Production update 2022-01-09 (Patreon)

Hello!

I am back from the holidays. I took some time off since my head wasn't in the right place to work efficiently, and in that time, I made a few resolutions for 2022. Some of those pertain to my work schedule, or rather lack thereof. I decided that in 2022, I would structure my work better, both in the short term (i.e. one day) and in the long term (whole projects). 

To help with that, I made a production schedule that I plan on using for every video from now on. This should help me have a good idea of the total length of a project as early as at about 30 to 50% of the script written. Here's what this one looks like!

As you can see, I also calculate the progress of each step of the video making process.

• Script: 100%
• Recording: 41%
• Editing: 39%

You can notice the release date: February 5th. I purposely set the schedule to be fairly light, so in reality, I expect to be able to get ahead by a little bit, and release it on January 29th or 30th instead. This is sort of the minimum requirement, and I very well might get ahead of it.

The reason why the schedule is so light is so that I can give myself a day off on Sunday. Alternatively, Sunday is also a day to catch up or get ahead - today, I did the back half of Saturday's stuff because it was very intensive editing, requiring After Effects and a lot of visuals made from scratch. Monday is the day that I try to reserve for various responsibilities, like making my budget, scheduling appointments, doing laundry, cleaning the apartment, etc. Other than that, it's a day off as well. Tuesday is the day where I edit Kosmic's video for the week, so it's a half-day of work. The rest of the time, I can either get a head start on the week, or just take a half day off.

You may also have noticed that I haven't completed the recording segments of this week. Unfortunately, I got a really bad mouth sore (I get those about 15-20 times a year and they last multiple days, I hate it). Speaking normally doesn't hurt too much, but the extra effort to articulate that I put in while recording makes it just painful enough that I couldn't do it this week. I'm running out of recorded material to edit though, so I might record those sessions on Wednesday and Thursday, despite my girlfriend being home on those days.

Other than that, the stream on December 29th went well! A few of you showed up. I didn't expect a huge party, and anyway, having a big chat to interact with would be a hindrance for productivity. It's meant both as a window into my process for you, and a bit of a kick in the ass to make sure I'm being efficient for me. That's a win win in my book. These streams will be a regular occurrence once we hit the 200 Patrons goal (it's close!).

Since I came back, I've managed to get some real progress on the video. It feels nice, after a very lackluster December where I just could not get myself to progress, knowing just how much work was left before it was done. Here's a few screenshots of stuff I've made recently:

That stupid final ledge is too high!

A look into Chuckya's behaviour.

A complete breakdown of Chuckya drop.

Mario getting pushed by two walls at once into a slope to land on the first frame of a dive recover.

A rotating diagram showing how wall hitboxes extend along their edges (very similar to Mario Kart 64's walls).

How the wall hitbox in that diagram is made. Note that this only takes a "1-dimensional" anchor point as a variable, as it assumes the anchor is along the wall itself. If I ever need to show more complex wall formations, I'll need to use a 2-dimensional anchor point so the formula will be even more annoying. The approximations of π and √2 are intentionally ever so slightly off to favor the wall hitbox extending along the X axis at 45º. There's a tiny range of angles (~0.01º) where this breaks but it doesn't happen in practice, unless I really try hard.

A diagram showing how a glitchy ledge grab works. The wall hitboxes not extending perpendicularly to the wall create a small zone where Mario can detect a higher ledge but not the wall that's just below.

That's it! I got some good progress this week. I'm looking forward to next week's progress!