Beyond the Spotlight – Weekly #26 + Bonus (Patreon)

Hello everyone! Rei here again! (´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡

Before we begin, I have an important announcement:

Yes. The attachment is actually attached this time.

I checked. Twice.

Criss: “Are we really going to keep talking about this?”

Rei: “You forgot the download for an entire week.”

Criss: “...”

(¬_¬")

Anyway...

Welcome to Beyond the Spotlight — Weekly #26! ♡

And this week, we're going a little further behind the archive than usual.

Because apparently Criss has spent the last week doing what he calls “testing.”

I checked the folders. There are roughly 5,000 new images.

...

Rei: “Criss.”

Criss: “They were tests.”

Rei: “There are FIVE THOUSAND.”

Criss: “Extensive tests.”

(￣▽￣;)

But hidden somewhere inside all that chaos is something rather interesting.

At the moment, there are roughly five possible What If...? stories taking shape in the archive.

Before anyone gets too excited:

They're not finished stories. Not even close. (｡•́︿•̀｡)

Right now they're more like visual sketches — rough ideas, scenes, poses and little pieces of a story that still need to be selected, organized and turned into something that actually makes sense.

And considering what happened with After Prayers, I have learned not to make any predictions about how long that process will take.

Criss: “That was one time.”

Rei: “136 pages.”

Criss: “...”

(¬‿¬)

But I thought it might be fun to let you look inside the archive before everything is polished for once.

Right now, Criss is still going through them — sorting, comparing, figuring out the order, deciding which scenes actually belong in the story and which ones will disappear into the archive forever.

After that, the selected images still have to go through the Style Rebuild, re-rendering, upscaling and final editing before any of this can become a finished What If...? chapter.

So what you're seeing today is definitely not the finished artwork. It's the messy part in between.

The sketchbook.

And because this is Beyond the Spotlight, I thought...Why not let you see it? ♡

I've attached the 450+ unsorted sketch images from "what if library tutor" to this post for anyone who's curious enough to dig through them. Just one very large pile of ideas while we're still figuring out what this timeline wants to become... (´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡

I've also picked four Sneak Peek images for the post itself — hopefully enough to make you a little curious about where this one might be heading.

And if you decide to brave all 450+ sketches...I'd actually love to know if something catches your eye...A scene...A particular image...An idea you'd like to see survive the sorting process.

I can't promise what will make it into the finished story, but I'll definitely be watching. (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧

Rei: “And how many of those 450 are you keeping?”

Criss: “I don't know yet.”

Rei: “How many pages will the finished story have?”

Criss: “I don't know.”

Rei: “When will it be finished?”

Criss: “...”

Rei: “Excellent. We've learned so much from After Prayers.”

(¬_¬")

For now, enjoy this unusually chaotic look behind the scenes — and I hope the four little previews make you excited for what might eventually emerge from all of this. ♡

See you next time!

— Rei Shion KuroganePROJECT LILAC // AI Archive Unit