May Snapshot #2 + Rework on Commission Process

A very merry Friday to you all! As you are well aware, I've started a fresh project from last time I posted illustrating some preview shots. This week, I wanted to get into the nitty gritty of the project's design.

With each successive project I make a point of focusing on improving some aspect of my workflow be it aesthetically, technically or in some other form that it applies. If you have been following my work you will have noticed that most of my animations tend to be done in a sort of 'pencil test' format. Mainly sketchy, construction lines dotting the footage as I go. For this project I wanted to approach the project with a few goals, among them being: Line weight & compatibility for color design.

Most comics and illustrations you've seen around tend to have line weight added to them, which is essentially thickening of lines at certain points, be they areas that illustrate a sense of 'weight' to the form its tethered to, or converging points to emphasize form and shape.

It might be a bit unusual for animations to have them since it means tracking the work to ensure consistency as you go so it might be a one off thing depending on its effectiveness. The other goal with this is color design, although this piece has been ordered with no color in mind, I have had projects where occasionally color was desired at a later point in a project. Sometimes this works and other times it doesn't, these reasons are centered around how well the lines are drawn and if they maintain enough thickness for a paint job to be done well enough within them - as such I've increased the average pencil stroke size on average from 2px to 3px to give a nice clean line that definitively lays down areas to paint within. It might hide some of the more nuanced flows of animation but I'll get into that explanation for the next posting.

Patreon & Commissions:

With project previews out of the way I wanted to discuss my plans for this summer. I started posting commission pricing and structure around the fall of last year and I wanted to see how things shaped up over a 6 month period. I've made a few small adjustments along the way but I've saved any sweeping changes for the update once I had collected enough data on the trends.

What does this all mean for you? Well a few things, I tend to post prices based on demand, the more demand the higher the rates - this simply controls the waiting list composition and gives those who realllly want to get in on the action a premium to do so. That said though I also noticed trends to what people gravitate towards when it comes to what services I provide. The 20 second sequences have been the most popular selection by far, mainly for its midway placement of buck to footage ratio. Since shorter and longer animations tend to be less frequent (as the longer one's should be) I'll be focusing on those first. Beginning in June as a Patreon, I'll be offering longer animations to all Patrons (not just Producer Patrons), note that 30 and 40 second animations will be done on 3s which means that instead of a cel every two frames, its every 3 frames instead. This cuts down the workload and covers more footage time, the animations might seem slightly drawn out but this is the best way to approach animating more footage for reasonable prices. With shorter animations, perhaps special events and sales can be considered - I won't rule them out though, there's room for exploring detailed animations in this time space as well.

Since longer footage was originally reserved for Producer Patreons, what I'll be offering this group instead is a VIP pass on their commissions, what this means is that their request is jumped up the waiting list to be done as soon as a slot is available. However as a means to moderate too many VIP requests I'll be hop scotching every other project with the chronological order while doing VIP projects in between. This will provide those who are not Producer Patrons a chance to see their project come to light but with a bit of waiting time like before.

Note that 30+ second projects will always be non-private projects. It should also be noted that when it comes to color, I'll be adjusting to what extent I'll offer that service where it can be applied - mainly for time and workflow needs I will have to simplify my palette of color choices or keep to a monochromatic setup. This will ensure a faster turn around with projects, especially if longer footage projects require them. Other areas that require fleshing out of info is consecutive project requests, multiple character rates and video formats. All of which will be examined as well.

All this does not mean I can't produce a fully animated, fully colored project. In fact I would love to do that more often, it just requires more help in the form of extra animators and painters. Something which I am currently investigating as I continue my projects. I will also be engaging in occasional collaborations between projects with other artists and short weekend-long animation jams which should yield some interesting results.

Should the transition to these changes be seamless, we can expect them applied sometime in early June. That's all from me this week! Tune in next time for an in-depth dive on how I approach animating from a different workflow approach!