August ProgBlog #1: branching out

The scales are still going. The only thing that’s changed is that I’m now in the yellow PURPLE section! XD

And I realised after actually looking at ko-fi that I haven’t updated for over two weeks, oops x_x (I only paid attention because they said they were letting gold members trial the tiers and that I had early access to be able to provide feedback, it was supposed to be for gold members but I’m not one so I guess there was either a slow rollout or a trial group, either way it seems to be open for everyone now). Part of the reason for that is because I was doing very short update posts on Tuesday which has now changed to working on something else day (other project or cameos which I really need to get back to as well) and I quite often will work on the Fridays til really late before I actually do and post the progblog (Friday being my designated progblog posting day) so after I’ve posted it I usually just go to bed (because it’s between midnight and 2am by then) and then forget to update when I wake up again.

July ProgBlog #4: eternal scales

I feel like I’ve been doing this forever.

Have I mentioned how much I didn’t want to be doing this again?

On the bright side it is at least organised a lot better this time even if it’s probably overkill as far as textures are concerned, and I hope it looks better, and I’m about two thirds of the way through the yellow so I’m approaching halfway?

July ProgBlog #3: why does it have to be scales

Once again, doing a bit more work on character portraits than 3d, because my brain just doesn’t want to deal with the scales. I eventually decided to keep my character consistent with the other ones (Captain Gundry and Bricky Steve) rather than doing the different headshots (partly because I’m kind of designing the outfit and the “weapon” which isn’t an actual weapon, just something she uses to beat people up with when she isn’t riding around on it, on the fly and mostly because it is going to take the better part of forever if I do it that way, now at least I have some idea of when I might finish).

July ProgBlog #1: tattoo artistry

I’ve always had a great respect for tattoo artists. I may or may not have mentioned the first time I did these tattoos that that respect increased by roughly an order of magnitude because unlike me they don’t have undo buttons. And somehow can make things look good from most angles. I’m really feeling that again.

Also despite having had to do it for this version I still don’t understand how people paint from colour blocks.

March ProgBlog #4: aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I got to the last frame!

And then the proverbial excrement impacted the thermantidote.

Earlier, we’d finall found a house that everyone really liked, so we’d popped an offer on, put our house on the market and started making plans. Of course, some idiot then decided they absolutely had to have it at all costs and they were able to make an unconditional offer so we were forced to withdraw by a clause in the contract which we hadn’t been particularly worried about because the house had been sitting on the market for over a hundred days and we figured if anyone had been interested it would have gone by now.

March ProgBlog #3: nearly there

I needed a day to work on a birthday present for my favourite sibling. Prior to that, here’s about where I was up to.

Zul’jinn is done, working on Zara. These ones are pretty quick as they’re tiny. The lighting is a pain though, I don’t think it’s right but currently not sure how to fix it and I’m more interested in finishing and posting it so I can try to next slog through those boring texture tests I have to do. I’m still trying to get a close look at Zara’s tattoos, I was really hoping that it would turn out to be skin on the dragon as that would make my life so much easier but nope scales. Least they look pretty. I think the dragon has chicken legs at least which will make the scaling down them that little bit easier, the transitions are kind of doing my head in. Now all I need to work out is if it’s a mane or a dorsal spine sail fin thing down the back.

March ProgBlog #2: was this where the rail was?

I fell so far off the track I’m not sure I’ll be able to find it again, maybe it was a cliff I plummeted off? Who thought building a railroad through this kind of territory was a good idea?

Guess I’ll just have to make yet another one. Again. There’s probably a perfectly good plain not far away that would have made for a much easier journey too.

In tonight’s work in progress shot I’m working on shadow 3 of frame 4, featuring my scribbly placeholder writing which was laid out before I knew that I was going to do this twisty perspective run on nightmarish thing with the buildings. The first two frames/sections went more or less according to plan and then after the third frame I’ve been changing text placement on the fly. It’s been working out so far.

March ProgBlog #1: after an excessive delay

I honestly did not mean to go this long without producing a progblog :|

I have the excuse of being on Christmas Island, hanging with family and absolutely not enjoying the experience of working on my Surface Pro (I hate Windows) in January.

In February I just totally and completely fell off the rails. 12yo deciding to do high school has basically removed 5 hours in the week that I was using to work. I got really, really stressed out to the point of it was going to get real bad real quick so I decided I really needed to do some art therapy*, *and went for something stupid and fluffy because it was the complete opposite of how I was feeling. It ended up being a songpic and as much hard work as Embers. I wasn’t feeling up to a progblog (and at that stage didn’t realise I had fallen back into the old habit of “well I haven’t made any worthwhile progress so I don’t want to bore anyone”) to posted a sneekypeeky to Patreon to try to make up for it.

October ProgBlog #2: nearly forgot!

And if I don’t do it tonight it will be late again as busy weekend is busy!

The process video wasn’t done in time so it may make the next week’s progblog or alternately it may never see the light of day, depending entirely on whether or not I finish Embers over the next week. I did finish frame 3:

and started on the last…er…frame I guess even though there’s no border. It feels a lot harder I guess because I can’t remember ever doing a coloured piece with more than two characters (hell I think last year was the first time I ever did a piece with more than two characters and this one beats that one by one). I also realised I forgot Zara and Dak’s tattoos so will have to remedy that before proceeding too much further.

October ProgBlog #1: running late!

Because I was struggling with editing the video and the spacebar on my keyboard has decided to play silly buggers, something has come loose on the right side so when I hit it on that side it doesn’t always bother to do its job and is depressing unevenly. I have had to switch to using my left hand to do space and am finding it awkward and infuriating. So I’m going to try one of those clackety mechanical monstrosities and give this one to 13yo as he has a really ancient keyboard that we had lying around and it’s a bit more worn out than this one is.