Monthly Update: December 2021
It sure feels like a lot has happened in the last month. Since in 2021 time is an illusion and nothing makes sense, sometimes it feels like a month will just come and go, and other times it feels like several months have transpired at once. December feels a bit like the latter.
Part VI continues to progress out of my hands. Toft has been working on the music, and last I heard it was very nearly finished. I’m hoping not to rush the mix as much as I did with the initial release of Part V. I love sound design, but mixing is always a chore, and so I tend to blow through it a bit. I also don’t test my sound on multiple platforms, so the issue I ran into with Part V was that it sounded good in my fairy decent headphones, but on desktop or phone some of the details were getting lost. So for Part VI I need to make sure that all of the sound and music comes through the same on all devices. And since it’s the holidays and things are a bit busy, Part VI won’t be out until very early 2022, giving me plenty of time to get it right. Assuming I get the final score very soon, I think the earliest I would want to premiere the episode would be around January 4th or 5th. So tentatively mark your calendars, but don’t be surprised if it ends up coming a week or two later.
Part VII (the final episode!) has just passed a major landmark. Part VII is broken up into 3 distinct scenes, and the first of these 3 scenes is now completely animated! That leaves the middle scene (a big, complicated one), and then the epilogue. No prediction on how long that will take, but hopefully I can carve out some time to really sink my teeth into it sometime in the spring. I would absolutely love to be able to premiere the final episode in the first half of the year, but we shall see.
In other news, I decided to make some changes to how I distribute the project. Despite my general satisfaction with Vimeo, I decided to depreciate it in favor of YouTube for the time being. The biggest reason for this is that YouTube, based on my own experience, does a better job of recommending videos and pulling in people with similar interests. I’ve found in the past five episodes on Vimeo that when a new part releases people watch it, and then it basically dies until the following episode is released. It just seems to make more sense to shift my focus over, if only just to see what happens.
And so far it seems to be working out pretty good! People have followed it to the new platform, and they seem to enjoy it, which is quite a relief. It seems like I’m on track to surpass the Vimeo view counts in short order. We’re talking very small potatoes, of course, but it may grow more some day, who knows. All I know is I have no plans to stop making stuff.
Lastly, a bit of exciting news! I have the enormous honor of being selected to appear in Epic’s 2021 MegaGrants highlight reel and spotlight! It’s so rewarding being able to stand proud next to so many other incredible artists and projects. And to be selected from a pool of almost 1600 makes it all the more unbelievable. My sincerest thank you the Epic Games, and to everyone reading this who has made this project possible!
Well, that about wraps it up. I’ll probably do a end of year post, but honestly I don’t know if I’ll do much more work on this project until 2022. I have a couple of exciting small things I’d like to do over the break, plus I’d like to do normal human things like see my family and go places and be merry. But rest assured, this first short of the Forlorn series is well on its way to being completely finished, and this is only the beginning. Until next time!
Alex
