March Update: Back to the Grind

Dear Patrons,

I'm happy to report that this month has been a lot more stable and ordinary than the last! Given the rollercoaster ride that was January, that is much appreciated. Still, there's been a lot of busywork, so there isn't much visual stuff to show off in this particular post. Though, there are some updates to go through, so let's jump into it!

WORK:

Since I started as an animation supervisor, work has been taking up a lot of my time and focus this past month. There are a few reasons for this. For one, most of the core staff laid badly sick at the beginning of the year, and that means that the project is pretty behind on - well - getting to a stage where we can have the other animators and posing artists come in. So I've been grinding away at getting model sheets, animation bible, Toon Boom library and alike ready, on top of defining animation style and pipeline - and I even brought over my own big Cintiq so I could work optimally (which means I don't have it for at-home work right now, which has delayed my other ventures a bit). The other reason is that I'm having a fun time with it. It may be a bit of a grind, but I feel like I'm learning a lot and getting to challenge myself. So even if it is eating a bit away at my focus right now, I'm inclined to let it. It's only a short film production after all, so I think it's okay to give it a bit of a burst, especially in the beginning. Technically I haven't signed an NDA, but I will hold off on sharing visuals out of curtsey right now.

TV-SERIES

I left you on a bit of a cliffhanger last month, as we had just gotten word from the broadcaster that they would help further development. The shape of this had yet to be defined though. After talking a bit back and forth, we've pitched a budget for creating a proper pilot animatic. First, we have to find the perfect writer for the project though, so the hunt has hereby begun. We have a bit of time to search since I'll be busy with the short film production for the next 5 months. From there, we spread the pilot development out over the remaining year so that the broadcaster can figure out if they can find the full production budget on their part for 2024. So basically, for the first time since graduating, I have a pretty good idea of how my entire year is going to look already. It's going to be fun, I think!

FESTIVALS

I've been a bit silent on the festival front. It's not that 'Tales of Zale - Flickering Lights' hasn't made it onto any lists at all, but the ones that I have gotten replies from haven't been all that newsworthy. When a festival comes around that I can vouch for and know you can actually attend in person, I'll be sure to let you know. Meanwhile, here are the newest additions to the list of festivals and alike:

- Ekko Shortlist (Denmark)

- AniMate Semi-Finalist (Australia)

- Cannes Short Film Festival (France - Not to be confused with Cannes Film Festival)

- Abidjan Animation Film Festival (Côte d'Ivoire)

I was super duper lucky to have Fredrikstad as my first festival experience, and win a price no less. But there's no getting around that Flickering Lights is difficult to place in the festival circuit, especially when already being viewable online. That's alright in my book - it was always meant for an online release first and foremost. There are a couple of in-person festivals that I still think it could fit well into, but the number is low, and we will first know about most of them a good deal later into the year. I'll keep you posted though!

GOING TO GERMANY

I might not be going to any festivals to show Flickering Lights right now, but I AM going to Germany to TALK about Tales of Zale at the FMX (Film Media Exchange) Conference. It's a big event, though skewering a lot to the CGI side of things. But they were kind enough to invite me since Tales of Zale has been part of the Animation Sans Frontière program which the conference has close ties with, so how could I say 'no'? If you find yourself in the area around April 27th, feel free to drop by. I'll be showing a lot of our development material, including the actual TV series trailer we produced! I should be able to give more details in the coming month...

500K STREAM

Honestly, my most productive drawing time outside of work came at the recent 500K views stream. I knew I had to celebrate half a million views on Flickering Lights, and I thought this would be a nice way. It was SUPER fun taking on suggestions from viewers. I always have such a nice time streaming, but it's so rare that I get around to making one. Guess I need to be on the lookout for more milestones or something.

Above picture shows my intent to clean up and color some of these sketches. But it also shows how hard it has been to get drawing time, since the picture is still missing a finished Elva. Hopefully I'll get some time for her soon enough.

I SHOULD REALLY MAKE SOME CHANGES TO THE PATREON SOON HUH:

It's been a while since I revamped my Patreon page, and it's long overdue since the last changes happened before Flickering Lights was released. Right now is a bit of an in-between period, with my main project being in the pipeline for later in the year, so it's not like the offer itself would change much. Mainly, I share the insider news in this monthly development blog, and then share any additional material there might be in between. But since I sold out of art books and closed down the store, and since there are still a lot of people asking about it, I've been wondering if I should make a separate tier that gives access to the digital version upon the first payment. It'd be a rather simple tier, maybe I could add more to it later, but the main motivation is to not spread my content out over too many different payment platforms like Gumroad and what-not. What do you guys think of the idea? Any thoughts on how it should be priced? Feel free to let me know.

Other than the updates to the description texts themselves, changes would be mostly technical. Patreon is now allowing for subscription style payments (payment being made every month on the day that you pledged, rather than the 1st in each month), and annual billing as options. I might as well enable those soon.

But if you've got feelings on other stuff you'd like to see done to the Patreon let me know. I haven't forgotten about the BTS material I wanted to share either, it's just been dragging out on both mine and Matthew's end. But we're both still chipping away!

ROUND-UP:

I round things off with a fancy Zale, cleaned up for the Discord server. It's been one of those months that just passes in the blink of an eye. What I am able to show in this post is unfortunately only the tip of the iceberg of what I've been busy with, so it feels a little lacking. But it's been a really fun time, with plenty of challenges, and I can feel my own skillsets improving as a result. It'll definitely be something I take with me in future endeavors!

Till next time, all the best!

- Sif