I am making this post a week before April 1st because I don't want there to be any confusion about the content. No humorous deceptions here, folks.
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For the last year or so, my VG Exiles series has gone without any significant updates. It reached a point of almost crippling stagnation and I am quite frankly surprised that any of you bothered to keep up with my page the way you have. That said, I would like to make a couple of formal announcements:
First of all, after much deliberation, 3XStudios and I have parted ways on the VG Exiles project. The simple fact is that the last year has not been filled with fortune and he is being pulled in too many directions to be able to give the series the attention it requires. The division was nothing personal. He is still one of my best friends in real life and I don't want to see any disrespect spring up here. I wish him luck in all of his future endeavors. As you can probably guess, that puts me back on square one with this artwork.
Before you start to panic, I have another announcement.
Near the end of 2009 or so, I was contacted by an artist on deviantArt who went by the name of CE-Rap. We chatted a bit and he expressed an interest in making some promotional posters for the series. Admittedly, I did not have an idea at the time regarding the usefulness of such a thing. I also had to politely decline his offer to help on the VGE3 artwork on the basis that I already had an artist. We soon parted ways and I forgot about the whole thing.
Fast forward to January 2011 and THIS shows up in my dA inbox right out of the blue:
VGE0 Poster
Very shortly thereafter, two more images appeared:
VGE1 Poster
VGE2 Poster
(Be sure to full view all of these images for full appreciation. Don't be embarrassed if you shit a brick upon viewing these for the first time. I did, too. They blew me away.)
I show you these as a primer for the actual announcement: I have brought CE-Rap onto the VG Exiles team and he will be supplying the artwork for VGE3. This is subject to continuation for the remainder of my flash career.
Now, I know what you might be thinking and I don't want to give you the wrong impression. These showed up right around the time I started picking up steam on MK FAILtality. It wasn't until FAILtality was released that I started feeling the pressure of VGE3 again. Both the Easter Egg and FAILtality were created to keep me involved during the artwork downtime. With FAILtality complete, I had the overwhelming urge to animate again and no end in sight on the VGE3 artwork delays. It was the need to get the job done and done quickly that prompted my decision to bring him aboard after I parted ways with 3X. There had been a few concerns raised about the artwork in previous episodes (unjustified IMO) and I don't want anybody assuming that I was trying to "trade up" because that was not the case.
Are we all clear on that? Good.
Now, my initial production meeting with CE-Rap was very productive and I presented him with the artwork requirements of VGE3. Although it was a daunting task, he is confident that he can get the job done quickly. I will not release a set time frame for obvious reasons, but his initial appraisal was VERY promising. If everything goes as estimated, you can expect VGE3 to hit the portal very soon. How soon I cannot say, but if it goes much much farther than the estimate and takes until June (which it won't), it would still be a marked improvement. You folks have been waiting over a year for this, so I'm not going to sweat a few extra weeks and I doubt that you would find it unbearable.
So there you have it. VG Exiles Episode 3 is finally back on track after a full year hiatus. If you have a deviantArt account, give CE-Rap a visit and show him some love. The man has a whole lot of artwork there and all of it (especially the REJEX comic) is worth a stay. If you've got the cash to do so, you should also consider making an artwork commission. He would definitely appreciate it!
Oh, and he will also be making a poster similar to those previously shown for the upcoming third episode of the VG EXILES. This time, however, it's entirely "official" and will be shown to the world BEFORE the episode drops as a promotion. That's right, folks! R1's big secret is gonna be out in the open real soon!
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In other news, I have officially started choreography on VGE4. I won't go into details on that one yet, but I will say that I was NOT kidding when I said that 2011 would be the year of the funny AND the fury!
Emphasis on FURY!!!
R1665
(Please enjoy this video in celebration of reading this whole long-ass news post. It pretty much sums everything up. TURN THAT SHIT UP!! Veeeery fitting...)
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Ryukang
Its awesome to see that you are going back to business with the exiles series the poster for vge2 looks awesome. I just have one question that has nothing to do with this do u think that you will do another MK FAILtality later on this year since it was such a big hit?
R1665
Probably not, to be honest.
I don't rule out FAILtality 2 or any other potential side project, but they are not my main focus. FAILtality wouldn't even exist if it weren't for the art delays. I guess that could be considered something of a silver lining.
R1665