I am constantly aware that this is a massive departure from Low Poly Dinos that went so well last year. And I would be lying if I said that didn’t worried me. This is, almost laser focused, on a demographic that doesn’t currently follow me. It’s a demographic that there generally isn’t enough of in 3D printing and tech in general. But I didn’t choose this project to abandon my core base and go after a neglected demographic. I chose this project because it got me excited. I had people telling me I need to do fantasy creatures or space ships, but those ideas never gelled for me. This one clicked instantly and made total sense. It was like a bolt out of heaven. It didn’t feel like work to fill up notebooks with sketches. In fact it felt like a chore to stop and make a kickstarter and record a video and wait till the stretch goals to make more. And like I said, after the kickstarter, I may keep going and flesh out little world packs. assuming Chibimals do well. Because if I’m the only one who this excites, I should probably move on. I’ve had projects I was excited about that the public basically said “no thanks”, and I abandoned them. I’ll get over it in time. But I hope I won’t have to.
Because, I love Chibimals, and I hope you will too.
I decided to give this video the YouTube premier treatment. Not sure it was worth it for a 3 minute video. I was thinking it would be a livestream setup, but it was basically “Come and participate in a live chat at a specific time while we watch the video together”. It wasn’t bad, I’m just not sure it was worth it.
The kickstarter is scheduled for June 11th. Until then I’ll be working on the Kickstarter page, getting feedback, and maybe trying to get some FAQs in before it’s too late.
This video was a lot of work for 3 minutes. First of all, directing a 2 year old is an not-enviable task. But she was awful cute, even when she wouldn’t run off after stealing the toys. The girl enjoys being caught and tickled more than just running around. The audio I recorded for the first part failed, so I had to go with a secondary audio source and clean it up in post. A lot. I ended up turning voice waves into saw-tooth waves, I’m afraid. I rerecorded the audio I could so it wouldn’t *all* be bad. And the scene where my one daughter snaggs the last one had to be framed so that it wouldn’t be obvious that there was a different collection of Chibimals on the table, because it was from an earlier take.
The time lapse was done with the wong camera, and I didn’t realize it was only recording at 640×480. Ah well, the lighting looks good.
The design was specifically inspired by a book called “Mini Crochet Creatures” by Lauren Bergstrom. However, “No part of this publication yadda yadda yadda” means I had to find alternative models to convey the idea. But it was Bergstrom’s egg-shape that really became the aesthetic I wanted to capture. I like how it’s simplicity still managed to distill down the essence of these creatures, while also conforming to the “Chibi” aesthetic, which is defined by pushing cute to the edge of grotesque, without going over.
I’ve sketched out a ton of these animals to be sure I wouldn’t be caught off guard with a request by people, and at this point I’m confident that not only could I do 40+ chibimlas (like I did for the Low Poly Dinos), but I could keep going to hundreds. in fact, after this launch, maybe I’ll make new themed packs, and fill out the forest or the desert or the ocean or the jungle, etc. This style could be applied to fantasy creatures and cryptids. I could make a whole new line simply by adding wings or unicorn horns or splitting them down the middle and making a skeleton for them. That last one can be called Disect-i-mals. With low poly dinos, I feel like there’s nothing left for me to do. With Chibimals, I feel like there’s no end to what I will be able to do.
The bulbous nature of Chibimals will make them perfect candidates for re-purposing into functional purposes. Candy jars, banks, laps, heck even enclosures for your electronics projects. Chibimals are remix fodder. Print them with zero infill and zero bottom layers you’ve got finger puppets.
Chibimals Forever!
