Jinx progress update and reward date announcement!

Hello my Sweethearts!

Dzikan is finally back with Jinx update and with an announcement considering the April-May reward.

First of all, I’m very sorry for my lack of proper communication and updates these past 1,5 months. It saddens me deeply, but I couldn’t change it.
I’m just in a very rough period of life right now, which happens to all of us from time to time. A lot of burden on my shoulders and I’m not sure at what point it’ll break my spirit. Overworking, health problems, worries and stress are my main enemies these days. These baddies hit like a truck and always on my neck. )
Our Tao is pushing his limits. He worked while being ill and stressed out for the past half a year. And even so he doesn’t say anything I see when the person is breaking. So I couldn’t ask him to write and communicate on my behalf, like it was a few times in the past. Even so he proposed that.

I’m writing this only to explain what is happening right now and not for any other reason. If it sounded like that, it wasn’t intentional and I honestly didn’t mean it. If it was bothersome to read, which I understand, I’m sorry my Sweethearts. Just wanted to be honest and clear.

I’m working hard on finding ways to improve my activity here on patreon. To be more active, productive and positive.
The big project I’m working on at my other job is planned to release in the near future, so I have hopes it’ll allow me to breathe freely.
I also started to solve health issues, but it’s only just the beginning and the road is long. But even the drop can change the creek into a river. )
And to fight piled up stress we are working on planning the break/vacation I mentioned in one of my previous posts. As I always write, when you’re on the verge of beaking it’s better to take a pause. But right now I have a fear that the vacation might not happen due to external forces. In that case, we’ll need to figure out something I guess. )

As for the updates and communication on Patreon I wrote myself some kind of plan. Rules that I should follow through, how much I should check messages and answer, when to write a new post. If I can’t do it my usual way these days, then I should help myself with directions. Until the day comes when I could do it my usual way.
The only downside is to force myself to follow these rules, haha. )


Let’s talk about Jinx a bit, shall we? It’s one of the main subjects for today after all. )
Fun fact.
The Jinx project was created by total accident. Ok, it’s a bit of a stretch.
As you know or might know, my main moto towards Dzikan photography was to find the best suited model for each character we worked with.
We prepared the Jinx costume around a month after the animated series aired, long before the shoot, but didn’t have a model with suitable characteristics. It’s always a headache.
But when we got our hands that featured as Ningguang, I knew exactly that she is a Jinx.
Especially when we saw her serious expression.
The body proportions, emotion right from the  poster. That was it!

Another fan fact.
The location where we shot our Jinx was in the works for a year. According to the owner of the place. I’m not sure if it’s true, but Tao confirmed it, because he constantly updates his list of location sets.
I always wanted to shoot with neon signs, because of their charm and style. And when I finally had an opportunity I didn’t expect them to be dull. )
They didn’t produce that much light, which meant I needed to work with long exposure in order to have light glow and enough light on the model. In the end I still needed to use colored gel filters on my light sources to emulate the light from neon signs.
If you’re interested I can talk a bit about long exposure in the future. )
If I remember correctly all signs were bought on chinese Aliexpress marketplace around 50-100 dollars for piece. No advertisement here, just in case you wanted something like that for yourself. But bare in mind, you’ll never know will it arrive broken or not. )

I love how our Jinx looks. I didn’t have much hope for this project, because I wasn’t satisfied with my own work on set as the photographer. I also didn’t have Tao on the set, who usually assists me or vice versa. Good team work is a blessing.
But after seeing post-production results I’m at ease now. )
What do you think? Do you like the progress update?
Since my last update was long ago I decided to show you two images in the progress post, so you could see that we weren’t slacking on post-production side of things.


At the end let me talk about the Announcement I mentioned earlier in the beginning.
I decided not to divide Jinx in two parts (like it was with Nier Duo project), but instead finish everything properly in one go and send to you in one two month reward at the end of May.
According to the post-production plan, rewards will be finished before May 26.
For my friends who didn’t intend to support Dzikan photography in May or no more, your reward also will be sent to you at the end of May. I’m very sorry for this inconvenience, but it’s all I can do.  
The decision was made due to problems I mentioned at the beginning of this post, in order to not to upset you even more and to have time to solve at least part of those problems.
And most importantly we’ll be able to focus our attention on quality more.
I hope you’ll be understandable of this decision.


This is all for today. Thank you for reading it. Please share your thoughts about Jinx and about the reward date announcement.
See you very soon! And please be healthy and happy!