Waterlane Studios – One Year On

It’s Sunday. Two days ago, on the Spring Equinox 2026, the new Waterlane Studios website went live — exactly one year on from the first video I released.

From one equinox to another.

That first piece was a simple one — a short clip of a deer under the moon. About twenty seconds long. Nothing grand, just a starting point.

There was a quiet nod in it to the lunar cycle — and to a more natural sense of time, where the year begins with the turning of the seasons rather than a date on a calendar.

A year on, that single moment has grown into something much larger. Over 60 videos now — a mix of nature, portraits, characters, and all sorts of experiments — all brought together in one place on the site.

From the outside, it could look like this was put together quickly with AI. It wasn’t.

It’s been a year of learning, trying things out, and working with tools that have been changing the whole time. When I started, even getting something as basic as a hand to look right could be hit and miss. Now, we’re starting to see characters come together more consistently — although things like environments and continuity are still very much evolving.

In many ways, this first year has felt like a sketchbook. Trying different styles, ideas, and directions. Seeing what works, and what doesn’t. It might look a bit scattered from the outside, but from my side it’s been about finding a language — both creatively and technically.

It hasn’t just been about making the videos themselves either. I’ve tried to share a bit of the process along the way — through blogs and small behind-the-scenes pieces — exploring what it means to work with AI as part of a creative process.

There’s also been that constant pressure to produce more. To keep things moving, to follow what the platforms seem to want. I could have gone down that route — producing more automated, auto-generated pieces, and probably grown things faster. But it didn’t feel right for what I wanted to build. I wanted something more handcrafted.

It hasn’t been the easiest thing financially either. Alongside making the work, there’s still everyday life to deal with — paying bills, keeping things going — so it hasn’t just been a case of sitting and making videos in isolation.

So at the start of this year, I stepped back a bit. Not stopping, but taking a breath and looking at where things were actually going. It’s not the easiest thing to do, especially when everything around you is pushing for more output, but it felt necessary.

Out of that, a clearer direction has started to form.

I’ve always been drawn to character-driven work — although a “character” doesn’t have to be a person. It could be a place, an object, or something less defined. Over time, that’s become more and more visible in what I’m making.

So moving into this second year, the focus shifts.

Rather than trying to produce more for the sake of it, I want to build something that holds together. Something that grows over time. The Traveller Between Worlds will sit at the centre of that — not as something rushed out on a schedule, but something that develops piece by piece. A scene, a place, a character, a fragment — slowly forming a larger world.

Alongside that, I’ll continue working on Frankenstein, shaping it into the musical tragedy it was always meant to be. Again, taking the time it needs.

This way of working doesn’t really line up with how platforms or algorithms tend to work. It’s slower, and probably less predictable. But it feels like the right direction.

One idea I’m also interested in exploring is letting people become part of that journey in some way — not just watching, but having a small connection to it, maybe even some influence over it. That’s something I’ll figure out over time.

For now, the website brings everything together — a year’s worth of work in one place, and a solid base to build from.

If you’d like to follow along, or support what I’m doing, you can do that there.

No rush.

Just continuing to build — one piece at a time.

David