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TET Animation Project Update for 2020

TET Animation Updates.
It's the start of a new year which means it's a great time to run down my own personal animation project plans for this year.

Patreon

Before the end of January I hope to be launching my Patreon Membership Account. I've been largely reluctant to go the Patreon route for funding my animated projects but it appears to be the best way to fund projects that only the smallest of audiences have any interest in.

While the majority of the work on my animated projects will still be done by me, the main goal of the Patreon is to raise funds to pay for voice artists. I don't have the vocal range to voice all of my characters. Voice changers and Text to Speech Apps aren't at a quality that sounds professional, and I want my productions to be elevated in a way that only real voice actors can.

As much as I have friends who would gladly volunteer time to voice characters, that's not a reliable system, as people get busy, and the quality of recording can vary a lot depending on recording equipment available. I'd much rather pay someone who voice acts for a living and is excited to bring my characters to life.

Watch out for the launch of my Patreon and, if you do have an interest in seeing more of my animations, please consider becoming a Patreon. There will be Patreon only benefits, which I will detail when I"m set to launch.

Upcoming Projects

Bat Storm

Bat Storm, created in iClone, is going to be my major animation project this year. It is specifically for this project that I'm launching my Patreon (though not limited to just this project). Bat Storm has a lot of characters in just the main cast alone, before even thinking about the supporting cast. I really want his stories to be a showcase of my animation work, and having access to real voice artists is a MUST.

Bat Storm, Bat Flash, and Senior Detective Smith.
Created with Reallusion's CC3 and iClone.
I've previously shown Bat Storm's character design. Since then I've created Bat Flash and Detective Smith (neither of whom I have any chance of being able to voice myself).

I think the characters look really good and they deserve to have quality voices actors bringing them to life.

While I've yet to write a complete new script for Bat Storm's next adventure I'm thinking very hard about starting with his unfinished adventure from back in his GoAnimate days called, Pain.

Other Animated Shorts

As much as I've long been interested in the 3D pixar style animation I'm using for Bat Storm, my first love is 2D animation, because all my original cartoon characters are 2D drawings.

This year I want to continue making 2D animated shorts with Cartoon Animator 4, some with my own characters but also quite a few with the characters I've bought through Reallusion's content stores and other places.

There's nothing more satisfying than having a funny idea for an animated short and putting it together as quickly as possible with whatever content you have. That's how my Water Valet animations came about, and I'd like to continue with that kind of production.

Despite the goal being quick animated shorts, I'd still like to raise the production quality with professional voice actors, so some of my Patreon funds will go towards these.

Reallusion Marketplace Store

I don't promote it a lot but I do have a Reallusion Marketplace Store. I don't want to get too ambitious and say I'll be making a lot more characters this year, but I am looking to moving my focus back to this store and stocking it with more of my original content.

Even though I'm not an official Reallusion Content Developer, I do earn a lot of DA points (basically money in the marketplace) that comes in very handy for buying additional content used in my animations.

For example, did you know a lot of the items sold in bundle packs in the Reallusion Content store can be purchased individually through the Reallusion Marketplace with DA points. That's how I purchased Bat Storm's Assassin Pack cape... as an individual item rather than having to buy the whole Assassin's pack.

---o ---o--- o---

That's it for 2020. I do have a lot of past projects, mentioned previously in this blog, that have kind of fallen by the wayside but have not necessarily been forgotten entirely. I will try to get back to them and finish them off.

However, this year, I feel it's time to focus my efforts a little more to one main project (Bat Storm) and a few smaller side projects for whenever I need a bit of a recharge with something different.

Remember that my Patreon is coming. I will definitely let you know when it launches and give you a full run down on the Patreon only benefits. I really do want you to get something worthwhile out of supporting me financially.

If you do have any thoughts for what kind of benefits I could offer that would get you to sign up please let me know in the comments below.

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