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We Love Cold War!! - Nico Animeworks - WLCW Update - Sept 26
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We Love Cold War!! - Nico Animeworks - WLCW Update 10/10
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Hiya, another update! Well, actually 3 days since the last one, but I'm trying to reset things to be a weekly Saturday post instead...Production is going well, Right now, the WLCW Artbook and Physical Goods are scheduled to be ready by December 2026 (w/ a soft launch at Winter Comiket 109), the home video rewards we are aiming to have ready by mid-2027. (these are estimates)Also, we've recently dealt with harassment from a user who was unhappy with progress due to the shifting timeline estimates, but I did want to put out a formal statement on this.I do offer refunds, for any reason, if you are unhappy with the level of transparency and communication that I'm offering with the Patreon + Backerkit campaign.Just message me or email me directly at [email protected], and I can get it sorted. If you have any concerns about the project timelines or how funds are being spent, I am open to a mutually respectful dialogue because people have put their trust in me to deliver this project.I thank everyone for their level of continued patience and support in the project.
It might be a bit confusing or feel like production is a bit chaotic, but I'll try explaining to the best of my ability what has been done in the 2 months since the Backerkit.From July to August, we did a 2-month trial where we hired a roster of ~20 freelance animators, with the assumption we could assign these people to help finish a few of the WLCW shorts. Instead of speeding up production, it led to a lot of delays due to the change in work pipeline. Directing required my full-attention & I spent a large amount of time correcting and fixing work from other animators we hired. Operating costs rose to $5,000 a month during this 2-month period, we produced a 7-minute long Yvette & Josephine short, which has finished animation, but backgrounds and compositing are still yet to be done & I am personally skeptical if it'll ultimately be "good"...
For instance, this cut of Joséphine is incredibly over-animated, but her face kind of lacks the proper "look" that her character should have.
I don't think it was a bad expense, but it took more time and energy than I expected. Several more WLCW shorts + Episodes 1-3 had to be pushed back in schedule due to the difficulties I had with leading a team of animators instead of just doing everything myself with 1-2 assistants.We very quickly found out the inherent issues and delays with animating something entirely from scratch with a large team. It was a battle but we did learn a significant amount from this experience and did pick up a few animators from this.Another issue, was a lack of model-sheets and references, because most of the animators, regardless of experience, were unable to draw the WLCW characters "on-model" so alot of the recent work efforts have been in sketches, illustrations, and model sheets to help in this regard.
Right now, the entire schedule has been pushed back slightly, production of the Pilot and Artbook is prioritized, Episodes 2-3 which were planned to be started simulatenously if we had the funds, are delayed, and the WLCW Shorts are planned to be released in batches, from now until December 2026.Of course, these are estimates... and ultimately it's more so "we want to get it done faster so we can make more, but we also don't want it to totally suck..."
Here's a sketch for the Aussie character, a friend, Takaya Kei is working on her designs. And below is Leland, the US Army character, we contracted out a bishoujo artist/animator, Bisouhime, to help develop her design.
As well, here are vehicle explorations and drawings by a new collaborator, Alam P. who's helping out a bit on vehicle designs for the Warsaw Pact episode!
(the human designs are not final, I'm still doing drawovers for that... but it is a bit funny to see WLCW characters in this style, no ?)
That's all for now, admittedly I've been a bit overly worried about how the project has been going, but usually it's in the closing hours of finishing something where it all just clicks...But I'm still optimistic, we'll get somethin' out to you guys real soon, just that we definitely expanded the scope for the series ALOT as of late, but ultimately we just need to animate more, period!See you guys next week!We Love Cold War!!-Nico
Hiya, another update! Well, actually 3 days since the last one, but I'm trying to reset things to be a weekly Saturday post instead...Production is going well, Right now, the WLCW Artbook and Physical Goods are scheduled to be ready by December 2026 (w/ a soft launch at Winter Comiket 109), the home video rewards we are aiming to have ready by mid-2027. (these are estimates)Also, we've recently dealt with harassment from a user who was unhappy with progress due to the shifting timeline estimates, but I did want to put out a formal statement on this.I do offer refunds, for any reason, if you are unhappy with the level of transparency and communication that I'm offering with the Patreon + Backerkit campaign.Just message me or email me directly at [email protected], and I can get it sorted. If you have any concerns about the project timelines or how funds are being spent, I am open to a mutually respectful dialogue because people have put their trust in me to deliver this project.I thank everyone for their level of continued patience and support in the project.
It might be a bit confusing or feel like production is a bit chaotic, but I'll try explaining to the best of my ability what has been done in the 2 months since the Backerkit.From July to August, we did a 2-month trial where we hired a roster of ~20 freelance animators, with the assumption we could assign these people to help finish a few of the WLCW shorts. Instead of speeding up production, it led to a lot of delays due to the change in work pipeline. Directing required my full-attention & I spent a large amount of time correcting and fixing work from other animators we hired. Operating costs rose to $5,000 a month during this 2-month period, we produced a 7-minute long Yvette & Josephine short, which has finished animation, but backgrounds and compositing are still yet to be done & I am personally skeptical if it'll ultimately be "good"...
For instance, this cut of Joséphine is incredibly over-animated, but her face kind of lacks the proper "look" that her character should have.
I don't think it was a bad expense, but it took more time and energy than I expected. Several more WLCW shorts + Episodes 1-3 had to be pushed back in schedule due to the difficulties I had with leading a team of animators instead of just doing everything myself with 1-2 assistants.We very quickly found out the inherent issues and delays with animating something entirely from scratch with a large team. It was a battle but we did learn a significant amount from this experience and did pick up a few animators from this.Another issue, was a lack of model-sheets and references, because most of the animators, regardless of experience, were unable to draw the WLCW characters "on-model" so alot of the recent work efforts have been in sketches, illustrations, and model sheets to help in this regard.
Right now, the entire schedule has been pushed back slightly, production of the Pilot and Artbook is prioritized, Episodes 2-3 which were planned to be started simulatenously if we had the funds, are delayed, and the WLCW Shorts are planned to be released in batches, from now until December 2026.Of course, these are estimates... and ultimately it's more so "we want to get it done faster so we can make more, but we also don't want it to totally suck..."
Here's a sketch for the Aussie character, a friend, Takaya Kei is working on her designs. And below is Leland, the US Army character, we contracted out a bishoujo artist/animator, Bisouhime, to help develop her design.
As well, here are vehicle explorations and drawings by a new collaborator, Alam P. who's helping out a bit on vehicle designs for the Warsaw Pact episode!
(the human designs are not final, I'm still doing drawovers for that... but it is a bit funny to see WLCW characters in this style, no ?)
That's all for now, admittedly I've been a bit overly worried about how the project has been going, but usually it's in the closing hours of finishing something where it all just clicks...But I'm still optimistic, we'll get somethin' out to you guys real soon, just that we definitely expanded the scope for the series ALOT as of late, but ultimately we just need to animate more, period!See you guys next week!We Love Cold War!!-Nico
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