thedude3dx
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New preview renders from Peak Performance 2 + new announcements and musings!
🕑 Added 2023-10-21 19:12:50 +0000 UTCThere's a lot of stuff I worked on this week, but actually not that much to show outside of the shots included in this post. That's because I wanted to take a different approach to making Peak Performance 2 and I'll explain why in this post.
But first, aren't those renders just the fucking best? Haha. The way the sunlight falls, the way everything looks, I'm so happy with those results. They also have a really cinematic feel which is exactly the vibe I'm trying to capture this time.
As for the announcements:
1) Next Saturday I'm releasing a cumshot special on A3D. This was a bit of an ad-hoc decision and I'll explain why in the text below. It'll mostly be shots from previously released sets as a sort of compilation set, but I do wanna render a few new ones as well and they'll go up on here on Patreon ahead of the official A3D release. They'll involve either Mari or Kayla, and I'm rendering these over the coming few days.
2) Peak Performance 2 will be a more intensive creative process than Peak 1, and the reason why is that I want it to take place across multiple locations. This is not just for story purposes, it's also to differentiate myself from other types of content creation. I will also go more into that below.
So, to business. Lengthy post incoming, if you read the whole thing I'd be super grateful!
I've been thinking a lot about creative direction lately. The reason for that is fundamentally the fact that throughout 2023, I've been taking a hit in Patreon numbers. Don't worry, it hasn't made me worry about the future, because it's not been exclusive to me. Content creators all over the internet have reported decreasing earnings, and while I generally make it a rule not to talk about money on my Patreon, the reality is that we share this global economy together, and there's more going on, and we all know it.
It began with me wondering whether I had made a grave mistake talking about the introduction of men into the LU world. Certainly there was fallout from that decision, and I decided to not go that route as a consequence. But as the months went on, I began to realise that there are two things that are impacting me in the adult content field in particular. First, yes, money is getting tighter. This is true for everyone. Luxury expenses are cut back on first. Totally understandle.
Secondly, there is of course the rise of AI. As you can imagine, any 3D artist right is wondering what that means to their job. And I've not been immune to that. The last year I've mostly spent trying to get my bearings in a changing world. Change is chaos, it's noise. It becomes hard to separate things from each other, but for me it felt super important to determine whether I was in a losing competitive build with a new type of art generation, or if it was just the global economy impact me the same way it impacts everyone else.
Sometimes you hit a creative block, and an AI art generator does not, and that's just a practical reality that I have to accept. But at the same time, another practical reality is that in terms of consistency and diversity of content, AI art generators cannot compare to what I do. I can create the same characters over and over again in different settings, and tell a consistent story. An AI art generator can guess at what you want and hope it approximates your prompt closely enough. There's a big difference between these two ways of making imagery.
It appears to me now that there's a steady audience for either path, and that both types of people already know what they want and where they'll find it. So in that sense I think a lot of you supporting me here on Patreon do so because you want to, and in that sense I feel secure.
So I've held steady. I've observed. I didn't wanna have any knee-jerk responses to a changing world. However, last year I was putting out a lot of purely explicit shots. Lots of elaborate climax sequences, lots of dickgirl action, and it was actually hugely succesful. I felt great about it. This year, I've focused more on story. Less explicit action. As a result, content delivery has slowed, and if people both feel that money is tight AND there's quick and easy AI alternatives out there, I can totally understand how people might make the choice to move on.
So I need to strike a balance. I want to strike a balance.
Let's loop back to the two announcements up above. First, I'm setting higher standards for myself in terms of visual quality of comics and story sets because I think that's how I set myself apart against mass-content churning.
But secondly, I totally get that people sometimes just want that a quick explicit hit. And those smaller sets are lots of fun to create too. And let's be honest, I haven't been doing enough of that. What I did release were two massive sets with Kayla/Sayako/Breanna last year that content lots of explicit action, but I need to make it more bitesize. More accessible. The way I used to.
So I'll alternate a little bit more. I think that's the way forward. Hence the upcoming A3D release and the new renders I wanna produce for that. I wanted to have that release in place before talking about this because I want an announcement like this to come with something tangible. No point talking about what I intend to do eventually. I want to show, not tell.
Does that take time away from Peak 2? Yeah, a little bit. That's just gonna be what it is. Because I still need to take care of the bridal scene too and that's the setting for these new climax renders. So, two birds with one stone!
If you guys have anything to add to what I wrote above, I'd love to read it! I know this was a whale of a post, so thank you for making it all this way :)
Comments
Tequila Dealer
sensational
TheDude3DX
Answers! 1) It's multiple locations to also indicate time passing, yes. And also hell yes, loads of sex toys. Don't worry about that haha. 2) Kayla fucked Jessica. Did I say Nikki? That was an error. The version in the comic is correct. The concept behind Jessica's character is that Kayla happened to be visiting Jessica's local Zenith clinic on the same she was there for treatment. The two ladies got along and ever since Jessica can't think about anything else. Big part of her character motivation. 3) Agreed on the purple/pink hair :D Couldn't make it work, so I ditched it. 4) Thanks for the support as far as the AI stuff goes. I agree with you. I'm not ruling out AI for future projects if it helps simplify the creation of background elements in narrative sets for instance (say large crowds, or buildings, or stuff like that) but I would never ever rely on generating characters through AI. 5) I want to alternate sets so it's not so much that you won't be seeing PP2 anytime soon, it's more that you'll be getting it more piecemeal than I originally envisioned. And yes, I will post everything to Patreon as I create it :) Which I think is a good balance. 6) Tatiana and Yelena could have a wedding, for sure, but that's future talk haha. It would also have to be meaningfully different to the Breanna/Mari one since that one also serves a story purpose. I don't wanna release back-to-back identical wedding sets where the only difference is the ladies' colour themes. 7) More kissing, sure! I've always had a practical problem with the kissing since these chicks all have massive tits lol. But it's also been a bit of laziness on my end. I can make it work. Same with fisting, absolutely. That's a lot easier to do :D 8) I like the romantic threesome idea, actually. I'll have a think about that. 9) Cheers!
TheGreatCornholio
It's only fair to answer a long post with a long rambling comment lol. I'm really loving the soft light in these shots, works great. Jessica and Nikki look great together and seem to have quite a nice contrast. Since this is a girl heavy story (4 to 1) I really hope that besides their mouths and hands they'll use double headed dildos and strapless strapons :D. I'm a little confused about how PP2 will start since PP1 stopped in media res, so to say, and you mentioned in a previous update that Marcella had been spying on Nikki going to Jessica's house for a few days. Is this what you meant by more intensive creative process? It's not just multiple locations, but also we see time passing? Also having multiple locations maybe will allow you to show us Kayla entertaining herself with someone while receiving reports from Marcella? :D In a previous update you mentioned that Kayla had fucked Jessica, but in PP1 Kayla says that about Nikki. What's the correct version? I really love Jessica's look. That purple hair was a little too much for the lace esthetic you usually go for imo. I was ok with men as background characters, but have to be honest and say that I'm really happy you're keeping it girls only in the end. Just mentioning them in conversation would be enough for story wise purposes imo. I agree that consistency is AI's greatest weakness. While it's nice that people make good AI art I really have 0 incentive to support purely prompt "artists". Really happy you haven't lost your head in this AI craze like so many others. Maybe the day will come when AI will render perfect comics with 100% consistency, but we're very far away from that time imo. Having stories separated by more bite-sized sets sounds great. Especially if you can use the setting/girls/outfits you already create for a story in "fun non-story stuff". As you know I was a loud complainer about the massively long ONS sets. I loved them, but I would rather you broke them down into smaller sets and not spend a considerable part of the year working on only that. So I take it we won't be seeing PP2 anytime soon, since you'll be doing the climax set and then the bridal stuff? Will you at least please release the renders to the patreon as you work on them as you did before? Since you mused a lot in you post I'm going to go a little off the plot with a few questions lol: Will we ever have a Tatiana/Yelena wedding? Can we get more kissing please? Can we get more fisting please? I know your girls are down to fuck whomever, I love that, but there are definitely strong relationships in the story: Tatiana is definitely Yelena's lover and Mari and Bree are about to tie the knot. I ABSOLUTELY love that. There's sex galore, and room for extra partners, but there is definitely some feeling more than lust between those girls. Have you ever considered having a more unconventional "unit", like three girls in a girlfriend (even maybe wives) relationship? I mean stranger things are going on in your setting lol. Anyways, really excited about the future. The wedding, the girl on girl action from PP, the everything. Keep up the good work and don't get lost in behemoths like ONS ever again :D.
