Monthly Report: May (Patreon)

Another busy month. As detailed in last months report, this month was mostly focused on LogicBricks, with one major and two minor releases as well as a fancy demo scene named CyberNight. Then there was of course the SpeechRecognition package with its own little demo, and last but not least two minor guides focused on using VaM efficiently.

The long-term plan I mentioned last time was to focus on tutorials. My plugins are no good to anyone without knowing what to use them for and how. The important decision is of course what format such tutorials should use? There is a couple of options I considered:

• PDF Tutorials: This is what I did in the past. Relatively little effort do create. However, the obvious limitation is that you can't put video in them. Sometimes 10 seconds of video are just much better than a screenshot.
• Hub Resource: I could make tutorials that are just a Resource page on the Hub. There I can embed video and pictures, although the formatting is a bit limited. Main downside though is that I can't do EarlyAccess, which is the business model I promised you to use as my Patreons. Another major issue that I can't save the page before publishing. That works for small things like the two guides I put out this month, but not for anything major which takes several days or weeks of work.
• Video hosted on Youtube: A good video takes a lot of effort to make. I need to rehearse things at least a few times...any mistake means I have to redo a whole section. Obvious limitation is that I can't show anything adult related or Youtube might take down the video.
• Video hosted on Redgifs or similar site: I could include adult stuff, if needed, but these platforms either have terrible image quality or a way too short length limit. What tutorial of any value can you do in a one minute video? Also sites like this like to take down stuff at random after a few months, if its not getting enough views. So, not really an option.

Eventually I decided to go for Youtube video. I have to work around the adult stuff issue, but that should not be too big of a problem. Producing video is gonna take a lot of time, but I think it is worth it to spread knowledge and encourage more people to use my stuff.

The last few days I spend to figure out the parts of my production pipeline and testing some stuff. As usual I will use VaM with FrameRateControl plugin and OBS for capturing. Where needed, I will use good old PowerPoint for slides, either exported as PNG or captured as video with OBS. And of course DaVinci Resolve for video editing and combining it all.

Current plan is to start with some LogicBrick basics, followed by more advanced stuff like the StateMachine and eventually move on to a number of tutorials for IdlePoser. Can't tell yet how long it will take, though.