DragonwolfRooke

Howdy folks! Apologies as usual for being so quiet on here.

Just hopping in to advertise a Youtube project of mine - any of y'all part of the Warrior Cats fandom? It's the fandom that first got me into animation and which led me to my current career, so it has a fond place in my heart. I've been more of an observer of it in the last decade than participatory, so in my post-job free time I wanted to try hopping into it again.

That being said, TickleMeFrosty and I are hosting a Multi-Animator-Project (MAP) for Warriors! If you'd like to participate, check out the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoFq1acrs_o

Howdy y'all! I have some news regarding NuzRooke Sun.

Many of you who followed the comic have, of course, expressed frustration in the lack of new pages. Understandably! It has been almost two years since the Rooke's Army team and I managed to complete a page. There've been a lot of factors to that - we've all been through job and schooling changes, new priorities, and of course an international pandemic.

On top of that, NuzRooke Sun from the outset was a much more ambitious project than its predecessor NuzRooke Silver. We wanted to explore the themes of Pokemon, develop the world-building, and tell a story with a much grander scope. It's a story that's still dear to my heart, but it's proven far too big for a team that can't devote their full attention to it.

Too big, that is...for a comic.

So, after a great deal of thought and discussion amongst Rooke's Army, we have decided to continue the project...in a different format. We will post the WIP of Page 12, the last page that really got anything done on it. And then, going forward from there, NuzRooke Sun will be a picturelocke rather than a comic.

If you're unfamiliar with picturelockes, I did a few back in the day (Remnants, Misfits, both of which can be found in my personal gallery). The story will be written out with chapters, as traditional fan fiction, with an illustrated header picture that will show different scenes in the story.

Changing NuzRooke Sun to a picturelocke makes it much more achievable, in terms of telling the story to its completion. And since we in the Army still really want all of you to meet the characters and experience this story we love, this option is preferable to cancelling the project entirely!

Thank you for all of your support of this experimental collaboration story, and I hope that you enjoy the rest of it even if it is no longer a comic. Take care, and stay healthy!

- Rooke

Howdy everyone! I just wanted to thank you all so much for the many commissions I've been able to do. Every little bit helps.

I wanted to update you all though, that thankfully my situation has become less dire! I got hired for two short-term freelance storyboarding jobs. Hooray! So it means I'll be getting some income in at last, for at least a few months. I think I should be stable until at least the fall, which is an enormous relief. Plus I'm really excited to work with the studios that hired me, they seem very very cool!

I'm going to leave the $25 commissions open though. It's turned out to be a nice commission format for me - just one price, one product, 1-2 characters, simple. Smaller commissions start to feel like they're not worth the time they would require, and bigger commissions can feel overwhelming fast. So doing these $25 commissions has been perfect.

So if anyone wants to commission me for a 25-er, send me a note! I'm going to focus on saving as much money as I can, so that between commissions and these new jobs it can help me hang in there long enough to find more stable full-time work. Or not! Storyboard artists hopping around between projects all the time seems to be a pretty normal pattern, pandemic or not. So at the very least I hope I can keep hopping. ^^

Thank you all again. Y'all have been my rock, my biggest supporters for the longest time. It's honestly in big part thanks to you that I can even BE a professional storyboard artist, which is the greatest feeling. Y'all are the best fans I could ask for!!

(Also, stay tuned for an important update on the status of NuzRooke Sun moving forward, coming in the next day or two once I finish the professional work I gotta get done.)

<3 Rooke

Howdy y'all! Hope you're all staying safe and hanging in there.

I just wanted to put out a notice - I'm nearing the end of my unemployment benefits, and I still haven't found another job. Savings are starting to run lower too. It's nerve-wracking to say the least, haha! But at least I'm learning a lot about how unemployment benefits actually work.

Turns out in California, if I earn any money while getting unemployment, it'll just delay the benefits and make them last longer so to speak. Kind of. The math gets tricky. But if what I earn is $25 USD or less, it won't count against the benefits at all, so that's just extra money I can HAVE. Which, every little bit counts, and helps me to stay in my house.

So while I figure out a better game plan and keep applying to jobs, I'm opening up emergency $25 USD commissions. I can only take that much money a week before it starts to butt against unemployment. So I'll be accepting either one larger $25 USD commission a week, or multiple little commissions a week.

For $25 I can draw you a simple black and white commission, two simple characters (like below) or one more complicated character (but the more complicated it gets the less likely I'll be able to do it for that little money...) I suppose if you really wanted to commission me something bigger, we can slow out the process and separate payments into chunks of $25 weekly? That can be discussed in a private message.

If you're interested, send me a note here on DA. For less that $25 I can also do rough sketch commissions, things like that - if you want to help me out but can't afford $25, you can message me and I'll let you know what I can do for like 5 or 10 bucks, etc.

Here's hoping I can hang in there until either I get a new job, or a better stimulus payment passes. After my unemployment benefits run out I'll look into renewing them, maybe? Or I might just start trying to do more commissions... who knows.

It'll all work out!!

-Rooke

It’s late, I’m very tired and stressed, but I figured I'd throw the question out there to you lovely folks -

But anyone out there know a lot about...podcasts? Or fanfiction? Those are two things that I can FEEL I would enjoy, but it seems daunting to even know where to begin. Where does one find good fanfiction?? Where does one listen to podcasts?? Where are these things hiding, and once I find them, how do I navigate the immense AMOUNT of them to find stuff that I’ll like?? I mean, I've found plenty of nuzlockes over the years on DA, but I kind of happened upon those accidentally and found more through folks' fanart of other comics. So when I say fanfiction I'm more referring to WRITTEN fanfiction rather than comics, since I know so little about written fanfiction in general. (Although comics are great too!)

In particular...I finished playing through Fire Emblem: Three Houses recently (and I mean FINISHED playing, I got all endings, nearly all supports, and logged 600+ hours into it) and I both really want to write fan fiction and read fan fiction OF the game because I love it so much. So I'm trying to figure out how to...like... FIND that.

Also would anyone who’s PLAYED the game want to hear about my massive head-canon AU world of fe3h, where I mixed and matched my favorite elements across canonical paired character endings in order to create *the perfect ending* and give different characters even more growth and connection with one another than what was shown in the actual game? Including which pairings are my OTP’s and WHY based on in-game character analysis and what would make a good story?

I mean I really want to draw little comics or at least draw the pairings that I like, so y'all will probably see fanart of Fire Emblem Three Houses from me at some point, so you'll undoubtedly hear my headcanons then, but anyway. If any of you know how to navigate podcasts and/or fanfiction, comment below and let me know.

...And if you happen to have any recommendations for fanfictions you like or podcasts you enjoy, I'd be delighted to hear about them. ^^