Hey Everyone! I AM SO EXCITED WITH HOW THE COLLAB IS COMING!! I truly can't wait to get it finished and show you all :D
Now there have been a metric TON of you asking how it's going and when the video will be posted and I just wanted to let you all know that I'm still working hard on it as diligently as my physical and mental body will allow :)
WARNING: It's going to be a TLDR for some of you, but a lot have been excitedly inquiring on the status of the collab. So I wanted to give you a heads up on my end because my wife, 3 kids and myself have all been avid watchers of all the collabs and 10HUN for a really, really LONG time. With that said our whole family waits with eager anticipation for each artist's addition to come, so I personally know the feeling of suspense. I also feel extremely bad for how long it has been taking me for my contribution and just wanted to shed a little light on my end, because to be honest a lot of you really don't know who I am.
The reason I say that is because one comment I received asked what my "excuse" was, and asked if I even wanted to do the collab. If you knew me you would know that I am absolutely ecstatic and grateful to have the chance to be a part of such an amazing piece of work. As well, one trait of knowing me is that I don't use excuses, I go 100% with as much in my life as I can and I give my best at everything that I do (sometimes the attention to detail does hinder my time, but quality and perfection is what I strive and push myself towards). With that said unfortunately sometimes life does get in the way and throw some speed bumps, but there is nothing more for me to do than roll with the punches and keep pushing myself harder and harder forward.
I had this discussion with a fellow new subscriber, but thought it would be pertinent here to allow you all to view things on the other side of YouTube creators, as well as artists in general... and even things to keep in mind as the collab travels to smaller and smaller channels.
- We are coming in on the lower the sub count and that might mean an artist isn't a full time YouTuber, they don't depend on YouTube as a primary source of income... so they more than likely have a full time job that they could work up to or more than 40+ hours a week to make sure their financial ends are met (I unfortunately fall under the 40+ hours a week at the day job). When Shuzi gave me this amazing opportunity I had just barely broken 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch time hours and had just received monetization privileges from YouTube. To this day with all the work and videos I have on my channel I have received one payment from YouTube at the amount of $198.34, which at that price, won't allow me to quit the day job. In essence, my time to be creative comes after a full 8+ hours a day at work... it comes at night after I put the kids to sleep and kiss my beautiful wife on the forehead before disappearing into the garage.
- Some artists might be providing for a family of 5 (some maybe more maybe less), which does greatly narrow down their time to make sure their kids and significant other are tended to. Personally I don't ever want my family to feel neglected, I'm a workaholic but not to the expense of my kids or wife.
- Some artists might have had prior commissions or obligations that they needed to meet, or put them on hold in lieu of a great opportunity like this collab (I chose to put all of mine on hold, and luckily have amazingly understandable customers).
- Some artists of lower sub count might be a one person show- creating not only the art, but shooting the video, doing camera setup, cleanup and all of the video editing as well, unable to afford to hire or outsource others to do those tasks.
Now in my case it would be all of the above... I am the one person show, 40+ hours a week at the full time day job, providing for my family of 5 but I assure you all that I do pull all nighters after the family is asleep to make my craft and produce my YouTube videos. My previous update even shows 12 days of all nighters that I pulled just to get the Samurai Challenge done in time, which if you saw in that video, life threw a speed bump my way in the form of a microburst hitting our house and whole neighborhood, but I dug deep and kept on the grind to get it done. And to be honest the Samurai Challenge only needed 1 sword to be submitted, I could have cut losses and only finished 1 sword but I couldn't give up, or sell myself short and finished the whole set of 3 swords... so believe me in my 42 years on this earth it's engrained in me how to push myself to create and get done what needs to be done :)
And an explanation of speed bumps to keep everyone in the loop:
October: I again am extremely grateful to Shuzi for this opportunity, but unfortunately it came to me when as you know I was finishing up the Samurai Challenge mid-October (after almost 2 weeks of all nighters I did need to rest my body and clean up the disaster of a mess that I made creating 3 swords in the garage). October is also both of my boy's birthday month (my youngest turned 6 Oct 7th, and middle turned 10 on Oct 17th). And then Halloween which with 3 kids that love decorating, haunted houses, pumpkin patches and trick or treating did toss some speed bumps this month and took some time away.
November: My wife and I celebrated our anniversary on the 12th and I had a vacation planned months in advance to take the 5 of us to California for a week to celebrate not only our anniversary but my wife's birthday as well (which was on November 17th). An unfortunate speed bump even for our vacation was my wife's appendix burst and had to have emergency surgery just days before we left for California, which even after vacation she did have to have a few follow up appointments for me to take her to. With that said this is also the month of Thanksgiving, and hosting friends and family at our house along with everything else did take some time away.
December: I got to celebrate my birthday on the 16th! And just days after, half of our house flooded. As I woke up to get out of bed for work my feet were met with just over an inch of water. That hose behind the toilet that fills it up after you flush... ours decided to burst- filling the master bedroom, bathroom and family room with water. But then came Christmas and after that was the New Year to celebrate with family and friends, so some more speed bumps happened and I pushed myself as much as I could this month as well.
Here we are in January and an awesome new year has begun. Right now it's the 16th at 9:45PM and the kids have been put asleep. My wife made an amazing shepherd's pie that I can smell... which once I post this I'll be inhaling some of, then heading out to the garage to put my grind to the collab late into the night- then waking up before the sun to get started at the day job.
With all that said, after this novel-length update of a Ted Talk... I want to assure you all that I've been diligently working as hard as my mind and body will allow in between all these speed bumps the past few months (I'm sure a lot of you felt like November and December just flew by just with the busyness of the holidays alone). But I'm here still truckin away on the collab, having fun every step of the way- putting the grind in late at night, thinking about how grateful of an opportunity this is, to be able to take part on such an amazing collaboration. It's really thrilling, and surreal at the same time getting to put my mark on the collab, I truly feel honored and can't wait for you all to see it after I'm done! And I do want to apologize on how long it has taken me on my portion, honestly I do feel really bad because I know how much anticipation comes with a project like this and I am sorry for that. But trust me as soon as I am done, and the video is edited you all will be the first to know. I hope this puts some of you at ease, and lets you in on the other side of being on YouTube... I'm just a small time creator given an amazingly huge opportunity, and I'm doing my absolute best that my mind/body/family/time allows me to do :)
I hope you all have a great night (or day depending on where you are when reading this) and thank you so much for the support and kind words of encouragement. I'm off to inhale some shepherd's pie and back onto the collab! :D
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Hey All! ππ
Just wanted to keep everyone in the loop- I popped open the shilping box to be sure it arrived safely and there was some unfortunate damage to the collab during shipping πͺ
Now its nobody's fault or blame, and its in good hands on how to fix it (and to keep it from happening again). Just know that all artwork done to the collab is in perfect condition... its just slightly unattached for the time being.
I'll address everything once I start shooting the video, and will go over the fix as well.
For now I have 12 days of all-nighters left until the deadline of the Samurai Themed YouTube Knifemaker Challenge- and then onto the Collab!! ππ€
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Oh snap! Anyone know what just arrived all the way from Canada from βͺ@ShuziArtβ¬ π€―π
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Custom Made Metalworks!
Matt "Smitty Tut" Smith is The Blood, Sweat and Tears Behind All The Props and Metalworks here at Smitty Tut Designs!
Smitty Tut is an extremely talented artist which works vary from CAD Design, Graphic Design and Photo Manipulation to Jewelry Design, Leatherworking and Metalworks- All of which you can find here or on SmittyTutDesigns.com
6 August 2011