Updates on Projects

It sure has been a hot minute since I've updated my progress on anything. So, here goes...This has been one crazy year. Unlike many people, I haven't had to stay home without a job. That's the good news. The downside is that I've been working nearly twice as hard for about the same amount of money. School never stopped for me either; we wen't directly to online classes without missing a beat. So, while that has kept the overall disruptions to my personal life to a minimum, that also means that the months that the world has been dealing with all those Covid-19 related shutdowns has not translated to any extra time for me to do anything more than normal with the BotS series. In fact, I've probably had less time this year than in years past, which is a wee-bit frustrating. I'm not complaining. With my track record of allergies and colds over the last few years, I thank God I haven't caught it, and I'm even more thankful that no family or friends have either. 

Regardless, it isn't as though I've had NO progress on the BotS related front. 

The planning is coming along nicely for the R3 Alter series, as well as its successor, R4 Alter. I'm really excited to get into the R4 story, mainly because I'll get the chance to play around with characters I haven't had the chance to work with before. Namely, these will be characters out of the mobile game E7. 

Unfortunately, no other entry in the BotS franchise has seen any work of late. It's now been a fairly long time since I touched any of the main series, particularly First Moon. And while I've had incremental spurts of ideas for Cromwell, those haven't really blossomed. Thinking about it is really disappointing, but when my time is stretched as thin as it is, I don't really have the luxury of delving into multiple story threads at one time. So, for now, R3 and R4 get my attention. 

This has, in turn, effected my art production. I've had a couple sketches in the last several months, and one of them will be another feature piece for R3. I've had to push back completion on it a few times, most impactful of which was the disuse of my laptop. 

I have an HP notebook, a 17" 2-in-1. The main selling point for me when I bought it was that I could use it to draw with, same as if it were a pen display. Just past 2.5 years old, the body of the notebook started swelling, like something inside was getting ready to burst. It got where the screen can't close all the way flat. The only culprit could be heat, but, since I've never felt it heat up that much and everything technically still works, I don't know for sure. I actually have an old phone I was mainly using as music player and alarm clock that had a more severe version of the same issue. In that case the entire screen separated from the body.

I had to stop using that laptop for fear its problems get worse. Now that I've finally got a little time off from work, I plan to pull any files off that laptop and save them elsewhere before it fully goes kaput. I'm really disappointed because I loved that laptop - probably the best one I've ever had. 

I was also using that laptop for school, but that's a no go too. In all, the loss of that laptop was a productivity hit of at least 30-50%. Where I had a dual-screen setup in my room where I could watch TV or stream stuff on one screen, work on something else on the other, and have that laptop in front of me, now that laptop is gone, and that second screen had to go to a second PC that is now mostly dedicated to my online classes. If I had the money I would either buy a new laptop similar to that HP, or buy a Cintiq-like pen display. Sadly, I'm far from being able to afford those options right now (otherwise I probably would've at least bought an additional monitor by now). 

Taken all together, I've got too much going on to make any promises art or story wise as far as the BotS series is concerned. I am optimistic that I will at least have a couple new chapters of R3 Alter ready by September. I'm also really, really, hoping to get this latest art project done around the same time too. I want to use some of my time this next week I have off from work seeing if I can nail down a new art process, but who knows if that'll fit in with the work I have to do for class (got final projects and exams over the next couple weeks). 

If all works out, you should hear from me again later this week. I want to do a quick post about the games I've been playing and not playing, as well as the state of the anime landscape right now. If that doesn't end up happening, you can expect to see a post here in early September - Labor Day weekend most likely - about the new chapters for R3 Alter, and maybe an art piece to go with it. 

Until then everybody, stay safe, and take it easy.