The Sound of Violence

Okay, reference and parody aside, that’s really the best way to describe this week. The first period was marked by several days of creating, rendering, integrating, and balancing assorted weapons sound effects.

Sunday, the team met and refined their work from last week, followed by going over plans and materials for the upcoming model-making day. 

 Monday and Tuesday played host to two ADR sessions, and a little Foley work. (Half of Episode 7 and almost all of Episode 8 have horrible sound that will need to be reconstructed from scratch.) 

All in all, a week full of progress, if somewhat shy on the descriptors.

Well, that’s about all for this week. Until next time!

Fresh Stripes

Greetings, one and all! After crawling out the other end of our illness, we proceeded to dig into the project, yet again.
First off, one of the things I neglected to mention toward the end of the last blog was that we spent a good amount of time reorganizing the office, so that hopefully more material can remain packed and still accessible.
Secondly, I was hit by a wave of inspiration, and went back through all the episodes, refining the performances further, in particular adjusting cuts to better show reactions during the conversations. After that, we synced up the final bit of dialogue with the last three scenes of Episode 8, which should nicely bookend the concepts of the series.

Thirdly, the Hunter’s ship has received its next paint passes, including a nice bit of detail in the striping on the “wings.” 

Friday saw the return of the class from Roseburg, a new year learning the fine art of inserting pointy object A into belligerent target B.

Sunday, the team met again, and this time we took a bit of a vacation from our more technical training for the lighter fare of a one-off lightsaber choreography session.

It was a lot of fun, especially as we were taking advantage of the first really nice day since the snow cleared.

On top of that, I’ve started working on the designs for various buildings we’ll be making during our forthcoming crafting day. Not bad for a week half-eaten by the bug, eh?

Well, that’s about all for this week. Until next time!

Stunties in Motion

Greetings, one and all! This week saw a few highlights, some shinier than others. First off, the Hunter's ship received its second coat of paint. The next step will be masking off zones and painting on the contrasting colors.
After that, we spent a few days working on a rather difficult bit of green screen compositing. Long story short, the sun was very bright that day, and led to things not having enough contrast for a clean key.
The team met Sunday, and worked on proper movement methods for various types of warriors.

From heavy armor to goblins, we covered a fairly broad swath of styles.
Sadly, this has been a month, nay, winter, for people getting sick, and this week was no exception, which slowed our productivity a bit. But, we're working on recovering, and plan to come out of this swinging, with a model-making day or two on the horizon.

Well, that's just about all for this week. Until next time!

Paint and Sound

Greetings, one and all! We have a few different progress updates this week. First off,  the Hunter's ship detailing was completed, and we sealed the exposed foam with watered down wood glue. A popular method, from what I hear. After that, we gave it a black base coat.
Here's the ship, pre-paint.

Sunday, the team met again and choreographed a fight on a bridge over lava. Because, naturally, snow equals lava.

The rest of the week was filled with sound design for the first six episodes. Mixing sounds to make new effects, providing ambient sounds for various locations, and taking note of what we will need to record for specific scenes. Not terribly shiny, but a very important step.

Well, that's about all for this week. Until next time!