As of the moment while I am writing this, there are only 8 hours remaining till the end of our crowdfunding campaign. Well, it is getting clear that it is not reaching its goal.
From one side this is sad, as we will be unable to get Nikolai Mamashev to work on animation for the new episode “from start to finish”. On the other hand, I love to say that “any amount is infinitely greater than zero”. I am happy to see that there are people who are really want to see the new episode of Morevna. There are people who support us every day and believe in what we do. This warm feeling is something what matters. Thank you so much for that!
So, you probably already know that – we will continue our work no matter what. With the total amount of $1,632 we have enough funds to cover almost 2,5 months of Nikolai’s work. Well, I can say we can afford exactly 2,5 months – as of missing amount can be covered from our Patreon budget. Since Nikolai started to work on January 16th, we have one full month of his work ahead.
Right now Nikolai is doing final touches to Ivan’s car model and we will publish it under CC-BY license in the coming days. After that Nikolai will start working on the model of Koschei the Deathless – the main villain. This is a second important 3D model that will significantly simplify the animation process for that. We estimate that Nikolai will get the Koschei model done within one month. It will be also published for free download under CC-BY license.
What’s going to be after that? I am not really sure. I will do my best to find other funding options to keep Nikolay in this project after April 1st. One of the important things shown by this crowdfunding campaign – a huge demand for training courses (including our new Blender course for cutout animation). From that point of view it is getting very appealing to invest a significant efforts into producing more courses and extending existing ones. That really could be a way to go.
Well, and even in the worst case (if we will be unable to keep Nikolai), we still have two models made by him – the model of Ivan’s car and the model of Koschei the Deathless. Those two models are very critical components of our production – not only for Episode 4, but also for other episodes. And you also will have the available for download/reuse. So, being sure about skills of Nikolai in 3D modeling and the quality of his work, I can say that even in the worst case we will have a good foundations to continue the animation works by ourselves.
Well, this is all for today. I would like to thank everyone who supported our crowdfunding campaign and our project. In the next few days I will start sending rewards, so please make sure to keep an eye on your mailboxes! ^__^
