Episode 10 Update - 09/04/21 (Patreon)

September is here and we are now entering the final stages of production.  I’m actually getting nervous. After working on this so long, it feels weird to be this close to finishing. 

Lighting for Scene F now appears to be done.  At least, I’m pretty sure it‘s done. I won’t know for sure until I receive the finished Snow FX, and make sure nothing conflicts with the current lighting setup.  My Snow FX guy had previously told me he’d finish by the end of August, but I’ve yet to receive a final draft.  Based on his previous draft, however, I‘m pretty certain I’ll be receiving it within the next week. Other than that piece, all lighting seems to be in order for the entire episode.  Lighting is one of the biggest headaches in production, and I’m really glad to have finished it. 

While I’m waiting on that bit, I still have to deal with the storm clouds in Scene F, as well as all of the After Effects work throughout the episode. I’ve already finished the After Effect work for Scene B and it turns out  I am very comfortable in this area.  After years of working in After Effects, I’ve become very comfortable with visual effects work and this shouldn’t take very long at all.  Effects work for Scenes D and G both have more to do, as well as Scene F, which I‘ll need to handle last. 

I have already started rendering the final frames for the episode.  I have been rendering like crazy for the past week. Whenever I’m not at my desk, I have two computers rendering everything out.  Scenes D and B now seem to be completely rendered. G should be done by the end of today and C is next in line. Scene A is huge. It slows my entire computer down whenever all models are enabled.  A full night of rendering results in about 350 frames. But at this point, I’ve now rendered 8302 frames out of the 8500 frame total thanks to the help of a render farm.  I’ve already spent a large chunk of the Patreon budget getting a majority of it rendered out via this render farm, but I am trying to render out as much as I can on my own computers, as I have no idea how fast Scene F is going to print, as it is not as big a file as A, but it is 14000 frames.  If need be, I still have some of the budget set aside to render F using the render farm.  At this point, though, I have about half of the full episode completely rendered out. 

Additionally, my sound guy has turned in a draft of the complete sound mix and everything sounds excellent. The sound really does bring it all together and it’s clear from the mix that he’s passionate about this project.  He’s currently working on my edits and should definitely be able to finish with plenty of time to spare. 

I should be able to finish the episode this month. Mind you, this doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll release it as soon as it’s finished. I wont be announcing a release date until it’s completely done and I’ve watched it several times and picked through all the details and potential errors. When I’m writing the credits and putting together a thumbnail, I’ll announce that final release date and put up a teaser video.  You guys will be the first to hear about it. I don’t want to rush it, but based on the current state of the episode, late September or early October looks inevitable. 

Thank you all for being with me through this journey. Here is the list of Very Best Patrons for this month, those that have donated the most to the project. The list doesn’t seem to have changed much month to month, and it is likely that this will be the “Very Best” list credited in the episode:

DarkHenrik

Benny Yau

Charles Hoskins

Earoist

Ryan Fleck

Royce Aguila

Gonzalo Malaga Cardoza

David Keyworth

Dreux Ferrano Jr.

Syrus Coy