FUTURE FAITH IS (NOT) CANCELLED

Or

What I’ve learned after 365 days +3 months of production

So It’s been a long time since I started work on episode 1. A lot has happened during that period. There’s been both wins and losses as well as a lot of skills learned on the project. I heavily anticipated a December 2024 release of episode 1, which was one of the reasons why I made an announcement video in November 2024. When I missed my December deadline, I prepared for a February release. It’s early March and still no FF.  Sadly, I gotta slow down production for a lot of reasons. Some I’m gonna go over, but others are too complicated to explain here. But I really do want to share the things I’ve learned working on this project

Planning is key

It’s so stupid to try and make something off of a vibe. If we’re talking about 1 goofy comic or 1 illustration, sure just jump in. But creating episode 1 to an ongoing series, with a detailed world, multiple settings, and an overarching plot needs to be split up into segments and milestones.

I set up a google sheet calendar where I set up goalposts of things I needed to do across certain days, weeks and months. As well as split up animated shots I needed to do in color codes thanks to this video

Stuff like lore, concept art, prop design, character design, storyboarding, emails, and animation were prepared in a schedule beforehand so that I wouldn’t spend unnecessary extra time on one thing. Despite planning out my work hard, things didn’t work out as expected. You can plan out everything on a document, and things you never expected will still come up

Manage expectations/ expect the unexpected/deadlines

I started production at the start of 2024 with the goal of Christmas time. But around the Summer, my real life commitments and day job slowed down the process. Which I anticipated, that’s why I had a backup plan. The plan was to catch up between August-October regarding animation, but then my mom scheduled a last minute wisdom tooth removal in September. I was in so much pain for 1 day and needed to spend the rest of the week recovering. This alone killed my plans for episode 1 coming out on Christmas, so I decided to push the deadline back to Valentines Day. Which sadly, as you already know, I didn’t make it. All this said, I’m just a guy with a goal, not a multi person studio. If I get hit with bad news, then the project slows down. So I gotta role with the punches, and learn that I can’t do everything alone

Delegate

I see animators like Aaron Long, Worthikids, and PringusDingus do these amazing animated shorts alone and I get inspired. But then I remember that I’ve only been consistently animating for 4 years and college didn’t prepare me for long term animation. In past years I’ve burned myself out from trying to make something large . So regarding that lesson, I decided to look for graphic designers, computer science specialists  and animators to help me out. There was a lot of searching around Discord, Twitter, and emails, as I already have a specific vision and needed to find people who fit that vision. Can’t grab a random freelancer if you have a specific style you’re trying for. I spent an affordable amount of cash on people, and half were reliable while the other half weren't. Which was very disappointing. Because the unreliable were flaky

Drop flaky people

Have you ever heard someone say “oh grow up”? I think it's better to just mature. Growing up seems like trying to fit in with boring rules, but maturing means keeping the good parts of your younger self and getting rid of the bad. Last year, I hired 6 people for Future Faith, but 3 of them were not reliable. Out of those, 2 were very flaky. I learned that many new artists still need to grow up. Only one of the unreliable ones came back to apologize. I’ve forgiven them, but I hope the others are doing well but bridges were burned

2 people I contracted for work, a 3D modeler and a 2D animator, pretty much burned me in the same way. Making a promised effort, coming off as consistent, and then not answering my calls back after more than 2 weeks. I gave them more than 1 chance, and they don’t take it seriously. One of the flaky people’s choices have caused me to have to catch up on lost time as well. As they didn’t carry their half of the bargain .

Some people have asked if they were scam artists, which I say no, because not only did they work with me and send me material, but they have extremely open paper trails and gave me their personal info. The experience of having unreliable contractors taught me that  just because someone has a great portfolio doesn’t mean they have a great personality. 

Now, with all this being said, one of the obvious reasons for slowing down production is that I’m back to being alone on this. I paid every contractor and the ones who weren’t flaky did their part and have moved on. But now I’m out here having to fix the flaky one’s mistakes. 3 months later and I really do have to recover not only mentally, but physically too.

Unpaid crunch is stupid

You probably know in video game culture where the game developers of these AAA games have to make deadline on release and work nonstop and stop sleeping. Having to say goodbye to their loved ones, eat like crap, and barely move their bodies. I knew I was gonna have to crunch but I wasn’t going to hurt myself in the process. I ate healthy, limiting myself only to meat, vegetables, nuts, cheese, and pasta. And I slept at least seven hours, but I still was sitting down on my butt hunched over for at least 3 hours and at most 16. By the time February hit, I was doing all nighters weekly.

If I want to live a long life, I need to understand that this is not efficient beyond 2 months. This is how artists die at 50. As much as I want this project to be a success, my physical health needs to be a priority

Did you know that when a person is comatose or immobile, the nurses have to frequently move them so that the body doesn’t deteriorate? Animating consistently for 2 months did no wonders for my body. I've lost a lot of weight and muscle, my upper neck and spine are sore, and my ankles ache because all I’ve been doing has been animating. I had to make a decision at the end of January that I needed to return to the gym by March no matter what happens. If it wasn’t for my day job involving consistent movement, I would’ve been in a worse place than I am right now.

As you get older, you find out that your habits will affect your physical health one way or another. So either I become the hunchback of Notre Dame, or I have a stroke at 42. So I need to slow down for the meantime. Now, I’m at least thankful that I didn’t just go off of a feeling. Because if I did, I wouldn’t be this far in production 

Feelings are real, but are your feelings placed in reality

There were many days where I woke up not wanting to animate. There were also days where I overslept and had to go straight to my dayjob. Even though I had contractors, their time on Future Faith was limited. So much of this project is counting on me physically, so if I get moody then that’s a whole day lost. Looking back at my schedule, outside of a couple sick days and unexpected life situations, there were few delays based on laziness or a bad mood. This was because I had to fight false emotions with correct ones. Determination, anticipation, discipline, and some pride. Our thoughts can play some tricks on us, and that’s exactly how the enemy wants people like you and me to fail. If we let our knee jerk reaction take over in creative spaces, those moments won’t last. We have to be willing to work on something to get on the finish line, even on sluggish, tired, moody days

Conclusion

It’s been a year and 3 months since episode 1’s production started. And sadly, I have to slow down the production in the meantime. I’m starting a new professional career, as I never got to join the animation industry. Being a college graduate who faced 6 months of unemployment really staggered a lot of potential time to delegate, as I didn't have enough money outside of food, gas, and fees. My current job helped, but could never be enough to live a stable adult life OR fund this series.

This is the honest truth, unless you’re a child or legally a dependent, you can’t just spend everyday working on your passion project. There’s so many real world elements I have to juggle, and making time for this project will be a battle I’m willing to face

 My upcoming job is one opened based on prayers and re-evaluation between 2023-2024, yet it took so long for doors to open and for me to fully commit .If you look at Future Faith’s premise, you know that I’m obviously a Christian. I believe that despite my plans not working in the way I wanted them to, it doesn’t mean this has been a waste. I went through a lot of pain and disappointment, but I see the fruits of my labor. So it makes zero sense to just give up. Yet, it makes a lot of sense to slow production down a bit. I’m sorry for anyone who was anticipating episode 1 to come out soon, but thankfully it’s still happening 

Here’s looking forward to the future of HeyItsJola!