2020-01-14 News

Just wanted to drop everyone a quick line and let you know of some developments that are happening on this side of things. All of it is potentially good in one way or another. Just have to cross some fingers and balls and hope that everything plays out the way it’s shaping up.

Live Streams

I want to make these a regular thing. My plan going forward is, if I’m working on renders, I’ll stream it. This may potentially mean you get to see sneak peeks of upcoming story, but those who’ve watched the last couple of streams know that I don’t talk about what’s going on in the scene, I only talk about the technical aspects of its construction.

Going this direction will have a couple of advantages. The first is that people can learn something. I tend to stay focused on the work during these streams and don’t talk to much. But when people ask questions in the chat, I’m always happy to answer and will gladly explain anything I’m doing.

Secondly, it keeps me honest. If I’m streaming when I’m working, then you know when I’m working. On the art at least. Making the streams one more way in which my process becomes transparent.

Third, it doesn’t take away from development time the way a stand alone informational stream would. Since the work being done is one the game, we kill two birds with one stone.

And finally, it will give all the doubters and naysayers a chance to see how much work really goes in to producing the art for this game and the level of detail I commit to every picture.

Win, win, win and win!

I will do my best to send out notifications when I’m streaming, but the best way to stay on top of that would be to add me to your watch list on Picarto and get notifications when the camera goes on. Still, I’ll try to keep the information coming out in other areas as well.

(And who knows, as I get better at Blender, ZBrush, Marvelous Designer and Substance Painter, maybe I’ll stream those two. But first I have to work out that pipeline.)

HELP!

Since the last post I put out a call for additional Daz artists to help with the game. Several responded, a few made the first cut. I’m working with about three other artists at the moment. Each of them are being given a different character and a single scene. We’ll see what quality of work comes back from that experiment and go from there.

In a perfect world, all three of them work out and each one can have a different character. My thought being if the art is quality enough, even if there are minor variances in style or ability, they’ll be confined to a single story arc and that will make the differences less noticeable.

But for now, we’re just getting our feet wet and seeing how things work out. I don’t want to sacrifice speed for quality, and I want to make sure that whoever is helping me with the game is all aces.

I’d be happy with a single artist helping, but if we were lucky enough to lock in two or even three! My how we’d fly!

Professional Changes

I’m hesitant to bring this one up because papers haven’t been signed, but my “real job blues” might be under going a change in the near future. I’ve been solicited for a position at another company that I am in the process of accepting. How does this impact you?

Without going into the details, it will mean less business travel for me and more working from home. More working from home means more opportunities to slip in time on the game. More time on the game means more progress. Simple as that.

If, and this is still a tentative if, things work out, I might be able to start streaming two or three days a week. Like, solid 5 hour days of just work on the art. It would be a tremendous productivity boost from where we are now.

I’ll know more next Monday about whether we came to an agreement on the position and when the transition will occur, but fingers crossed. It should open a few more opportunities.

Well, that’s all I have now. In the meantime, I am planning to stream tomorrow around 9:30ish. So if you’re interested, the link the the Picarto channel is here. I’m hoping this next stream brings us with in sight of the goal line. Last couple of streams went real smooth. I expect nothing less from this next one.

In the meantime, thank you for your support and I salute you!