2026 A Look Ahead
Intro
2025 is finally over and it was a long and difficult year. Every year, I do a ‘year review’ but I skipped it this time because 2025 was not good for me. Also, I figure that it wouldn’t be a very interesting blog, partly because I’ve written about some of those hardships already and partly because outside of that, it had been a fairly boring year. Now that the year is over, I wanted to look a bit into the future and see what is on the horizon.
My Content
Overall the theme of 2026 for my content is: Better in every way. The goal is to really increase the quality of the shorts. Increase the enjoyment in producing them. Increase the efficiency in making them and increase their performance. Short form video is now more competitive than ever, and I have to really put my best foot forward if I want to continue doing these shorts. Otherwise, what’s the purpose? Here’s the breakdown.
Anniversary - 2026 is my fifth anniversary of making content. It’s a major milestone for me to cross and I didn’t think I would get this far. I had been close to quitting many times over the years, but I’m glad I stuck with it.
Higher Quality Shorts - One of my main goals for this year is to make more interesting shorts. I have 100s of ideas that I’ve been wanting to make for years. Now that I have these great puppets and a great workspace, I think it’s time to elevate the shorts. Part of that includes taking risks on new ideas that I would be hesitant to try so I’m also trying to be less risk adverse.
Better Tools - Last year I finished the V5 puppets and they were decent. Not as far ahead as I had hoped, and still had a few bugs. Since then, I’ve actually gone on to update the puppets to V6 (I’ll do a blog on it). So for 2026 the V6 puppets will be fully deployed for production. I’ve already started work on shorts that feature them, and let me say - I’ve loved every minute of using the new puppets.
Updated Production - In 2026 I’m changing how I plan and produce my content. Previously I was more improvisational with my production. Going forward I plan to work in a more scheduled way. Adopting this new workflow should make production of shorts more speedy and efficient and of a higher quality.
Artwork - Lastly, I am trying to produce more illustrations. The goal of the illustrations is more for branding and merchandise, not content. I still haven’t figured out the best workflow to incorporate it regularly, but I have been working on some stuff on the back end.
My Life
My personal life has kind of taken a back seat to my ‘content creation’ project. I don’t expect too much of that to change this year, but what I would like to do is lay the groundwork for a better life for future years.
Money - The major goal for this year is to save more money. I’m pretty much finished with upgrading my space for a while (the last upgrade will be a mac mini), and now it’s time to hunker down and save as much as I can. I spent a lot of money in 2025, and want to cut that down wherever I can.
New Projects - I’ve recently started a new commissioned project that I expect to be done in March. I can’t talk about it too much at the moment(may or may not be able to blog about it depending on how it turns out). On top of that, once things free up for me, I would like to go back to producing long form shorts. Lastly, in addition to all of that I want to make a ‘Film Festival’ quality short. I’m thinking it’ll be a longer term project, something that I can work on in my off time. As fun as it is making my content, it’s not as creatively fulfilling as a dedicated short film project, and it’s way past time that I jump back in that.
Health - Perhaps the most important goal of this year is to take better care of my health. Health has been a focus of mine for years now, but in the capacity of increasing physical activity. This year I think it’s time to decrease or change the level of physical activity I incorporate so I don’t overtrain and so I can avoid injuries. I would also like to be out and about in the real world more.
Entertainment
This is going to be a big year for entertainment. Here’s whats on my list:
Movies + TV
Dune Messiah
Avengers: Doomsday
Michael
Supergirl
Spiderman: Brand New Day
The Odyssey (cautiously optimistic about this)
Super Mario Galaxy Movie
Frieren S2
Jujutsu Kaisen S2
Gaming (for Nintendo Switch 2)
DuskBloods
Elden Ring
Final Fantasy 7: Intergrade
Pragmata
Resident Evil Requiem
Outro
2026 looks like it’s going to be an interesting year. At the very least I’m hoping for something better than 2025, but we’ll see how it goes!
-Until next time-