Episode 11 Update - 11/22/22 (Patreon)
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The layout pass is now finished. I now have a working copy of the entire episode, with voice timing and general camera angles all completed. It took far longer than I expected, due a little bit to the complexity of the action sequences and a bit to a the life changes that have been happening to me in the recent months.
The episode, in total, comes out to 29 minutes and 7 seconds. I /might/ add a couple seconds to Scene X if need be, but at this point, there will be no major changes to the timing of the episode. It will come out to just above 29 minutes without credits.
Here are the sections I'm dealing with and their current state:
Scene X - I'm a little further along with, but I really want to get a clear, clear vision in my head about what it entails before I press it further. This is currently low-priority.
Scene A - Just about all put together, save for the skybox and the "emotion" bone of one of the characters. This scene is extremely simple and may very well rely on some solid character animation to keep it interesting. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be having someone else take over all the animations of one particular character. I'm going to need a lot of personality to shine through in the character animation, because it's very, very dialogue heavy.
Scene B - All set work and assets complete. A little more complex than scene B, but I'm pretty sure I want to do all the characters in this one myself. In fact, I'm very tempted to. This scene is very straightforward and has a lot of the stuff I'm very much used to. I'm tempted to hyper-focus on this and knock it all out by myself.
Scene C - Very, very simple. Another one I could probably manage myself. At this time, though, the set still needs to be finished by a 3D artist. I do have the layout, completed, though, and it's currently ready for that to happen.
Scene D - Super long scene. Longer than, I think, any single scene I've ever made. It's huge, but it's also simple and extremely doable. All assets for this are complete, save for the "emotion" bone of one character. I believe I'm going to have to do some major character animation stuff myself and lay some groundwork of what I'm looking for before I can hire anyone on this, but I think I'm going to need a lot of help. This will be very straightforward, though, and I know exactly what's needed.
Scene F - By far the biggest and most complex scene of them all. This took a bulk of my time and energy in the layout pass. I've just now finished the major asset that is the centerpiece of this scene, but the set still has more asset work that needs to be done. I've now got it in a place where I'm going to start hiring out on the animations for it and build a lot of stuff around that. This scene really scares me and has some unknown factors to it that I'll need to figure out. I predict that the bulk of the budget will go into this scene. There is no way I'll be able to complete this myself. This is the current high-priority. If I can get this in a good place, the rest of the episode will be easy.
Sorry for the late update. I was waiting until I got to this stage to make this update, and it ended up taking far longer than I expected. The bones of the episode are now in place. Now that all scenes are ready and I've amassed a good amount of budget, I'm going to be putting my feelers out for the right 3D artists and putting together my instructions for 3D animators, old and new, so I can bring them on board. I'm not sure how I'll be functioning in an around the holidays, so I expect to looking for hires, hiring, and putting together all my video instructions for potential hires during later this month and December, and then really getting the ball rolling with the character animation work back-and-forth in January.
I have, personally, been dealing with a lot of life changes and am still struggling to find the balance that I'm looking for. I try not to involve my personal life in these posts, but it has, as of late, been eating into my work life and I'm unable to secure a therapist until January. Until then, I'm trying my best to keep progress optimal. The episode is currently in a skeletal state, but can now be watched in completion from beginning to end. I'm going to see it though to the end and get the vision that I was hoping for, but it does seem to be taking me longer than expected. I apologize for the sparse updates. Many of you have suggested not turning charges off, even if I don't update, which is what I've been doing. Rest assured that I plan on using every penny given to me on this Patreon for solid hires this episode. I really hope that I'll be able to find and pay some good character animators this time around in addition to the few that I have already, because getting that squared away will take out a good chunk of the time it takes to make these.
Thank you. Thank you all so much. I will try my best to keep you in the loop.