Production update 2023-12-04

Hello everyone!

I am in a great mood today. I have lots of things to talk about so let's get right into it!

Frigate 00A video

First, I want to talk a bit about the last video. It had a very rocky production, as you all know. I hit a wall with motivation, having to juggle analyzing data, editing with an incomplete script, recording said script, and I was feeling overwhelmed by how much stuff I had to do at once and how incomplete the whole project seemed. As my fellow Québécois would say, I was pedaling in butter. The little progress I accomplished felt like nothing and the task at hand seemed to only grow bigger.

It all took another turn when, again, as you know, my father got the cancer diagnosis and I went out to stay with my parents for 3 weeks. Quick aside: the operation went very well and he's recovering nicely. He still has to move around slowly and carefully, he can't do any kind of physically demanding task, and he gets tired quicker right now, but otherwise, he's basically back to normal. He's in a leave from work until mid-February. I also want to express how amazing our healthcare is when you really need it. It's a shame that it's to the detriment of less urgent care, but boy, if you need help now, you are going to get it, and all for free.

During the 3 weeks I was with my parents, I did manage to get some work done in the new environment, but not as much as I was hoping. I was still plagued with the same motivation / mountain of work issues. However, with the end of November starting to draw near and a contractual obligation with the sponsor to release the video in November, I knew I had to light a fire under my ass at some point, and so, upon returning home, I begrudgingly did.

From there, I basically put my entire energy on finishing the video. Unfortunately, this meant I kept dropping the ball on posting meaningful updates on here. On November 23rd, I had an incomplete script and about 45% of the video edited. One week later, the video was out. I worked for about 10 hours a day the first few days and about 15-16 the last couple of days. I was dreaming in Manim. But I got into such a groove; you can go check out the VOD of the production livestream I did (available to all Patrons) to see for yourself. I was just knocking out task after task. In Manim especially, I flipped a switch from "I have no idea what I'm doing and this is terrible" to "I am figuring this out at the speed of light, I'm a genius".

Clarification: Manim is a Python library created by Grant Sanderson (3Blue1Brown) which he uses to create his incredible visuals and animations. It's what I used for nearly all the graphs and tables in the video, aside from a few things in After Effects (the dice stuff was AE). It has an open-source branch that is free and easy to use if you know how to code in Python. If you're like me and you don't know how to code in Python, well, it's just free to use then.

I think it's important to note that my experience as a coder is very limited. I did a little bit of introduction to programming in college at age 16-17, and then little tidbits here and there, like coding Excel macros and doing some extremely light work on the DK64 Randomizer. So, let's say my code is not very pretty at times.

Above: questionable way to do 6 charts: make 6 different variables. By the time I realized how terrible this was, I was too deep and the code technically works so I let this one exist.

Below: much better way to do 5 charts: make a 2D array for data and use embedded loops for the charts. This time the whole animation code actually fits in the screenshot!

Now, I want to emphasize this: even though my use for it will probably be somewhat limited in the average video, I am very very glad I learned how to use Manim and I will absolutely use it again. It's an incredible tool for mathematical visualizations and I plan on using it every time it will make my life easier. Specifically, once I figured out how to put graphs over a video in a visually clear way, like so, I was sold:

I think with some more tinkering, I could tweak it a bit to look even clearer and maybe get my own flair instead of looking like I kidnapped 3Blue1Brown, but I didn't have time to go into the finer details this time.

Video performance

The video came out on November 30th and it's been performing as expected: lower than average. That being said, those who do watch it seem to love the detailed analysis, so that's a clear win for me.

I'm just glad I was able to reach a point where I can choose to go for a slightly more technical, less broadly-appealing video from time to time if I think the subject is interesting, and people will follow and understand what they're in for.

I like being able to do a mix of simple-structured speedrun explained videos that are exactly what it says on the tin, and a few crazy in-depth dives into complex topics that are more out there. It's a very different beast to work on and it can take a toll on motivation if you're not in the right headspace but the end result is something I can be proud of, and more importantly, an experience that I learned from.

Music

Since I did two GoldenEye videos in a row, I reused all the music from the previous one, but I did make one more arrangement for a very specific moment (and then reused it for the outro because hell yeah). I've had to catch up on the rest of my life the past few days, but I'll be uploading the music tonight for Patreon and will post it publicly in a week or two.

Hardware upgrade

I also took the opportunity to upgrade my hardware a bit. I bought a 27" 1440p 185Hz monitor (LG 27GP850-B for those interested) and phased out a monitor I got for free from a friend's friend, so I've still got 3 screens but now one of them is really fancy. I also upgraded my ram from 16 GB to 32 GB and my graphics card from a GTX 1060 3GB to an RTX 4060 Ti. Upgrading the RAM turned into an ordeal by my own fault which cost me a day but long story short, I got it fixed and now my computer is in a better shape than it's ever been!

Next video

Now for the more pressing question: what and when is the next video gonna be? I can answer both!

The next video will be a speedrun explained of Coolkid's Super Mario Bros. 2 (U) any% world record! Here's the run: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLphTA4mJSs

If everything goes well, it will come out before Christmas. That's right! Before Christmas! I am starting work on it today and I am ready to knock it out in 2.5 weeks. I did my first SMB1 video in 12 days and the SM64 1 Key TAS in 23 days, I can do an SMB2 videos in 2.5 weeks, right? The exact date isn't set in stone, but expect December 21-23.

Other than that, I don't have much to talk about for this project yet, other than for the research, I'll be helped by Coolkid himself, AndrewG and Producks, so I will be in good hands to make a thorough and accurate explanation.

That's it for now! Thanks for reading and I hope you're excited for the end of the year!