WARFAREMACHINE
patreon
End of race packs? How interested are in my OCs?
🕑 Added 2021-05-25 06:11:45 +0000 UTCthe next year i will try to recover the peace of my production of models but i'm considering giving an important amount of time dedicated to my own characters and designs the next year at same time hugely considering stop doing race packs.
characters like Alilkira, Yennsee, Holly received a really good feedback, also im aware what the usage of the foxes are just a way to complement the lack of some races out there, including the lack of foxes creatures, foxes and some common races like cats, horses, and goats what are planned, in some chases are used to fit the style of my own characters and used for be the basis of these,
the problem its always these race packs are intended to be not so universal, at least in contrast of other creators out there who shares the same assets in all their creations, what lead my models into several issues,
One race pack its intended to be used to be the most versatile possible to the end user, these came with a evident problem
For me rely on a base (like the foxes) and do OCs like Yennsee, Shawn, RoseMary, its really efficient and since all of them shared the same basis and style, it's really quick to print characters in a couple of days, let say i decide to do Jewwels, will take me just a couple of days to do her body and face/hair and skin and port it, and extra days if i need to do her unique clothings,
but in race packs this value of efficiency its taken to other levels of effort,
Let's say the goats had 2 genres and 2 bases what must be adjusted, each one with specific flexes corrections, at least 10 differents skins at minimum, and several cloths, props, hairs, to attach to them, not to mention the port effort its like 10 times bigger and dont always all races have the same body proportions
so i t try to give the most possible combinations of items for them, and sadly most of these ones only work for that race in particular, specially if these had unique limbs or body proportions,
the goats pack was delayed A LOT, also too for external reasons related to the hardware, things what i mention before in a previous status update, but in the foxes pack something similar happen with less struggles related to the hardware, the actual amount of content delivered to of that pack was taken like 4 months of production, what in contrast of other creators that is alot of time for the same output,
Making things worse, its harder to fix huge packs like that too.
In the same time gap several models can be made, like it happened to Blaze, Freya,Mora, and Sly, was just made in 4 months,
of course, at raw work the foxes pack its too big... but at same time, not even the half of the pack was used, assets never touched and effort splitted into a lot of multitask
so im considering abandon the idea of making races pack in a near future, not at least before do Horses and Cats as i planned, but i cant give promises of the variety of content, at least for common races,
Horses its huge promise i did long ago and must be accomplished, besides the female ones will be a huge tribute to the Dr Comet Horses, i know there's someone who can do male ones better than me, and its really possible what during this time gap they will do them before me
Cats are for me as important as foxes, besides will be the basis for huge feline characters rebuilds like Katherine and Maggie, maybe not big as hosterfaux (foxes) but i will try to make them compatible with their assets.. of course the foxes pack must be updated and fixed before that happen with all teir complications too
(So why asking about Ocs?)
As you see many of the races or OCs what i do can be done quickly form a base made for my ocs species, specifically creating certain characters its easier than try to fill most as possible with no specific target, saving effort and time,
there is an evident CON of that
if i do that people can't use so easily my models to create their own Ocs, Like a lot of people do with my foxes models or with Petruz ones.
for now im just thinking how to solve this issue, for now i see kinda evident what the huge generic races packs will not have a nice end in the long run,
to put in contrast
in just less of 2 weeks i have the whole zerarora model in a 50% of stage, and probably done in less of a month, planning in almost the same time gap the next proyect of amy rose or sally Acorn in mid of the next month,
In contrast of a generic race pack i will just maybe at 10 or 15% of production in the same time gap, based on the experience of the hosternfaux and Goats,
I will do an exception for this rule for my own races like Biyemorphs and Raidkidians or other OC based races what i can develop better in the run, the reason is justifiable too, not matter the amount of content i create for my own races,.. i can promise what each one will be unique what give alot of value to them too..
Imagine the same scenario of a Dog pack, i need to do at least shit tons of skins and shapes to fits all the chaotic amount of race variant what this species have, and of course people asking for do and specific race what can go from the shiba inu to the Saint-Bernard, and do extra props for them its just, too much,
to summarize, the next year will be mostly dedicated to Ocs, and of course Cool characters what i can find outhere made by others (for example i have authorization to do the horny police rat in this year) or characters what me and you like to do fan art,
but doing races packs or doing characters by popular demand just because they are popular will be in 2nd plane
Of course some opinions about it can help me alot to drive my decision.... what you think?
Comments
Peter West
Off the top of my head, my biggest problem has always been fitting clothes on other models. I can always scale the body parts after, but sometimes they don't have the proper bones. Goats and cows have similar facial structures and certain body parts (cloven hooves). When it comes to the other species, making one character is a lot more efficient with time than a whole race set. Working on this stuff alone is a big undertaking, but you do it with finesse. Perhaps you need a team. Push out content faster? Just a thought. As always, blessings Warfare様.
Smoaer
The year of the OCs sounds really fun.
Though the race packs do have a tremendous amount of utility, the amount of time and effort they take up in the production schedule will create a bigger and bigger problem as your models get more and more complex. And on top of the issues you presented, making "generic" models all of the time can be a very.....un-inspiring experience. Motivation is VERY important in 3d production due to how time consuming and effort intensive it can become. You need to have a strong internal reason to push forward, especially when you're working solo with limited resources. If you get stuck in a position where you feel like you're just working through checklists and mass producing generic items, it becomes very easy to get discouraged and burned out. Add the fact that there are so many other areas of 3d that you're interested in experimenting with (rendering, rigging, etc), and the whole universe that drives your character designs that's just begging to get fleshed out, and you have a recipe for a potential motivation crash down the line. I guess what I'm trying to say is that working in a way that lines up your internal motivations and long term artistic goals is perhaps more important than becoming the best "3d anthro template printer" in the community. So my advice in this context; While the race packs definitely have utility (as you have pointed out), it might be best to limit the impact they have on your workload to one pack a year at most. MAYBE two if you're 100% confident that they won't be nearly as large as the goat pack. And after that, focus more on using the packs you have to speed up a batch of OCs within that year. Speaking of which, the "freebie" characters like Asriel or Yen that are made alongside the packs could perhaps be approached differently. If you make an OC or existing character along with the pack, that model should perhaps become the next month's patreon reward. That way you are maintaining the benefit of having the packs speed up your workflow, rather than having them actually CREATE more work within that month. The Goat pack honestly feels like 3 months worth of patreon rewards rolled into one, and while the dedication to that kind of output is extremely impressive, it should never come at the cost of pushing you into burnout.
Severalbaps
Do whatever you want. Either way, I get more hot models to play with!
Kalek Nelson
I actually run all the models through a fbx conversion before using them. I keep having problems with fbx files converted from other users, so typically I need to do them myself. Personally I like the Idea of you doing more of your OCs for two reasons. you tend to have a wider variety of designs when you do an OC, and two. Converting 1 OC rather than setting up files for an entire pack is way easier on me. I do still like the whole Hazard core line you've got going, and I wouldn't mind seeing more in the future, but I don't really mind in fact encourage the Idea of them being fewer and further between. Especially considering that there's a laundry list of popular characters, that I'd still like to see your take on. I'm just a quiet supporter haven't even posted any of the work I've done with your models yet, is it is fine if you just Ignore my opinion.
