June Update: Indie projects! More Tales of Zale in the works, Annecy & more!

Dear Patrons,

Happy June! With so many patreon update posts being weeks delayed as of late, I bet you didn't expect a post so early on, did you? But, well, there's a lot happening this month, so I thought I'd better get started right away!

MUSICAL PIPERS:

First off, this month's video is a preview of a shot from the indie project I mentioned working on in the last update: Musical Pipers! Rambu has been kind enough to let me share some work here before the film is even out.

Fun fact; I actually first worked with Rambu on the Tales of Zale pilot animatic. So when I learned that she was working on an animated finale for her musical indie project, I just knew it was my turn to contribute!

This was the first shot being animated on the project, so the exploratory phase took some extra time. Here are some early model sketches I did as well:

They feel pretty off-model now, but gotta start somewhere! It led to a really cool model sheet by the end, so I'm happy that it could help.

PROJECTS FALLING THROUGH, BUT:

This Friday, the work on the TV-series I'd been supervising finally concluded. Well, aside from a few hours where I might get called in in this upcoming week. Now, the plan was to jump straight on to one of the studio's other projects, but unfortunately the next project fell through very suddenly. This is on top on another project falling through prior. This is unfortunately a reality of the industry right now. There's a lot of uncertainty - I think you could tell already from my last update that there was a lot of stuff pulling in different directions.

BUT, some silver linings! First off, we have a group of interns coming into the studio here over the summer. And since the two projects they were supposed to participate in fell through, we've decided to bring out the Tales of Zale pilot and start animating and layouting some of it already. A bit more about that in the section below.

On top of that, the studio has decided to focus more energy on in-house projects in this environment, so we've got a few strategies turning for ToZ while we still await the broadcaster's next move.

So, right now my plan is to take it a bit easy and not work too hard on finding new work unless something really cool comes up. I'm probably going to feel plenty busy with the ToZ pilot, Pipers, and applications and development anyhow!

TALES OF ZALE: 

So work has begun on the Tales of Zale pilot! I'd already been planning on making some animation tests myself over the summer, but I'm happy to now have company!

The episode is technically still under NDA because of the broadcaster support, but since this part isn't funded by them, I should be good to show a few little snippets without context here and there. For now, here's some early posing I've been doing:

We've only just started animating, but it's looking super cool so far already! Hopefully, I can show you something in movement next time...

PITCH APPLICATIONS:

Last time, I talked about the little short film I was developing, and although I haven't had much time to work further on it, I've been making efforts to still apply for pitch events so that I at least give it a go and don't close the door out of hesitation. If the applications do actually get picked up, I'll reflect on whether or not it makes sense for me to put efforts into it at that point.

ANNECY:

Also, as I wrote last time, I'm going to Annecy! From June 10th-16th, so I'm in for a busy time! I'd planned to take it easy and enjoy some movies - network where it felt natural. But somehow I ended up with a full meeting schedule for most of the main days anyways!? Oh well, I'm looking forward to it either way!

DIRECTOR'S LAB:

And then I went ahead and got myself even busier. As soon as Annecy is done, I'm heading straight to Ireland for an animation Director's lab. The program really spoke to me, and I think it'll be a nice way to get some more food for thought and meet more interesting people. What will it entail? Will I be a zombie by the time I return from Annecy? Will I somehow avoid picking up an airport cold throughout it all? I guess we'll find out!

SOON 1 MILLION:

There's a lot going down, and a lot of prep work to be done before I leave. It also looks like by the time that I return that we'll have to celebrate the 1 million views milestone for Tales of Zale Flickering Lights. I'm thinking to do a stream, maybe get a few friends involved so I have some extra eyes on the chat too. Maybe if I'm really smart, I could be working on a T-Shirt design during the stream that we could then do a limited celebration run on. Or/and do some raffles for prizes underway. I don't know if I'm that smart yet though, I guess I'll see how my brain is doing once I'm back.

I've also been tinkering with the YouTube short format to share some small behind the scenes trivia for the short that I was never able to fit in anywhere else, so I might start releasing some of those around that time. Is there anything you'd like to see covered in particular? Feel free to let me know.

ROUND-UP:

That's all I can think of for this time around! There's so much happening, so I will jump right back into the preperations. Talk to you all soon enough - and maybe see some of you in Annecy :)

All the best,

Sif