F: Tell us. What are you currently working on? Give us a little tease-a-roo.
Lustgard: Alright, currently… I’m working on the Jack-O-Pose animation. My time schedule is pretty packed. And this trend hit like a storm. It was brought forth to my attention and people on the Discord server, Twitter and in DMs started asking about it, and that it would be cool to see our OC in such a pose. I was originally working on the lengthy squat animation, but as you might know, it takes time (months), and it was good with a small break from it. Doing something easy and loopable, like this Jack-O-Pose.
F: Wise move (no pun intended). Animations can be pretty tricky.
L: Yes, animations can be tricky, but I have been training for this…. This moment to shine. And right now I’m doing day 5 of animation tweaking of the Jack-O-Pose with jiggle tests.
You see… Behind the LCD monitors that light up our very faces with Lustgard and the fair Njorijanna lies thousands of hours of work, a sophisticated model with state of the art jiggle physics and drivers to make her the way she is… Sometimes, I swear she has already taken on a life of her own here in the cyber cradle of Lustgard. So it is not uncommon for her not to listen to her very creator. And that is also the reason why I cannot simply dump out content, each artwork/animation is unique and there lies an extensive amount of time and passion.
F: But it’s that personality that makes her even more alluring, isn’t it?
L: Yes, just by saying that gives me a smile, it means I have succeeded in a way. I want her to be real and thicker, er, bigger than life.
F: She already is. So, you mention another animation that was in the work. Would you care to tell us a bit more about that? What kind of “squatting magic” can we expect to see in the future?
L: Hehe, it is going to be steamy and explosive! I can tell you that. Me and my team decided it was time for a vote for either yoga or squat. The voting was public and within hours it was already obvious on various platforms what the audience wanted. So squatting it was!
Now… To also answer what you can expect to see more of, let me tell you about the Himefulki, Njorijannas folk.
She lives far up in the north between misty mountains and crystal clear waters.
There her tiny population has endured many a strife and triumph, even though technologically gifted almost to the point we are today, I wrote their timeline to match close to the mid 90’s, and that includes its dazzling fashion with leather, high-waist denim pants and neon bikinis.
I was born in the 80’s and by the gods it was magnificent. I’m what you would call a true 90’s kid.
It was in fact so intoxicating that it will probably stay with me for the rest of my life, and that is why my very art is flavored by it to this day. I wanted to re-create the rad vibes and atmosphere in her world.
So you can tell now, I want the audience to experience a unique neon journey into the lands of Viking babes and brutes.
Now back to the question, there is an 2-3 minute video coming, we got the composer making all the needed sound effects and our very own track to go with it.
We are going through many sets of squatting in this one, also including some more stretching, relaxing and a well-earned Skjold-Mjød drink!
F: Sounds like the kind of sophisticated, cultured content our audience would love to enjoy with a fine glass of a drink of their choice.
Are you currently, dedicated full-time to animations?
L: No, even though we in Lustgard are by now a small team, the people that are with me have specific tasks to attend to, like making clothing, scenery, SFX, music and various props. I still do the bulk amount of work myself.
And being an 3D artist can on some levels be compared to a swiss-army knife, we have to learn so many aspects to 3D, from physics, editing, texturing and so much more, I think many artists will agree.
I also think it’s healthy to do many different things in 3D, it keeps my focus sharp, and it makes the build-up towards the final render that much better.
The goal is to be a full-time artist, to really pave the way to my full vision and dream Lustgard, but living here in Norway is expensive, so I do have a part time job to make the ends meet.
F: Then let’s hope you can achieve your dream soon!
L: Yeah, by the way, Lustgard really got a speedboost too. I was on a fast aging computer, a machine that will have a true Viking funeral on a lake someday. It was OC’ed and tweaked so much until it one day simply crumbled under the pressure and tasks I was sending it. The days on end on 100% load simply had burnt it out. BSOD’s had become such a regular phenomenon it was not even worth reading.
Something had to be done, and last month, I could finally afford a new computer thanks to all the magnificent support of my fans.
To have the right tools as an artist is everything to us.
And now I have… No longer do I need to wait 40-50 hours per render. A fun fact, the Lustercise video, even though a few seconds long, took almost a month to render.
But now such tasks are a breeze and the fans no longer need to wait so long for Lustgard’s content, and it will be more consistent.
F: So you’re confident to say that there will be an increase of quality, juicy content coming our way soon, then?
L: Oh, yesss. That is something I personally want and some few others too. It was agony to sit there on such old tech. Now I can be limitless as an artist, things from my imagination can hit the works the same decade! And that is extraordinary.
F: All right! Is there anything else you’d like to let us know about? Upcoming projects, sneak-peeks, dream projects now that you have your jiggle machine in the house?
L: Hah, yeah! I have hired an IT guy to work close with me in the coming weeks to finish building www.lustgard.com, a landing site and a home to all the art I will make. This site will have a wiki, gallery, forum and for the first time. A hand drawn full map of Lustgard. So people can get a better understanding of where Himeheim is and what my universe will behold.
We do have some rather giganthicc plans for Njorijanna in Unreal engine too. But that is further down the road.
As for artwork, well…. Let’s just say after the squat animation is done… We have a large caliber surprise for everyone.
I made a schedule for 2021, or a content wish-list of things to do, while I failed miserably at delivering (sobbing laughter) due to massive hardware failure back in march and then an extensive overhaul to the Njorijanna core file. The content was delayed by months.
But I can assure you and my fans, it will all be worth it, and I’m going to prove it in the last quarter of this year.
F: That’s fantastic. We all have setbacks, but the point is to recover from them. Your true followers will definitely be there, supporting you.
L: Yes, that is absolutely right. To be blessed with the amount of generous support I received is a testament to myself and my destiny that I’m on the right path. I love what I do and I think people will see that in what I make. I will forever be grateful to my awesome fans. I enjoy it all… From fan letters, likes, hilarious lewd comments on what people would like to see her do, or what they would like to do to her, or to lengthy love letters directed to Njorijanna.
I’m very happy that I took a leap of faith and chased my dream… Much to my own crafting, but also to try make some more sense of this strange but exquisite brief life, on this even more spectacular blue spinning ball in an ever expanding sea of stars.
If I could tell other new artists out there anything, it would be to never give up, even though it might cost you years, sleep, blood and tears, never give up on you or your dream, after all, it came to you. And when you do, it will be beautiful beyond anything else you have experienced.
I would also like to add a quote that I always keep close to heart.
“A man’s true delight is to do the things he was made for.” Marcus Aurelius.
F: Fantastic words. It’s been a pleasure. We’ll be looking forwards to more of your heart’s work.
Thank you for your time!
L: Thank you for having me. The pleasure was all mine.
