bulkamancer
patreon
Situation Report
🕑 Added 2024-03-14 16:36:18 +0000 UTCHey friends,
Today, I would like to inform you about how things have been going lately. I'm sure you've noticed a few projects delays in the recent months. They may not seem critical just yet, but the problem has been gradually piling up and remains somewhat manageable only thanks to lots of overtime by the team. Simply put, we were barely prepared to create 4 models a month and then we almost immediately switched to 5, biting off more than we could possibly chew. This put a lot of strain on non-sculpting parts of our work: fixing, splitting, rendering, pre-supporting, test-printing. That's not to mention the increasing difficulty of our projects; Godfrey alone took two full weeks to fix, split, and support. This has led us to a new situation where we have sculpted projects sitting for weeks, waiting to be split and supported. Take Milana, for example. She's been so busy with renders she barely has time to work on her own models, so we are slowly considering to either outsource renders or switch Milana to a single project every two months. That said, while it's not set in stone yet, but be prepared for Fern being delayed as well.
We are trying to work on several angles to resolve our current predicament. The first step has already been taken and I'm currently training two more people to work on our pre-supports. When it comes to supports, my standards are quite high, so it may take a while before the training is complete, but the primary focus right now is on making supports passable. Once that's reliably achieved, we'll work towards making them good. This month, we already had two models supported by our trainees under my close supervision: Dio and Reina. Eventually, I plan to personally work only on the most impactful projects (i.e. all BG3 models), while the rest will be handled by my helpers. Same for test-printing - most projects will eventually be outsourced to help us with the workload. Next order of business is to find someone to help Elena with fixing and cutting models, which should take the load off of our artists who wouldn't have to split their own models like they currently do. Alas, the irony of offloading some of our work is that it takes a lot of time to train someone else to do it; time that we don't have precisely because of the work that we want to offload. So, a fair warning, things might get worse before they get better.
Unfortunately, the current situation also forces us to put a hold on the guest artist program until things improve. That means we will no longer be inviting a new guest artist each month, simply because everyone's workflow is different and it always takes us some extra time to adjust to someone else's way of doing things, which, frankly, isn't always worth the effort for a one-off project. Instead, for now we will work with a few artists we know and trust, since we are already familiar with their workflow and can integrate it into our own. In other words, in the upcoming months you can expect more guest projects by Ulysses Finamore, Augusto Castelo, and Kai.
This is all I wanted to share on this subject. On a more positive note, you can expect Reina to be released tomorrow without any delays!
Cheers!
Des
Comments
LSIMC
Slow work produces fine work. Perhaps several times due to too much workload, the predetermined work goals cannot be achieved, but I believe I am willing to spend time waiting for an outstanding work rather than delivering on time but not meeting the expected quality.
Styphal
I just subbed for a year a couple days ago. As a very new patron, I'd much rather see you not over extend the team and maintain quality. If the funds are there to acquire additional talent to support a greater throughput, then that's a different story, but I backed for quality pre-supported STL's, not for the volume. Keep up the great work! I echo the other patrons and applaud your candid communication.
Carlos Marquez
transparency and honesty is worth its weight in gold. Even if the models have to reduce by one thats still insane value from yall <3
Alex Mcgaughey
Ngl I'm pretty new to printing and your community but the transparency is appreciated and I hope you work through it times are tough and patients is thin in the world at the moment but take your time and do what's best for you and your team
YumeGears
First one clarification: I've never wrote that I will remove the subscription, your models are high quality and I like them. But I think that a complain is a complain and you must take it to understand what people who follow you think by their side and find in them which improvement you can do to your workflow. My subscription is for Bulkamancer in a whole not for a single artist and i think that is Bulkmancer that must solve the issue not a single artist. If you check the survey that you have proposed some time ago, the winner is about anime models not BG3, so improving the anime section must be evaluated. I understand that Milana is the only one working on anime models and she is overwelmed by the work and i don't want that any of you will suffer damage because all of you are very talented artists, but at the same time, please think on my side that a communication about a long awaited very good model will be postponed, and tell me that you will not be displeased. So if to you 5 models per month are too much, it's ok, for me, to reduce to four or also three or two or one (but maintaining the same excellent quality) of them if this will help you to reach your goals and not do overwork.
Bulkamancer
We don't select which models to postpone and which ones to release on time. That said, Shadowheart was delayed by 10 days as well. Milana is our sole anime artist and she is also in charge of renders. As things stand right now, she spends almost half her time rendering models, leaving very little time to work on her own projects, Fern included. Therefore, it's not something that can be resolved by delaying some other model. In that regard, we have a very strict policy: one artist - one model a month, so delays in sculpting one model do not affect sculpting any other one in the same month. That said, even if we have to delay Fern until April, she will still be delivered to all March subscribers regardless of whether they'll continue their subscription next month. So don't worry about not receiving a model you subbed for.
YumeGears
Thank you for your post, i will speak my mind here, I'm displeased that Fern will not be available soon, It's the only model that I'm really interested this month, about BG3 models, sorry, but there are already too many available on the same subjects also from others, and for me if some model must be postponed i think that shadowheart could have been the best candidate, but has i wrote above, this is what I think and I understand your needs. I hope you will solve soon your issues and come back with a well organized workflow also if it implies that the number of models available every month will decrease. Thank you for your hard work.
zsa1Yo
Also your pre supports are amazing!
zsa1Yo
We are here to support you! Take the time you need, shadowheart will take a tenday to print for me anyways. Cheers!
Amy C
Take aaalllll the time you need we all know your quality is top notch 👌 love your models and the cuts and supports are the best I've seen so train away. Also like someone else said just keeping us all in the loop is awesome.
Country
Make sure your still happy and healthy at the end of the day. Honestly I would rather a few high quality models, sculpted, cut and keyed to a high standard. Then bunch of mediocre models, rushed. Prioritize quality over quantity in my opinion, as there are plenty of other producing garbage. Just cause you have more subs doesn't mean you have to pump out more models each month. You got those subs cause your work rocks and you earned it.
mataroki91
I speak for myself but I hope I speak for all of us when I say we support you for what you do, because we love your work. If you need to cut back a bit and slow down for the sake of your team and everyone's mental and physical health, I fully support that and will continue to support your work. We love the things you do and are more than happy to wait!💙
Lycan
Full support on this, good decision for the good of the staff members 🔥💪🏽 🫡👏🏽 😉
Kathryn Towberman
I’m a brand new subscriber as of I think last month, but I wanted to applaud you for your openness and for creating such a clear plan of action. You (and all your staff) deserve a life outside of model making and should do what is needed to avoid burning yourselves out/overwhelming yourselves further.
That One Guy
LOVE the transparency! I'm sure we all have backlogs that we can tackle while we wait for any delays. I'm 100% ok with delays as long as I know there's a valid reason, or that things are in the work to prevent them.
PhanZero
Guess you're a victim of your (well deserved) success. I'm sure you'll find ways to handle the situation and it'll still be great as always...
Jose Diaz
Your standards for supports need to be the standard, yours are by far the best I've dealt with hands down.
Hado
Do what works best for you guys. You work so much already it's unfair to you. Hoping it works out sooner rather than later.
Kilian Kruse
I was really wondering how you guys are keeping up this pace. Good decision Imo.
