[ BRV Progress Update ] - 30. 04. 2021

It's been a little over 3 months since the last upload I made on WT (the Q&A episode on Jan 11, 2021) It honestly feels longer than that lol, but I'm ready to share progress at long last! : D
During this break, I divided my work into these categories:

• [ Concept art & references ] 
• [ Materials ] 
• [ The script itself ]

And this is the progress I made so far (hint: We're more than 2/3 done!!)

🔸️[ CONCEPT ART ]

• [ Full body Reference Profiles ] done up to scale with 3D models.
• v1 Simon & the Valravns (x10) + their different forms. (a lot, lol...) ✅
• v2 Red-eyed Valravns (15 ravens, 15 wolves) ✅
• v3 Supporting cast (x8) ✅
• v4 ... Secret! (x5) ✅
• [ Color palettes ] ✅ Much needed color harmony finalized! It was mainly the blacks and reds not as consistent as I need them to be. All figured out now : D
• [ Map ] of the fictional country BRV takes place in! ✅ (with room to edit as needed)
• [ Timeline infographic ] ✅ don't think I can ever share but it's good reference for me ^^;
• [ Unifying speech bubbles ] ✅ I've decided to drop the color-coded bubbles for main characters and stick with good ol' transparent white or black bubbles instead. Should save me a lot of time on the long run, and less room for errors too. Also changed the font to something much easier on the eyes : > I've also made an Auto-Action that formats the speech bubbles for me with a single click and drops a shadow too! You'll love it when you see it : D
• [ Storyboard files ] ✅ This is more technical stuff so I'll spare you the details. It just means I get to see and work on MULTIPLE episodes all at once in a single file : D I'll share this method all in good times.
• [ Reference CSP Files ] ✅ Same as above. I used to have my references all over the place, but now I finally sat down and put everything in one place x ) No more wasting valuable time looking for that one reference now that I have things organized this way. (To have an idea how helpful this is- I have over 60 reference documents of various stuff to always go back to lol)
• [ Motifs ] ✅ BRV has a lot of motifs I need to go back to and reuse all the time. You might have even spotted a bunch of them when I shared some behind the scenes lenses not long ago : D

🔸️[ MATERIALS ]

• [ Easy Access ] ✅ Many of what's mentioned above have been converted as CSP Materials for easy access! Refs, 3D models, color sheet, motifs... you name it!
• [ Auto-Actions ] Of everything, I'm most excited for this XD;; For those who don't know, Auto-Actions are a tool that help you achieve specific results in a single click instead of wasting time doing the same steps over and over again. I've made two things for BRV: 
• Colored lineart in a single click! ✅ There is a lot of blacks and reds in BRV, so slightly colored lineart can help mitigate the bleak & dullness a bit : P
• Nice speech bubbles with shadow drop. ✅ As mentioned above, I'll be dropping the color-coded speech bubbles for a more unified look as well as saving time and have less room for errors : )
• [ Specific Brush ] I actually need a single type of flower brush I am yet to get to :") But if all else fails, I can bs my way through it one way or another. It's not a big deal.
• [ 3D Locations ] ✅ The Big Bad lol. But only because this is sooo out of my league :") But I'm learning. Slowly but surely (; u ; I'm using a lot of pre-made assets and only building up unique ones for very specific and recurring locations. I'm happy to say that I got it down despite my shortcomings >.<;; Might need to finesse some stuff around the end of season 1 but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.
• [ New Endcard ] As much as I want to phase it out, I know the little chibis I draw at the end of every chapter are quite popular among my readers. Taking them out is not an option anymore lol ^^; But I don't like how.. messy? the end card is right now x P I plan to design a new nice and simple one but that should come last. I'll make sure it has enough space for the chibis. Our sacred tradition shall not die, I promise! u_u;

🔸️[ The Script ]

So... according to my self-imposed schedule, I am at least a month AHEAD of schedule! Although I've been focused on the art side of prep-work, I made some time to work on the script on and off. But as you see, now that I'm just about done with all the prep-work, I have ALL of May to do nothing but work on the script in earnest! Here are general info so far...

• BRV is planned out START TO FINISH as it always have been. But it's mostly just the skeletal structure of the plot with plenty of room to expand and edit.
• I'll be going over the entire thing multiple times over the span of week one until I'm satisfied with what I got. (There will still always be room to change things around as time goes by.)
• I'll then spend the rest of the month meticulously planning out Season 01 in details, down to the dreaded dialogue! 
• This time I'm getting help from my very very sweet cousin ; u ; She offered to help out where I'm struggling, and I wish we've done this sooner cuz wow, things are looking amazing right now I almost wanna drop everything and start drawing now lol.
• Just like I mentioned in the Q&A, there will only be a SOFT REBOOT! Meaning I won't delete the entire thing, but instead will go and edit out episodes, scenes, or just bits of dialogue here and there to make for a MUCH better storytelling this time around : ) There are 3 major changes you can expect: The first 3 uploads are getting a MAJOR update! Plenty of new content so you understand Simon (and the plot in general) waaay quicker than it already is now. Then, the entire knife encounter, as well as Alistair's home scene, will be completely rewritten u.u;; i cannot move on until I do something about that mess lol.

With all that being said... 
I expect to actually resume drawing BRV no later than June! But that's only the STORYBOARDS! Those are very basic sketches of the entire episode so I check on the composition, flow, dialogue and text placement, how long the scene is as well as number of panels before I start finalizing the entire episode. Getting this step out of the way ahead of time will save me so much time (and grief lol...) on the long run.
Then I'm giving myself July, August, and September to start drawing as much as possible of the new episodes. I'm hoping to at least start sharing the NEW 3 new episodes on Patreon sometime on October? We'll see how it goes ^^;
Now as you know, we are expecting to move but this thing keeps getting delayed due to the global situation :") but the house is nearly done. We're expecting the move anytime this summer, which may or may not delay my current schedule. But again, I am already a month ahead, so it should be okay...
In the meantime, I'll start sharing all the progress I made on the $6 [ Wolves & Ravens ] tier. There is already something in there to check out : > which is a detailed Valravns height chart! With more to come as I prepare the posts to go up.

And... that should cover it all.
Thanks a lot for reading and sticking around during the hiatus ; u ;
I appreciate your support immensely <3
See you soon!