Observer Effect 4 and 5 are in production hell at the moment – 24 panels total, 27 if I count full-panel sound effects that are already complete. The pages are scripted, blocked out, ready for CG, and the major 3d asset for both pages has been acquired, tweaked and textured. That leaves environments – which, as the pages take place over the span of a year, are fairly excessive. As are the line art requirements.

Getting these pages done is going to take awhile – four different environments and a good solid mix of rendering and digital painting plus a lot of drawing (and cleanup and shading). The pages are a great example of information density and after the first page of OE are the highlight of the installment.

Fortunately, OE.6 and 7 are almost the complete reverse of OE.4 and 5 – the line art requirements for these two pages are minimal and the environments have been complete for a couple of weeks now. The trick with this vignette is the script – the first draft was meh, the second draft doesn’t fit the rest of the installment, and I haven’t been in the writing zone in a couple of weeks. As 6 and 7 are effectively narrative-over-images, the visuals can be produced before the script and can Sit There until applicable words show up.

8-10 are scripted and laid out on paper, with no digital production as yet. While the line art is on the dense side, production requirements aren’t as stringent as 4 and 5 so when these pages are on deck they should come together in short order.

At this point the plan is to get 4 and 5 done and posted this month, 6 and 7 visually produced this month and posted whenever the script solidifies (hopefully also this month), with 8-10 going up in November. Production time estimates are based on my workload over the past couple of weeks and my projected workload for the next month or so – something that may very well go straight out the window. If work does step it up, the revised goal is to get OE out the door by the end of the year. That’s not ideal but it is doable!