acerola_t
patreon
Channel Update
🕑 Added 2023-12-14 05:34:52 +0000 UTCHello friends as always I am thinking of ways to produce better videos with as little compromise as possible on my creative ambitions so this post will be about potential changes moving forward to the current formula to achieve these things.
First, an exciting announcement! I'm signing exclusively with my talent agency which gives me some more benefits as well as access to better and higher paying sponsorship opportunities (this is a normal thing to do and I am not being preyed upon please do not worry lol). Ideally I would like to be fully funded through sponsors rather than take any money from viewers, so this is a step towards that because I feel immense guilt receiving money from my audience of people around my age who I know are struggling (not that I am not struggling too lol). My agency is also offering lots of help for production of merch which is something I am considering for 200k subs or 250k or maybe even 300k depending on how long it takes for me to come up with and produce some prototypes for merch I would be proud to sell. Current ideas are some cool designer graphic tees as well as maybe something novel like a personal keycap set with decent pricing because keycaps are expensive as fuck. I love novelties so if you have any ideas please bring them up, I think there's a lot of unexplored territory in the creator merch world.
Next, regarding potential changes to video release scheduling, I'm still really unsatisfied with every video I've put out since I went full time because the monthly schedule is very limiting. Having only about 2 weeks to research and implement stuff that I would have months to do at a real job is causing great strain on the actual quality of what I produce and also prevents me from doing any real experimentation and innovation. I would like to be able to take what we've talked about and created in the video and combine it with what I've made and talked about before, such as using all of our various post processing techniques to show all the different ways this new tech can be presented aesthetically. This is not something I can do at the moment because the moment I finish a textbook implementation I have to immediately start on the script to make the video by the end of the month. The script writing takes the most effort, despite popular belief. If I made enough money to release videos bimonthly I would to give myself the time to innovate, but I am not in that place at the moment and probably never will be so I have to consider alternative solutions to be the creator I want to be.
Unfortunately I think I will have to creatively compromise and produce lower quality content that supplements and substitutes the higher level content I currently produce on a monthly basis. By this I mean videos that delve more into applied graphics programming than theoretical, using the tech I've already made videos on to replicate existing (popular) game effects. These videos will be more like my old videos (pre ff14 video) aka shorter (10-15 minutes) and probably voice over only so I can produce them a bit more easily. To give an example, the first video in the series would be about recreating the visuals of Lethal Company because many people have been praising it but it's possible to recreate with ideas I've already made videos on lol (fog, edge detection, quantization, downscaling). This format has a lot of benefits, the first and most important is that it's still educational and ultimately tricks viewers into learning about shaders which then leads them to watch the videos about how the shaders actually work and wow a new graphics programmer is born. Secondly, it maximizes the value of my existing videos by bringing more traffic to them. Thirdly, it takes advantage of trends in a way that my current formula cannot (trends are gone by the time I'm able to put out a genuinely educational video lol) which will bring more eyes to the channel. Fourthly, it gives me more time to have fun with what I've already made, and I think seeing how these shaders can be applied in a practical context is as valuable as the theory. Lastly, the slightly scummy part, these videos could be sponsored at the same rates as my existing videos that take way, way more effort. Essentially these kinds of videos may take the spot of the monthly release so that I can have more time to work on the bigger release if needed, meaning that what you all vote on will become decoupled from the monthly release and go back to the "when it's ready" schedule, which will be different each time. This also addresses one other major issue I've had, which is only choosing video topics I know I can figure out in a week or two, and avoiding anything that needs genuine experimentation or invention or time to brew in my brain. I think this is overall a great change and something I will be trying after I finish this video on buoyancy, but if the lethal company video bombs then I will instantly go back to the formula that is currently working at the cost of my health until I grow enough to stabilize lol.
Please let me know what you think of all this, I appreciate your support very much and want to make changes that mostly everyone can agree with.
Comments
Joseph Catrambone
Remember: every patron has given their money willingly (unless you are threatening them and I haven't heard about it), so they authentically enjoy and appreciate your content enough that it is providing them value. If you still don't believe that, let's think about it in purely monetary terms: Your video on the Kuwahara filter saved me probably 10 hours of research, so if I make $100/hour (I don't, but easy math) that's $1000 of benefit to me and it seems fair that you should get some of that back. Some calculus for the evergreen videos: current trends are neat and help drive views, like you've noticed, but evergreen content like the educational stuff can have a long tail effect. A video that gets 1M views the first month and then nothing can provide a spot-instance worth of income, but compare that to a steady state of views and input for a de-facto video and perhaps the calculus might be different. Second channel outtakes or "things that didn't work" could be rewarding, too, if you need a disposal place for b-roll. I post my failures on Mastodon, but I bet YouTube shorts might still count towards your monetization numbers. (Spoken also as someone who again has little knowledge of the field.)
John Warner
Congrats on signing with the talent agency! I hope it works out well. I can't speak for others but... while I'm not rich, I'm not exactly struggling. No need to feel guilt about... at least myself. I've benefitted from your videos, so I'd frankly feel guilty if I couldn't pay a little something. Also, it may just be me, but in terms of content, I'm particularly interested in your more technical stuff, so shorter videos that are a bit more concrete could be quite valuable. Theory is really interesting, but translating it into concretes usually causes me to encounter a snag or two.
