Leitmotif blitz – complete! Rescripted months ago along with the last few pages, and re-laid on the fly this week, while I was working on the initial vehicle CG shots.
I decided to do the last three pages in parallel while I was working up the first two shots of 3.34. They took awhile, and the second panel quickly drove me to the conclusion that I wanted to avoid as much work as possible on the Loki interior. That lead to doing all of the exterior shots next, then using the exterior files to line up lighting for the three interior shots – which still required some fiddling with the Make Art Button.
I would have liked to have shown more of the U-238 unfold sequence. I pulled it apart and animated it back in 2008, around the same time I finalized the Hemera. Both projects were executed with this chapter of DCR in mind – it just so happened that I wound up sinking a year-plus into the second edition of The Dualist and another huge whack of time getting DCR production back on track. When I did the initial CG work I intended to use it in early 2009 – the timetable slipped a bit. Hell, it slipped a lot. I still have assets intended for later in Transitional Voices half-modeled, or waiting on textures.
This thing’s got some serious issues with lead time.
The next chapter is no slouch in that department – now that I’ve wrapped this one it’s time to start thinking seriously on pulling the script together, shooting whatever I need for the early part of the chapter while it’s still an appropriate time of year, and planning out my CG needs for the middle/later part of the chapter. The usual, in other words.
The big difference this time is I’ll be doing it sober. We’ll see how that turns out – I’m hopeful, but hardly optimistic. I managed to bust out the last three pages of the chapter by carroting myself with the promise of drinking tonight – wrap it all before goth night and go have one double for each chapter of DCR, YEAH!. I told my brain this, it fell for it, and the work got done. My brain got hell bent on whiskey and goth girls and completely forgot that over the course of the past week or so I’ve been sleeping from 8 pm to 2:30 am and now that I’m typing this up, your 4 pm is closer to my internal clock’s 4 am.
The schedule works – it’s killed the undying siren screech of the Bar Urge stone dead. Or had until today, at which point the Bar Urge became a serious pain in the ass.
On the one hand, I’ve just finished a chapter. A chapter I started this year. That hasn’t happened since 2008. I’d like to celebrate. I think if I’m going to find out if I can actually drink in moderation this would be a good occasion to see if that’s possible. On the other hand, the typical goth night is stone dead until 10 and doesn’t get interesting until I’m a drink or two shy of blackout drunk, and my schedule currently runs counter. There’s a convincing argument on the table that it’s never actually been interesting – if my last couple of sober outings are anything to go by, I’m inclined to agree.
On the gripping hand, I can take a nap now, wake up relative-early, and hit it around midnight.
Or – here’s a thought! – I can play Fallout: New Vegas until bedtime, sleep, and start rolling on the post-production laundry list when I get out of bed, clear-headed.
That laundry list comes with a blog post, which I’ll put together next work session.
And that bit of demon-wrestling rounds out the flavor text for chapter three of Dead City Radio.
ONWARD!
