Gildedguy

Story 6 Progress Update (spoilers)

Added 2019-11-13 18:31:19 +0000 UTC

The following post will contain screenshots from the final animation (no plot spoilers).

Hi everyone, here is an update on the completion progress for the new story.

We are about 40% complete with the overall animation, and 65% done with storyboards (pre-visual for plot events). Production momentum slowed down a bit this past month due to scene difficulty, Inktober, freelance, & stream maintenance. But after all that, the result is looking very good so far!

Early 2020 is now a Real Deadline

The Early 2020 deadline is still in effect, for I've entered 'Gildedguy vs Oxob' into the " 2020 Animator Guild Short Animated Film Contest ". It is an online film festival run by Howard Wimshurst and his Animator Guild community.

I figured it would make things more exciting by putting this animation up for judgment, and provide me extra motivation to finish by February 1st. It's an aggressive target, since I've already spent most of 2019 on Green-Eyed Cowboy, but I believe we can make the deadline.

Giant Hump of a Scene - Setting the Standard

The past four weeks have been focused on nailing the "first drop" of the animation, the part of the song where the catchy chorus kicks in. I consider this the first real "strength test" of a new project's quality. It's the initial "WOW" moment of an animation, and sets the tone for the rest of the piece.

I'm confident that the scene will impress you, because I already find myself re-watching it excessively. The 44 seconds of animation was so densely packed with data that I had to render it in three separate batches (the rendering app, Swivel, would literally crash).

For comparison, I rendered the main animation of Green-Eyed Cowboy in five batches.

Completion of 'Chorus 1' bore several production fruits that will make the upcoming months sail more smoothly. I established the following:

Sync-style, lining up movements to EDM beat
Background-art + palette
Rain FX Style
Electricity FX Style
Dramatic tone (the balance between emotional vs. awesome)
Accurate production time estimate of high-detail "sakuga" scenes for this project.

You know how it gets easier to piece together a puzzle the longer you work on it? Finishing this part was like establishing a big ol' island of puzzle pieces that I can now build off of.

Reducing Commission Work (Tier Update?)

Although I'm happy with the results, I need to work faster if I we want to make the February 1 deadline. Lately, I've been taking on more custom commission work for the stream - something I'll be prioritizing less for the rest of the year.

This also goes for custom artwork at the upper Patreon Tiers (it'll still include hand-drawn artwork, but it won't be a commission anymore).

And as usual, as much work as possible will be outsourced to assistant animators. It's tricky to delegate a subjective thing like art to someone else, but I can see it working out.

Here I thought this animation was gonna be an exercise in "do the same thing, but better" - but I am encountering new challenges every week.

Even if you prepare, seems like no two projects are ever the same!

COPPA & YouTube Animators

If you're trendy internet person, you probably heard about the new restrictions YouTube has put in place to comply with COPPA. It seems to threaten the ad-based income sources for many animation channels.

This doesn't really affect us (I don't think?), since I basically never monetize my YouTube uploads. Fortunately, we have Patrons to support this content.

So where I might normally be quite disturbed, adjusting my format, and worrying about financing, the production will chug right along thanks to you guys.

I'm optimistic that YouTube will respond to animators' feedback. And if they don't, artists will adapt (they're flexible like that). But as for Gildedguy, I'll keep doing what I've always done. It's a philosophy that has worked so far, and will stay true, even as we enter the futuristic year of 2020!