Looking Back on 2022

2022 was a shitshow. A circus full of dead horses, mentally unstable clowns, and strongmen on heroin. But at least I didn't join the 27 Club and that's a victory in my book.

Animation

Despite all the bullshit brewing in the world, I managed to release three animated shorts this year:

• Death Train, a moody action flick created as a way to get acquainted with Source 2;
• Backrooms - Intermission, an eerie and somewhat comedic short created to test the motion capture;
• Face Reveal, a creepy Halloween short set in a mysterious facility.

I wanted to release at least one more animation, thus reaching the same productivity level as I had back in 2016. But at the last minute I got flu and had basically no energy to do anything aside from basic pre-production. Hopefully I'll get it released around January next year.

Technology

Since the early days of machinima-making I've always wanted to get my hands on motion capture equipment. And in May of this year it finally happened. I got second-hand motion capture suit, Perception Neuron 2. It's a little outdated and sometimes its output is a little janky, but it's still quite precise and gets the job done. Perhaps someday I'll be able to get newer version, either PN 3 or Studio.

Source 2 was thoroughly researched, and while there are still more things to uncover, I'm now pretty well versed in its quirks and some of its spaghetti. Who knows, maybe if Valve will ever get to releasing an official SDK, I'll try to make a game or something. Maybe not. For now I'm 100% focused on cinematic bullshit.

Music

Unfortunately I didn't have time nor energy to work on proper music releases this year. However, something very cool happened. My track Gunplay was included in the release version of Postal 4, which marks the very first full-fledged retail game with my music in it. Edgy 11 year old me who's been playing Postal 2 in 2005 would've lost his shit if he knew that not only am I making sick tunes now, but I also got one of my tracks featured in a Postal game.

2023

There's a lot of things I want to do in 2023. First of all I plan on releasing a whole bunch of animated sketches. Topics will vary, but most of the time these are going to be video games related. Hopefully I'll be able to release something in January, but as usual no promises.

And since I want to make more animated sketches, I also want to expand my voice acting circles. If you or someone you know do voice acting and would like to volunteer, feel free to contact me. I don't bite.

Then I plan on launching a knowledge base here on my website. It's going to be totally random, ranging from Source 2 tricks and guides, ending with audio editing tips. Basically I'll be dropping some useful knowledge that I gained through out the years. No ETA on this one, though, as it would require some time to prepare.

Finally, I want to reach at least 10k subs on my YouTube channel. I know that I've been neglecting growing my channel over the years, but this time I feel like I really need to focus on that. I want to make animated sketches, shorts and maybe something even bigger, and I really hope I'll be able to cultivate a decent following.

2023 is going to be a furnace, but I really hope that everything will work out for me.