A Little Housekeeping
12:48 am, July 22 2021
Okay, I haven't been good about keeping up with the updates to the Cast page. Or with updating this blog. Or with... doing much of anything here.
And a lot of the information here has been seriously out of date for a while. Not just the bit about a new character being added to the Cast page weekly, which... definitely has not consistently been the case. The About page has also said that Teras Terrace was "an animated short currently in production", which... I guess is technically true, but the animated short is kind of on the back burner for now and I've got plans to develop the property in other ways.
So... I've finally updated the About page to reflect the current reality of the project's status. I'm really going to try to make an effort to get back to uploading a new character every Monday night. And I'm going to rework some of the previously posted characters, too... the earliest ones were drawn more than eight years ago, and could really use a redraw; some of the descriptions could be fleshed out a bit; there are some contradictions between the descriptions in a few cases; and, well, a couple of them probably need a pretty fundamental redesign (Melodica Bing, I'm looking at you.) So yeah, interspersed with the new characters I'll be doing some new takes on old characters, too (and gradually replacing some of the oldest drawings with newer ones).
I'll also try to upload this blog more often, though given the infrequency of updates so far that's a low bar to clear. For more frequent updates you cal follow the Teras Terrace tumblr... not that I've been updating that regularly either, but I'll try to start.
Oh, yeah, and one more thing. I hope to launch a Teras Terrace comic soon. I'll just quote from the current About page for the reasons (since the About page may eventually change again but this way the explanation will be preserved here):
This will serve three purposes. For one, it'll help me flesh out the world a bit more, and give me practice drawing the characters. (Okay, maybe that's already two purposes right there.) For another, if it develops a readership it'll get more people knowing about the project. But maybe most importantly, having a published product out there using this world and these characters should give me more leverage to retain the rights to them when and if I ever do sell it as a series.
So, yeah... I'll definitely make another post here when that happens. And also on the Tumblr blog. And also on the Teras Terrace twitter, which I've barely used but I really ought to be better about that too.
So, okay, yeah, Teras Terrace isn't where I'd hoped it would be by now, when I started the project eight years ago... but I've still got plans for it, and I still have hope. We'll see what the future holds...
Back On Schedule?
10:31 pm, January 5 2021
So, years ago I said that I was going to put up a new character for Teras Terrace every Monday, and, uh, I haven't been doing that on a consistent basis. I've been putting up new characters every once in a while, but not every Monday. Well, this year that's going to change. I'm going to try to get back to doing that—a new character every Monday.
You may note that I'm saying this when the first Monday of the year has already passed. Oops. So yeah, this week's character is going to be a bit late, but should be up Thursday. But starting next week, I'll shoot for a new character every week.
Of course, this still leaves open the question, what about the animated short that this was all suppose to be for? Well... yeah, haven't made much progress on that front, I'm afraid, but this year I will... make some progress. I don't expect to finish this year, but I will get started. Although maybe not till this summer.
But hey, in the meanwhile I can start building up the cast and characters, anyway.
And there may be some other surprises coming up this year regarding Teras Terrace... but we'll see...
Better Late Than Never
2:11 am, November 20 2018
Well. In my last blog post, I wrote that I was going to resume posting a new character "every Monday starting next week, November 5." And that... clearly didn't happen. It should have, but it didn't. But it will, starting November 19, 2018. Which, at the time I post this, is... yesterday.
Yes, I did get a new character up, finally, albeit barely—I made it just before midnight PST. (Which is why this blog post technically went up the next day, even though it was less than fifteen minutes later.) I wasn't sure I was going to make it... I mean, I did put it off till last minute like the idiot I am, of course, but even then it turned out I had to reactivate Toon Boom Harmony (even though it's a still drawing, but I've been drawing the characters in Harmony to practice using its drawing tools), and then I'd briefly forgotten how to log in to the site to post the update, and... well, never mind. It's up, anyway. Meet Mr. Orm.
I had kind of planned to start drawing the characters with shading, and taking a little more care with the art in general, but, uh, clearly I didn't really do that here. Again, last minute; sorry. But, again, it's up, and having finally gotten one new character up, I think it'll be easier to get in the habit of putting them up weekly again. So... expect another new character next Monday, hopefully not quite so close to midnight this time.
State of the Terrace
1:27 am, October 30 2018
Well, it's been a long time since I've posted anything here. So much for getting one character up a week. I've had a lot to deal with the last two years, but Teras Terrace isn't dead. It's just been on hold a while while I put some other things in order.
As a matter of fact, it's looking like I may have a chance soon to make a pitch to a studio for an animated series! I'm not ready yet, of course... I need a full pilot script, a partial animatic, a series bible, more concept artwork, and so on. But I'm hoping before the end of the year—hopefully by the end of November—it will happen.
And if it does, I... probably won't be pitching Teras Terrace.
Not because I've lost interest in the project. Not because I don't still hope to make it into a series someday. Not because I don't like the concept. As a matter of fact, it's kind of because I like the concept too much. The thing is, suppose everything goes right and a studio was interested in buying the property. It seems extremely likely that, well, whoever bought the series would buy all rights to it; I'd no longer own the intellectual property; and I'd have limited creative control. Now, as others have said to me, that would be a good problem to have! Selling an animated series would be huge for me! And... yeah, that's true, but even there are worse problems to have, it's still an avoidable problem. It's not like I'm incapable of coming up with other ideas. And so I did, and I've been developing them. (Of course, as I've developed them I've kind of started falling in love with those ideas as well... but maybe not quite as much as Teras Terrace, and at some point I do have to risk giving something up.)
Actually, there are more practical considerations as well. All in all, I think Teras Terrace would be a relatively expensive series to make... at least if I want it done right. The vast majority of the characters, including background characters, are unique monsters that each need their own individual, very different designs, body types, and motions. I have to imagine it would probably cost more to animate a diverse assortment of disparate creatures than it would to animate a bunch of humans who have, after all, the same basic shape and range of motion. So... it might not be the easiest sell for my first project anyway.
So, as I said, I'm developing a few other animated series concepts. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to continue developing Teras Terrace. I'm not going to go back and try to catch up on all the weeks of character introductions I've missed (though I did actually consider doing that, because sometimes I am dumb), but I'm going to resume the character introductions, every Monday starting next week, November 5. And I'm also going to redraw some previously posted characters, and maybe rewrite some of the descriptions. Some of the drawings have significant mistakes (like Kayla Worthingdale, who's missing part of the outline of her left arm, and Olo, whose top got cut off). Some I'm not really happen with their designs, and may want to do a more significant redesign for (like Melodica Bing and Bunches). There are a few inconsistencies in the descriptions (such as the descriptions of Logan Ward and Aunt Lake—wouldn't Aunt Lake's presence render the creation of the artificial lake mentioned in Logan's entry redundant?). And overall, well, it's been six years since I started posting characters; I'd like to think my artistic abilities have improved in that time. (They haven't, or at least not nearly as much as I wish they had, but I'd like to think they have.)
And I want to finish and publish some Teras Terrace works. The animated short (/pilot presentation) itself, obviously, yes. But also a comic book or two, maybe a game of some sort. Why? Because that establishes my ownership of the intellectual property, so then if eventually I do sell it as an animated series it helps me keep control of the characters and concept rather than having to give over all rights to the studio.
So yes, I hope Teras Terrace will be an animated series. Someday. When I have other projects under my belt; when I have a little more leverage; when I'm in a better position to do it the way I want to. But it's not likely to be for a while. In the meantime, though, keep watching this space. I'll be posting more characters and other artwork and materials.
Breaking the Silence
12:38 am, October 30 2016
Okay, so there have been no new blog posts in over a year, and no new characters introduced in nearly as long. I haven't abandoned the project—far from it; it's never been far from my mind. But the truth is, to make a long story short, the necessity of making a living temporarily interposed itself in the way of other pursuits, and I unfortunately had to relegate Teras Terrace (and, alas, a number of other projects) to a back burner.
On a note that perhaps may initially seem unrelated but will eventually (and perhaps as soon as the following sentence) prove not to be, this weekend was the Los Angeles Comic Con, and I had a table there at the small press booth. I'd never exhibited at a convention before, and had no idea what I was doing, and there are many things I no doubt could have done better, but all that is another story. What is more to the immediate point is that my main purpose in getting a small press table at the convention was to try to promote two of my projects, one of which was Teras Terrace. I ended up handing out almost five hundred postcards about Teras Terrace, and if even half the people who took a postcard go on to check out the site... then there will be people checking out the site. That sentence probably could have ended better.
Anyway, the point is that if people are going to be checking out the site, then it would probably be best they don't see a site with no recent updates, so... I am now making an update. Besides that, though, the fact that there may now be potentially people following the progress of Teras Terrace gives me ample motivation to move it back off the back burner and onto the... front burner, I guess? Is that how that metaphor works?
So, yeah. This has been the first update in a long while, but the next should not be long in coming. And the new character introductions should be resuming this week, as well. Especially since it was mentioned to people at the convention that Teras Terrace is planned to be finished some time next year, and if that's the case... I have a lot of work ahead of me.
Which I... will do.
Much like the last sentence of the second paragraph, this post could probably have ended better.