Sandkoi
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I See That Y'know Update
🕑 Added 2026-01-11 09:18:20 +0000 UTCReal quick first, I hope you enjoy the new animation! This is was something I actually first worked on quite awhile ago. It feels good to go back to something older and freshening it up to my current standards π
So, I really don't want to take about such things that much, but I see it happening. I see people sharing my stuff and I can't help but see it and go "ugh...". Now don't get me wrong, my thoughts on the matter hasn't changed since I last addressed this. I absolutely understand why piracy exists, and holy moly are a lot of nsfw material out there not worth it for the prices they ask. Even something reasonable, including regular things like streaming sites, I understand it adds up quick to put $5 towards something. 4 services/memberships a month and you're already at $20, let alone all the stuff out there that asks for more than $5 at a baseline. But I know plenty of places out there ask for something crazy like $60+ for a single video!
But at the same time, despite doing noticeably better than what I was just a couple months ago, I'm not rolling in money or anything, far from it. Under the assumption of a "40 hours a week job", I'm making less than $12/hr currently from this. And I think that's me being a bit generous with that number. Of course things can change, and that this sort of "job" can go up and down pretty quickly, but I know people can assume quickly that creators like myself are making A LOT... but I'm not.
But wait hold on, how do I even know? Well, IT'S OBVIOUS. Let me show you something:
On my pixiv, I usually see myself hovering just over 400 views a day or so. If I see a big spike out of no where like that when on that day I've done nothing, it's one of 3 things:
1. Some high follower account retweeted my stuff
2. My work got posted on a popular place to find NSFW works
3. Piracy
(And hey would you look at that, that's some crazy numbers from external sites)
And I'm not stupid, I know about such places, I've already seen it with my own two eyes. I see my scene data being posted and being downloaded. I know those downloads already go into the thousands. And that... hurts. Under just the idea that 1000 people download my works that's supposed to be $20 to get, that's already $20000 I've missed out on. I believe I've only made around 25% of that total! And yes, I'm super aware that it's silly to actually expect all 1000 people to actually come to any of my pages and pay for the content. Hell, even thinking 100 of them doing so might be a stretch. Dare I say there's a small feeling in the back of my mind that feels embarrassed seeing people go out of there way to want something I make like that. Buuuuuut who knows, I sure don't, and it makes things more difficult with me still reasonably being in the spot I'm in.
I'm not bringing this up because I'm going to make changes to my stuff though, or because I'm actually mad or anything, but I do know other creators like those in the Koikatsu community sometimes choose to swap how they deliver their content. I don't want to do that. I don't want to make any of you guys go through extra hoops and ladders just to get your rewards or even being able to watch the free ones where I post them. I bring it up because, DAMN, I can't help but worry that things like this could cause a legit blow to what I'm doing. Maybe it's a "good thing" because of exposure, the graph literally shows a HUGE spike I'd only see when I post works, maybe even more! But I work hard on these animations and it feels undermining.
I really hope it doesn't come across that I price my things too high and it causes people to feel like they have to resort to pirating my stuff. It's $5 for EVERYTHING I've made in video form, $20 to also have the ALL the scene data as well. $20000 like that would unironically be life changing for me to suddenly have. That's not to be greedy, I've just had to live pretty frugal my whole life, it would be nice to see enough success to move past that.
I'm not going to be more negative about this though. I recognize my growth and am very grateful towards all of you guys. I kinda wrote this in the first place to figuratively place my hands on the shoulders of people doing this and shake them a bit. "Hey! Please! Go easy on me ;w;". I see other creators asking for like $40+ for a character card, or a mod, or even just a single month membership that doesn't work for previous months! I know! It makes me raise my eyebrow too and I feel with you guys on that. Not that many of them don't work hard as well. But let's be real, sometimes it does feel like lazy work/greedy high prices. I appreciate the others that keep things fair and show awesome work. Makes me want to continue doing the same.
So sorry, rant over. I just wanted to address it over seeing a few large spikes of out of no where activity as of late. I'll try to tell myself the exposure part is a good thing and to not worry too much about it.
The next animation from the poll I made a while back is up next and that one actually has a decent amount of work on it that I've already done from before making that poll in the first place, so I hope it doesn't take too long to finish. I also got a few commissions lined up so any of those might come out before it, but prooooobably right after.
Peace βοΈ
