Hey guys

Before we begin, I’m gonna set up the post timeline because my headspace is different than it was a whole year before 

Part 1 (the Comic)

Part 2 (the Dev Log)

And now we’re at Part 3…the aftermath

In the Spring of 2021, my university was still doing classes online, so I had wide gaps of time where nothing was happening. To kill time I would scroll the internet & make art while listening to rejected/unused songs from renaissance era Disney films & songs from Animaniacs. This was pretty much a big influence on the creation of Future Faith. That May, I drew a quick sketch after a Wednesday church service of an idea, and never thought about the idea for the rest of the year. 

The following year, I felt a jabbing feeling that I should make this idea a reality. The thoughts and ideas came to me without me trying. I had an online class where I was alone in a lab room, so I’d spend that time mumbling lyrics to songs and writing ideas. I talked to a friend who does ministry but also music on the side for advice, I prayed with my mom about it, and talked to a pastor at my church bible study. After the 3rd moment, some guy in the room, who stayed anonymous, gave to the pastor to give to me…$1000 dollars. Once that came to be…I knew this series needed to be made….

Smash cut to late 2023, I’ve finished my final college project and am taking a break. I believed that once this break was over, I’d plow through episode 1 within 8-12 months….it took me 1 year and 11 months

This was a race to the finish line

But it wasn’t a sprint, it was a marathon. Now there were moments when I accelerated, and moments where I slowed down. Moments where I was dry heaving, and moments where I had a runner’s high. But anytime I stopped, either by my own choice or something making me trip, it caused a delay

I’m not gonna repeat myself from the dev log, life got in the way. There’s a bit of this regret paradox. I feel like I announced the project too early in development. I made a teaser before I had any footage, shared my proof of concept publicly, made a dev log video, and then an announcement video all when I was still in between the storyboard, design and rough animation process. And not to mention the “attempt” at a website, failed commissioned 3D character rig and promotional comic too. It was an immature decision that created way more speculation and expectation towards myself. Those expectations led to extreme work ethics followed by extreme mistakes, disappointments, and burnout. Yet, I inspired a lot of people from friends to in-laws to do their own thing. After certain let downs, people came to me asking to help. And I still get a lot of recognition from people in my IRL life. If I would’ve waited until I was “ready”, I’d never start. But also, I’m now on the other side with mixed feelings. Much of the critiques I've received from FF episode 1 are critiques I've already had for the last 5 months. 2024 was about making this the best it could be...2025 was about getting it done as soon as possible perfectionism be danged

Now, in this marathon, there were moments where I had to slow down to get water. Those were moments of recovery. Without that recovery, I could’ve had a heat flash or asthma attack. I would’ve burned myself out so bad that it would take longer to recover. I wanted to finish this earlier, for real I did, but I didn’t have the training or skills I thought I had for this run.

Getting inspiration and critiques was a slow process. I sent the rough boards to 3 college professors who had encouraged me in my later campus years, but they all emailed me back much later, as they all have families and work. I shared it with some friends but didn’t really get feedback beyond, “this looks cool”. Only once I got closer to the finish line did I figure out who I could get critiques from.

After 3 years in the community, indie animation is currently unstable. It's ok to make original stuff, but too many people bite off more than they can chew. We see Amazing Digital Circus or Helluva Boss and go “lemme do that” yet we’ve never made a cartoon or one that’s over 5 minutes. We expect to be at Glitch or Spindlehorse’s 30 min scale as a newcomer. 

Indie animation culture is very clique-heavy. I got rejected by indie groups with no explanation. And the ones I got into lost steam cuz the leaders weren’t stable planners. Not good that many of these people are under 20 or have personal problems. Toon Hive had a whole thing where they’d promise to repost your indie toon/post. TH grew very biased and would ignore people. I tried asking the account via a discord server and radio silence. Turns out the leader of it isn’t as mature as I thought.

Glitch and Spindlehorse aren’t indie; they're just financed through alternative means like NFB Canada. Naïve people like me got very excited by these projects but overlooked why they look so good with no critique. Like my friends, too many indie people just liked whatever I shared. Close to the end of production, I really received painfully honest feedback on private servers with Newgrounds people . Outside of one “stab yourself with a pencil”, a lot of these guys were chill enough to be real with me over what they liked and what they didn’t. And that influenced more of my goals. Not just that, but the experience pool was much stronger. Most of them are 3-7 years younger than me, making multiple 5-11 minute cartoons. While I was pulling my hair out in college learning computer science, they were in middle/high-school making back to back cartoons and learning from them. I was inspired by how farther they were than me. And that alone encouraged me to get better

People say “Newgrounds had that white boy stink” when really if you have thick skin, you can navigate the stink and see an authenticity and honesty that isn’t there with the indie crowds I’ve been in. So that’s why I’m gonna be moving away from the “indie animation” clique. I’ll still be tagging my stuff as indie for algorithm /viewer sake, but my future work is gonna be focused a lot on NG and TikTok.

That’s the thing about running one’s first or second marathon, you aren’t like the veterans who can run it in a tiny time frame, but you’re moving away from the brand new rookie status. Again, you’re still not where the multi-year vets or prodigies are, and it can feel discouraging. Still, you finished something that most people could never do.

Being an upper novice-low intermediate, you think you’re ready for the next phase, and you probably are, but you’re going to experience loads of learning moments that are painful. Experiences are free, but the price is deep. I learned so much from just investing time, money, and energy into this project, more lessons learned than in my 3-4 years in an animation program. But I never wanna feel the pain I felt ever again

I’m gonna be taking a half year break from public art/animation. I started production on ep 1 at age 23, now I’m 25. 1 yr and 11 months of working doesn’t help the brain stay calm, so I need to take time to refocus and relax. I’ll be taking time to see what I want the 2nd half of my 20’s to look like, alongside my animation goals. Future Faith will be on hiatus for over a year, as the spark of inspiration isn’t there right now. During this period, I’ll be developing a new project that's relevant to my current headspace. One that’s lower stakes, lower budget, and faster to make. That way I can actually engage with an audience consistently. I’ve decided, unlike FF, to not make any teaser trailers or promote it before release. I’m gonna be pretending like I’m a brand new animator making my first cartoon again, so it’ll just be coming out when it comes out. 

Like any actual marathon runner, you’re not gonna just go to your next marathon the following day, week, or month. You gotta recharge, eat, stretch, and maybe even train for the next marathon. I decided the end of ep 1 pivot in February, when I was still in the thick of it. I wanted to run my next marathon sooner, but I might just fall apart without taking a break and preparing.

Apostle Paul to the church of Philippi in AD 61 said it best, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14; NIV)

I really appreciate the real ones, the ones who’ve been here since the start. The viewership and reception here has outshined Youtube, TikTok, and Instagram by a country mile. To sidetrack a little, Future Faith was influenced by the peak era of TikTok (2020-2021) when dances and duets were popular. But once development/production started, the app shifted gears. In order for a house to be built, it must have a foundation. I thought FF could be the foundation, but it isn’t stable enough. I have a new job that I’m gonna have to commit to for funding, so I can’t make another cartoon at the same scope as ep 1. 

I think the fact that I was on NG's front page for a week & both NG and TT audiences resonated with this more than YT motivates my pivot, as teens-20 somethings are hungry for animation they connect to. I think making other stuff will be needed for funding and preparing episode 2 as well. Gaining new skills, new relationships, and new tools through lower budget work is gonna help episode 2 be eons above episode 1

Here’s looking to 2026