update

Well I arrived at my new destination, but I may move again as I’m going to need a place where I can be sufficiently loud to do recordings. One of the animators helping us is going to be quite busy too, so I’m afraid that means we’re going to postpone the 20+ minute long episode again (yeah, I know).

The good news is that I’m going a little batty from not working on anything more creative, so I’ve decided to start a shorter Civil Protection episode that will be easier to animate. With everyone helping on it, it should be out sometime mid to late September. After that, I’m going to do everything in my power to finish the original episode I meant to release for Halloween 2007 I ended up postponing; except now it will be in time (hopefully) for Halloween 2008. This one is already partially completed, but there’s still a lot to do on it. It will be at least 15 minutes and I hope will be the scariest episode of CP yet.

For everyone waiting on Freeman’s Mind, it’s still going to be kind of sparse until I finish the Noesis tutorial, then you can expect a big increase in its frequency. Thanks again for everybody’s patience, we’re going to be producing some good stuff over the next couple months.
General News

Moving

Hey everybody; well as I mentioned before I’m going to be moving, except it’s going to be quite soon now. Starting Monday I’m going to be driving over 1000 miles to seek my fame and fortune, or at least to get into a situation which will allow me more time to make videos. I’m really hoping my car won’t break down by the side of the road and I get killed by raiders, but we’ll just see what happens. Assuming I make it to my destination, my internet access will be kind of sketchy for a little bit until I get everything straightened out.

The first part of the Noesis tutorial is done on my end, I’m told it will be coming out soon. I was hoping to have them both done at about the same time, but it looks like there may be a couple weeks delay. This one coming out will definitely be the more technical one. It’s going to cover how to animate with the Source SDK, the other guide is going to cover everything else I do in machinima EXCEPT that. I’ll give more details about them once they get closer to release.

My new mantra is going to be “August”. August is when I plan to finish the Noesis guide by, and will consequentially be when I really start getting back to work on CP again. I’m excited about this since it’s been on hold forever and now I’ve got more good people helping than ever before. I’m not making promises at this point, but it is my goal to be producing at LEAST two videos a month once the tutorial is done. Most of these will just be Freeman’s Mind, but it’s my goal to get all the groundwork done on the CP episodes, let other people take over the animation/mapping work in different areas, then while they’re working on it, I should have time for FM.

Finally the new website is making progress, but the person helping me with the code is going to be moving too and won’t be available to work on it again until mid-August. If I’m lucky, we should have the website up in late August, but it could take as long as September depending on how everything goes.
General News

FREEMAN'S MIND: EPISODE 4

https://bp0.blogger.com/_oRmHF7O_UZA/SH5F0Wtj4WI/AAAAAAAAAFY/zf5AB996PIk/s1600-h/ep4small.jpg
Youtube Version

640x480 WMV download link (66MB)
EDIT: Download link now fixed

Well I’m still very busy with the Noesis tutorial, but I made enough time to get another Freeman’s Mind episode done. This will be the last video I make before I finish the tutorial. I realize things have been pretty slow, but once the tutorial’s done you can expect a BIG increase in the frequency of video releases. Speaking of which there’s going to be so much covered in the tutorial it’s actually mushrooming into 2 different guides. One will cover nothing but Faceposer and Hammer, the other will go over everything else (writing, sound editing, camerawork, etc.).

Also I was interviewed a month or so ago for an online magazine article. I’ve been informed it’s been published and you can check it out here. I thought it was a little odd that he seemed to focus most of his article on my stuff, but he mentions some other good machinimas in there as well. Notably “The Monad” by Sam Goldwater (which is the best machinima drama I’ve seen) and “Hey Shipwreck!” by Patrick Hrabe, of which I really enjoy his series.

Finally I haven’t forgotten about the website, subtitles, or Civil Protection itself, I just have a big juggling act going on with all the work I have to do. Good things are coming.
Freeman's Mind Post page

CIVIL PROTECTION SPECIAL: WHAT IS MACHINIMA?

CIVIL PROTECTION SPECIAL: WHAT IS MACHINIMA?
Civil Protection Post page

GALAXY GULP

Well Noesis has given me the go-ahead to release the supplemental video to go with the tutorial, so here it is:

low quality (Youtube)
medium quality (86MB WMV)

It’s a short comedy about a gas station in space with a variety of characters. The goal here was to create something funny using a whole range of the custom models Noesis already had available. Since they ranged from a skeleton and a dwarf to a robot and alien I tried to come up with an environment weird enough so that they wouldn’t all seem out of place. I think it worked, I almost look at this as a video casserole.  Anyway, I hope you like it, and when the tutorial is done you’ll hopefully be able to learn how we made this.

We’re still planning one or two more promotional videos for the tutorial, though this is the main one. Meanwhile I’ll still be working on the tutorial itself, so for better or worse, everything else is going to be on hold until then.
tened out.
Other Videos Post page
Contact

The best way to contact me is via email. I only sometimes see Youtube and forum comments and I only use Twitter for quick announcements.

I'm happy for email from people and will try to answer questions, however I can often get overwhelmed by the volume of email I have and I often neglect it in favor of spending more time making videos. I DO read all email sent to me, but replies can often take a while. Please don't get offended by slow replies, even if it can sometimes take months. It's the only way I can have enough time to keep making more videos. If it's something time-sensitive, it may help to put that in the title. Alternately, if it's been a LONG time and you're waiting on a reply, it's okay to send me another message to remind me.

I probably won't reply to emails that are only reports of news or requests for Ross's Game Dungeon due to limited time. There is about 0.1% chance your email will be considered spam by Gmail and I'll miss it. As flawed as the process is for me, email is still the best way to ensure I'll see what you have to say. Also, be sure to check the FAQ!

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