Two months later and I have another update! Apologies for not posting anything last month on Patreon despite having shared updates via the discord. Having said that though, lets go over everything that has happened and then go over what the future plans are.
Main thing to say is that I finished the Mal0 Commission for Youkai! Due to how long it took for me to get around to making this there'll be two more follow up renders by the end of the month to compensate. I similarly for Gem I've got plans to make additional renders for their commission than what was initially won via the raffle.
To continue on with the Mal0 renders I've learned how to use Geometry nodes for VFX work. The static screen and how it warps around her body as she pulls herself out of the TV is FULLY animated, and the method I used to make that happen can be easily reused/repurposed. For those curious here is the set-up!
I tried writing an explanation for each part of the shading set up that would allow anyone to repurpose the effect to work for water ripples or for flames. If anyone has questions about it I'd be happy to answer them!
For the next topic I initially had a small animation planned last month, but due to technical issues the entire animation was off-key and playing at random speeds. I had to scrap the whole project which was incredibly demotivating that I fell into a bit of slump for a week, but after that I decided it was time to upgrade my computer so I wouldn't have to deal with that issue ever again. I now have a Ryzen 9950X, and because I was previously using a 2970WX Threadripper I had to effectively replace every single part of my computer to be compatible with that new CPU. New Motherboard, new Cooler, new RAM, etc.
Suffice to say I spent a good long week on this, and I hope with such a MASSIVE upgrade that I won't have to do so again for a very long time. The only thing I didn't replace is my GPU and power supply, so maybe in the future I'll get a better GPU.
Now let's talk about what things I'm actively working on now after I've solved my tech issues.
I was commissioned a few months ago to make a custom character model for Qualo's Hellhound OC Zenobia. I set an incredibly low price than what is considered standard for that kind of work due to my general inexperience, but even then the price was still in the hundreds. They were entirely willing to pay, and despite my backlog I chose to accept the work because of the big sum of money.
They were informed that I had a backlog and so wouldn't really start working on their model for some time, but despite having not finished my backlog I feel too much time has passed since they paid me. With that in mind I have started working on it in full. They're cool with me showing progress, and I'll be sure to share any progress made on this in the Discord server.
Final thing to note is that I have chosen to go part time with my job rather than full time. I'm going to have way more time to dedicate to this, so I won't have to only focus on Qualo's model. I will still have time to work on finishing other projects that still remain in the backlog.
I'd like to apologize again or my lack of consistent communication and how slow I've been working. It took me 9 months to finish the Mal0 Commission, and that's not something I'm particularly proud of. I will be better