I keep putting off updating until I finish this or that, but too much time has now passed. Things are taking longer than expected, even at this phase. I apologize for having not much to show, but I want to keep everyone in the loop. Before I give the update though:
I've been collecting everyone's thoughts on what they WANT to see in Episode 12. I'm at a stage in the writing right now where I think that's important to gauge that. Feel free to comment here or reach out to me with your thoughts or what you'd want to see happen most of all. I'm really curious about that, especially from you guys. Additionally, if you want to ask me any random question, feel free to do so in the "Ask Shipp" section on the ShippHub Discord.
Okay, here's where I'm at:
- The Episode 11 OST has been released, so feel free to check that out.
- I'm going to be wandering around LVLUP Expo as a special guest on the 24th/25th, so feel free to reach out to me if you're in the area.
- Writing Episode 12 has come a long way, but there's still much more to do. I'm now actively envisioning certain scenes from it in my mind, which is always a good sign. I've gotten far with the outline, but I really need to solidify the ACT 1 stuff. Most of the character work I want to do will stem from the ACT 1 conflicts and I want to get things a lot more sorted than they currently are. In many ways, I'm thankful that everything else is progressing slowly, because I feel like ideas get better when they have more time to stew. I've been picking at the Show Bible, but it's still not done. When it comes to writing, it really feels like sometimes the creative juices get flowing and stuff gets done, but when it's not there, I find myself unable to force it.
- "One Episode Left" is taking way longer than I anticipated. I FINALLY got the last of the voice lines sent a few days ago, so now I can actually finish it. For whatever reason, I decided to up the ante with this one because I couldn't let go of certain ideas, and as a result, it's much bigger than the other "episode left" videos, totaling about three minutes, and a swath of it features rigged sculpts created by me rather than just re-using and heavily editing game models. In-progress spoiler image here, please don't spoil it in the comments. For whatever reason, I made this one bigger and harder on myself. A good amount of it's already animated, but there's still more to do, and a few of the rigs aren't finished, which is why it's still considered in the "Outlining" phase on shippiddge.com. However... I think you'll like it. I laugh when listening to the dialogue. I think its interesting and fits into the spirit of finishing every idea I had for this series before finishing it definitively.
- "Bug Brigade" - The 2D animated spinoff featuring the Caterpie Army is still incomplete. The last track of the music finished a few days ago and is now going into the final mixing. All the sounds are completely outlined and have been for some time, but I haven't heard from my sound designer in a month, and my emails haven't been getting responses. One of the drawbacks of the DIY studio endeavor is that I'm often at the mercy of freelancers' schedules. I may need a contingency plan here, which would be really unfortunate because I really like this sound designer. I really want to release this before the Ep1-11 Compilation, and upload Ep11 as Shorts in the lead-up to premiering it.
- The merch is almost ready. Every artist I'd hired finished their bits, I've sampled all the materials that I want to utilize after visiting the HQ of Fourthwall, the company that'll be printing with, and it's up to me to put the finishing touches on the last two designs. Additionally, Robin, the artist behind the "Legend" drawings from Ep9 has given me permission to sell them as art/poster prints. I'll be launching the full merch shop when uploading the Ep1-11 compilation. I /really/ like the designs but I don't wanna spoil them just yet, but you should be able to see them directly under my YouTube videos once launched.
- The signed personalized scripts have all been printed and organized, and I've finished writing the personalized messages for almost all of them, but I do intend to draw on all of them again, and none of the drawings are finished. This time around, I have a "seal" in the shape of the Shippiddge logo that'll be used on all of them. I try to make these as high quality as I can, so I tend to not work at them at all rather than phoning it in.
- For pretty much all of March, I had to put most things on hold to help out my Aunt, who has fallen very ill. I have a close knit family and we're all trying to put in time to help take care of her and provide her what she needs. I spent large swaths of time and effort tending to her as well as making her living situation orderly enough to accommodate her needs. I will very likely have to return to help her every other month or so, depending how things progress. I am able to bring my streaming setup and work when I can, but it's proven difficult to progress efficiently. She's now in the care of others for the time being. I just got back to my office a week ago and immediately got a terrible sinus condition upon returning. Yesterday was the first day I felt normal. I'm /finally/ back at my usual pace, which is probably why you're seeing this update.
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I'm grateful that I'm not required to be as hyper-focused as before (yet) and can chomp at bits of this or that steadily. Still though, this is kind of a rough start for me, and I feel like I'm juggling a lot of different stuff right now. I hope I can start to pick things up soon. Thank you for providing me with this Patreon budget. For the time being, I plan to let the budget pile up. ACT 1 of Episode 12, the way I'm envisioning it now, will likely be very expensive and will require several other animators with different specialties.