Future videos, personal goals, and my work / life balance

So I took last month off from posting a video on the main channel, so I could have a little break. Meeting the deadlines for the sponsorships has been tough because I struggle to make videos that don’t require a ton of work, since I started doing character animation and putting music in each video. I like the results, but it takes a lot time. So I had some time to think about future videos, goals, and my issue with work / life balance.

As far as future videos go, I have a list of solid ideas.

• Mii Maker in geometry nodes
• character gauntlet
• 2d style 3d characters
• materials for impatient people
• lego anything (the sequel)

For the next video, I’m planning on recreating the Mii Maker with geometry nodes and releasing it as a free product. It should be free because I don’t want any risk of getting in trouble with Nintendo, it will also be good for publicity and I can always make a separate paid version that uses the same system but has original assets. It should be pretty fun, I have been wanting to make a character creator for a long time and this a good excuse.

The character gauntlet video would be for story practice basically. I would come up with a bunch of character attributes, aspects, and details to make little backstories and then pick my favorite. Then I would sketch them, pick my favorite from those. Model them, pick my fav, and then rig them. So every step I’m basically narrowing the options until the end where I have a rigged version of my favorite character. I think as far as the narrowing down process, I’ll probably try to get people involved, either streaming or with polls. It’s nice to include the community and it could also make the video more fun. I also know that whatever “wins” will not be everyone’s favorite, and I like the idea of people in the comments demanding justice for their favorite ideas.

2d style 3d characters would be about techniques in 2d animation that I like and trying to recreate them in Blender. So things like smear frames, duplicating limbs, character models that change depending on certain angles or circumstances, and probably other rigging ideas, like mouths that stick off the edge of the character’s head. I know this one will take a lot of experimenting and time to make the way I want, but it will be great practice and a good proof-of-concept.

Materials for impatient people, is just like the other “impatient” videos, so it’d be a crash course in a lot of the concepts that go into making materials. Tons of tips and whatnot. This is another that would be a lot of work because its a very dense topic and I’d have to decide what is worth talking about.

And last I have another Lego video. The mesh to volume node changing in 4.0 has make part of the last video outdated and people are confused in the comments. It’s also my most viewed video, so it would probably do well if I made it again. The problems is that people want a lot of things that I am still struggling to figure out, like adding bricks of different sizes and shapes. Voxels are easy, multiple sizes makes it very complicated, so I’d have to put a lot of work in and probably reach out to some node experts for help. I really don’t want to remake a video unless I have something new to say, even though I see other YouTuber’s doing it successfully all the time.

I have plenty of other ideas but these are the top contenders for the next few months.

Goals

I put a lot of time into making educational videos, and I consider myself very lucky, but I haven’t been feeling creatively fulfilled. I’d like more time to work on story telling so I can make some animated shorts, but I have to figure out how to make that work. My best idea right now is to make YouTube videos that enable me to do the things I want, like the character gauntlet idea would be a way to make content out of story practice, and my wacky tiktok motion was a way of practicing character animation.

I have been using Eevee for all my animated scenes and I’d like to use cycles occasionally but the time required feels like too much since I’m usually meeting deadlines at the last minute. I’ve been looking for a new GPU and actually bought a 4090, but then had to cancel it because they didn’t actually have it in stock and it was on back-order indefinitely, but they didn’t tell me this until I had purchased it. I got my money back but it was pretty annoying, so I’m still on the lookout for a 4090 that is as close to MSRP as possible.

I also really want to get better at making music. I have been casually learning instruments my whole life, but I’m really not good at composing music on the computer. I bought Flstudio recently and have been slowly trying to learn it. It would be cool if I could eventually make original music for my videos.

Work / Life Balance

Depression runs in my family. When I was little, my mom had some severe bouts of depression which is unfortunate, but it helped me understand some ways to cope earlier than a lot of people. I always manage to push through by sticking to my usual habits but my lifestyle has lead me to circumstances and are amplifying certain feelings. Basically, I have been having a really hard time staying motivated. I get depressed sometimes and just sit around, and thinking about starting new tasks makes me feel anxious. I have a hard time coming up with ideas because since I started doing YouTube full time, I kind of stopped leaving the house except for grocery shopping and the occasional walk. I made a doctor’s appointment for the first time in a few years, and I’m planning on finding a therapist, since I haven’t really done therapy before. I did a session once but my insurance didn’t cover it and I couldn’t afford it at the time.

I think making my life more eventful and getting out of the house more might help with a lot of this. I feel like I should be able to make at least 1 video per month but if I have to slow down for my own wellbeing then I will. I might try to get a laptop so I can work at the library or a cafe occasionally. I’m looking into piano lesson, which would help me get better at music like I mentioned. And there is a rock climbing gym nearby that I might check out. I am also trying to meet people in person more often. Hopefully some of these things help me get out of my creative rut.

So yeah, these are things I thought about during my break. Whether you read this far or not, just know that I am extremely grateful to be able to support myself by making videos and whatnot.

Thanks!