Part 4 was getting too long for a single part, plus source files for it were piling up, so I exported what I had and counted it as a complete part, but I might add more to it.

Animated Billy walking away from Jeff's console, towards the control station. Spent a while trying to figure out the best camera angle for it. Had to switch from a shot of static Billy beginning to walk to one of biped Billy actually walking, because of problems with animating bipeds. Also, animated Billy and EB continuing the conversation behind the control station.

I'm having to manually sync the voices to the animation in Premiere because Max seems to not want to render shots with sound again. It was doing it well enough before, but recently reverted to stopping frame animation early. Not sure what's making it do that. Oh, well.

Finished part 2.5, which is what I'm calling the current scene. I'm going to put it before the scene with Mark and Redd, which I've labeled as part 3. I'm not sure if I want to try to extend that scene. I was going to have the attacking cooties turn on Mark and have him run away, but I'm not sure it's necessary. We'll see.

Animated Billy's "family problems" speech and the first line of Jeff's response to it. Also, added music to it. Cutting and splicing the music is just the right place for the desired effect was a pain and took way too long, due to modulation problems due to overlapping, among other things.

I'd forgotten how very long it can take just to get one small thing just right. Being a relative perfectionist has its disadvantages.

Re-recorded most of Billy's lines and edited Jeff's lines a bit. Animated Billy's biped walking and stopping at Jeff's console, starting their conversation, then animated Jeff in iClone to match. After the walking sequence, I replaced the biped with the regular model for Billy and added a camera for a close-up of him. I'll continue animating the conversation with the regular model tomorrow, probably.

Worked more on the bridge scene. Finished the bit before Billy talks to Jeff. I want to re-record a few of Billy's lines so I could add a few more and keep things constant. Also, imported the Billy biped again for use after I re-record the lines. I'll do that eventually.

Began preparing for the scene on the bridge. Made a biped version of EB to make animating him walking onto the bridge easier and more realistic. I also recorded and edited all of the lines that I'll need for this scene, but I still need to check the new lines Justin sent me and edit them, if necessary. I also lined up the audio for the first conversation of the scene.

I want to make a biped version of Mark for the extension of the scene with him and Redd that I'm planning, but I'll do that when the time comes.

Created an unboned cootie in Max for iClone because the boned versions I tried kept crashing iClone. I wanted to animate it moving its legs in Max, but the animation didn't export properly and wouldn't work in iClone, so I just went with a static geometric model, which worked.

Also, finished part three, which was the scene with Redd and Mark. I'll work on part 4 as soon as I figure out how I want to start it.

Began making the scene with Redd and Mark. Using both Max and iClone for it, because Redd is an iClone character and Mark is a Max character and they aren't really interchangeable between programs. I'm using the same technique I used before for backgrounds, but it's more involved this time. It seems to work, though.

I added their dialogue to the scene and animated Mark. I'll probably animate Redd tomorrow.

Also, wrote more dialogue. I'm trying to get all of Jeff's lines written in order to post them on the Google production group so that Justin can record them all at once. I think I might have to cut out some of what I have because it's making the episode too long.

Animated the establishing shot of the ship in space. Wrote more lines, including dialogue for the end of the episode, which I've decided how I want to play out. Recorded the lines for the scene with Redd and Mark.

Animated Jeff's bridge background in Max, exported it as an AVI, imported it into iClone as the background for Jeff, then animated Jeff in iClone. Also, continued Billy's and EB's conversation a bit after the conversation with Jeff ended and finished part 2.

Animated EB's part of the conversation with Jeff and started designing Jeff in both Max and iClone. I still haven't decided which one I want to use for it. iClone might be easier to design him, for the most part, but it would probably just be more convenient to use a model made in Max.

Current Project: Commander Neat

Since the old production blog was deleted when Blogger apparently updated its software, I guess it's time for a new one. I haven't actually worked on the current project, Commander Neat, in several months, if not a year or more, so I'm trying to get back into it and finish episode four. I figured it was as good a time as any to resume blogging the progress of the series.

Today, I added the low interior hum of Evil Billy's (EB) ship to the last part of the scene that I made before abandoning the episode, since it was missing from it. I also animated the lights flickering and added electrical sound effects, plus animated the ship exiting the wormhole. Next, I'll do EB contacting Jeff on the bridge. First, I'll need to actually design Jeff and place him on the bridge. I haven't decided if I want to use 3DS Max or iClone for that, though. I think iClone would make it a bit easier. We'll see.