking a tie between Dutch and Vin. Spruce had a commanding lead with 38 votes.

2. Content Updates
- I've just begun work on an AV interactive project between Jax 2.0 and Malfaren (and his new booty). I was experimenting with an anus rig and I think I got something that I like. I apologize for starting so late. It's been a very busy few months and I've been trying to keep up.

3. Learning Curve/Abandoning Adobe
- After Adobe's ridiculous TOS changes, I spent about a week researching and acquiring competitor software. It was easier said than done. Adobe is popular for a reason. Their software is really good. I needed to replace Photoshop, Premiere, and Substance Painter. Ultimately I think I'll stick with Substance Painter. I just can't find a suitable replacement and thankfully it's a separate subscription from the CC Suite. For Photoshop I ended up with Affinity Photo 2 (I ended up getting their package with Photo, Design, and Illustrator equivalents for only $89 on time payment. It was on sale.). For Premiere, I opted for DaVinci Resolve. That, honestly, was a super easy decision. It's FREE and can do most things you need and even can be used for commercial purposes. Even their pro version is only $300 (one time payment for life) so I might get that eventually. Plus DaVinci can do more than Premiere. It has built in comp capability, color grading, and audio mixing.

- With that being said, there's been an intense sudden learning period. I've had to put in numerous days of training just to know how to use them and what they're capable of. I still haven't finished the overview video for DaVinci. It's over 5 hours long and it's DRAINING but good. And that's just an overview. It doesn't go into specifics. Just teaches me how different parts of the program functions. Surely I'll be looking things up as I go along as I need to.

4. New rendering techniques
- In addition to the new software, I also have tackled developing a new rendering process to improve efficiency and flexibility. I wanted the ability to have my scene elements on separate layers which I would then comp in post. Like layers for background, characters, shadows, and environmental fog. This was a week long process alone learning about render layers and how to update my offline command line render script to run correctly. Still working on the kinks (giggity). But this will significantly help with YCH animations where only the characters are changing. I render the background, shadows, and fog effects once and only render the characters. This will save so much time with rendering in the long run.

5. If you're still reading, please comment your thoughts! I have been doing my best to bring new content to you guys and I have been failing. But I also want you guys to be aware that I haven't been sitting on my ass. I have been absurdly busy with finishing Jax 2.0 and the above things. I think the learning of things is winding down so I can start moving focus to animation and modeling again.