Hello! Just writing a quick update after uploading all of my animations here. I didn't actually know that NG restricted anim uploads to 2 per day so the Halloween animation had to be delayed til yesterday. To be honest though, personally the Halloween animation I put in more heart and effort into it than the Jane one, so it's a bit of a shame that it's not the one to be featured on the daily list, oh well, diamond in the rough. I tried to change up the thumbnail and titles since it didn't perform well on my YT either, but too late. I also don't know if it's like bad form to spam my work here, but besides some 10 second commercial teasers I did for Phase-Connect and PixelLink, those 3 animations are the entirety of my animation catalogue for now~ There's another animation commission I have in the works which should be finished in December and out in early January hopefully, same production style and I own the rights to post the animation on my channels.

Now addressing some internal thoughts, the Zenless animations are commissioned commercial work, yes, but the production pipeline used is the same as We Love Cold War!! and personally I believe that you can put effort and pride into commercial work even if it's not your original IP. Since my workflow is that "I do everything myself" I do have alot of pride and attachment to my work in this regard... I would implore people to check the Halloween animation out even if you're unfamiliar with the game, tbh I was too until Mihoyo contacted me for work lol. The next animation commission I'm working on isn't for ZZZ or Hoyoverse though, different gaming company, but still a similar style so we'll see~

I've been having fun posting and seeing people's reactions to my work on here, other social media sites it gets way too cluttered and busy... So yeah, I'll probably be slowly uploading my backlog of illustrations on here + any future stuff. I am personally still a bit mentally burnt over the failure of the Halloween animation because it really was something I grinded away on for every day for like 2 months, and it did not do well on Youtube or Twitter or here on Newgrounds lol... There's some more context that I'm reluctant to share right now since I do want to still potentially work with them in the future, but I am still a bit upset with how muted the post-release reaction and support from the client was back then.

I think in retrospect, the theming for the Jane animation suited my niche better, but I really tried my best with the Halloween animation to add as many cool action shots and I did so much in-depth research on the characters and tried my best to create a charming fun animation. Even though I poured so much sweat and tears into polishing each sequence and going overboard with the whole three-act structure of the animation, I think ultimately I realized that there are other considerations when it comes to the "appeal" of an animation beyond just technical quality. The theming, the setting, the characters, and what genre you're trying to appeal to.

I've grown alot as an animator since graduating, and the Halloween one was the first animation where I explicitly tried to focus on a more limited and eccentric style of animation inspired by old Gainax shows like Kare Kano or the legendary works of Yoshinori Kanada (there's a few Birth 1984 references in it...) I think when it came to WLCW or the Jane animation, I was more concerned with just doing whatever and throwing filters on stuff, while the Halloween one was very carefully planned out and had a specific style I was going for. But while I am very happy with having pulled off all of these ideas, I think the theming and overall pitch of the animation is maybe just too weird and eccentric to appeal to my usual fanbase. After all, I kept changing the damn title and thumbnail since it was a bit confusing to even explain what it was to people other than "Halloween Spooktacular Grand Prix Rally"

But all and all. I'm rambling and gotta go back to work on my next commission, which is much more neo-noir and less comedic/satirical in tone, there's a few funny parts in it, but hopefully it turns out okay. The reason why I do these commercial gigs is because yeah, it's less risk on my part if it bombs, and I do find enjoyment in the technical side of animation and trying to imprint my creative signature onto said product when I'm given creative freedom. I do plan on returning to my personal projects in 2025, but we'll have to see~

~Nico