Hey everyone, this is just a minor update. My original plan was to not do another update until the filming was done, but 2+ weeks after I thought I’d be done with that, I’m still finishing things up, so I’m giving a quick status report. The reason things are still taking so long is because a lot of things I thought were done, I’ve found on closer inspection have problems with lighting, continuity errors, bugs in the engine, etc. One thing I haven’t updated much on the progress bar of the next episode is the NEGATIVE progress, where things that I thought were complete had to get fixed. The update was frozen for a long time because of this, but I THINK it’s all progress now.

I currently have ~1.1 scenes left to film, then the filming is done. The final scene I’m finishing has more engine bugs than most, so many that I’m going to have to redo part of it using the Half-Life 2: Episode 1 engine, as opposed to the Episode 2 engine. I plan to go into more detail on this at a later date, but this episode has been informative into just how many situations the animations will screw up in-game. The HL2 Episode 2 engine seems to be the culprit for most, if not all of this. I have half a dozen different situations where animations glitch out where they didn’t in Episode 1. It’s probably happening much more frequently than I’m noticing, but a lot of the time the difference is subtle, but for other situations it’s horrid. If the code can’t be fixed at a later date, for future episodes I may have to revert back to the Episode 1 engine altogether.

I have at least 2 more days of work before the filming is done, so we’ll see what the actual time ends up being. I can’t give any estimates on the remaining time for the music/audio, however I will resume Freeman’s Mind as soon as the video editing is done for this episode.

Well I have bad news in that despite my absolute best efforts, I don’t think the next Civil Protection episode will be done in time for Halloween. I’ve been devoting all my free time to this and have neglected a lot of other things as a result, but it still hasn’t been fast enough. There are multiple reasons for this and I plan to go into detail about them after the episode is completed. It’s mainly dealing with engine bugs and a bit of a workflow nightmare.

While I probably will take a break on Halloween, I won’t let up on my pace any and plan to continue working on this until it’s done. I can’t predict how long the remaining music for the episode will take, but once I’ve done as much as I can on my end, I’ll resume work on Freeman’s Mind if everything else isn’t finished yet. Right now I currently hope to have all the filming done before this weekend. You can continue to monitor progress periodically in the progress chart in the upper right corner of the site. Once the “editing” bar is completely green, you can assume I’m working on Freeman’s Mind.

Anyway, my apologies to everyone who was looking forward to this for Halloween, I’m disappointed by this more than anyone. I’ve been doing everything I can to try and make this episode happen, but I didn’t want to wait until the last minute to tell people the results. The parts of the episode that are done are coming out very well I think. Also Craig (voice of Dave) told me that The Simpsons isn’t having their Halloween special until November either, so that makes me feel better about this. I imagine The Simpsons have more resources to work with than I do.

Short version: The episode will be late and I’ll resume work on Freeman’s Mind as soon it’s done.

I’m running into some areas on the episode where I’m coming up short on help. I have two small jobs I’m hoping someone can give me a hand with. I generally dislike springing offers like this at the last minute, but I need to keep moving to get this episode done. I’ll give the jobs to the first qualified people who contact me, although if they don’t do a good job, then it will go to the next people in line. Whoever completes the jobs properly will get a spot in the credits. Here’s what I need help with:
 
Photoshop Editor:

I’m creating an animated texture and I’ve done a lot of the work already, but I need small variations for each frame. I have instructions for almost every step involved here. You don’t need to be an artist to do this part, just have time. What this job will require:

-Basic knowledge of Adobe Photoshop
-Knowledge of how to randomize selections borders to a degree
-Lots of patience in doing the same steps dozens of times OR having good scripting knowledge to perhaps automate the process.
-Basic availability over the next 24 hours (or until the job’s done)
-Bonus points if you’re familiar with creating animated VTF textures in the Source engine, but that’s not required.

I want to get this part done as soon as possible because it’s holding me up from filming several scenes. If you’re great with scripting, it might take you 10 minutes. If not, it might take a couple hours, but that’s time I can spend animating something else.
 
Advanced Video Editor:

My video editing skills are generally pretty basic, although most of the time I don’t think more than that’s necessary for Civil Protection. In this case, I have a scene transition where I think a more advanced effect would be appropriate, but my knowledge/software is a bit lacking here. You may want something like After-Effects for what I want to do, but you can use any software you want. Here’s what’s required:

-Sample of previous video editing work (just anything slick-looking you’ve done before)
-Be able to paint footage from one shot onto a moving object from the prior shot (the camera’s just moving towards a rectangle) and have a clean fade-in between the two (I’ll have more details on this).
-Be able to process Huffyuv footage from me and export the end results in some sort of lossless compression that I can convert back to AVI.
-A fast enough internet connection to upload several hundred megs of video

I’m also open to suggestions for the best looking transition between the two shots once you see them. There isn’t too much time pressure on this, but the original person who was going to work on this is MIA, so now it’s up for anyone else.

If you’re interested in helping with either of these jobs, contact me at [email protected].

EDIT: I’ve already received promising responses and I think things will keep moving without any more slowdown. If you want to message me anyway to be the standby person in case the one working on things now gets hit by a meteorite, that’s fine too.

Since I made the last post I’ve received over a dozen offers from different composers, many of which sound very promising. I think the episode is going to turn out great with the current roster of people helping on the music end now. I kind of wish it didn’t have to be a competition for the lead slot of each scene, but maybe I can have some honorary mentions afterwards or something.

Anyway, I wanted to say that while I don’t know who will be composing what yet, based on the past work alone sent to me by composers, I think we’ll be covered for composing help. If you haven’t already contacted me, but are really keen on contributing, you can still email me and I’ll consider your music with the rest of the running, just don’t feel obligated now, I’m sure the episode will end up having great music.

EDIT:

In the interest of getting the episode done on time, I think I’m going to have to close the door for new composers emailing me, because I’m spending too much time on email and not enough getting the footage completed. I believe I’ve replied to everyone offering to compose music, so everything should be underway music-wise.

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EDIT:

Well I feel like an idiot, as one viewer pointed out, looks like Craig Kesicke updated his blog literally an hour before I made this post (his last update being in May), so he is still alive. For now, the offer still stands, since the no-reply thing this close to Halloween really alarmed me.

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ORIGINAL POST:

While work is progressing steadily on “The Tunnel” I have a new problem. Since Machinima.com generally isn’t happy about me using game soundtrack music anymore, composer Craig Kesicke was supposed to be creating music for this episode and has already created some that I plan to use. However, I haven’t heard back from him in a few weeks despite sending some follow-up emails, so I can only assume his rowdy past has caught up with him and he has been arrested by the local authorities.

While this time delay would normally be nothing to be concerned over, I’m trying to do everything in my power to get this episode done before Halloween. This means I want to allocate as much time as possible for composing music for the scenes as I finish filming them. I’m not done with the episode yet, but I have multiple scenes done that I need music for, so I’m opening up the doors for anyone who’s interested in composing music for this episode (and possible future ones). If you compose music and want to give this a shot, go ahead and email me at [email protected]. Some people have offered to compose music in the past. I plan to sift through my old emails and contact some of them, but don’t hesitate to take the initiative and email me again if you’ve contacted me about music before. For everyone else, I will want to hear a sample of your past music, even if it’s not the style I’m after for this episode.

Since I was originally planning to use soundtrack music, I’ll be putting together tracks I was considering as an audio reference for each scene along with a description of the kind of mood I’m after along with any details I can think of. I’ll want samples of music first before I send the footage to score the actual scene as a way of minimizing any unused work. Finally, be prepared for rejection. As a soundtrack freak, I can be picky about the kind of sound I want, also it’s possible someone may have got to me before you did. I generally don’t like creating a competitive atmosphere like this for people, but in this case, I really want to see this episode done in time and I think this might be the best approach. I do give feedback on anything I want revised or changed however, so there’s nothing saying you can’t keep trying again with different samples if I don’t like the initial ones. Also it’s very possible different composers may end up working on different scenes.

Thanks in advance to anyone who contributes. I unfortunately can’t afford to pay people what their music is probably worth, but I will of course give credit to everyone whose music gets used in the episode.