Austen Payne

Storyboard Artist / Teacher / Dungeon Master + They/Them

[krownjester]

hello tungle... me and my friends made a pilot, pleease check it out if you like magical girls and cat girls and kaijus and pink and and and

[french-fart]

Sketch dump :P

[mosswiind]

it's been so cool and fun to watch people roll back what they think counts as an RPG because you can't join the bad guys, as if it were an option in 99% of rpg games

[mosswiind]

does legend of zelda stop being an RPG because the writers wanted you to experience a story

is the witcher not an RPG anymore because you are Geralt and not a totally original, totally custom, totally evil character

Is every game bad now that you've had a taste of being the Dark Urge

Like, the classification of a type of video game does not change because you don't like the role the game wants you to play.

Sometimes RPGs are allowed to tell you a story. Is that not like...most of the point of playing RPGs?

[french-fart]

Vier’Olin’s patron sure is something!! Hehe

I really love how much fun she is to draw

[french-fart]

More doodles of Vier’Olin!

Her hat is mean

[french-fart]

DAY 5!!! Sometimes when looting a tomb things don’t go as planned…

[french-fart]

DAY 4!! Forgot to post this here yesterday!! It was VERY COLD!!!

[french-fart]

DAY 3!! Wanted to try something a little different with this Goblin!!

[french-fart]

MORE GOBLIN!!! Day 2!!!

[french-fart]

IT'S GOBLIN WEEK BABYYYYYY!!! I missed the first day yesterday so playing catchup!

[french-fart]

Leaping into 2025!!!

[french-fart]

Doodle page of my new Drow Warlock Vier'Olin! Her archfey patron is trapped in her hat!! I might get to play in a witchlight campaign so I really wanted to tighten up my character concept.

[french-fart]

Art Vs Artist!! I don’t finish things anymore so most of my art is just sketches haha

[french-fart]

Rook trying not to let on they like Bellara probably 😳

[french-fart]

BELLARA DOODLE!!

I love her so much she’s SO CUTE!!!

[finchwiing]

Is working as an animator as a job all that different to animating projects on your own? i want to get into 2D animation professionally, ive been doing commissions and maps for the better part of a decade and going to uni for it has always been a dream, but formal education isnt and option open to me and ive stalled so long that i want to move on and try and just go without it, as ive seen a couple animators do, but im worried the actual job aspect of being an animator for a show and working with others isnt something id do well with learning on the go, any advice :')? what was it like for you transitioning from having full control over projects to working with teams, for shows and with so many eyes on every step of your work?

I'm ngl I find it very different. You're not animating something you're very passionate about and you have someone over your shoulder telling you what to do and what to fix, which is totally fine bc u gotta deliver a project, but it's not gonna be as fun. A job is still a job.

[silentsunburst]

As a 3D animator currently looking to switch careers I'd add on because of this it's a job that's very easy to burn out from. It gets very tough if you're not able to emotionally detach yourself from your work because there's a lot of pressure to output quality and you're constantly getting feedback over changing things. Which feedback is great to help you improve but it can still take its toll, emotionally, especially so if you're not passionate about a project but still attached to your work. It gets stressful.

It can be a very draining job especially if your biggest interest /is/ animation and drawing. Personally even if I've worked in 3D I still couldn't find the energy to work on personal 2D projects in my time off work. There's also the fact that working animation you spend long hours / most of your days in front of a computer so after that it's likely you want to get away from your screen.

Professional-level animation is also very technical and every aspect of a shot will be taken into account, you need to make very conscious decisions about what you're doing. You'll be surprised how much can be nitpicked about a shot lol. Whereas as a hobby you can just keep it to having fun and not necessarily thinking too much into it, if it looks good to you then that's enough.

Unless you work at indie studios (I haven't so I don't have any idea what it's like), working at bigger studios you'll also find that though it's a creative field... It can still be a very corporate environment. It's an office job. So there can be social politics and gossip and all, and corporate will corporate.

Animation is not a stable job either being based on availability of projects. Even if you have a permanent position and been at the studio forever you can be let go because there's no more work. You need to be ready for that.

This isn't to discourage or anything but just things to take into account overall. For me personally after 3 years I'm returning to study a different field so hopefully in the future I can work part time a non-art related job and part-time art commission work and all. I find I prefer solo commission work cause I still get to make much of the artistic decisions and I get to have a direct impact on clients. Which is not the case on bigger studio projects.

[finchwiing]

Yea this! Animation is one of the more employable creative fields which is great (though it's not great atm but that's like a lot of industries) but working a job in a creative field comes with its downsides, like turning a hobby into something you have to do 40+ hours a week with no break can be rough. If you get art block, burn out etc, there's no stopping, so it feels like running on a broken foot sometimes.

People are what make the difference in any job. If your team is awesome then it doesn't matter if you're not as passionate, it makes it a lot easier

[french-fart]

A small collection of Tav doodles from recently!!