Another update but this one has a video...

Let's ignore the valentines day thing. Either you're happy about it and don't need no telling, or you're single and don't really want to hear about it. Guess which camp I'm in and totally not bitter about.

Progress has been happening! Efa now has a brand new model, fully clothed. Let's see how long she stays in this outfit, cos she has a pretty poor track record so far. One main reason to redo her is that she needs a hybrid of cloth dynamics and static clothing for one of the upcoming scenes. Static because I spent far too long in previous episodes with 100% simulated clothing, but with some flappy bits for stuff like wind. Like for example...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Pv0dvLEBFiR64r3hdkGW97S4cQyei7ck/view?usp=sharing

The script for this episode has 8 Parts marked out in it. Everything is blocked out for part 1, and the bulk of it is rendered. It should take a few days to get the last bits animated, cos this is a lot of character and emotional shit, and I'm trying to up my game a bit on their movements. Fingers crossed this week will see part 1 completed.

Now, I know it looks bad and slow that a month and a bit has not even finished part 1 of 8, but several of the parts are short and low on character interaction. There's also the fact that I've been working on the new Efa model, and Kyn needs a clothed replacement too. Plus several more characters to create.

There will probably be some rewrites of the later parts. I'm not keen on the flow or the length. I feel it needs to be either expanded on or repaced to stop too much happening in one episode. The problem is that I quite like the new characters already, and I don't want to just cut most of them out, but at the same time the episode is getting worryingly long with quite a bit of dialogue, and it's quite a big chunk of animation without viewer input as well. The whole thing is meant to be audience-driven, so I can't just cut you guys off for huge chunks of story.

The next problem with shortening this episodes script, is that I can't see any break points to allow audience interaction with this next bit other than where it's written to. Luckily, I have a bit of time before that's an issue.

The breakdown of parts are:

Part 1 - Character driven, lots of talk

Part 2 - More talking, not much movement, fairly short

Part 3 - Little character, lot of environment

Part 4 - Mostly environment

Part 5 - 90% Environment, 10% character, 100% bit I'm excited about

Part 6 - Multiple Character interaction (why do I do this to myself?)

Part 7 - Environmental

Part 8 - Character, short length

The character bits take the time, the environmental stuff takes a little time to set up, but animates faster and renders even quicker. The main reason for jumping ahead to do the clothed Efa and Kyn models is because they're still in the environmental sections, and the sooner I can get them ready, the sooner I can start doing several additional blocks. Currently I'm constrained by the models, though I have managed to block out most of the effects for those parts, they just need tweaks and characters added!

Anyway, that's the update. I know I shouldn't be hoping for it because it takes time away from this stuff, but fingers crossed Scotland is coming out of lockdown in a few weeks. If that's the case, I might be pushing a bit more time into going out and biking. I've not been since Christmas Eve, and I need to get out riding. Depending on how we open up from lockdown will affect time taken away. Worst case, places down the road. Best case, Wales is calling!