Hey. Just a quick update, RTL 7 scene construction is about half done I think. I can’t say for sure since there are a lot of things in play this time that I either generally don’t do or have never done before; so a lot of things can potentially go wrong and make it take longer, either due to time taken to fix things or to redo them. The only way to know for sure what will work and what won’t is to wait until final renders and see if any horrific problems arise. I should have a fair bit more time later today to work on this and I would like to get base scene construction around 75% done today if possible. So hopefully I will get this done by the end of the week, but be aware that there are unknowns in play this time and it may get delayed again.

In other news, the contest still has a bit under three weeks left, and still could use more entries. The polls are also still low, not even a vote a day so far. I would have thought that the current polls would have drawn more of a reaction, but apparently not.

RE-EDIT 10/20: So I’m a bit behind as per usual, but this is due to me planning to add a few images that I wasn’t originally planning to include. I will see if I can get them to work. Also I likely won’t be able to do any more work on it today due to multiple real life things that needed to be done. (As well as me being in considerable pain again today likely due to me overdoing it in real life.)

UPDATE 10/21: Ok so the original scene construction is finished, but I really want to try and add that other part; possibly even more than just that one, so I am going to try and work on that in the next couple days. (I feel like the set doesn’t have enough sex/variety in it as it is; there is a fair bit of setup/story to this one, at least more than usual.) Hopefully I can get final renders started over the weekend. I think most of these changes are definitely for the best, but we will see how it all works out in final renders, if it even works.

UPDATE 10/24: Other part is about 85% done, should definitely finish it today unless something horrible happens. With luck I may be able to start final renders today as well.

So since I have been looking for ways to improve my work, I recently asked another artist for for feedback; and actually got some very useful ideas. I won’t bother explaining it all now; but just be aware that I plan to try a lot of new and different things for RTL 7 and other future sets. There have always been some things that I did simply to keep things uniform, and/or for utility’s sake; such as the high level of standard lighting, just so that people can see what is going on. (There are tons of 3D renders on DA and the like with lighting so bad, I can’t even tell what is in the image; I wanted to avoid that at all costs.) I intend to try different, “artier” lighting this time, among other ideas; both things that I had planned anyway and ideas I got from this other artist. This could go amazingly well, be horrifically bad, or end up anywhere in between. Personally, I think many of these changes will be for the best though, assuming that I can do it right. It may take a few sets to work out the kinks. One idea of mine in particular is very close to out of my area of expertise/comfort; but I really want to try it if I can get it working right.

Also, the polls could still use more votes and the contest can always use more entries. I have no idea when RTL 7 will get done; I already posted the early preview so there likely won’t be much posted between then and now, except maybe another status update. I plan to do the main set before the mini-set this month for once as well; if only because I am sort of behind schedule. So maybe late next week, we shall see.

UPDATE 10/8: After preliminary testing, the thing I was worried about looks like it will probably actually work; but it’s too early to say for sure. The “fancy” lighting is yielding mixed results so far, but that is part of the reason I never bothered with this before now. Two other things I have planned are also no problem and are definitely happening.

UPDATE 10/9; So after fiddling with the lighting some more, I think I actually have it working pretty well now. This set is on track to be epic and/or my best one yet. Even if it isn’t the biggest or the most complex, I think it will still be the best if all these new ideas continue to work out.

I am doing my best to finish RTL 6 by the end of this month, (the patreon scene preview will likely get bumped again; sorry but it will almost surely be all I can manage to finish RTL 6 this month, if I even can) but unfortunately I am basically back to where I started physically. The medicine only helped as long as it lasted and apparently I can’t use it again and the specialist I saw either can’t or won’t do anything more until I get a scan done. The problem is he didn’t tell me that the first time and now I can’t get any appointments for scans and such for over a week and then I still need another doctors appointment after that sometime to get the results and hopefully some kind of treatment… I may be able to get a scan done later today but that is depending on a great many factors and it will surely cause me a great deal of pain.

Long story short, I hope to finish final renders today and maybe start the postwork if I can hold out long enough. I do not think I can manage another main image set next month if this continues… especially with all the other crap I want to do. I can only hope that something comes up to fix this… it is really starting to wear me down; both physically and spiritually. I am so sick of being in pain almost all the time and stuck in bed and I really want to do other things and work on all this so badly but I just can’t without being in more pain. RTL 6 so far is really nice I think, hopefully you all will think so as well whenever it gets done. It will almost certainly be over 30 images.

EDIT 8/29: Got an MRI done yesterday, tons of pain. Bad enough to get different pain meds again; I will see if these actually help. Scan being done means I may be able to get some actual treatment next week… maybe? RTL 6 final renders are sort of done; I could stop here but I want to add four more images. I will do the best I can to finish the postwork before the end of the month.

RE EDIT: Previously mentioned meds didn’t help again; so I had to go to ER again, got better pain meds, they seem to work this time. Should let me work tomorrow/day after if all goes well. Initial impressions of my scan aren’t great per se; PA said it is a long term issue but it could be treated, so I will see this coming Wednesday.

EDIT 8/30: Couldn’t help myself again, even in horrible pain I added almost eight images instead of the four I planned… Final renders are done, early postwork done, clean versions of each image is done… story versions sort of in progress. i haven’t slept in three days and I am kind of falling apart, even with the pain under control right now. Doing the best I can; set ended up with I think 38 images and one alternate ending image for patreon unless I miscounted. Note: there is going to be a post/content bomb here in the next few days whether this gets finished in time or not. RTL four gets a free release, old polls get reviewed and a special poll will go up; and finally a very special thing will get started early next month. (Patrons know what I mean.)

EDIT 8/31: I just can’t do it today; I’m in so much pain today I can’t sit at all. RTL 6 will have to go into next month again. I’ll get everything situated later this week whenever I can.

Hey. So… fun story. I got to go to the emergency room last night at 1 AM due to crippling and incredibly painful muscle spasms in my leg. Long story short, I have a rather bad case of sciatica; which in short currently prevents me from sitting for more than a minute at a time. I got some painkillers to help in the short term, but they do not fix the problem and I cannot risk this getting worse in any way. Working on anything like this (if I even can) will make it take five times longer then it should and cause me a lot of pain, so there isn’t anything I can really do like this.

I am going to stop giving time updates as for when RTL chapter six will be finished just in case I am jinxing this by doing so and because this shit just keeps happening. Just know that it, the mini-set for the month, and the one scene preview for my patrons will be done by the end of this month somehow. (If there is any way at all that I can do it, I will; I am hoping that this gets at least a bit better in two weeks…) I am doing everything I can to work this out, but it really isn’t up to me that much. The DA images for this month may or may not happen depending on how long this lasts. I may update this post or just make a new one sometime at the end of this week with another update. Sorry for all the non-content updates, but I think it’s best to keep people updated on what is going on rather than me going MIA for over a month without saying anything (like some other people on the internet do) and making you all wonder wtf happened. In the mean time keep voting in the polls and spreading the word about my work, the polls, and the stuff I plan to do next month.

EDIT 8/21: So I went to two different doctors yesterday and got some pretty crazy medicine for this… and as of right now it seems to be helping. If all goes well I should be able to really work on things over the coming weekend and next week for the first time in weeks. I will see how it goes…. hoping for the best.

Hi. Quick update, the last few days have been really rough; yesterday especially. However I did manage to finish the scene construction on RTL chapter six. Hopefully I can finish the final renders and do the postwork in the next few days. I also do think that this will have to be this month’s main image set; there is just no way I could do another one this month with all the other crap I have to do. (As well as the significant pain that I am still in.) These things happen when horrific real life problems occur, it just can’t be helped. Anyway, keep voting in the polls and check back toward the end of this week when I will post previews for RTL chapter six if all goes semi-well at least.

EDIT 8/14: So things have been fairly bad the last two days, but are going better today. Unfortunately I need basically an entire day to finish the final renders, (not to mention do the postwork, which takes some additional hours)  which I still can’t do quite yet. If things continue to improve, I may be able to do it over this coming weekend, we will see. The hard part is done, I just have the time consuming parts left to do which is unfortunately very hard on me right now. In other news, the polls are still going, one is rather definitive so far, but the other is actually very close right now; so make sure to vote in the second poll over there.

As far as the general schedule goes after I finish chapter six, I will then do the Patreon mini-set for the month as well as finish that Patreon scene preview for the game that I am working on. I also hope to do some small images for DA, but I will see how that goes when/if I have time. I also will post more info on what I plan to do next month on Patreon sometime this month as well, I will probably not post anything publicly here until next month. Things have been an absolute nightmare for me this last month or so, but the main problem has cleared up; (I hope) and I am just dealing with some smaller side issues that the main problem caused right now.

Hi again. I am doing somewhat better, but still unable to sit/focus for long enough to make major progress on this next chapter. (I am making minor progress.) I hope to get it done in the next week or two, but that just depends on how long this lasts. Whenever I do get it done, I will send it out to the appropriate, processed Patreon patrons then instead of waiting until the end/start of the month. (Only because of this whole weird situation; this will not be a normal thing.) There is also the free release of RTL chapter three next week, so check back for that.

On the somewhat positive side, all this time stuck doing nothing has given me plenty of time to think over general plans for this project, (I have the next few sets planned out in fair detail already…) as well as a great many things that I plan to do next month. (September, not August.) As for why I plan to do things next month; technically speaking it will have been a year since I started working on this project then, so I was thinking that some sort of celebratory thing will be in order. I have a few things planned, some small and some large; one of which will involve the Patreon only set for that month (I consider this a large thing), the rest I won’t spoil now. I will likely share most of my plans with my patrons sometime this month in a small post on Patreon. So if you want to get in on everything and help support my work, check out my Patreon page: (https://www.patreon.com/redleatherart). Some things will be public though, so don’t worry.

Also, I will likely update the polls sometime in the next few days after all, so please vote now if you still haven’t for some reason.