The best laid plans... 
  shadowsmyst
 
10:24am 17/11/2008
  I think Animala is getting very annoyed with being the last post on here, and getting inquiries still, so I'm going to post here so at least if there are questions, the right person will get them, and that's me.

The big question of course being, "What's going on with Shifters? Its been dead for a year."

I've been trying to think of how to say this, because.. honestly, its not even something I want to really admit to myself.

I'm not a spring chicken anymore. Do you realize this year, 2008, is the *10* year anniversary of this comic's creation? I've been doing this comic for 10 years. I started when I was 21 in college, doing my graphics training, and now, 10 years later, I'm 31, got a full time job, a house, a mortgage, engaged to be married (and figuring out wedding/budget etc), looking at starting a family, friends (holy shit I got a social life, when did THAT happen?), need to pay the bills and all that jazz. I don't have the time I use to have when I was in college, indeed I can now say to those in college "enjoy your time while it lasts", because honestly, you don't think you have time now between exams? Holy toleeto, you ain't seen nothing yet.

As this is, I don't have the time to do it regularly. After trying desperately for a year to get my act together, I've concluded that this is going to have to sit on the back burner a while longer. I'm still working on pages (seriously i could show them if I wanted to), but I'm not actually going to release them until I am satisfied that I've got at least a year or more of backlog. I might even wait until I'm *done*. I may also return to pencils (at least on the web) and save the good stuff for a printed version. That way, I might actually get done this century, since I've discovered I actually enjoy pencil a lot more than a tablet.. although the new MS studio 4 is out, and it might be better.. I might actually be able to run MS on my laptop with vista.. which would be helpful with the portability issue. At least with paper I can draw again on my lunch breaks.Who knows? I might get done sooner than I expect if I got back to pencil/hand ink work. It won't be as pretty, but it'll get done.

I'm sure if you've bothered to read this far you're all like "yeah yeah, whatever, excuses, excuses, just give us a friggen time frame.", and I'm going to tell you, 'no, I won't'. Why? Because I don't know and I don't need the pressure. If you want to know when Shifters returns, there is RSS feeds from the comic gen site, also, you can subscribe to this livejournal or watch me on Deviantart (Right here). Also, I am still continuing Brymstone (although irregularly. Read it at Drunk Duck) at about a page every two weeks right now. Frankly, I have more fun with Brymstone than I ever did with Shifters mostly because I love the main character and its a silly comic with less baggage. Shifters has a lot of history, and a lot of weight as a result that just adds to stress that kills my creative spirit.

If you want to get something out of this, decide 'indefinite hiatus' and put it on your lists of things to check back once a month, or once a year or something. I haven't quit, I'm just not going to post something until I'm sure I never have to go on hiatus again. For random Shifters related art, please see Deviant Art pages. That's probably where you will see/hear news about shifters before here unless you subscribe to this LJ. Its going to be expiring again soon and I'm not renewing it.

I likely will have a new site than the comic genesis one when I come back, so make sure you bookmark www.shiftersonline.com. It's down right now, but it will come back up, and that's where anything new will be.		  
     11 Howls - Leave a Howl
 
The Winner 
  animalax
 
02:51pm 24/08/2008
 
mood: chipper
music: baby babble
Hey All!

The Shifters Team has come to a consensus and the winner is:

[info]alton_nightshad


[info]shadowsmyst will be sending out the first-prize wallpaper shortly, and since we enjoyed the ideas posted so much, she will also be sending out a prize to the other participants as well.  


And for the update:

It's been a long hard summer, and though we are making progress, there is still a LOT of work to be done.  We're working hard to ensure that the site will be reliable, unique, and updated regularily *elbows ShadowsMyst in the ribs*. 

And just to reiterate: this will NOT mean restarting the series again.  The next panel will pick up right where the redux left off - it will just be on a much shinier website that hopefully will be easy for us to update & expand.  We'll likely use the ideas generated in the contest, and are always up for hearing more - so keep 'em coming!

~Animala
*rowr*		  
     13 Howls - Leave a Howl
 
Update & Contest 
  animalax
 
08:35pm 15/07/2008
 
mood: bouncy
I hope everyone has been able to leave some feedback on the polls... I know both [info]rogerfleming and [info]shadowsmyst are watching them for opinions. And I'm still beating them for progress on the site.  Even though our vacations are over, we're still hard at work, and making progress. 

And as such, I figured I would give you a tidbit of our discussions. Today's clue is: Just as there are different levels to shade city, there will also be different levels to the site. Different areas of the city will have different content / features available.   XD

Which leads to our CONTEST!

What areas of the city would YOU use if you were building the site (i.e. tram station)?  What site features (i.e. chat, forums, etc) would you include and in what city locations would you put them?  Get creative!  Submit your ideas as a Howl by August 1st, and we'll pick our favourite to receive a new, exclusive Shifters wallpaper. 

Can't wait to see what you all come up with!

~Animala
*rowr*		  
     9 Howls - Leave a Howl
 
 
shifters
 
 
skip