Hey, y'all! Hope you're doing okay.

I wanted to write about a couple of things, if you couldn't tell from the journal title.

Commission Price Increasing

This isn't an announcement I make lightly, but I wanted to announce a small increase to the price of commissions and other things for the foreseeable future.

Here are my new prices, which will be reflected on my FA commissions page before the end of the night.

Basic render: $25-55 USD, 3 characters max.
Fluid drawing in renders: cost depends on amount of liquids. This will generally be between $5 - $30
Background complexity charges:
- Two-plane backgrounds or no backgrounds are free
- Basic map usage starts at $15
- Memory-heavy maps start at $40; if a map is too large for my computer to handle, another needs to be chosen
High-res upcharge: 4K (3840x2160) - $10, 8K (7680x4320) - $20
Animations: $10 / second
- Fluid sim: +$2 / second fluids are featured, from first frame to end, rounded up
Rigging/Blendshape Creation; Not available for public release yet. Need to get back into practice. May remove them from my sheet until I am more comfortable.
Return Customer Discount is staying at $10 off.

There are several reasons for this:

1) Arguably the biggest reason, is the cost of living. My lot rent for my trailer home is going up another $44 per month, which will bring my total cost for my house to almost $1,500/month, not taking into consideration bills and other necessities. It's crunch time and I've been sloppy. Besides, electricity ain't cheap, especially now that I'm in the winter months where my energy prices shoot up for approximately three to five months.
2) AI. It's screwing everything up. I was seriously planning on putting PC upgrades on a credit card after I paid off my others, but now that AI is making all the RAM prices shoot up in price, it is no longer feasible to fully upgrade unless I can make some income to be able to eat that cost, or until, and if, the AI bubble eventually bursts. The latter of which I have little to no hope of seeing happening in the foreseeable future, so the former is what I'll have to do.
3) General market and world conditions. Today I went to the store and picked up only a few things to prepare for an arctic blast that's going to keep me at home, and I spent about $100 on very few things to try and last about the next few months at most, and the next few weeks at least. Not to mention, since my car runs on diesel, the price for diesel fuel has fluctuated a lot. Just eight days ago it was sitting at $4.00/gal. Now it's $3.60 of awful "winter blend", which won't work properly unless I buy a $20 bottle of fuel additives and another $20 bottle of a different color to keep my fuel from gelling up. My point with this last one kind of ties in to the first point, but with just the way things are in the world right now I can't see prices coming down any time soon.

Phew... that was kind of a downer. Next up...

Commission Opening for the Weekend Before Christmas!

I will be opening 3 render slots to get back into the swing of things. Submissions will be accepted starting THIS WEEKEND, or 12/13 and 12/14. I will make a separate journal from this one, so please do not send me any details until this Saturday and Sunday when I will be accepting commissions.
Just a friendly reminder...

Models need to be sent however possible, poses need to be chosen in advance (with reference images), and, if you have a link to a map from Open3DLab or similar, send them my way.

I cannot and will not do any rigging or animations this time around, not until I am comfortable rigging/animating for commissioners again.

Thank you for your understanding. I will see you guys Saturday/Sunday with your commission ideas!

- Gino