Dummy Short & New Merch (July 2025 Update)

Hello patrons,

I have another update post for you all, this time with plenty of new swag to check out!

Animation Progress

We've made considerable progress on both Chapters 2 & 3 of the project, clearing out a dozen rough animated scenes, and even more ink & cleanup. Chapters 1-2 are now both basically done, with Chapter 3 close behind (which only has 20% remaining). The character animation for Gildedguy & Violet are nearly done.

This puts us at ~60% done overall, as we still have the longer, final Chapter 4 and all the backgrounds to do. I feel good about our speed, but I feel that the toughest part of the project is coming up. So I am steeling myself for some intense drawing sessions.

Employing & Enjoying Some 3D

A new addition to our team is BetaPotata, who has offered their services in the three-dimensional department for a particular exterior shot of the dark forest. We had a sort of miniature "try-out" during one of the livestreams, and I seriously considered doing the scene purely in 2D. We would have had to utilize some heavy 2D panning & parallax with static background images OR tediously frame-by-frame the background manually...OR a combination of the two. Frame-by-framing was an attractive option, but didn't leave us with a ton of flexibility. You really only have one good chance to execute it correctly, since additional attempts are costly (time & money-wise).

That leaves us with 3D, which I grow more curious-er and curious-er of every season. I find the tasteful use of 3D for backgrounds a continuously interesting prospect for our productions. As a part-time game-dev-like developer, I love tweaking lighting, fog, and other environmental widgets until it's just right. It appeals to the world-builder in me.

So far I'm impressed with BetaPotata's modelling and shading work. Take a gander for yourself!

Dummy Plush Skit is Out n' About!

Another project that we've successfully finished and released was the Dummy skit, featuring Arzon for the YouTooz plush campaign! We had a rapid turnaround on this - the post production, scoring, compositing & backgrounds only took 3 days. I hope you guys enjoyed the light nature of the skit - a nice break from all the fighting of the usual stories. It also feels good to just get something out since Violet vs Dummy was half a year ago.

The YouTooz Dummy Plush is quite large in person - it'll definitely take up some room on your desk. Aside from being accurate to the character, my favorite little feature is the little bells that jingle at the end of jester "ears". It was a special request that we put in with YouTooz!

We'd really appreciate if you ordered one - I say if we manage to sell ~30 more of them, we'd be in a good spot to negotiate for more YouTooz plushes in the future. So be sure to check it out before it's gone in 10 days!

Merch & Icons Galore

As you guys know, I've been secretly working on a new, more Official Merch Shop to solve the issues of the Etsy - and it's now available for you to peruse!

https://shop.gildedguy.com

This is just the beginning of the shop, as I will slowly be growing the selection alongside major project releases. I believe this storefront will be more maintainable going forward. We've already gotten several orders (with encouraging messages attached), which I am super grateful for.

(NOTE: The Etsy Shop will remain open until all our remaining stock is either sold or re-listed on the Official Shop).

During the launch, I took on some complimentary icon drawings for buyers that day. We ended up with an impressive collection of 30 wonderful supporters and their personas crowding the overlay!

Speaking of - the livestream overlay has now been fully upgraded to show off Merch-Purchase, and Merch-Gifting alerts from the Official Shop. The coding takes a few hours, but it's worth it in my mind. Whenever a buyer supports my art, it makes my day and I want to highlight that in a fun way.

Thanks for checking into this update - I hope to report major progress for the next one.