Status update: 10/18

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.

New lighting preview; feedback would be great.

Hi again. Against my better judgement, I am posting a preview of the new lighting that I am working on. Below on the left is the old preview for RTL 7 and the updated preview is on the right with a preview of the new lighting. I know the old one looks a bit bright for bland lighting, but that is due to me raising the brightness in the postwork. The new image on the right currently has no postwork except the logos.

Personally, I think the image on the right is a huge improvement; as noted in the update in the previous post. I know nobody here wants to leave comments for whatever reason, but some feedback here would really be great. If nobody bothers commenting or voting, I can only assume that everyone is on board with what I am planning since nobody cares enough to say otherwise. Even if you like it, I would appreciate it if you let me know. I still have no idea when the set will be done, I am hoping for late next week.

EDIT 10/13: To nobody’s great surprise, RTL 7 will likely run into next week. I have had various real life things happening for the past few days or so which have prevented me from putting in any solid time to work on this.

New ideas for future sets.

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.

RTL chapter five, “Tentacle Testing” Free Release!

Hey again. Here is the free release of RTL chapter 5: “Tentacle Testing”. It features Zayla testing one of her newest creations on a poor, captured pale elf. I have included the original previews below for convenience. Also just in case you missed my previous post; this is likely to be the last set released free for a while at the very least. I used to to do free releases of these image sets three months after the set was done, but that doesn’t seem to have been working out so well. With no comments and no feedback, I can only guess as to why; but I assume the somewhat quick free releases are to blame.

Next month also corresponds to three months after the first month that I was horrifically sick/injured two months ago; so there would not have been a free release set next month anyway as RTL 6 took me two months to finish while I was really bad. (RTL 7 will also take two months to finish; though that is mostly due to all the extra stuff I had to do last month as well as RTL 6 being finished early last month, so I barely had time to work on RTL 7.) I am still unsure exactly what my plans are as far as releasing future image sets (or other things); but if you haven’t checked my previous post, you probably want to do so. Also in case you somehow missed the sticky post on the top of my site; the short story contest has been extended another month and now has prizes for second and third place as well. Check the updated contest page for details!

Anyway, if you enjoy my work, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a comment and let me know or even better, consider supporting me on Patreon and get early access to my normal image sets (Patreon exclusivity likely to be increased soon at the very least) as well as more goodies at the higher tiers! https://www.patreon.com/redleatherart Any and all support is greatly appreciated. Here is the download link in any case; the password is still redleatherart.

https://mega.co.nz/#!X8kgiBDI!_KrKXvwRqwSAnFvL8eUBg_VeFd6zvzhxknZDgLdoh-M

Polls review, new polls, probable changes to some things.

Ok so first off the last set off polls was the worst yet in terms of votes; (a maximum of six) which is far from encouraging. I can only speculate that the topics were of no interest to most people; as one poll indicated that my current written previews are sufficient and/or that nobody reads them anyway (which is depressing) and the other poll was basically a three way tie as far as 7-zip goes, so I will just keep using it. If only two people care enough to say they don’t like it, then it can’t be that big of an issue.

There are two new polls up; they are likely to be the last polls for a while if nobody bothers to vote again. Perhaps the subjects of the new polls might draw people to actually vote this time, they will be up all month. I had a very large post that I was going to post instead of this one but I will instead summarize it: I really need and/or want more feedback, comments, votes, and preferably even support from all of you. If nobody tells me what they like and what they don’t like about my work, then I have no idea how to improve it. I can’t fix problems that nobody tells me about. If nobody wants to bother supporting my work, giving feedback, leaving comments, or even voting in the polls anymore, then it really makes me feel like I’m just feel like I’m wasting my time here making all these image sets. I at least get some positive reaction from most individual images that I post on DA. A little effort and/or appreciation goes a long way, people.

With no real feedback, I can only assume that the general lack of support is due to me giving most things out for free already; if the way I am doing things isn’t working, then something needs to change. I already push the limits of what this limited machine can do with almost every render i make as it is. Sometimes I already have to split renders just to get everything I want in one image. I really want to work on this full time and make better and bigger image sets, but I need support or at the very least some feedback to help me do that. Comments and votes are free, so there really aren’t any good excuses for not doing those at the minimum. I am also likely to try opening up for commissions soon; and see if that helps out at all. If I didn’t like making all this stuff, then I wouldn’t be doing it; but I would at least like to know that people are enjoying what I make here.

Anyway, for the five of you that actually read this this far down, I am also seriously considering shelving my current game idea (for those of you that even know what that is; if you don’t then search my site for the old post I made a while back about it) in favor of small VNs. My current idea would take months of solid work (assuming that I was doing nothing else) to completely finish the way I want to and I cannot justify doing that (or just taking time to work on something that I will not finish in the foreseeable future unless I stop making regular sets) as things currently stand. (With seemingly no interest and no support.) Yes, I could do a crappy job to finish it quickly and then go back and put in more content later, but that is the worst way to make any game and generally a recipe for disaster.

Small VNs are much more within the realm of what I could do in a reasonable time-span, and would give my Patreon tiers more weight, in addition to likely extending main set exclusivity at the bare minimum. (The current game idea if done the way I planed would likely be at least 6 small VNs worth of work and scenes; and then there is also the problem where some of the scenes that I initially planned to include in the game [back when I first came up with the idea nine months ago and didn’t have Octane] I can no longer do because of my limited hardware and Octane’s memory limits to consider as well.) Anyway, RTL 5 will get a free release in the next week or so, and RTL 7 will get done sometime this month; after that I am not sure what will happen anymore. Looking at the polls and this post, it should be clear what my plans are likely to be unless something changes.

Definite short story contest extension – UPDATED 10/3

In other news, I am definitely extending the short story contest; firstly due to me getting yet another error mail from my server again yesterday, indicating that there are still some issues, and second due to the currently low number of actual acceptable entries. I was then undecided as to how long I should extend it, so I just decided to go another month. The contest now ends on November 7th. If you can write even half-decently and want to possibly get what is essentially a free 10 image commission (of sorts) and/or some free publicity; you now have another month to come up with something. There aren’t really a lot of limits as to what you can write about here; I thought there would be more interest (and effort) in this contest than there seems to be.

I have updated the contest page with the new end date and hope that there will be more (and complete) entries. Please remember that there are only three parts per entry that I ask for in the contest; two of which shouldn’t be more than a couple of paragraphs each. If you don’t include all three things and then don’t fix it, your chances of winning and/or even being a qualified entry aren’t great. So please include the character info part and the sex scenario summary in your entry; it doesn’t take long to write and greatly helps me understand what I am getting into and looking for before getting into the story proper.

Please note that there are also definite prizes for second and third place now; a mini set for second place and a single image for third. Be aware that I plan to include the winning submission(s) with the image and/or set that I make from it; for additional context if nothing else.

Patreon story-mini-set basically done, public preview here.

Hey. I am still putting a few finishing touches on the last few story images in the story-mini-set, but it is mostly done. It took this long because I got distracted last weekend and made stuff for DA; after that I decided that I didn’t like the old environment in the set and redid the whole scene in the last few days. This is good for those that get it though; as they now get more than the ten images I planned and the images look better.

The set ended up being 13 images, each with a clean and story version as always. Below is a story preview of the set that my $15 patrons and above got to vote on and choose the subject of and also get once Patreon payments clear. If the below preview interests you, and you want to get future access to these mini-sets or you just want to help support my work here, check out my Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/redleatherart

Also, as mentioned previously, the next RTL chapter will likely be next month’s main set. I had a lot of extra stuff to do this month, plus I am still recovering from my various health issues; so I simply did not have time to finish it. I also don’t see it being finished in the next week or so for assorted reasons. I will also likely make an important post tomorrow about a few things; so definitely check back for that and some important new polls that go along with it.

RTL 7 public early preview, some new stuff on DA, and probable contest extension.

Hey. Below is the early public preview image of RTL chapter seven, working title: “Caught in a Corner”. As you can see it will feature Zayla getting caught in a rather compromising position by one of the intruders in her lair. (The tags on this post hint at what I plan to include in it, but are not necessarily final.) It will ~~almost assuredly~~ definitely run well into next month as I am still recovering from my various health issues and am absolutely not going to push it and risk anything getting messed up again. As the post title also suggests, I have also posted two new, if plain preview images from RTL 6 on DA (due to DA rules/most group standards) as well as ~~two~~ three totally new images!

Important side note here: I may extend the short story contest, I am still undecided on this; but I think it is very likely to happen to some degree. I personally had horrible issues accessing my own site much of the time for a few weeks back there until the people who host it fixed it for me on their end using methods that will not help other people having issues accessing my site. I am assuming/hoping that the connection problems are the reason for the various drastic drops in visitors some days over the last two weeks; one day in particular around two weeks ago was the worst day for visits here since the week I started hosting this new site. So there is a week and a half left on the contest at the minimum; but likely there will be more time, so get an entry together if you haven’t already! It doesn’t have to be five pages, that is just the maximum. (It also only refers to and/or counts the story itself, not the other parts.)

Also, the polls are still very low; I can only assume nobody really cares about the file format I use and/or better written descriptions of my sets. Anyway, I should have the story-mini-set for my higher end Patrons on Patreon done in the next couple days and a preview posted here. (I got distracted and made the RTL 7 preview/ DA stuff instead the last few days.)

RLA first anniversary image and other news.

Hi. So I posted the two character previews and the Patreon anniversary image to Patreon over the last few days and I hope to post the game scene preview and this month’s special story-mini-set there as well in the next few days. The next main image set will likely run into next month a bit again at the minimum, but hopefully it will be done in the first week or so; before Patreon finishes processing payments, as it was last time. As for the short story contest; only about two weeks remain; so if you are going to enter, you best do it now so that you have time to fix any issues that may exist with your entry. (I am currently trying to tell people if they are missing important things in their entries unless I suddenly get a truckload and can’t possibly keep up.) As of right now there are only a few entries, and I was honestly expecting both more entries and more… diversity; especially considering that so many people allegedly wanted futa content and so far not a single entry has any. So if that interests you, or if there is anything else in particular you would like to see me do, check out the contest page up top for all the details! There is still plenty of time to put an entry together.

It would also be nice to get more than two votes in the polls, so… more votes maybe? There really isn’t much point to me having polls if nobody votes in them. Anyway, I hope to post either a preview of the story-mini-set for patrons or RTL chapter seven later this week, possibly both but I doubt it. Remember, if you want to help motivate me, support my work, and early access to my normal sets and possibly other cool stuff, check out my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/redleatherart Anything donated helps. Comments, votes, views, and shares are also helpful and motivating; so doing any and/or all of those things helps too! Also, if anyone else has been having weird issues accessing my site, please let me know.

Oh and here is the RLA first anniversary image featuring Zayla, as voted in the last special poll. I am hoping that you all will like it, I think that you will.

EDIT 9/25: RTL 7 preview and game scene preview up on patreon, still working on the story-mini-set right now.

The fog clears, poll updates!

Hi. It’s been a while since I’ve posted and so far things have actually been good. I can seriously feel the overall pain and the general depression from it going far away now. I am in no way joking when I say that two months of my life back there was and/or is just a foggy, vague memory of horrific pain and bed. I think it is definitely for the best that I don’t remember it clearly; (which is actually rather odd as I generally have a hard time forgetting things; especially things that I want to) although somehow RTL 6 was made during this time and I think it came out nicely.

Though in reality the pain could return at any time; at this moment I am effectively back to normal. If everything stays good, I am hoping that I will be able to do a main image set this month after all, and I have already started construction on the scene; and almost finished base scene construction really. (Patrons who have seen the full RTL 6 should know and/or be able to guess what it is going to be.) However, this whole week is really going to be devoted to Patreon stuff. (If you want to support me and my work and get in on future stuff like this, check out my Patreon page, https://www.patreon.com/redleatherart)

The polls there have ended and the special mini-story-set that won the poll was the Helenya and two imps option; so I will work on that, as well as the various Patreon previews that I need to post and the two anniversary images that I need to make; one for the site and one for Patreon. The site one will feature Zayla, and the Patreon one will feature Helenya; as voted in each poll. Preferably once all this crap gets done, I will see about RTL 7.

In other news, my short story contest is still going; (Check the tab up top!) if you want to see anything in particular from me, this is your chance. Allegedly a lot of you want to see futa/futa stuff; if that is the case I would expect at least a few entries focusing on that. The stories submitted can be no longer than five pages; but can be as short as one. (As in the actual story part can be one page, I still need/want the other two pages about the characters/sex scenario.) It is the general sexiness of the submissions that is what matters; not the length. Details can help, but they can also make something that is already bad much worse; so be careful and don’t overdo it. Submissions are accepted until 12:00 AM on October 7, 2015, EST, check the contest page up there for details.

Also, two new polls are up; one actually is asking about the format I use for my image archives (.7z, the 7-zip base format), which I recently realized/was told may be an issue for some people(?) so I wanted to check that. The other poll asks if you would prefer more or less textual details about my sets in the initial preview posts. So votes in those would be appreciated, and watch for various Patreon content this week and hopefully the anniversary image for the site later this week as well. Finally, I put all these social media buttons everywhere because apparently WordPress can do this and I had it enabled before but I forgot to put in the actual buttons. So if you like my work, an image, one of my posts, or even the contest page; please share it so people can find out about my work. (I think I did the buttons right, please let me know if I didn’t.)