Ross Scott

Well I mean it more literally. I'm never going to link to the Rick Astley video or make a variant of it. I still have a couple of ideas to genuinely fool people, but it would take way more preparation.

it called accoutic foam and they use that for hard cases for transporting weapons like pistols and for what i can find they cost like €30 for like 4 sheets of 1m x 1m http://www.thomann.de/gb/the_takustik_noppenschaum_1030_4er_set.htm this site is good because if ross you are in poland this could be delivered to you in 3 days is it's hosted in germany and you using the same currency then all you need is double sided tape and 3 or 4 of this 4 set and you got he whole room covered but if you don't have the money use my idea I really don't have a echo with my mics i use Pretty tempting. And they use ZLOTYS not Euros.

That might definitely be the easiest way. I could use some finishing nails in the corners and I doubt the landlord would notice. The problem with these eggcarton recommendations is I'm not sure of the best way to fasten them. I'm thinking staples wouldn't be very stable when moving it around to install it. The room is kind of small, but the ceiling is maybe 10 feet high, so I'm going to need a lot of egg cartons if I go that route. Yeah that happens pretty much every April Fool's Day. I used to think I'd shed a certain portion of my fanbase each year, but I'm guessing these are the same people that signed the Left 4 Dead 2 and Modern Warfare boycotts.

The CPU usage was a combination of a forum bug related to hashing of the WP passwords, bots looking through the forums, and I've been told a misconfiguration on the host's end, who has been too busy to look at it. The latter problem will be solved by me hosting it myself, I just didn't have time to look into it before the AFD videos were done. As for egg cartons I've heard that too. I'd have to find a place that sells them in bulk, then figure out a way to attach them to the wall, it's a high-ish ceiling unfortunately.

Hey everyone, I thought I'd give some commentary on my most involved and most sloppily executed April Fool's Day videos yet. I wanted to try for a "double feature" for about a month or two. It almost didn't happen. In addition to my move setting me back quite a bit, audio editor Otto Beumelberg completely disappeared days before the deadline (turns out his computer had fried) and there simply wasn't enough time for me to do all the editing and recording AND the sound editing on both the videos. For the Halo video, I recorded the footage for that before I left and I just barely was able to coordinate it with enough people I could contact to get it done in time. Even then, there was a very small window of time to record the main scene. Try coordinating something with 7+ people you know and see how stable it is. Even once I had the footage, I left and my computer wasn't reassembled until a while afterwards and I had been very busy without having done much editing. The Zombie Panic video was even more close. I managed to line up good voice actors in time, but had multiple bailouts and some slow responses. On the morning of April 30th, I still had NONE of the lines recorded by the voice actors (except one, whom I needed a redo from), and I still didn't know if the new guy I picked for sound editing (Phai Giron) was going to flake out with everyone else. Thankfully it all came together, but not without a couple all-nighters for me of recording, coordinating and editing. In the middle of all this, I was contacted by the host for the site about the forums causing CPU usage problems again and he was threatening to take the site down immediately unless I paid him for the extra usage. It felt kind of like a ransom payoff. I paid him, but the timing couldn't have been worse for that, so I'll be looking into hosting the site myself in the near future, you're welcome to suggest options. To add to the fun, Machinima.com offered to host these videos (I thought they would be too bizarre for them actually), so that meant I had to get all the videos in at least a day ahead of time. I just barely made the deadline for that. On top of that, they told me it would be released 5pm their time, but then decided to release the Zombie Panic vid 6 hours early without telling me, so I guess they managed to play an April Fool's joke on me! Anyway, I'm happy it all came together. I think the sound editing could have been a little better, but considering how short the notice was on everything, it's amazing it got made at all. I'm especially happy with the Zombie Panic video, I think it's my favorite April Fool's Day one so far. That was recorded in a demo last year (back when I actually had some time for games) where it's the longest killing spree I've ever gotten as a zombie. For those unfamiliar with the game, if you can get two kills as a zombie before you die, you're doing very well. I got EIGHT in this demo, which basically never happens. It was a perfect storm of things going wrong for the survivors and I thought adding the commentary made it even funnier. I was worried I wouldn't fool anybody this year since April Fool's Day is the one deadline I manage to meet each year (so far), but a quick look at Youtube comments show otherwise. Machinima.com decided to put a Freeman's Mind thumbnail for the zombie video to trick more people, which led to all sorts of good will being expressed by the viewers. I don't know what I'll do next year, it's a challenge doing something different each time. The only thing you can count on is that I'll never Rickroll anyone, that's just mean. Since I was so busy on the videos, I didn't have time to look at much on the internet yesterday, so if you saw some especially good AF jokes, go ahead and post them on the forums. All I saw was some stuff from Google and Blizzard. Finally, while not horrid, the new place I've moved to could use some improvement for recording quality. If anyone has suggestions on cheap material I could line the walls with (not permanently, I'm only renting) to absorb more sound and dampen echo, let me know.

I actually have an idea for this and it's probably not what you're thinking at all, but as people have mentioned, the workload for a proper action scene increases exponentially. I need a better process period and probably several engine improvements before I could even attempt what I want to try. As for my ability to do one, you can take a preview from the flashback sequence from "Oil's Well"

Hell yeah, paint those Tories red.

I recognize that super solvers guy from Midnight Rescue and Treasure Mountain. That's how all cool people dressed in the 90s. Puffy jacket with popped collar, cap covering your face, and boxer shorts.

Hey everyone, well I have some good news and bad news. The bad news is I'm getting sued by Valve and can't make any more Freeman's Mind or Civil Protection videos forever. The good news is I have some new series to replace them! The first (which I thought was going to be the second, but Machinima.com decided to post it 6 hours earlier than they said, ha) is Diary of A Zombie. A touching tale about a zombie. Check it out here: 1280×720 WMV (130MB) Also I lied. There's not one, but TWO videos today! Stay tuned for the next one!

This sounds more like a philosophical / religious debate rather than addressing a concrete issue. I'm going to move this to the "General" section. Nice ICP messiah pic btw.

Hey sorry if I'm screwing up the thread for you, but this forum section is for issues that could create really big problems for society. Things like food production, extreme poverty, etc. While it definitely impacts society, whether evolution is taught in schools I don't see it as an issue that's going to directly threaten its stability. I'm moving this to the "General" section. Also while I may piss some people off saying this, the evolution v. creationism thing is kind of black and white to me. Evolution is science. Creationism is not. You can observe evolution in action just from killing cockroaches. With regards to man, we only have a zillion fossils showing a pretty clear transition from ape to human. I think the only real point of "debate" is the actual origin of life on Earth. We haven't proven exactly how that's started yet. But then you can't actually "prove" ANYTHING with science, you can only DISPROVE things. I saw a bumper sticker I liked before that said "Evolution is just a theory. Just like gravity"

Hey sorry if I'm screwing up the thread for you, but this forum section is for issues that could create really big problems for society. Things like food production, extreme poverty, etc. While abortion is a serious issue, it's not a problem on the scale that I'm talking about. I'm moving this to the general section.

Hey sorry if I'm screwing up the thread for you, but this forum section is for issues that could create really big problems for society. Things like food production, extreme poverty, etc. Sexual preference isn't one of those problems, I'm moving this to the general section.

My favorites are the ones that haven't happen yet. A surprising amount of CP comes out exactly how I envision it, and I can imagine way better stuff than what you've seen so far. I think for existing ones Dave ducking JUST in time to hit the beam in "On A Rail" and the ending to "Halloween Safety" are my favorites.

doomplayer: Ah I'll explain everything if I ever get to making a sequel. icthulu: This is my first real attempt at trying to be scary, I think this would have been better if I were to make it all over now, but I just wanted it finished. I have a wide range of ideas. If you hate this one that's fine. I think in the future I'll eventually make one that you might like a lot. shaken_bacon: That's great to hear man. I doubt I'll ever make an episode of CP that everyone will like, but I want to have enough variety that hopefully some people will have a favorite that stands out to them against others. I tend to get sick of lowest common denominator content, so by making something that appeals to a certain niche of people, then making something that appeals to a completely different niche, I think the results end up better. If I'm being influenced by Resident Evil, it's probably on an unconscious level. I was definitely using music from RE1 and 2 for references for the composers, but I never thought that it was influencing my camerawork. That's pretty cool if it is. If I had the resources you describe I would be esctatic and go crazy making videos. Bravetriforcer: That is a problem! At some point I have to cut my losses and explain some things, even if it becomes less scary than what people were imagining. crs: I consulted Craig, who's more up to date on HL lore than I am, and he said HL2 mostly takes place in Bulgaria, so I went with that. Flasheneitor: You're half right. I take the attitude you describe towards episodes, but if I made a direct sequel to this, I would respect the continuity 100% for the previous episode. I don't know if there will be a sequel or not, it's PURELY based on technical issues and limitations. I could definitely write one, but it would much more demanding of the engine than this one was for what I have in mind. Casual Fan: Oh man, I don't like revealing things early or spoiling things. The fact that I don't say what my best ideas are means I still have hopes of getting them made. The only thing I will say is that I want to have more genre-blending in CP. It will all be comedy, but I want more action or adventure for some episodes (don't worry, no drama). I feel like I've only scratched the surface for what I could do with CP. Attilio: Actually the "anomaly" I designed so that it would be difficult to identify, even if people froze the frame. Darthvoorhees: From the game files it's called "vesnice_vzpominka" for 11:00. Now I'll have to watch that video you discussed. At what time does the music appear in there? I'll be surprised if it actually is from The Black Mirror.

Raicuptra: Keep in mind CP episodes aren't necessarily chronological. The next episode might take place at a different time period. Coraje: My atittude for that music there was that this wasn't just some helpless cheerleader wandering the tunnels, it was Civil Protection. They have body armor, training, guns, etc. If there was some danger down there, they were presumably going in ready for it. I'll expand on this more if a sequel ever gets made. DaftMink: Yeah I feel the same way about Machinima.com's logo marking. I leave one on the downloadable copies but tend to scrap the rest. n3o: No, this was all in the Source SDK. People commenting on crackers: That was a joke I threw in the trailer to give people an excuse to watch it in addition to the video. Lovecraft people: This was loosely inspired by "Pickman's Model." I might elaborate more if I was to make a sequel. Also I was originally going to call it the "Arkham Tunnel", but then a batman game came out and I realized people would never get the reference. UnlicensedPro: I normally would agree about not needing a sequel, but I left a LOT of unanswered questions. While I normally like to have some, I think I went overboard on this one and wouldn't mind tying some ends up. Mr. 13: The scene I had to remake in Episode 1 was the car shot and the second half of the outdoors sections in general. There were way too many animation glitches in Episode 2 there. Jay Steinmann: It depends on the technology. What I have in mind can't currently be done for a sequel because of limitations of the Source engine. We can only hope that will change at some point in the future. Darthvoorhees: All the music from the flashback sequence is from "The Black Mirror," I was able to get permission directly from the composer to use it. That's a good super-atmospheric game, if a little slow. Also nice Raziel glyph, I'm more of a Kain man myself.

Hey people, there will be a surprise video later today! I actually got a sort of confirmation from Machinima.com that it will be up around 5pm their time in Los Angeles (GMT +/- whatever). So be on the lookout for it then. In other news, I've moved to Poland. I guess that's kind of weird since I don't speak Polish, but you know how it is. Poland is neat, it has buses and stuff. Trusty web guy Dave Donaldson will make a news post for me when the video goes up, since I may be asleep by then, what with me being in Poland and all.

Hey, this is Jexius. Tomorrow I'll be switching the password system. This will mean that the forums and site will be more stable and will probably fix most of the CPU usage and downtime issues we've been having. It will, however, mean that you will ALL need to reset your passwords. Please make sure that the email linked to your forum account matches your current email. This will be important for when we make the change.

Well my move was successful and I think my internet is stable again. I have several things to discuss, so I'll list them haphazardly: THE TUNNEL: The downloadable copy is now up, though the Youtube copy one came out pretty well this time. At least with this version you won't have to watch it split up. Here are some links: STREAMING: DOWNLOAD: 1280x720 WMV (344MB) Also this may have been mentioned already, but at the end of the video, Craig isn't actually talking in Bulgarian, but in some Hungarian phrases he knew. THE FORUMS: While it does seem stable, I've been told by the host for the site and the people who developed the forums that there are some problems still occurring where it will really spike in terms of CPU usage for the server. I'm honestly clueless when it comes to this. If you're familiar with PHP and might be able to lend some assistance looking over the code or have ideas as to what's happening, please email me and I'll try and direct you to the right people working on it. I was originally planning to launch the subtitles section by now, but that may not be a good idea until the current problems with it get resolved. MORE VOICE ACTOR POSITIONS: I've had a lot of roles filled, but I have two left. One person had to bail, the other I never got enough applications for: 1. American Black Male, age from mid 20s to early 40s - Same role mentioned on the site earlier, just looking for some with a general African-American accent. 2. Female With Eastern European Accent, age 20s to 30s - If you're a woman and can talk in an Eastern European accent, you have a good chance of getting the part. Both roles will require some shouting. If you think you can do either of these roles convincingly, email me at [email protected]. Finally, I haven't had a chance to read all the comments yet, but I plan to reply to them, get more involved in the forum, and *slowly* start responding more to my enormous backlog of emails.