Homework Release date + Production status
over 3 years ago – Tue, Sep 20, 2022 at 11:22:32 PM

Hey everyone! 

As you probably know, I had an update planned for a few weeks ago that was delayed.  I have a lot to share in this post, so I'll try to make it in a more schematic way so it's easier to read.

What's the current state of production?

The animation is completed. In 3d production, you have the following stages of production (without getting too much into detail):

• Script
• Character design
• Storyboard 
• Character Modeling
• Character Rigging
•  Animatic - 2d somewhat animated version of the short film. 
•  Animation Layout - Using the actual 3d models, you define the overall location size and camera positions, etc. 
• Location modeling
• Animation Blocking
• Animation Splining
• Lighting - We're here. 
• FX - Pencil writing on the table, particles, etc.
• Editing
• Compositing
• Sound Mixing
•  Music - Developed in parallel. Already being worked on as well.

There are many other phases in-between, but I tried to keep it simple. All those phases need to be repeated for each shot. Homework currently has 173 shots. 

In terms of workload, the animation is probably the one that takes more time to do, out of the remaining phases, they're shorter in terms of work hours, but the most important in terms of quality. 

Production state

As I've mentioned in previous posts, this is a bigger project than for the one you signed up. 

Original homework was planned to be developed by me alone, doing everything from script to music. It had a tiny budget (Kickstarter funds minus rewards costs minus taxes), so that was the only option. The duration was also only 6 minutes, etc. 

Naolito is no longer just Nacho, I have an amazing team of 14 (and growing) artists working with me. The budget for Homework is around x20 the original budget, it's way longer and of much better quality. 

You could think that a bigger team would mean the production going faster, but that's not the case for two reasons, aside of the increase of duration and quality:

• When you're working alone, you can skip many unnecessary steps. You could even do it without a script because it's all in your head, that's the way I worked up until Homework. When you get a team, you need every single step of the production to be perfectly defined so the production doesn't derail, you need to create tools and documentation for them to be able to replicate Naolito style, etc.
•  Funding - I don't have external funding for Homework, so there's only one solution to get funds to pay for that team. As an animation studio, we've created animation for video game companies, Netflix, an European government (under NDA yet), and many other smaller clients. While all that brings the necessary funds to keep making Homework bigger, it also takes time from us. 

Thanks to all that, Homework is no longer what you initially signed up for, but something way bigger.

Miscellanea

• I've been offered (twice) to create a Homework TV-Show, the first time, by a Spanish production company, and the second time, last month, by one of the main networks in the US with global reach. I've rejected both for the same reason: They wanted full IP rights. That's not an option for me, I believe blindly in the potential of what we're creating.
• I'll be a speaker at Blender Conference in Amsterdam in October where I'll talk about Homework and how it helped me create an animation studio. This can be really important for Homework and Naolito, as the audience member there are mostly producers and industry members. I'll also share this talk online.
• We're developing a Homework game! I'm building Homework not just as a short film but as an IP to be developed for many years.

Why don't we get updates more often?

This is a legitimate question, I need to improve in this area.  Some of the reasons why they've been delayed in the past:

•  Work overload - The most frequent, working on several productions in addition to Homework is as time-consuming as it sounds, so if I have some extra time, I dedicate it to production time instead of communication. I even halted all my social media content (I need to change this too) just to be able to focus on production.
•  Avoiding redundant content - The animation stage lasted months, so posting something like "We keep working on animation" seemed pointless. I want posts to contain relevant information.
•  Negotiations - I've been negotiating for the last TV-Show offer for two months, updating during that process is tricky as things can change from day to day.

In any case, this is something that I really intend to improve as you're an essential part of why Homework even exists. In the meantime, you can join my Discord server where I work with my team and me share sneak peeks from time to time. 

Naolito on Discord

Launch plans

Homework initial runtime: 6 minutes.

Homework current runtime: Three 6 minutes episodes. 

Episode 1 planned launch for backers: End of October, aligned with my Blender conference talk.  40-45 days from now.

Episode 2-3: tbd. The animation is complete, so it won't take long after episode 1 is released.

WHY EPISODES

Episodes will be edited back to a 14-15 minute short film format once all episodes are completed. The short-film version will be the one distributed at festivals, with physical rewards, etc.  Episodes are created for:

•  Backers: You'll get to enjoy Homework without needing to wait until all 3 episodes are complete. Also, the short has really good cliffhangers at the end of each episode, so it can add enjoyment to the experience.
•  Online Consumption: After going through festivals, an episodic format is a better fit to share online.

Episode 1 will also include a sneak peek of episodes 2 and 3 :)

Refunds

I am aware that time could be a big factor in the support you’ve given to me, so please feel free to contact me at [email protected] and we'll be happy to help you with the withdrawal of your pledge, in case you prefer to have it.

 I absolutely understand if that's your case. But if you're still happy with what we're doing, I can't thank you enough for that and I promise you won't regret it.  I think that while you signed up for something different, we're creating something much bigger so hopefully, we make the wait worth it.

Homework Teaser Trailer!
about 4 years ago – Thu, Mar 24, 2022 at 02:44:40 AM

Hi Everyone! 

First of all, I want to thank you all for your patience, it's been too long since my last update, so this one will be a juicy post, I'll tell you more about what's happening behind the scenes, but first, here's the teaser trailer!

DELAY

It's obvious that the production of the short film is taking way longer than expected, and there are several reasons for it, mostly good ones.

Working alone vs Building an animation studio

As you know, this project was initially planned as a solo project. I was used to working alone, and that means, you can improvise a lot more, you move way faster, but also means that the quality you'll get is more limited. When you build an animation studio, there's so much I didn't plan at the time, you now need to factor for feedback times, retakes (because your team can't always read your time), hiring talented individuals, developing a pipeline so everyone can collaborate effectively while keeping my creative vision, etc.  

I now have a team of 12 amazing artists, animators, modelers, concept artists, who are helping me to bring Homework to life, and while I totally underestimated the complexity of building a team like that, it definitely was the right decision for the project and my career, I can't wait to show you more of the amazing animations we're creating.

Funding

As you can imagine, building a team of that size (and growing) is not cheap, and even if the Kickstarter campaign was successful, there's no way I could have built it with that alone. Thanks to Homework, and to focusing completely on animation, I received a lot of opportunities to create content for big brands and influencers, which while slowing the production, also allowed me to invest all proceeds in the studio and the short film, allowing for a bigger project in the end.

Current Production

That said, the production is at full steam now, I'll be sharing updates often (I'm right now working on another teaser featuring other characters from the short film), and more behind the scenes content, hopefully without spoiling too much about the story :)

I am aware that time could be a big factor regarding the support you’ve given to me, so please feel free to contact me at [email protected] and we'll be happy to help you with the withdrawal of your pledge, in case you prefer to have it. I absolutely understand if that's your case. But if you're happy to wait, I can't thank you enough for that and I promise you won't regret it.  I think that while you signed up for something different, we're creating something much bigger so hopefully, we make the wait be worth the wait.

Festivals presentation + Meet new characters + Animatic + Production update!
over 4 years ago – Thu, Sep 16, 2021 at 10:19:36 AM

Hi everyone!

I hope you are well. It's been a long time but I think it was worth it! As you know, at some point I decided that this project deserved to go much bigger, so after the announcement I did a few months ago, here's a list of updates!

Duration

The current estimated duration of Homework will be 12 minutes, at a minimum (initially, I announced when I launched the campaign that the runtime was estimated to be 6 minutes). Since I initially planned it as a solo project, there were many scenes that needed to be cut, but fortunately, my growth in the 3d space and having more time of production has allowed me to up the production values so the creativity will determine what goes into the screen, and nothing else.

While 95% of Homework is in 3d, I also plan to include a sequence inside the mind of the pencil, and since he's a pencil, that's all traditionally animated in 2d :) I'm really excited for this scene.

In the following video, you'll see how the characters will look and some cuts from the Animatics. Animatics are low-quality hand-drawn previsualizations of the short film used to plan the production, timings, music, etc.  While the animatic for the short film is finished, I only included scenes from the first third of the short film to avoid spoilers.

Now that I've seen the whole short film thanks to the animatic, I'm confident to say that I have a truly special story here, with a very satisfying ending too.

Music from the video is a placeholder.

Distribution

In the meantime, I'm also talking about the project at festivals and other events to bring the production to the public eye.  Even if the project is not yet finished, it's getting a lot of interest, and I've been approached by some big players from the industry who are interested in Homework IP.  In addition to that, We're dedicating all the resources necessary to distribute the short film to as many film festivals as possible once we finish the production.

Characters

All characters were remade from scratch, in order to improve the way they looked, and they're finally ready! We are on our way to rig all the characters so they can mode and have all kinds of expressions, and once rigging is done animation will start right away, as everything else is ready.

And that's all for today! As I said in my latest update, I'm aware that the project is getting much bigger than the initial approach, so it's also taking longer than announced. If time was a big factor in why you supported this project, please feel free to contact me at [email protected] and we'll be happy to help you with the withdrawal of your pledge, I absolutely understand if that's your case. But if you're happy to wait, I can't thank you enough for that and I promise you won't regret it. 

My current estimation to finish the short film is late November, but I've been overly optimistic before so please take it with a grain of salt. While I can't know for sure the exact date when it will be finished, I know for sure that when it's done, I'll deliver much more than what you signed up for.

Thanks everyone for your incredible support and patience!

Best.

Nacho.

Production Update + Naolito Animation Studio + Hiring + Deadline + new images + ...
about 5 years ago – Sat, May 15, 2021 at 08:22:35 PM

Hey Everyone, Nacho here! I just wanted to give you a production update on the short film, there's a lot going on that I'd like to share with you.

If you follow me on Instagram, you probably have seen that I'm hiring 3d artists. Why is that? When you supported this project, you changed my life, and Naolito as a unipersonal project, forever. Initially, this was a solo project, and while I received a lot of messages of people offering to help me in the creation of the short film, I couldn't afford to pay any extra artists, as all Kickstarter funding would go directly into rendering farms, software and reward products.  

3 months later, we're in a very different, and better, situation. Thanks to this project, and thanks to your support, aside from gaining some weight from working non-stop, my 3d work got a lot of attention, I got 3d gigs, I got some crazy offers, and most importantly, I got additional funding for additional projects and the short film. So even if was already playing with the idea of hiring some additional help to be able to keep pushing all my projects, this new situation allows me to think bigger, so Naolito is becoming a full-fledged animation studio.

Obviously, this has a direct impact on my initial planning for the short film. A solo project is more streamlined, and while the final result is probably not as good, production times are much shorter. With a big team working on it, production times get much longer, you need a lot more coordination, you can't overwork your staff the way I do it with myself, etc. But this also means that the quality level you can achieve is on a whole different level.

In this situation I had 2 options, I could stick to the announced deadlines (or close to that), or I could go all-in with the short film and pour all my resources from secondary projects into it, but also give us as a new team freedom to take as long as we needed to finish it.  And I decided to go with the second version. We're reworking the characters, we're creating additional locations and I'm also expanding the script. This will obviously have an impact on the final deadline of the short film. Since we're still forming the team, this will probably cost us 2-3 additional months of work, but it's soon to make predictions on that field.

This short film is a unique opportunity for me as an artist, and if we do everything right, a perfect stepping stone for us as a Studio to be able to convert my ideas into a tv-show or even a film. Working at an animation studio was always my dream, I just never expected I would work on my own animation studio.

I know it can be frustrating to see the project delayed again, and if time was a big factor in why you supported this project, please feel free to contact me at [email protected] and we'll be happy to help you with the withdrawal of your pledge, I absolutely understand if that's your case. But if you're happy to wait, I can't thank you enough for that and I promise you won't regret it.

Also, we're still hiring, so if you're an artist (2d, 3d, writer...), make sure to fill in the following form:
https://forms.gle/paxYNsRzt28kxCEe9

Now, some images of the world we're creating :)

Best,

Nacho

💌 Some project and deadline updates
about 5 years ago – Sat, May 08, 2021 at 09:17:58 PM

Hello everyone!

I stop by to show you some 'Homework' updates. We're going crazy with the size of the short-film, in addition to building a team we're trying to get more and better-looking characters. We're also working with an amazing composer, I can't wait to be able to share with you the beautiful music he created. 

Not working alone means that everything takes a bit more time,  so I would like to announce that the delivery of the short film, as well as the physical products, will be delayed for a few weeks: instead of shipping at the end of May, the rewards will probably start shipping at the end of June/early July.

I think that it's important we go as big as possible, even if that means that we need to wait a bit more to enjoy the film. 

I'm so excited about this, thank you for making it possible!

Without further ado, I hope you enjoy these advances that I am sending you. I will show you new things very soon!

Best,

Nacho.