So I've gotten my computer back to working condition. This doesn't mean it's recovered fully from what happened. Since it was the hard drive that crashed it, a lotta data is either lost or locked behind corrupted data that I can't afford the price tag to have recovered. At least now I have a goal I can add to my supporter platforms.
The important thing is I am back to being able to produce art and animation! Which means...
I setup my commissions page here on Newgrounds back up and the computer didn't tank the very next day like last time, so I'll take that as a good omen. Like I noted the first time, I've updated the commission info to now including pricing for animations:
Speaking of animation, when my computer crashed, I was working on a variant of my most recent animation that is now completed.
It's been uploaded as supporter-exclusive to my Patreon and Subscribestar. It's not the only unique content you'll find there if you decide to join!
In summary:
I'm gonna be a little shaky getting my schedule back to what it was before, but expect more real soon!
When I got my W2s at the beginning of the year, I immediately started filing for my taxes to get them out of the way and so found out really early in the year how much I was told I owed...and how far that was from how much I currently had. The plan was to grab as many extra shifts from work as I could muster, update my commission info for animations and really buckle down on both supporting and advertising my Patreon/Subscribestar platforms. I was at the point where I could reliably create monthly animations and still have time to develop longer form projects in between. I was in the middle of creating a platform-exclusive nude variant of my latest released animation when my computer crashed and burned. This left me with extra shifts as my only hope of getting enough income to cover taxes and living expenses. I had to wait until April 15th to file and the 1st of May to cover rent in order to make it. And I made it...barely.
I'm still above water and thankfully, additional shifts from work haven't dried up yet, but I wouldn't consider my current situation 'secure' by any means. I certainly didn't have enough to cover computer repair/replacement, and even getting a diagnostic is gonna cause me problems, but figuring out what happened to my comp was top priority. I took the hit and took it in to get looked at and figured out what it was going to cost me to get running again.
Nothing. The computer was fine and had been fine the entire time.
Yeah, whatever happened to cause the crash only damaged the hard drive. On the night it crashed, I'd actually tried getting win 10 installed on a spare hard drive using a boot USB. Spent hours adjusting bios boot priorities and using all of the like eight usb ports in the back the damned thing...no go. Naturally, when the computer repair place gave it back, it failed for me again...but then worked when I tried a second port.
Like, yeah I'm relieved and exalted, but...y'know...
So I got my comp working again, reinstalled some software, including CSP and am currently finishing up the nude variant for my platforms. I was able to recover some content from the damaged hard drive, such as my Clip Studio, Photoshop and Maya files, among a few others, but a full data recovery is a four digit price tag for what is essentially a dice roll, so that's not a likely route unless I get the devil's luck. As a consequence, a lot of things, such as all my presets and user settings, have been factory reset. That'll slow me down, but it won't stop me.
I didn't come out the other side of all this unscathed, and even the slightest breeze of a situation could fuck me over hard right now, but I caught a lucky break and the ability to start getting some momentum back. I'm too exhausted to give proper thanks to those who really took a chance and helped me through this, but I hope to have something appropriate for you in short order! Stay tuned.
I was in the middle of animating when I got a BSOD outta nowhere saying a critical failure had occurred and a repair was being attempted. Comp restarted, but couldn't find a boot drive. I took the SSD from the comp and hooked up to my laptop to scan it and sure enough, it was toast. A repair was attempted, but to no avail. There's upwards of three years worth of work stored in that SSD.
First things first, the commissions page is obviously going down since I can no longer take any.
I'm still leaving up my Patreon/Subscribestar/Ko-Fi because it's too much effort to shut 'em down and fuck it, why not? No one cares. I can't get subscriptions, I can't get engagement. Two people have subscribed to my patreon since I opened it and they both cut 'n run less than a day after joining, leaving me with less than $4 after two years of work. I was being ignored when I tried, I'll be ignored now that I can't. What difference does it make?
It's up in the air whether I'll be able to recover anything and even more so getting the computer back together. It looks like I'm gonna end up having to pay $900 to California because I couldn't afford health insurance last year and with my auto insurance payment, that's all my savings gone. Maybe my warehouse income will be able to keep up. I don't know. If I get evicted, that's it. In the space of one week, three years of constant struggle just to keep from drowning...all of it wiped out... Fuck.
Please give me money. It's that simple. I'm literally begging to any one who reads this, donate to my Ko-Fi. I've been fighting on my own this entire fucking time and I can't do it anymore. Help me. Please. I can't do this on my own anymore. Honestly, I think I just wanna know if anyone thinks I'm worth saving. Guess I'll find out.
So a lot of updates I intended to initiate at the beginning of the year got pushed back that I've only now been able to complete. Lets go through them:
I'm now opening commissions for animations!
I honestly didn't see the point for the longest time in providing pricing for animations as they are an incredibly large investment to price for, but I've reconsidered since the only commission I've been given was for an animation! I've now updated my commission info with this option and updated contact info as well.
Monthly Platform Content:
I've updated both my Patreon and Subscribestar-Adult platforms considerably since I first opened them. There is now a free membership available for both with access to my collection of previously released material all at one convenient location.
For paid memberships, there's early releases of new material such as wips, but more importantly, I've committed to a much more consistent schedule. I am now creating nsfw animated loops that will be released a month early on both platforms for those who subscribe to the $2 'Pillar of the Community' or higher tiers. The current loop is available for viewing right now at Patreon and Subscribestar-Adult. This is alongside the projects that are still in-progress and will be updated regularly.
So my situation took a turn for the drastic very early on this year in financial terms, so I've been a bit stressed ngl. I don't know what other people do to get these platforms to work for them (because they don't give me straight answers when I ask), but I can say I've posted consistently every single week with new content ever since I started them. Subscribing to me doesn't just keep you up to date with the latest I have to offer, its an investment that will allow me to go even further. I have a lot of projects I'm ready to work on, but I can't do it alone. Give me a chance, and I will knock your socks off!
First things first: A shoutout to @EyeSores for being the one that put us to 400 fans! Congratulations and thank you!
So first things first: I started a Patreon!
It's under review...
UPDATE: It's been approved, so I have a Patreon now too!
However I also started a Subscribestar and Ko-Fi, which are now fully open. Ko-fi offers one-time donations, so if you don't want to commit to a subscription, you can go there to offer support as I'm basically making it a tip jar for the time being. Subscribestar seems to be largely identical to Patreon in functionality, with tiered subscriptions for support that offer different perks. As of right now, I don't have the financial stability to offer much more beyond WIPs, updates and early access to completed projects, but if enough support is provided, I can expand.
One perk I intend to offer is alternate variations of my animations and right now, if you sign up for the $10 tier on my Subscribestar, you get access to an alt version of my last animation:
So this is the big leap for me. It means they'll be some big changes one way or the other, but support from you folks who value my work will be the determining factor on if I'm able to continue making it.
RIght now, I have one animation to finish up:
After this, I'll begin my next projects with these platforms in mind.
Things were pretty dire last we spoke and that hasn't changed too much, except for two key moments. One was my tax return, which has allowed me a lifeline and my 'promotion' at work from seasonal to regular employee. This promotion gives me access to options with the company that mean that if this last ditch effort to get some income through my art falls through, I can drop it entirely to focus on my current employment options, which I'd have to do. I don't want to, but I can breathe much easier now knowing I can if it comes to it.
Which I'm using to gauge interest in being financially supported for making animations. Both here and in this post, I ask people to let me know if they would offer financial support if I opened a support platform such as Patreon or Subscribestar.
Everything on the backburner is cleared out until I can determine if moving forward with a support platform is worth the effort. So if you enjoy my work enough to support me, please let me know here in the comments, in DMs or on Twitter.
Still only just scraping by, so new content's going to be...well, it'll happens when it happens if it happens at all. I've made my peace. In the meantime...
Tom's art updoot justified one of my own. A few pieces had alts placed in the comments
Anyway, such pieces have now been upgraded to equal status and thus, equal resolution to their original counterparts. The stacked layer icon on the thumbs will show which one's have alts. Enjoy!
Chair's been broken for a while, but now it's to the point where I can't work on art for more than a few minutes before my back starts screaming and I don't have the money to replace it. So now it's over.
I've had commissions open since the beginning of the year and in all that time, I've had one single person contact me who backed out cause they didn't use Paypal. I won't say I get it, but it does suck to feel like you're being ghosted. I won't say my art's the cream of the crop, but I'd say it gets a decent amount of views/faves. I see people posting commission work all the time that I'd say I'm at least on par with and their price tags are a lot higher than mine are!
It bums me out because I like making art. I love drawing and I love animating. I made as much as I could back in the day, but I also had to eat, so instead of doing what I loved, I broke my back on multiple labor jobs just so I could keep my head above water and ten years of that accomplished savings amounting to six months of living expenses. So I decided to do this because it didn't matter. Either path was just staving off the inevitable, but I wanted to look back on my life and say at least I was able to do something I enjoy. I just wanted to be happy for once and I was happy doing this. Just wish it could've lasted longer.
Look, the 'tl;dr' take-away from this is pretty much, if you want to see more art from me, commission me. I just flat out need the money. I'll prolly keep shitposting in BBS and I got some old finished pieces I might add to the gallery at some point, but if I suddenly go dark, this post should make it pretty unambiguous what happened. Assuming anyone even notices...
Holy shit! 300 solid ass follow'ns?! Damn! That's...kinda jaw-dropping honestly. I'm don't know how to thank y'all other than...y'know...thank you!
Times have been tough as my previous post noted, but I aint homeless yet. Lost the comp, so I gotta make due with an emergency backup laptop that's finicky and runs like ass. Need funds to bring me back from the brink, so as always, please feel free to contact me for commissions.
In the meantime, I still got projects in the works and I'll give another status update soon with samples of what I'm working. Gonna keep it out of this semi-celebratory post so this can be E for everybody and you know how I do!
So thanks again for the support! I'll do my best not to let y'all down!
This weekend's been absolute dogshit! My computer died and the engine light flew on for my car. At minimum, I'm looking at having to buy either a replacement mobo or power supply, if not both. If the car light's not a false positive...I don't even wanna think about it. My job doesn't earn me nearly enough to cover a worst case scenario of this.
I've had commissions open for 'bout half a year now with no bites whatsoever. Not even scammers. That's certainly a punch to the old ego I'll admit, but pride is a luxury I can't afford right now. I need to be commissioned right now. I need it or I'm fucked, so consider this to be me, on my hands and knees, begging.
