Blue Star Delay Likely (Patreon)

So I can’t quantify how heart-broken I am to be making this post, but it is looking like I might have to delay the first episode of Blue Star until the first of September. Yes,  September.

I feel awful about this, because every project I have made to date has been delayed. I wanted this to be different, but I’m just running out of time. I will explain the details below, for those who care.

But I want to make it up to you guys and gals, and especially my Patrons. To prove to you guys that this project is not a wisp of smoke, I am sharing an excerpt of the sex scene, fully rendered in 1080p (I’ve been rendering pieces on my laptop as I finish them - this one took 3 hours to render), as well as the last scene I managed to finish detailing today.

Both of these are completely animated, and are fully voiced. Milly Stern voices Jack, and Incognita voices Liara.

• Click here for 1080p render
  
• Click here for WIP shot
  

This is not a definite delay, but I am saying that you guys shouldn’t be surprised if the 29th comes and goes without a release. 

I am leaving in less than 9 hours (and I still need to sleep), and from then to August 5th I am only going to have a handful of hours to work. I am expecting that I win’t be able to finish this in time. Then from August 5th till August 14th I will completely unable to work on this (won’t even be in the same state), and from August 14th till around August 25th I will again have limited time.

The cause of this probable delay is I grossly underestimated how much time goes into detailing these animations. After timing myself doing a few shots, and taking into account breaks and such, I have come to the following rule of thumb for my work:

For every minute of footage, I should give myself a full day to detail it.

This sex scene is 5 minutes, and the whole episode is 8 minutes. That would be, with this rule of thumb, 8 days to detail. I tried to do it all in 3 days, and I’ve fallen about 80 seconds short.

This has been a learning experience, and I take the lessons learned in stride.

I do sincerely believe you guys and gals are going to enjoy the final piece. Milly and Incognita did superb jobs with their performances, were extremely excited to be a part of the project, and are extremely excited with the WIPs I have been sharing with them. It has some of the best animation I have ever done in it, and I got to experience animating things I have never done before - I even animated a Vorcha fight!

I don’t regret this project, and while I regret this delay, I won’t let it demotivate me. I had a hard time accepting this delay, but with the support of Incognita, RedMoa, and StrayaSFM, they have helped me accept that this is the best course of action, as opposed to rushing the rest of the project to get it out, working myself to exhaustion trying to meet my self-imposed deadline, or just throwing in the towel and giving up altogether.

I have learned a lot with this episode, and I will be going into the second episode all the wiser. I now have a stronger idea of how long a script should be for a given length of time, and a better idea of how long a sex position should go on for when it has full voicing. These two things will help me keep episode 2 at its intended length, and that will, in turn, make it so that I should be able to get episode 2 done in the month as expected.

However, I am deciding pre-emptively to give myself a longer stretch of time on Episode 2. I would much rather have more time than necessary, than not enough - and as soon as Episode 2 is finished, it will be released.

As such, I am setting the release date for Blue Star Episode 2 to be October 17. I will try to get it done by September 30, but October 17 is the official release date.

I want to thank everyone for being patient with me. It took a lot of convincing from RedMoa at all for me to sincerely believe that my fans at large won’t hate me for this delay. I know some people are going to be disappointed, and I am sorry for that. I know that some people, especially some of my Patrons, are increasingly thinking that supporting me is supporting a scam or is fraudulent, and I sincerely mean that I don’t intend for these delays to happen. I know I handled Hiveship and the other projects poorly, but Blue Star was - is - my breaking that mold.

This time, the delay simply can’t be helped - I am physically moving. I accept full responsibility for my lapse in judgment for time. I now have experience with it, and I am confident it won’t happen again.