Updates
Hey dudes! I figure I should give my followers an update on what I’m working on, things to come later down the road, and other stuff. I usually update in short tweets on Twitter (http://Twitter.com/TheFabsWow) but I want to just empty my brain here. This is something I haven't really done in years and it'll make me feel better knowing other people know I'm not just NOT making stuff. Anyway, obviously...this is a very long post. Feel free to skip to the things you might actually care about. Or skip it all. Dunno! Here we go.
-THE FINGER EATER-
Most of you probably know this is my main focus at the moment. This is a project that went from a short one-month-to-make-tops cartoon to keep people entertained in between Unfortunate Girl episodes like 2 years ago, to something much bigger and full of lots of little details. I’d lay in bed at night and just keep adding more and more to the story in my head until I came up with a pretty solid tale that I hope is worth all the work I’ve put, and will continue to put into it. I know exactly how this story will end, and that’s something I’ve never really got to work with before. Everything in between all the sudden becomes much easier to write.
Anyway, the first installment in this series has been out for a couple months now, and in that time I’ve been trying to improve my art, and most of all my knowledge on cinematography. I felt the 1st episode was my most cinematic looking animation yet, but I still have a lot of things to improve on. I’m mostly working on creating interesting compositions so it’s not just a straight-on shot of the characters the whole time.
I’ve also been tweaking some things in Ruby’s design just sightly. Like Unfortunate Girl, I started the series with a basic vision in mind for what I wanted the characters to look like, but the longer I worked on the animation, the more refined and confident the design became until I hit a sweet spot. Even in just watching Finger Eater part 1 from start to finish, you can see minor things change in Ruby’s design as it goes on because I got a little more confident with it, and didn’t really have time to go back and redraw every old frame to make it all have a 100% unanimous look. These minor changes in the next episode will just be things like adjusting the silhouette of
Ruby’s hair and making it look a little more natural, thinning out her lips JUUUST A TINY BIT, and just overall improving the anatomy within my drawing style.
Episode 2 will not really involve Ruby’s finger feeding unfortunately. This is probably the most exciting thing to show in the story but for the sake of developing the characters properly, I have to do a short flashback episode. I was going to do the flashback scene, and then continue where the story left off in part 1, all in the same episode. But this would take a very long time, and I’d really like to get a new episode out soon as possible. I hate making people wait months and months for these animations, so I’ll cut this episode a little short. It’ll probably be like 4 minutes? Who knows. It’s coming along though. This will probably be a trilogy.
I'd also like to bring up how awesome all the feedback here on Newgrounds has been for Finger Eater. It's been very helpful and also, most times, very encouraging and reassuring. Thanks guys.
-UNFORTUNATE GIRL-
This is a series I’m still insanely passionate about. It hasn’t had an installment in years, and that’s because my focus switched to Finger Eater. I’m making these all by myself so it takes a while. As soon as I’m done with Finger Eater though, Unfortunate Girl will be back in action. And I’m pretty damn excited to do it again. I have a new episode written, polished up and ready to be made, and another episode that’s written, but not as polished. This series is another thing taking over my brain at night when I’m laying in bed. I’m always refining ideas and characters.
My only worry is: Will people still be interested?
After such a long wait, I have no idea how many people really still care about the series. The best solution to this worry, I think, is to just make a really, really good episode. Something that, even after all these years, draws more people in and makes people wanna see what happens next, possibly even without watching the previous episodes prior. Sounds super obvious, but hey, I could come back with a really mediocre episode instead of coming back with a bang, and what’d happen then? Buncha poop, dude. Disappointment all around. At this point I can’t really rely too much on previous “success” (I use that word very lightly) of the series, so I’m gonna go for that idea for now. Just make something really good…lol. In the end, I just really like pushing myself to improve and this is just another way to do it.
I can’t wait to REALLY bring Karissa to life and really develop who she is. (Along with other characters of course.)
-OTHER ANIMATION STUFF-
I recently teamed up with one of my favorite youtubers to do a collaboration video, where I’ll be animating some stuff and it’s gonna be really cool. I can’t really say much more than that at the moment but yeah!! This is also my first ever animation project I’m getting paid for, so that’s exciting. As soon as I can talk more about it, I will!
-GENERAL ART STUFF-
This is something I really wish I had more time for. I’d like to draw a whole lot more and build a nice portfolio for myself. Currently, I’m working 40 hours a week at a grocery store so I really have to manage my time wisely. Usually I come straight home and start animating, then it’s time for bed. There’s not much time to squeeze in a lot of polished drawings. I have to choose what I want to do with my night, draw or animate, and it’s usually animate. But I do a lot of sketches (mostly traditional recently) and I hope with time I can get good enough to where I can pop out fully rendered polished drawings much faster. Obviously, I’m working to improve my art skills every day. I’m definitely not at the level I’d like to be yet, but I’m starting to feel just a little confident with my art for the first time.
Even though I don’t have a ton of extra time these days, I’m gonna start trying to do at least one polished digital drawing a week. This’ll be a big challenge for me but it’ll also be a lot of fun so whateva.
-MUSIC-
Any music I’m making right now is going towards the Finger Eater soundtrack. In fact pretty much any music I’ve made in the last couple years has just been for my cartoons. Or at least with them in mind, since some of the tracks end up not getting used.. Once I start getting something solid for the next FE episode, I’ll post some tracks!
-PATREON-
I know some people really REALLY hate me talking about my Patreon, and I apologize!
Basically I just wanted to say thank you!!!!!!
I’m getting $89 from 13 patrons right now and that’s totally awesome. That helps me eat!! Seriously!!!! Like I said, I work 40 hours, and even with that I still find myself being completely depleted of money after I pay my rent. Then here comes the 1st of the month, and my Patreon money comes in…and I can buy groceries! It’s seriously such a help, guys. Thank you so much.
At $200 a month, I’m going to make a comic series for An Unfortunate Girl. I’m gonna color it and everything, it’ll be legit. $200 is the amount for this because at that point I can actually take an extra day off work EVERY WEEK! More time to work on things, like a comic.
So yeah, love u all muah.
I think that’s it for now! If you read all that, dang. Thanks for caring. I might try to do updates like this more often.
All my other sites I'm active on are linked on the left side of my page here on NG if you're interested.
Thanks so much for all the support recently and have a swell day!
-Fabs
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