Art Phoenix

Through the fires of the animatrix I emerge! Hummingbird? Nay, Phoenix I am!

Um, yeah, anyway! I will skip the training montage and cut to the chase: I can’t waste time and I can’t fuck this up. I have barely slept the past month, working to level up my art skill. I am proud to show some results to make up for my other failures!

I’m not going crazy (as far as I know) and I’m not burning myself out either because I’ve never felt more creativity fulfilled in my life. Things are about to get very spicy!

Animation has always been the most requested VN feature. I have resisted wasting a lot of time in this area because animating in Daz is a very slow, labor and system intensive process. However, I recently saw a number of VN concepts that had interesting AI animation that was good enough to justify another dive. I know some want to throw eggs at me but I am glad that I took the jump! It is really early days and technology is rapidly changing but things I saw as being awkward and janky six months ago are now getting quite smooth. These are my attempts to replicate what some of the industry leaders are doing.

I’ve also begun picking art styles and researching ways to produce as much as efficiently as possible. I now have multiple pipelines to produce interesting and varied art for my audience. I have the tools to build out my full catalogue of games and comics in a cost effective manner! I'm now less stressed because everything is coming together and I feel confident in the game's story, the art, the systems, and the audio.

Obviously there are some flaws with the various animation methods but I am quite happy with how the experiments I’ve done have turned out. I already have a big list of other things I want to test and modify to see if I can create a faster and less system intensive method (plus more quality controls) so the quality will only improve but I am extremely happy about the results.

I should be able to make a few assets for the trailers and promotion areas as well pretty much anything I can dream up. Tango Fiction is now unlocked!

I’ve felt like an asshole lately as I’m hiding and diving into rabbit holes but everything I do is to make the best possible creations for all of you. I am certain it will now begin to pay off for all of you! 

As the seconds dwindled away last month, I thought the deadline would help me get things done and it did but it also pushed me into a final critical evaluation stage. The sum of Transfigure’s various stories added together is great. The renders are not as great. If I am being hard on myself, they range from meh to OK to quite good. Many of the art assets and backgrounds are still poor quality. I’ve even lately produced a few rare 3D renders that I consider to be scratching at greatness but in order to push the project to the next level and make it so everything is as marketable, legal, and as appealing as possible I will need all of my patrons to vote soon to decide the game’s final form.

Thank you very much for your patience, your support, and for your comments and guidance! Without this community I never would've made it here to see this incredibly ambitious game created exactly as it should be. 

I want to ask my patrons to help me pick the game’s final direction. I was committed to 3D renders but now I can make the game be anything I want and also make use of the existing renders as a base for the game’s art. Nothing is wasted if I make a change right now. This is my last chance to upgrade the game’s presentation for the best possible first impression. 

Give me a couple days to finish the experiments that I am doing. Then I will present my favorite overlays. We vote on our top art styles. Then Transfigure will gradually become whole.

The next post is going to be very important and I will have to make a decision quickly so please vote when it appears.

Please let me know what you think of the animations and new artwork. I will talk to you all soon.

Love,

Tango