Comfort Projects (Patreon)

Lately I've been thinking of certain things as "comfort" projects - things I can work on for the sheer enjoyment of it, rather than setting schedules and deadlines, or having any other sense of obligation. Winds of Change is one such project, but that one has been sidelined for weeks, and will be for weeks more. In the meantime, I need something else I can work on aimlessly...

Julie Bruin was getting a fair amount of attention back in 2020, and one thing that came up was the little silhouetted dance loop that introduced her. After some discussion, I'd decided to try to fill in the blanks. It didn't take very long, but work kept me from taking it any further. Even once my schedule had cleared, I was less motivated to work on it, in part because Photoshop is not the best software for animation, and I'd grown sick of being tethered to my computer.

More recently, I've been interested in getting back into 2D animation, but still don't want to be tethered to my PC. I'd much rather work from my Android tablet. Other artists pointed me to Rough Animator, which so far looks like it might be exactly what I was looking for - not too complicated, while also not being too simple.

Everything I'd previously done in Photoshop has already been ported over, frame by frame, layer by layer. Next I'll need to import some reference, mostly for her face, and then I can start tinkering.

A key thing to keep in mind, is that this is not a project that is meant to be finished any time soon, if at all. Given some of the issues I've been having lately, that are difficult for me to even talk about... If nothing else, this project could be considered self-prescribed therapy.