Hey all!

Throwbacks are not something I typically do, but with a very productive year, I think it's good to think on what was and what can be - a throwback to the future, hehe. I'd like to invite you to take a moment, and just consider everything you got done and that happened over the past year - and I mean the whole lot and consider what your plans/hopes/aspirations are.

Now, consider how many obstacles there were and how much you persevered and guess what - you're still here!

So, since this is where I share, I'd like to throwback to some great moments over the year; Yes, you're getting a cropped version, hehe, cause too much, and some of what I'd like to do going forward.

For summary, you can just scroll down to the number you wanna read - this is a long one, hehe.

1) Joined Instagram

2) Joined Twitter

3) Joined LinkedIn

4) Switched to Centralized Posting 

5) Joined Blendswap

6) Joined CastVoices

7) Started doing Musical Auditions

8) Joined CGTrader

9) Joined Pixabay

10) Original Audio Drama

11) Redesigned my websites

12) Uploaded to YouTube again

13) Connected More

14) Built Pricing Pages

15) Took a chance on a social media strategy

16) Developed quite a few new tools

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This is a very big deal for me, because I am on a very limited data plan. Most of my interaction here is limited to a few people I follow closely and sometimes a general scrolling, but it is by far my favorite social media platform!!! It shows in my engagement as well! You guys like it there more too! hehe. I was absolutely terrified of doing stories and slowly got into it and I really love it!!

Plans:

Gotta start expanding my use of stories a bit more, to be more creative. I find that I'm starting to kinda fall by the template side and I don't want that. I love using the giffy stuff to make it a showpiece on it's own. Music and other features, like links, are also important, so getting into that would be awesome!!! I realize that social forms part of our daily entertainment and I want my stuff to be entertaining too, not just be a flyer that says "here's something more for you to check out!" - has to be gripping and fun!

Also a big deal. I kicked against joining for a very long time, because I had heard how much of a toxic atmosphere it can be, BUT, and this is huge, you choose what you get in your feed, so why do you allow it to be toxic to you? Not railing on anyone here, just saying that there are people who complain to me that they see all manner of bad stuff and I'm like: "Yeah, I don't have that experience - I've unfollowed everyone that does that" hahaha. I actually enjoy my feed when I get to scroll through it! The platforms work in a way that serves you more of what you look at because it keeps you on the platform for longer - so if you look at nice and good things, they will give you more nice and good things, because it keeps you there; just a thought! hehe.

Plans:

Nothing specific, tbh. I'd like to interact more, but since I'm struggling to post there (very short short-form content), it kinda just feels like a place where I get a few highlights, share some things, like a bit and move on. I'd like for links to be excluded from the character count - that would be awesome! lol.

I joined linkedIn this year too, not because I wanted to, persay, but I know that for me to be able to do as much as I ultimately want to, I'm going to need partners in business... That means, gotta bite the bullet and find the people. So far, I've only connected with a handful, but I post pretty much every single time I post in general, so I have a very active presence all over and respond, at least for now, to everything.

Take that statement with a pinch of salt though. If you have a weird profile and you just send me a message that says hi, I'm not going to answer, because it's how people spam with scams. If you are a professional, you know that time is valuable and you'll send the message you need to send, short and sweet, and that will get a reply - as long as I'm able to respond to everything.

Facebook kinda forced me to switch to a centralized panel thing, like creator studio, but more features and it helps sooooooo much, because insta is also owned by FB, so two birds with one stone, hehe. No birds were/will be harmed! It's been a massive help to get content out to as many of my channels as possible, leaving me SO much more time to interact instead. I LOVE interacting on social. I have a few favs that I follow, message and comment on and thankfully, I do get responses, hehe. It's not really a notice me senpai thing - Senpai is paying attention, hehehe.

This does mean that I still have to go manually to other platforms and groups when I post, but the reduction in time spent posting, is a huge help! You get free stuff faster and I get to respond faster, hehe, win-win!

Plans:

I'd like to switch to a more template-like approach, to make my content easier to produce, so I can produce more as well - tools, videos, etc. Believe it or not, social media is VERY time consuming and there's a reason people are advized to set aside a day, a whole day, to work on the week's posts. I'd like to be able to do it in less than a day, thank you! hahaha. That does mean some level of pre-fab is needed to make it go zoooooom! hehe.

Was strangely conflicted about this one. I have so many free things available here on the website, so I don't know why I got so antsy about sharing them elsewhere too. So strange. Of course, because everything gets vetted, I know whatever I upload, will take some time before it's live. The vetting also forces me to make sure my stuff is of a very high UX and UI standard, so that when people use it, it's not hard to use and delivers what the pictures show - thus the demo scenes are usually included.

   I didn't know where to start, so I just started with the best I got - the NPR shaders. There's more I'd like to do to improve on them, but honestly, that was the best place to start. It's just kinda going from there at this point!

Plans:

Nothing too specific, but I would like to get all my free nodes loaded as soon as possible. Just like I said, this is a very time consuming process, so do be patient. ;)

To be fair, this one only launched this year, for the general public and I was privy to hear about it from other VO friends. Of course, this platform has had some growing pains, but I have to be honest, BY FAR the coolest jobs! My fav was an audition for a game - I don't think I've ever done an audition I've enjoyed that much!!!

Great place for a VOA!

Gotta mention this one! There was a competition for a full membership, $250, and all you had to do was create a soundbyte - basically an intro yourself kinda thing. I enjoyed that so much!!! Here is my video of how it went:

Plans:

Just audition as much as possible to get as many gigs as possible.

This was very scary to me, because I have a lot of insecurities regarding my voice - long story, not really, but not getting into it here, haha. Voices recently added more services to their profiles, so that people can come there for the whole thing - everything related to script, lyrics, translation and voice. This meant that I got a lot of promotional invites and oh my were there some fun ones!! Some were so great I'd have done them for free in any other situation, but I have to tow the line to make sure everyone gets paid fairly - myself included.

My fav was an audition for a podcast opening. The author wanted someone to just kinda adlib and whatnot over the tune after the lyrics and as someone who was scared of harmonies, I had a blast and it sounded so nice!! Can't share, cause (C), but so great!!!

This was the step I took this year that scared me the most - pixabay was the second scariest, see below.

I have so much content that I'd love to get out to other creators, but didn't have the avenue that I felt was right to handle it. As you know, these things cannot possibly all be free, because I don't get utilities and food for free - if I did, I'd probably not mind it being free at all, hehe. I have to pay bills just like you do. I just work in a field that functions differently. It's still supply and demand, just digital.

A friend of mine kept pushing me to join, because he had seen my work and actually hired me twice end of last year - LOVE YOU MAN! YOU ROCK! - and so I finally joined after prepping some things and yeah, the rest is history.

On a serious note, It has re-awakened my desire for excellence! I've never really lost it, but because it's such a "this thing has to advertise itself while you're not there" kinda deal, you have to store-front you products as best you can. This has led to significantly higher uploads to my YT this year and has led to a much higher output of general content, not to mention lots of animation practice! SO grateful for that!!

Plans:

Like most platforms that host downloads like this, quality and quantity is extremely important. You can have a tonne of content, but if it all sucks, you won't sell any. If you're too focused on quality, you don't upload enough, so you have to find this balance between "these are professionals who are customers" and "I only have this much time available". I think I strike a solid balance, but we'll see, although I do lean more to quality.

   I want to reach 90 pieces before the end of next year - if more, I'll absolutely take it! :D

It takes me a few days to a week to get one item up, cause naming, video and stuff, but I think I can get things up a smidge faster; 90 total, is quite ambitious because of that, already.

Joining pixabay was a mixed decision. I joined for three reasons:

 - Marketing

 - Make a little something extra

 - To help the anime industry (yes, ambitious, but gotta start somewhere, lol)

Marketing was because I wanted to get more material into more hands so that more will know about my work. I've tried traditional marketing methods (like the local paper), but honestly, that don't work, hehe. I think if I did in 3DArtist, maybe it'd be a different story, but I don't have that kind of money anyway, LOL. It's a FANTASTIC platform and it's standards are really high, so if I do make it onto the platform, it means my stuff is solid, or mostly, solid. And of course it'll get seen in other content as well, for which I am soooo grateful!!! I've gotten some fantastic tags from people who've used my stuff! :D

Doing my research, I've found that some people who were on Pixabay, did well with the donations they got - some even better than a paywall (pre-Covid), because they put up good content. I was like, I could use all the extra income I can, so I felt like, if I can give this stuff away (which I totally prefer to), and people will give in return out of their own (which I also prefer), then it's once again a win-win. Yeah, I got 1 donation so far, LOL!! I get it, it's anime, it's not as wide spread, it's not as common, it's gonna be less. I get it, but I find it hysterical that for over 100 uploads and over 20k downloads, I got 1 donation, hahaha. Thankfully, it has not been my main motivation, so I'm not devastated at all, and I'm still uploading as much as I can. Gosh, it's so funny! hahaha.

To help the anime industry. I know this one has been touched on a lot, so I'm not going to dwell on it, but basically, I want to make it easier to produce anime, so that the people who make it, can be much more fairly compensated. Maybe that's a naïve approach, but I'm a firm believer that if you charge the same, while working smarter, you can pay your people more - just basic math. I know the greed factor isn't in there, but honestly, I don't know where that lies or what the full ratios are - all I know is this can help, and I wanna try to make a positive difference, rather than just sitting back saying "that's really awful, someone should do something" hahaha. I'm trying to do something here...

The same with the tools I sell. They also just make the process all that much easier, because it's less labor intensive. Guess that's always been my goal with computers - do the same thing, but easier.

Plans:

Just keep uploading. I struggle to, tbh, but it's not for a lack of ideas, lol. I have a very long list of items that need to get checked off, but all in due course. I keep getting ideas for things that aren't on the list and they get priority, HAHA! Be that as it may, I hope my pixabay resources rock your world and are THE thing for your projects! :D

CAN'T BELIEVE THIS ONE! Staedtler - awesome stationary - holds regular competitions on their social media and they have held two story writing competitions, both of which I have entered. My first one is a Freaky-Friday type deal (last year), which didn't win, and another this year, which I ended up producing for my YouTube and IT WAS GLORIOUS! Yes, I love that word!

What makes this one unique is that it's one I wrote. I have done others - a scene from 20,000 leagues which I translated and performed and produced, as well as the full short story from Arthur Conan Doyle - That Little Square Box - if you haven't, you're missing out:

It was such a great feeling to upload an original story and have it go down well. I know it's not the best, but it was fun to write and fun to perform! Thanx to the friend who pushed me to produce it! Love you too!!

Plans:

Well, I don't want to say anything, because it always throws something out into the spirit that creates a vacuum that I'd like to call expectation! BUT, I want to read black beauty and if it's something I like, and practical, I'd LOVE to produce it on a chapter by chapter basis - totally casual - or as casual as I can be, lol! That is extremely ambitious, so take that there plain with'a grain'a soult! hehe.

Some major overhauls happened here! I spent what felt like months, updating this very website, to have this art deco feel, which I LOVED doing! I, of course, planned it out on paper, because I find that if I plan these things out, before I sit down, the speed at which I work, is INSANE! It's soooooooooooo much faster if you're prepared! There is no comparison! If you don't, you often go: "What else was it that I needed to do?... no... everything looks fine here..." hahaha.

This also included a new business card that I can send via whatsapp and other messaging apps, because no in-person contact, remember, hehe.

I don't recall if it was this year, or end of last year, so I'm adding it here too, but I changed my portfolio site, to become my voice over site. THAT THING WAS UGLY! Understandably so, cause built in a day, but man that thing was playing my last nerve! It took some time, but a few months ago, I finally redesigned it with a blue ocean and book color scheme and it is probably my fav site atm!! Another VO did say that it's better if my home page sample doesn't autoplay, so I did deactivate it from doing so - no difference in attention though... Don't know if there is a difference in viewership, because I don't have any access to any analytics for any of my sites - I still recommend my host, Yola, with a smile, because their service to me, over the years, has been NOTHING SHORT OF AWESOME!!!!! If you're looking for a FANTASTIC and STABLE host - Yola's your baby! Not sponsored, they really are that good! Check out my pricing page if you'd like me to build your site for you.

Anyway, back on point - my VO site is so nice! I cannot thank the LORD enough for what it is today!!!!! It's beyond stunning!! Hope you love it too - just make sure you stop by the contact page! ;)

And finally, this one is more of a reworking - and that is my Bible Animations Website. Also an incredible site, this one needed a little modernizing, not so much a redesign! I think it looks great for the purpose it serves - it just works. So all I did was make it so that all the content isn't just this strange island in the middle of the screen and tried to make the poster-vibe in the middle for Exodus, something you don't see everyday. You know, just add some flair! I think it looks great and is better than it was before.

The only sites that didn't get full makeovers, are the ones I haven't published yet, but if I'm honest, they have an antique feel atm, and they definitely need to change too, haha.

Plans:

No analytics or backend access, prevents me from using google for analytics and consequently placing ads on my site, or using it as a sponsored thing to contact my audience, is not gonna happen unless companies agree to it - which is strange, since you pay per 1000 views, generally. I'm very open to sponsorships though. If you've ever wanted to approach me, but was concerned that I'd tell you to take a hike, because I'm a Christian, yeah, that's not true, HAHA! I am a Christian, but I'm not some sort of state-funded monk that doesn't need an income, hahaha. Wouldn't that be lovely!? hahaha.

Don't know if something like that even exists, just making a point.

So I'd REALLY like to find ways to exploit my websites more for business, but as it stands, this is pretty much all I can think of. So drastic redesign this year, was a FANTASTIC thing to do, worth the effort and I love the results!

Again, you can check them out here - they all open in new tabs.

Something I miss a lot is making tutorials by the dozens. LOVED doing it at the height of my uploads. At one point, it was averaged at about 1 a week, if memory serves, and that's a lot! 

After slowing down for many reasons, including Exodus, I made a new video about interpreting a tutorial and wondered, whether the way I was teaching, was the most effective way. It was good in the sense that it gets you the result, but I've found that teaching the tool, using a specific result, will be a much better way of going, but I'm not 100% sure how to approach it.

So far, for the two tutorials I got up this year, I have tried to explain why I do things the way I do them, to make sure that you don't end up just doing it, because I did it. That's not effective teaching. You have to "get it" so to speak. Otherwise, video gone, you are left without any idea. If you know the tools, you'd be able to figure it out, and that is called "Transfer". There was a successful passing on of the knowledge, because understanding.

Adoration Sparkle here:

Post Outlines here:

Beyond this, I got to upload soooooo many videos for my CGT stuff! So much fun to make!! My fav is for the axe, which got it's own freakin' cartoon, hehe:

I've found that some of my fav singers are on social media and I slowly started reaching out to them, commenting and interacting. I'm a very shy person, so I don't really do that sort of thing, but it's been huge to be able to connect more and just step out more. In fact, I told one of them I'd love to sing a duet with them at some point and I even got a like on that - that's awesome! Does that mean I will, I have no idea - praying for it! haha. Not gonna say who, cause I don't want you hounding them, hehehe; they have to want to, it shouldn't be forced.

I know you guys are on my side and I do my best to be on yours too.

Outside of this, I try to contact people more whenever I think about them - usually a very good reason and good timing to contact people.

And of course, I still try to go the extra mile to make my service good, which leads to the next item on the list.

Now, some of you can think this is silly, but I've gotten some really odd requests for quotes and seriously, people have no idea what these things cost, because they are so specialized. Some people think they're gonna get a full length Pixar level animation for the price of a business card and it's ridiculous... And they're gonna get it even sooner too, since there is no printing, LOL.

As extreme of an example that is, that is what it feels like, when you give someone a low quote and they wanna pass out, because they feel it's too expensive... Part of the problem is that people don't want to tell you what they actually need, or want, but they want a quote. I'm gonna quote you what I feel it may be worth, but it's not going to reflect the real thing in all honesty...

So, to remove the guess work and to help people know what these things cost, I created a full page with all my pricing on it, as generalized as possible, so that if you have an idea for something and you need it made, you should be able to at least get a ball-park figure in mind, because you are now much more informed. If you feel like my page is too vague, I really invite you to find out from other sites how much these things are, so that you can be informed and approach people with a realistic expectation. You get your results faster and you have the power of bargaining on your side and not to be taken advantage, you know how much things SHOULD be costing - not just what people are asking, because let's be honest, some people are asking crazy amounts for basic things, hehe. And you know what I mean - markup that can take you to the moon and back.

Now, this is a bit of a contentious issue for some people, because it kinda mechanizes a system and does increase the need for algorithms and things to keep content relevant. As people we always tend to want to work the system to take the path of least resistance - it's in our nature. HOWEVER, adding #loadshedding, during stage 2, to your couch advertisements to make it surface, isn't a good strategy, hehehe. People will most likely just resent you for it, because it's not relevant.

My strategy was something that I based on something I've heard so many times - don't know if it's true, but eh, just kinda had to try - the 80-20 rule.

Basically, it says that, in sales, 80% of your sales, comes from 20% of your customers. Or, 80% of your profits, come from 20% of your inventory, etc. It's not a law, but is a common assertion based on common occurrence that most comes from the lesser. Because every industry differs, I feel like this is a good starting point, so I based it around this, as close as possible.

This meant that, for my CGT stuff, I'd only post 1x a week and let everything else be free resources, reasoning that "80%" free stuff, will make "20%" sales stuff, more attractive and a more likely choice.

Yeah, it only yielded 1 sale so far, hahaha. Has been very effective with marketing though!

LOVE THAT! If you wanna know if you can afford what I do, check out my pricing page and ask. I'm not like some people that will bite your head off if you ask for a quote - you're more than welcome to ask! ;)

For graphics/animation related stuff:

For Voice stuff:

I thought I had pretty much done all that I can, ito tools, but I was surprised by the LORD with quite a few! hehe. So, this is a non-comprehensive list of all the new ones I got to develop or build:

 - Adoration Sparkles

 - Star Sparkles

(modern)

(fancy and classic)

 - Motion Smear

(COMING SOON)

 - Post Outlines

 - Hold Frame

(Visible in the axe cartoon)

 - Seamless Procedural Noise UV based

 - Color version of my Black and White film nodegroup

 - Anime Underwater Atmosphere

I also have a few that are unmentioned, because they're just not ready, tbh...

All-in-all WHAT A YEAR! I need a nap, HAHAHA!

Seriously though, I'm super grateful for everything accomplished and that I could share the journey with you guys!! It's meant the world to me and I hope we get to continue on this journey as it grows, turns, twists and changes!

GOD bless you! Have a very merry Christmas and a blessed new year!

JESUS loves you and I appreciate you!