End of Year Update
What a year it’s been, eh? In both the ways you’d expect, i.e. worldwide trash garbage chaos, and for this particular project. It’s weird looking back and thinking just how far I’ve come in just this year. This time last year I had just the pilot episode under my belt, and I had just begun blocking out the environment for the exterior city. All I had to work with were 2 out of date sets and 2 out of date rigs. In the span of this year, I made 5 new sets, 6 new character rigs, a half dozen key props, and 4 complete episodes worth of animation, all basically from scratch, though the environments had a good deal of kitbashing for the basic geometry. That’s also to say that Part IV is officially done, for my part at least. Huzzah! It’s now onto music, so who can say for sure how long that’s going to be. Aim for now is to still get this episode out by the end of January, but if it takes until February so be it.
But yeah, looking back, that’s a considerable amount of content produced, and that’s just me working on the weekends. It’s not too hard to believe, since working on this is pretty much all I do in my free time. In a lot of ways, I wouldn’t have been able to get nearly as much done without the pandemic, as it pretty much destroyed all of my social hobbies for the time being. But not only was I able to get a lot done, but I’ve learned so much this year working on both this project and through projects in my professional life. I got a better grasp of how to better harness lighting and ray tracing, learned a lot more about how to set up better fx systems, and got a sense how best to utilize in engine procedural texturing. I’ve also had the enormous good fortune of working with some of the top cinematographers and VFX creators in Hollywood, and have picked up a number of great tips from them. It’s made it difficult to look at my own past work, namely the pilot, and not be just completely and absolutely disgusted with it. Of course, I’m being overly harsh on myself for comedic effect, but it’s a little crazy to see the difference.
Part IV is, in a way, the same point in the story as the pilot episode. That episode, as I’ve mentioned before, was something of a simplified and truncated version of this bigger version I’m making now. As a result of that, some of the shots and some of the actions play out in a very similar fashion. As such, it’s easy to make direct comparisons between them, and to see the progress therein. The header image, for example, is the same shot, spread over the course of a year. The top is a shot from the pilot, released in October 2019, and below is more or less that exact same shot from the upcoming Part IV.
I also made a lot of improvements to the sound design, compared to the pilot. A lot of very minor things, but it will help to create a fuller and more immersive soundscape. I also amassed some new junk for Foley. Here you can see my Foley Fingers (patent pending), to help bring to life the creature’s pointy metal fingers.
With Part IV in the can, so to speak, it’s all about looking towards the future in 2021. Part V comes next, and that will present it’s own list of unique challenges. The amount of animation required for just that episode will probably be double, if not triple, any previous episode. Plus I have to make one or two new props for basically a one off shot. The big thing coming up is facial acting, which I’ll finally be getting into. And beyond that, Part VI will introduce even more complexities, including a character who may or may not prove to be a pain to work with. That’ll be fun to discover. With any character, you do a few tests to make sure they aren’t completely broken, but it’s hard to truly know until you start in a production environment. And then after that Part VII will bring it home, with an extra stuffed conclusion spanning multiple environments. It’ll be interesting to see if I’m able to pull it off before the end of 2021. At this rate, it’s certainly possible, and for the most part all that I have left is pure animation. But, I don’t want to overpromise, so all I can say for now is we’ll see. I’m currently about one quarter year ahead of schedule, but like I said, things get increasingly complex from here on out. If only this were a full time deal, eh?
Aside from just the project, the aim for next year is to also put more effort into the business side of things. I’m in the early stages of getting Forlorn off the ground as a studio, of sorts, and I have a lot of plans in place to get more marketing material out to the various places. As of now for each episode I make a single post in my various regular social places and a couple of Unreal hobbyist things. But with Part IV I finally feel like I have enough to really put the project out there, and get some more eyes on it. We’ll see if it works, and if not, it’s not really a big deal. This whole exercise is really just me having fun, but the hope is always others will enjoy it as well.
Well, the new year looks bright. I can’t wait to get going on the next episodes, and to share them with you. As always, you reading this (yes you), are the real hero, and I hope you will continue with me on this journey. Until next time, a wonderful New Years to everybody!
- Alex
