Toucan Field Notes
Your creative career playbook, updated weekly.
Process logs, breakdowns, and mentoring lessons for artists, animators, and technical storytellers.
Latest deep dive
Most beginners stall in animation and game development not because they lack talent, but because they lack structure. This article explains why progress feels stuck, how overwhelm builds, and what actually helps creators move forward with clarity and confidence.
Read the full walkthroughShort reads that capture what we learned in recent mentoring sessions and prototypes.
December 16, 2025 • 2 min read
Pipely 0.1.17 is a major step toward an artist-first pipeline. With natural-language commands, smarter DCC detection across Blender, Krita, Godot, Unity, and Unreal, cleaner project roots, and Fountain-to-PDF exports, Pipely now feels less like a CLI and more like a creative assistant.
Open logbook →December 08, 2025 • 1 min read
This week’s Pipely update is one of the most meaningful steps toward my long-term goal: making creative pipelines feel as welcoming as your favorite sketchbook. With v0.1.16, artists get a smoother workflow, production teams get more consistency, and everyone gets fewer reasons to fear the command line.
Open logbook →December 01, 2025 • 4 min read
Pipely v0.1.8 is a friendly pipeline companion for animators, game devs, and indie teams—bringing artist-first CLI tools, one-command DCC launchers, and built-in production tracking so you can ship shots and builds faster without wrestling folders, scripts, or DevOps. If you want big-studio clarity with small-team simplicity, Pipely keeps the tech out of your way and your creative work moving.
Open logbook →November 27, 2025 • 6 min read
"We don't have time for documentation." It's the most common excuse—and the most expensive. Research shows developers lose 8+ hours weekly to unclear systems and knowledge gaps. Here's why the humble README isn't optional anymore
Open logbook →November 25, 2025 • 5 min read
Pipeline Tools Weekly 0.1.7 introduces a lightweight production pipeline CLI for solo creators and small studios, standardizing project folders and tracking shows, assets, shots, tasks, and versions in a local SQLite database. Keep your animation and game projects organized, predictable, and fully offline.
Open logbook →November 19, 2025 • 5 min read
Today I taught a 1-hour, theory-only lecture on Mastering Materials in Game Development, helping students understand how surfaces, light, and performance work together in modern engines. If you’d like this training for your class, community, or team, this post explains what we covered and how to bring the lecture to you.
Open logbook →November 17, 2025 • 3 min read
Learn how to combine Unreal Engine 5.6, Git, and CI/CD into a clean, studio-style workflow using the teaching project UEGitWorkshop. In this short recap, I walk through how we set up Git LFS, automated builds, enforced Conventional Commits, and used GitHub Actions to keep an Unreal project stable and production-ready—skills I now teach through Toucan Studios (toucan.ee) for studios, schools, and indie teams.
Open logbook →October 05, 2025 • 4 min read
Teaching game development isn’t about mastering tools — it’s about understanding process. In this post, I share how I teach students at Game City Kajaani to think like real developers, build fast prototypes, and blend art with code to bring their ideas to life.
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