January Projects Reveal (Sort of)

Hey friends,

Believe it, it's super awkward to write a "reveal" post where 3 out of 4 shown models have been known for a while, and the remaining two are yet to be announced, but let's go through next month's projects regardless. And we'll start with the last month's poll winners.

Avacyn (Magic: The Gathering) is being taken care of by our core team member Totenn. I'm not going to lie, the project is proving more difficult than we hoped for, mostly because it's the first time Totenn is trying to depict a dynamic pose. It's certainly an experiment and a learning experience, so while I have full confidence in Totenn's abilities, please don't stone us if it comes a little rough around the edges. We can't hope to improve our skills without trying new things, after all.

Frieren (Sousou no Frieren) will be handled by KAI, whom you should know well enough by now. As a matter of fact, we've been working with KAI so often this year that we decided to make an exception and expand our partnership next year to give them a permanent guest artist spot, which is essentially as close as one can get without fully committing to join the team. As such, from this point on, they'll be creating one full-body model and one chibi for us each month. Welcome, KAI!

Next, we've got Shar (Baldur's Gate 3) by our core team member Vik. Technically, it should've been out in December, but we had to shuffle some things around and put Vik on a different project this month right as she was nearing the final stretch; something I hope we won't ever have to do in the future. Regardless, she is done with the other thing now and have picked up Shar once again, so it's most likely going to be our first release next year.

Now, for the actual "reveal" part of the post. Don't think we didn't notice how Zagreus (Hades) appeared in our suggestion channel multiple times, but never quite stood a chance at the actual poll. So we decided to take matters into our own hands and give him the time of day. And who better to sculpt Zagreus than the Gray, the artist behind our earlier Melinoe model? Alex Gray was excited to take this project and we immediately shook hands on it. As a matter of fact, this entire post was written so I could finally reveal the project and let Alex share his WIPs. Given Alex's reputation after the last two models, will we get a sexy pinup Zagreus? Will there be feet? Honestly, I haven't the faintest idea, as I trusted Alex enough to forgo standing behind his back, and I will see the WIPs myself for the first time along with everyone else in our Discord once this post is out. Can't wait!

As for the fifth project, I decided to keep this one hidden until release. I will only say this: it will be a quite simple, but emotional model. I entrusted it to Katerina Likhacheva (a.k.a. Laeta), the artist behind Legendary Kitsune and Sylvanas, because she was the best person for the job. And I'm dying to see it myself!

One last thing for those who missed yesterday's announcement and also scrolled right to the bottom of this post. As of January, we'll be adding a chibi model each month similar to this month's bonus. They will be decided by a poll and sculpted by KAI. The suggestion channel for the first one is currently open, so don't miss it if you have any ideas!

That's all I've got for you today. Thanks for reading the whole thing and definitely not just scrolling through it!

Cheers!
Des