updates

I know some people are anxious to get updates, so here's what's happening: Work's still being done, but I've gotten through what I consider the hardest part of the tutorial. There's still plenty more to keep me busy though. In the meantime progress has been made on the new website. I've been designing it and someone else has been helping to code it for me. Here's a preview of what the CP episodes page might look like, I'm pretty happy with how it's coming along so far:



For the subtitles, here's my current plan: I've received several subtitles in various languages and I do plan to post them up on the new site. However, I think it will be easier for everyone involved in translating if I can get the English subtitles up first. The advantage to this is that I'll know that the English you're working from is correct, and also the subtitles can be color-coded so that they correspond to the right speaker. This will also make things easier for the people doing the subtitles as they'll have pre-existing timing tags to work off of. So I want to concentrate on getting the English subtitles finalized, then we'll move on to getting the ones to other languages up. Right now I only have the English subtitles for CP episodes 1 - 3. If someone sent me others, I've probably lost them, I apologize, I've been disorganized with email. So if you wish to create English subtitles for Civil Protection episodes 4,5, and the special, or any episodes of Freeman's Mind, please contact me at rscott31@radford.edu. I do have the scripts for the Civil Protection episodes, but have no scripts for Freeman's Mind as I only used loose notes to create them. If you wish to transcribe those, that would also be welcome. I can verify any of the lines being said.

There won't be any new Civil Protection episodes until after the tutorial is made, but the 20+ minute long one is still in production and it's the one I plan to release next. I'm not making any promises, but I may try and get the next episode of Freeman's Mind out before then as those are less time consuming to produce.

EDIT: A volunteer submitted the English subtitles for CP episodes 4 and 5, so I'll be sure to put those up with the rest once the new site's up.

CP SPECIAL: WHAT IS MACHINIMA?

Youtube version

High quality streaming version &
1280 x 720 WMV download link (60MB)

Well this was done a little while ago and while it's normally my policy to never withhold a video release, this episode is a little different. This is a mini-episode that was done at the request of Machinima.com putting together a collaborative video asking several directors "What Is Machinima?".

EDIT: The high quality version is up now and contains additional dialogue. 


OTHER NEWS:

Also, it looks like a growing number of people are becoming frustrated with how long it's taking for me to release videos. Believe me in that I share that frustration. A big part of the problem is that with this tutorial combined with other oddjobs, I've been spending most of my time working on stuff to make income so I can do things like eat and pay bills. I ask that you hold out a little more patience, once this tutorial is done, I promise I'm going to start putting out machinima faster than ever.

In order to make more time to work on episodes, I'm planning to move soon near a friend where I'll have relatively low housing costs. I'm very frugal, so once I'm there, I think I'll be able to survive on part-time work somewhere (hopefully as a videostore clerk or something). That should afford me more time to make videos, plus I'm going to be getting more help on animation for CP, which is the slowest part of its production. In addition to this, I'm getting help setting up a new website which will serve as a central hub for all videos, especially CP. I'm still trying to find the best/cheapest host for this that can accommodate any forseeable bandwidth needs. It will contain a cleaner interface, more information, more updates, subtitles, extras, and just be better all-round. I still need to figure out what will be a good hosting option for the bandwidth load I'm anticipating however.

Right now I'm still too busy with the tutorial to work on any more episodes, I'm sorry. For the record, I am NOT taking the stance of "I don't owe you anything." If no one liked my movies, I wouldn't make them. The fact that there are so many fans makes me want to make new episodes more than ever. Also I am confident that the best episodes are still yet to come. Thanks for hanging in there.

NEW VIDEO: 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.

Status report

Hey everybody, nothing new to release yet, but here's the lowdown on what's been happening:

TUTORIAL GUIDE:
A big reason there haven’t been any Civil Protection releases lately is because I’ve been contracted by Noesis Interactive to make a supplemental machinima video for a tutorial they’re making. It’s a short comedy that will be released as a promotion when the guide is closer to done. The guide itself will be on using the Source engine to create machinima the way I do. As it turns out, I’ll be creating most of the tutorial as well. It will be a video tutorial with me writing and narrating it. It’s my hope that when the guide is done, anyone interested in creating their own machinima will be able to with it. I’ll make an update here when it’s done.

MINI-EPISODE:
I was contacted recently by Machinima.com to make a short video for them that will be part of a collaboration video they're making. It won't be very long, but it will have Mike and Dave and it should be pretty enjoyable.

BIG EPISODE:
Work is still in progress on what will be the longest CP episode so far. Unfortunately progress is slow due to all the other stuff I'm dealing with, but I haven't given up on it.

POSITION OPENINGS:
1. I'm still in dire need of someone (or two) who is proficient at the program "Face Poser" for the Source SDK. Your main purpose would be animating Mike and Dave within the game. You don't have to be an expert, but you do have to be patient and reliable. Some knowledge of Hammer is also a plus.

2. Alternately, I need someone (or two) to work on the head-bobbing animations you see when Mike and Dave talk. Honestly, this is a pain to do and very repetitive. You need a lot of patience in order to do this, if you have obsessive-compulsive disorder you might be perfect. You do NOT need to already know how to use Face Poser for this position; I have made a tutorial that teaches how to do this. You probably will have to redo some of your work at first, but it is not difficult to learn.

As always, this is volunteer work. If you're interested in helping out, please email me at rscott31@radford.edu.

April Fool Fallout

Wow, judging by yesterday's comments this was a winner for April Fool's. I tried to make something strange enough that people would realize it was a joke, but I think some people regard me as insane anyway, so who knows what I'm thinking. Since a few of you got pretty confused, here's a quick FAQ for you:

Q: Is Civil Protection cancelled?
A: No. Production is underway on what's going to be the longest episode so far.

Q: Will you continue making the Halo videos?
A: No. Trying to get 3 people online at the same time reminded me why I work in single player to film.

Q: Did you delete my comments?
A: No, but I held back the ones saying it was April Fool's Day to see how many people fell for it. All the comments are back up now.

Q: Did you stage fake comments?
A: No. Those are all by you internet people.

Also if you missed it, for April Fool's Day last year, I took down the site entirely and put this up instead:

Link

Speaking of the website, I’m leaning towards relocating the homepage for a couple reasons. The main one is that I’m making videos aside from just Civil Protection (though that will still be my main focus), so a different name might make more sense. Another is that I want to add extras like subtitles, alternate shots, etc., so more flexibility would be nice. Finally, everyone who’s helped me try to edit the website seems to hate using blogspot. I don’t have any definite plans yet, but I’m looking into different options.

I'll make another post when I have something to update, but right now everything's still in production.

New Series

Due to an overwhelming number of requests and the amount of production time involved, I’ve decided to discontinue Civil Protection and will be filming exclusively in Halo from now on. To kick things off, we’ve a made a pilot episode for a currently unnamed new series, so be sure to check it out:

Youtube version:


High quality version

Portrait

I was able to get access to a webcam recently, and thought some of you might find this comparison interesting. I've seen some comments for Freeman's Mind saying how my voice doesn't sound like how they think Freeman's should, well at I at least look the part:





It's not exact, but Freeman has about 2 years on me, plus he's fictional. Anyway, work is progressing on the next Civil Protection episode and I'm hoping to have another Freeman's Mind episode before the end of the month.

EDIT: I don't think I'll have a new FM episode out by March afterall, but only because I'm working on the next CP episode.

Freeman's Mind Episode 3

Youtube version

640x480 WMV version

Well I've finished the project I was working on so now I'm back to work on Civil Protection. I know I said the next release was going to be a CP episode, but there's still a lot I need to do and I hate going so long without releasing anything, so here's the longest and my new favorite episode of Freeman's Mind so far. This one has a little more language in it for those of you that care about that sort of thing. Since the game Half-Life has unavoidable mature content, the episodes for Freeman's Mind will be around a PG-13 to R rating, while Civil Protection will be around a PG to PG-13 rating. I make no promises however.

For those of you still waiting for more CP, thanks for your patience. Multiple episodes are in production along with a cameo appearance in an upcoming Half-Life 2 mod. Believe it or not I want to get the episodes out just as much as some of you want to see them. Just because you don't see frequent updates here doesn't mean I'm not working on it. I'm kind of bad at time estimation, but I will be trying to get at least one more video out this month, so I guess check back at the end of the month.

Current Plans

Well I’m still not done with this project that’s been keeping me so busy, but I’m getting close. Since some people are wanting updates, here’s what I plan to work on or look into once I’m done with the current job I’m working on:


Unfinished Episodes: There are currently 2 episodes that are partially completed that I want to go back and finish before making too many new ones. I have plenty of good ideas for new episodes, I just don’t want to get too far ahead of myself.

Simultaneous Production: One of the animators in a previous episode has gone and founded his own machinima group, who has expressed an interest in helping to produce CP episodes. Since I’m already working with some good people on other episodes, I’m going to try and manage two projects at the same time, letting his group handle most of the production. This is an experiment, but it may lead to good things.

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: I’ve been wanting to play this game since it uses the same engine as Half-Life 2. I’m going to see how much material it has for me to work with and if things look good, I may start a fantasy oriented series within it. If I do, it will also be comedy and will still have Mike and Dave, but maybe as guards in a more medieval setting.

Freeman’s Mind: While the writing is more difficult and the format is less interesting than my other ideas, it has the shortest production time of anything else I do, so I plan to continue it interspersed with other projects.

New Website Design / Subtitles: People are still working on this, hopefully it will be done before too long. Thanks to all the volunteers translating and your patience with this.

Other Game Engines: I use the Half-Life 2 engine primarily because it has better animation tools included with it than a lot of other games. If I have time I’d like to research other options. If anyone has experience doing animation in other games and thinks an engine in particular would be good to work with, please email me with more information. If you’re at this site, you’ve probably seen what I can do with the Source engine, so it would have to be roughly comparable to that.


That’s it for now, It might take about a month before I have anything to release again, but once things get going, I’d say to expect more machinima from me than ever before.

update / need help again

Well due mainly to a bunch of requests I've gotten to continue Freeman's Mind, I guess I will continue it afterall. While I understand it's not everybody, it seems a good chunk of people like it more than I would have expected. I still plan to continue on Civil Protection and focus on that primarily, but this will be nice to release in between the times it's taking so long to get a CP episode out. Unfortunately I'm not working on either right now, I have other work I have to take care of first, but plant to get back to the series soon.

In the meantime, I could still use help on the webpage for any of you that are familiar with blogspot. I had one guy helping me who vanished, and another guy is helping me now, saying an additional person would be good too. So if you know all about html/blogspot, send me an email at rscott31@radford.edu. Also while I was planning to do it myself, I won't have a lot of time to work on the graphics for the site (buttons, banner, etc.) If you do graphic design and want to help work on the layout of the new webpage, email me too. I may want to see samples of your work however. That's all for now, I'll put another post up when I've resumed working on the series again.

Freeman's Mind Episode 2

Well here's the second and possibly last episode of Freeman's Mind. Despite the majority of people liking it, I don't like having to make everything a monologue and then time it to the footage. It's going to be a while because I have a lot of other work to do, but the next video I plan to release will be another Civil Protection episode. I hope to have the website updated and subtitles up before that however. Oh and for those who wonder about the term Freeman uses in this video, it's "quantum chromodynamic gauge invariant Lagrangian"

Low Quality version (Youtube)

High Quality version (83MB WMV)

Gone for a week or so

I'm letting everybody know I'm going to be gone over the next week doing family/job stuff, so there won't be any progress here at all. However, once I get back I plan to add a lot of new stuff and get back to work on CP, however this next month is going to be very busy for me with various jobs I have. When I do get back next weekend, here's some stuff I plan to add as soon as I get things set up:

-New website design
-Scripts to the episodes
-Subtitles galore, I plan to have downloadable ones along with a new Youtube channel I'll set up to watch them in as many languages as volunteers will translate to. I'm hoping to doublecheck the English ones and colorcode them.
-Alternate shots of the action sequences for episodes 4 and 5
-Freeman's Mind: Episode 2 (it's close to done)

So I guess check back in a week and a half or so and they'll be some new stuff up here. Also I have no idea when it will be finished, but I plan to go back and work on the two unfinished episodes of CP that have been brewing, so the series isn't dead or anything.  Also, these two new episodes will be long ones containing new characters. I estimate episodes 6 and 7 together will be longer than 1 - 5 combined.

Plans

Well it seems the majority of people want to see more of Freeman's Mind, so I'll at least make another episode. What I'll probably end up doing is alternating between this and Civil Protection. I like CP because I consider it more original and have more freedom, but like FM because it's faster. After I get the next episode out, I'm afraid there will be a sizeable downtime because of jobs I have to work on this month especially. I plan to pick things up after that however.

EDIT:
I've received several offers on an audio editor and html person, so thanks to everyone who applied.

Appendum

Well the response to Freeman's Mind so far is much more positive than what I was expecting. I've put up a poll to get some idea of what people think, so go ahead and vote on it. Oh, and that's a true story about the squirrel by the way, except instead of MIT it was at Virginia Tech back in the 70's.

Freeman's Mind

Youtube version

640x480 WMV (82MB)

Well this is the pilot episode of my side series I'm experimenting with. It isn't Civil Protection, but it's in a similar vein of humor. Basically the premise is that in the Half-Life series, the protagonist Gordon Freeman is entirely silent the whole time. So what this series aims to do is fill in the silence with his thoughts. I tried to make this as entertaining as I could, but the format is very different, so I'd like to hear feedback on this.

This was an experiment, and I think it may have some shortcomings. The format of this added many constraints on what I was able to accomplish with the writing, and may have made the humor suffer somewhat as a result. It made me realize just how much more freedom I had with Civil Protection. Unless I get waves of support to do this along with CP, I’m probably going to discontinue this. But feel free to check it out anyway.

emergence

Well my system is finally back up and functional, so I'll resume work on the different series and hopefully get something to you soon. In the meantime, to give you some idea of how complex CP is behind the scenes, I'm posting some screenshots of one of the maps and scene files from the last episode within the SDK. Click on the thumbnails to check them out:




Also I'm trying to update the website to look better and have links for subtitles and stuff, but so far blogspot seems to be creating issues for the people helping me. Nobody was available when I made this post either, so it took me about 45 minutes to figure out how to post all those thumbnails neatly since I don't know html. I guess that's kind of like trying to get directions to the U.S. Embassy building in a foreign country where you don't speak the language.

Crash

Hey everybody, I have kind of a setback as my system hard drive went bad, so that's put my computer in a crippled state for a little while until a new one that I ordered comes in and I have enough space to get everything functional again. I haven't lost any data, it will just mean a delay. Also, while I plan to continue Civil Protection, I have been getting discouraged by the extremely long production times, so as an experiment I'm going to start a different series simultaneously. I'm not going into details yet, but this idea for a show would be MUCH faster to produce, to the point where I could have releases on a weekly basis even. This would give you guys something to tide you over while I work on CP, which seems to take a lot of time no matter what. I hope to release a "pilot episode" of my new series idea in a week or two and let you be the judge whether you think I should continue it or not. So check back in a week or two and there should hopefully be some new stuff here.

NEW EPISODE: HALLOWEEN SAFETY

DOWNLOAD:

Streaming Video (Youtube)

High Quality WMV Download (30MB)




Alright here's the alternate Halloween episode out good and late, but oh well. To reiterate, this is NOT the one I was working on for a month and a half, this is a last minute one I tried to get out by Halloween, but didn't happen. This is the shortest episode so far, but I tried to pack a lot into it, hope you like it. I'll try and get some subtitles or extras up here before too long.

Also as you may notice from the intro, I've kind of joined forces with Machinima.com since they've been helping me out with hosting, relaying files between team members, and the idea of expanding the publicity a lot since I'm not so hot at that part. Since one of my goals for the series is to use this as portfolio material so I can get a job better than flipping burgers, an association with a company is the sort of thing that would help. I apologize in advance for the video ads, they said they're working on that.

Finally, if you act on any of Dave's suggestions in this video, you're an impressionable idiot. If you blow your arm off and try to sue me, the joke will be on you since I don't have any money.

Well, I kept running into too many bugs and I've gotten very little sleep over the past several days, so I'm not going to try and go for a last minute save with this, it's just going to be late. I'm very happy with how some of the footage is coming out and since this has a darker sense of humor, it's my personal favorite so far. The irony is that I'm finding this very discouraging because of the insane amount of time required to make these. While I'm overflowing with ideas, I'm not sure how realistic it's going to be for me to keep making these. The next episode will definitely come out though, all the really difficult parts are done, I just need a little more time to put it all together. Sorry for the delays in all this.

Bugs

I know this isn't what people want to hear, but it looks like things are going to take longer than I hoped.  My original estimates were assuming I wouldn't run into bugs from hell with the SDK.  So silly me, now I'm behind again.  I'm still working solid on it, but whether or not it will come tonight is much more iffier.