Happy New Year! (Patreon)

Hey friends,

At the end of each year, it is customary to think back on our accomplishments and future plans, and who are we to break this custom? Especially considering how we owe as much to you, our loyal subscribers, who are the main reason we still keep going!

Honestly, I would bore you with details long before I finish writing about everything, so I'll do my best to keep it (relatively) short. But by now you should already know brevity isn't one of my virtues.

I'd like to begin by saying we've been blessed with the amazing team members that joined us this year. We began this year with a step backwards, just the two of us, me and Elena, right as when we first opened our Patreon in March 2022. Luckily, Milana (YoruNoAme) quickly filled the empty spot of our sole anime artist and practically rescued us from closing shop. Come to think of it, I have never properly thanked Somed for giving up Milana's contact info to us after a little persuasion and keeping both his knee caps totally intact. Just kidding, of course, he was very helpful, we wouldn't be where we are if not for him. Thank you, Somed!

Victoria (Vik) came along not too long afterwards with the help of our subscriber DarkKn1ght, who not only shared her contact info, but also gifted Student Edelgard, which he commissioned from Vik, to our followers.

Totenn took the last spot on our team after months of me nagging him to be our guest artist. What can I say, I can be persistent if I want to, even though it was ultimately Totenn who asked to join us.

Another notable event that happened this year was our exodus from CGTrader after we decided to stand by our principles and not give in to them pushing artists around. Sure, we might have lost a few thousand dollars since then by not posting our work there, but I still believe it was the right choice. And my belief is further reinforced by their recent decision to forcibly change the license of all hosted models to allow generative AI to train on them.

On a much more positive note, this year we introduced regular model swaps with other creators, which, to my knowledge, isn't something anyone else did on such a regular basis before us. Every month, we keep looking for new creators who are interested in a cross-promo with us, because we believe it is vital for the whole industry to let people find out about other studios and have a chance to experience their work firsthand. So hey, if you happen to be a fellow 3D modelling creator, don't think twice about contacting us! ^_~

Speaking of other artists, one other important thing we did was introduce the guest artist program. What began as a one-time deal for us to catch up on our schedule and put an end to constant delays have grown into a monthly occurence. There are lots of talented 3D artists around and not all of them are willing to commit to the monthly grind that comes with running a Patreon. From the very first days of Bulkamancer Sculpts, we loathed the idea of people taking credit for someone else's work, which is a bit too customary in our industry. Which is why we never shied away from revealing the main artist behind each model (just take a look at the bottom right corner of practically any of our renders). After all, artists deserve to be credited for their hard work to grow their own portfolio and audience instead of scraping by between odd jobs, and we should help them on their path. I am proud to say that this year we have worked with a total of 14 guest artists who are not part of Bulkamancer Sculpts team, including a few whose models are not yet announced. We are planning to continue our guest artist program next year and give the opportunity to more wonderful artists to show their skills!

Last important milestone this year is the creation of our first original character, Bulka Crustreaper. We wanted to develop our original setting for a very long time and I'm glad we finally took the first step. While Bulka may not be a fan-favorite model for the time being, we are planning to continue down this path by adding more characters and defining lore for our own edgy and ridiculous Bulkamancer universe. So if that's your thing, by all means, join us on our quest and throw some ideas around! Oh, and before I forget, I would like to thank PONGOJ for drawing a concept art for our upcoming character Mocha and also the holiday card for this post! We love his style and hope to work with him closely on even more Bulkamancer-related stuff next year!

On that note, I would like to stop torturing you with words. I did mention brevity wasn't one of my talents, didn't I? Let me just say our entire team is very excited to see what the next year brings us, and we would like to thank each and every one of you for supporting us through our journey! You are the best audience we could ever wish for!

Happy New Year!
Bulkamancer Sculpts team