Ross Scott

Download 672x384 WMV (93MB) Here's the next episode of Freeman's Mind. It's the longest episode of FM so far, not because I planned it that way, but because that's the only area I found a good jumping off spot. This one is pretty average. I think the next one will be better, there will be more to interact with. This episode took longer than I anticipated. If I hadn't done these last few episodes and if the website didn't keep getting hacked, I might be done with the next Civil Protection episode by now, or at least the animation work. As for the website, the new version will almost certainly launch this week. It won't be in a final state by any means, but it should retain similar functionality as this one and hopefully be more secure. Since focusing on several different things tends to slow me down, there will be NO MORE FREEMAN'S MIND until I'm done with the animation work on Civil Protection. I don't care how many people this pisses off, I want to finish it. The amount of time this episode has taken has become a real thorn in my side. You'll also be wasting your time asking for release dates, I don't know them either. I'll make an update once the animation work is done however.

Hey people, while I'm still working on the videos, it looks like an interview I did a week or two ago from PC Gamer has gone up. I've been intentionally trying to postpone all interviews until I'm done with the next CP episode, but I was willing to make an exception for PC Gamer, since I can't think of anyone else I'd rather be interviewed by. They title this as me being a "hero" of the PC gaming community, which I think is really reaching. I haven't made any games, I haven't finished Freeman's Mind, and I haven't gotten to my best ideas produced by any means. I am an avid PC gamer however (or used to be back when I had free time anyway), and I plan to keep making lots of videos in the machinima medium regardless of what happens. Anyway, feel free to check out the interview here: PC Gamer interview On a side note, I asked a question of the interviewer that I never received a reply to, that maybe you guys can help out with. I have an interest in older games and would like to read old issues of PC Gamer. If you want to view an issue of PC Gamer that's a few years old however, you're out of luck. A companion magazine, Maximum PC, has put up all of their old issues online as a pdf archive and on Google Books. I'd like to see PC Gamer do something similar, maybe if you guys bombard them with requests it might happen. I think I found their contact information here if you want to email them. Alternately, if anyone wanted to mail me old issues of the magazine, I wouldn't object. EDIT: The interviewer ended up emailing me back, he was away on a trip. It's probably still worth asking them about the back issues however. EDIT 2: The dialogue for the next FM episode was completed on Monday, but the sound editing is going to take longer than usual for this episode. EDIT 3: I've uploaded the finished FM episode to Machinima.com. It will appear on their Youtube channel first, but I have no idea when. If you spot it go up and I haven't made a post on it yet, feel free to email me.

Here's what's going on, separated into different topics: WEBSITE: I'm actually not entirely sure what the status is on the new website, but I think we're getting close. Currently two people are working on it, with another person on standby. I was told on July 1st the site would be up by next Friday, then by another person that the site would be ready last week, then in two days from past Thursday, then on 2pm Saturday, now maybe tomorrow, etc. So you can see, the people working on this are as good at time estimates as I am with my own videos. I consider the fact that I keep getting flawed estimates a positive thing because it implies progress. Also I have seen some mockup designs, though nothing quite functional as this yet. When the site launches (any day now maybe), it will NOT be in a final state at all, but should be functional enough to navigate and get to the videos. Later improvements will be added as they're worked on. While there are many features I'd like to eventually have, right now the main goal is to get something working that's about as functional, but more secure than what's here right now. Later on, you can expect a forum, video extras, more subtitles, more polished design, etc. CIVIL PROTECTION: I've been working on the next episode every day and making steady progress. I'm absolutely going to finish the animation work this month, which is about 90-95% of the work involved with making an episode. I've had one animator bail on me, which has increased the workload and may make a couple scenes less polished, but I'm going to keep moving forward with backup methods to accomplish certain scenes that may not look as good, but will still allow the episode to get made. I'm very eager to get this episode done. Once the animation work is done, I'm making no promises as to how long the editing will take, as that will involve other people for sound and music. Also in the past, editing is one area that I've rushed in before, and considering how much time has aleady gone into this, I'd like to get this episode done properly as opposed to getting it done a day or two sooner. FREEMAN'S MIND: I seem to be getting pressure on all sides to get another FM episode out, which seems to happen whenever I devote time to Civil Protection and make real progress. While I'm tempted to say the hell with everyone and keep working on CP (especially since I'm going to have a flood of FM episodes afterwards), I've decided to do another appeasement episode. I'll be starting on that today, so take your best guess as to when the episode will be done. I hate giving estimates, because they're always wrong, which causes people to be more upset than if I said nothing at all. Once I'm done with the animation work for the next CP episode, I'll continue making more FM episodes while I go back and forth between that and recording/editing for CP. Once the next CP episode is released, you can expect many more FM episodes, probably a dozen or two before the end of the year. While things could easily change, I'm estimating I might be able to finish the series for Half-Life 1 by sometime in Q1 2011. EMAIL: I'm behind on responding to emails and currently have about 150 to write replies to. However, if you're asking me questions that are answered in the FAQ or just want to know when the next episode will be out, you probably won't get a response.

Hey people, here's an update on things: If you're just tuning in, the site was hacked about a week ago, but it's slowly coming under control. The security has since been semi-patched to hopefully last a few more days while the site revamp is underway. Since the site is slightly more secure than it was, I've gone and replaced the old posts. The new site will have completely different code and be able to support many features. It will have a Wordpress base, which will make posting and commenting easier (especially on my end), and I've been assured there are ample plugins and coding options to make the new site retain similar functionality as this one. My apologies to everyone who's emailed me about the site that I haven't replied to yet. I received so many emails it's a bit overwhelming. I'm not a born manager, so when I'm brainstorming about the best way to go about fixing a problem and receive a couple dozen offers by email, it can be tricky for me to determine who is reliable and competent and who potentially has brain damage. It's like trying to hire someone for a job you don't even know how to do yourself. I suspect that's how many managers operate in the corporate world however. Right now someone with a ton of experience is working on programming the backend for the site, with another on design, however I do want to incorporate more people as needed and have more people on "standby" in case we run into any problems. If you have a lot of of Wordpress or theme design experience, feel free to send me another email just so I don't accidentally miss you in my sea of messages. In the future, I don't want the site to stagnate for months on end like it has because any one person becomes too busy to work on it. As for the new website, upon launch it will have the ability to browse all old posts and the ability to stay logged in. You will probably have to re-register your screennames (not yet), but all your old comments will be preserved. There are many features planned for down the line, but I don't want to overextend things yet. There are a couple things I would like your feedback on. First it's possible that once we reach a certain point, we could post the site as-is, in "beta" form so you could see development and changes on it as it happens. If this is something you might be interested in, let me know, otherwise, we'll wait until it's launch-ready. Also I wanted to ask how much interest there is for having an official forum here. I've tried this in the past, but to be blunt, I simply won't have enough time to browse all the posts, so it will be there more for you to talk to each other about the videos or whatever rather than a direct line of communication (email is still the best method for that, if slow). If there's still enough interest, we can look into what it would take to get a functional forum for the new site as well. - - - - - In video news, the lead sound editor's computer (Otto Beumelburg) has died on him and he cannot currently work on much. Otto saves me untold hours of time and does at least as good a job as I would with sound editing, so I'm going to just keep working on other areas until he's able to get his computer fixed. Also while this will probably disappoint most of you, I'm choosing to continue working on Civil Protection over Freeman's Mind, since I'm currently very driven to get the animation work completed on it. I promise you'll get a bunch of FM episodes once I'm done with the episode however, you can expect at least a dozen or two more before the end of the year.

As I'm sure you know, this website has needed help for a long time, the guy who created it has basically had to abandon it and I don't know about web programming. Somebody took over to make a mockup, but that's been in limbo as well. Crap like this sets me back so I have less time to put into the episode. How about emailing me about what can be done to fix up the site? As far as your cred goes, hacking this site is the equivalent of beating up a homeless guy in the alley. I'm sure there's better and more deserving targets. TO VIEWERS: I'm not deleting the hacker's posts, because I think it would be an unwise move to act like this didn't happen and would provoke further action from him. Also I don't know how to disable the music, I'll try and have that fixed when I can. In the meantime, the website revamp has now taken full priority for obvious reasons. I'll keep working on the episodes since I'm not the one who will be doing the actual programming, but there's a lot to coordinate, so this will eat into my time. EDIT: Thanks to those who sent me the old news posts. Work is underway getting the site revised and hopefully non-hackable in the future.

Hey, an update on the videocard situation: My cooler came in, only for me to discover that my old videocard was already fried, it started giving me graphics corruption right after POST. The good news is viewer Collin Campbell has sent me an 8400 GS to tide me over. This card has all the same graphics capabilities of my old card, it's just way, way slower. However, I'm able to keep working with this card, and I've been doing so. I won't be doing any gaming with a card like this, but that's probably just as well since I'm so far behind. I've also had offers for donating more midrange cards from viewers John Stokes and Joshua Nicholson which I'll be happy to accept. I've been wanting to build a secondary system for a while in case my main one gets hosed like this, so the old cards will go into that once I upgrade. I probably will buy a new card at some point, but I want to wait until I've finished all the animation work for the next Civil Protection episode as an extra incentive. On that topic, progress is moving steadily, but very slow. I feel bad too because this one isn't going to be the most impressive visually, you'll probably watch it and wonder why it took so long to make. This once again, comes down to the Source engine. If you saw a scene where the metrocops walk down a tunnel, stop, look around, then keep walking, making turns all the while, how long do you think that would take? Maybe 30 minutes right? No. With the long trial-and-error testing process and the downright mystical bugs I have to fight, it takes days. And this is when I already have the map files, custom animations, and models that I already need. Some scenes move more quickly than others, others are more visually impressive for the time involved, but a lot of what's done is very simple visually, with it being a nightmare behind the scenes. I'm absolutely going to finish this episode, though I may make another sacrificial FM episode in the meantime to tide people over. Once I finish this episode however, I think this is the last big CP episode I'll do under the Source engine. I have ideas for much simpler ones after this, plus I have no plans to discontinue the series, but it's possible down the line I may try and port the content over to a more animation-friendly engine down the line. Although this is probably good news for the majority of you, since I can just keep making Freeman's Mind episodes after this until the technology or resources catches up for me to work on something more ambitious.

Hey people, some bad news. My videocard (Geforce 8800 GTS) is pretty consistently overheating. I tried to borrow a cheap one so I could keep working (Radeon X300 SE), but then THAT keeps overheating as well (to be fair that one doesn't even have a fan, just a heatsink). Even though my case air flow is pretty good and I have an air conditioner running keeping the room in the mid 70s, this is definitely a heat problem. Besides video artifacts and system freezing in 3d applications, the heatsink on the Geforce has been getting so hot it can burn me. I plan to order a custom cooler for the card since I don't have a lot of extra cash to be blowing on a new videocard, but what this means is for the time being I can't work on much of anything video-related because I risk the computer freezing up in 3D applications. So this means no animation work on Civil Protection, and no in-game footage for Freeman's Mind. I'll try and catch up on replying to emails and managing subtitles in the meantime. EDIT: Many people are offering to donate me money. That would be great, but I'm not doing that at this time for two reasons: 1. Having some sort of donate button requires modifications to the site, I don't know web programming and right now the person helping me modify the site has been very busy to get everything underway (there's a lot of behind the scenes stuff that needs fixing). I plan to follow up some emails from people who have contacted me about website before to hopefully get some stuff underway. 2. If you guys are donating, I want to have a little more to show for it. Basically get a bunch of minor improvements here working. Being able to browse old posts, a better commenting system, more subtitles, putting scripts up, alternate shots, having episodes available in more formats besides WMV, maybe director's commentary stuff, etc.

Download 672x384 WMV (86MB) Well after a short period of me being completely unaware the video had already been posted, here's the next episode of Freeman's Mind. Again, this is just kind of a stopgap material to tide you guys over while I keep working on Civil Protection. This is exactly the sort of situation Freeman's Mind was created for in the first place. It's sort of a mutation that's it's become as popular as it has. Once I finish the next CP episode, I promise to make a large batch of FM episodes to make up for all the time I've been spending on CP. This episode did take more audio editing than usual. Audio editor Otto Beumelburg sent me a screenshot of all the volume balancing work he did for the episode. I thought that was interesting, so I'm posting that below. While I originally did everything myself, nowadays he does about 95% or more of volume mixing and extra sound effects for the series. I've been pretty happy with his work and it definitely saves me some time. At some point I hope to make a giant chart illustrating all the steps that go into Freeman's Mind and Civil Protection, but that can wait until I finish the next episode. I'll start on FM 29 as soon as I'm done with the animation work for CP. I'm still behind on replying to emails, getting more subtitles up, and getting revisions done to the website, but I haven't forgotten about any of that. Personal Notes: It's likely I may be moving again in a couple weeks to a location with even cheaper rent, so that may disrupt things for a little bit. I'm also starting to relate to Freeman in that sense that I'm growing increasingly paranoid about the peak oil crisis that I believe is coming (see Civil Protection: Oil's Well for more info on that). Even though I've previously considered people like this a little crazy, I'm leaning towards joining some survivalist community for when everything goes to hell. I probably won't get to it for at least another year and even then, I'll keep making more videos as long as civilization exists. Nobody really knows what will happen, but based on information I've been reading, I think we'll start seeing big trouble around 2015. I think a zombie apocalypse would be easier to prepare for than what I think is actually coming. Enjoy!

This is again for the people who get upset about not enough updates. The next Freeman's Mind episode is fully voiced, but it's going to take longer than usual as far as the audio editing. I won't be working on most of that, so I'll be going back to Civil Protection in the meantime. I promise to release the next FM episode as soon as it's done, though it's looking that may be next week afterall. On the plus side, it's one of the longer episodes, around 10 minutes.

Well I know you guys like updates, so here's what's happening: Progress is continuing steadily on The Tunnel, but it's going slowly. To give you an idea of why things take so long, I did animation work on two scenes I though I was going to be able to complete in one night. The actual time ended up coming out to seven days. These weren't especially complicated or complex scenes either, it's just the nature of animating in the Source engine. The Source engine is such a convoluted means of animating scenes. Every little detail requires about 12 steps to complete. I'm often animating the scenes blind, meaning I don't know what will happen until I compile a map. It involves crossover work between two programs where you can only make rough guesses on the timing and how everything interact, leading to a LOT of trial and error to get things to look right, and this is when everything is functioning smoothly with no bugs, which frequently doesn't happen. The whole experience leaves me kind of bitter and I hope that at some point I can find a more efficient method of animating in the future, either on Source or something else. Most other engines I'm familiar with either don't have good animation tools at all, or else suffer from a different set of problems and/or limitations. I'm absolutely going to continue The Tunnel to completion, however I realize this is taking significantly longer than I hoped and there's literally nothing I can do to speed it up. This is nothing new to the series, but since the fanbase is much larger than it used to be, I realize it's frustrating more people than ever before, not just myself. On that note, I'm going back on what I said and will produce one more Freeman's Mind episode, then go back to working on The Tunnel. I'll try and make it a longer one, hopefully this will tide some of you over since Civil Protection is taking so long. I am giving no more time estimates for The Tunnel; I can't, there's too many variables. Freeman's Mind is a much simpler affair however, I think I can safely say it will be done by next week.

This is going to be a long post because it's a bit of a rant. If you want a quick update, the next Civil Protection episode is still a couple weeks off, so my new estimate is for mid-May. This is why I don't like giving time estimates, they're almost always wrong. I'll resume work on Freeman's Mind as soon as the animation and filming is done for the next CP episode. Now my rant. I have bad news in that despite my best efforts to fight this policy, I can no longer use game soundtracks in any videos unless they're from games by Valve. Every episode of Civil Protection and a few of Freeman's Mind have been using music from other games. Even the theme song to Civil Protection is from Quake 3 Arena, so that's out as well. This frustrates me for multiple reasons. One of the reasons is that to some extent I try to pick more obscure tracks people are less likely to have heard. For the most part, the music on most of my videos is NOT high-risk material for a copyright violation. I've included music from obscure games, very old games, games where the original developing company is now dead and the rights weren't bought by anyone, games where at one point the soundtrack was released for free online by the game company itself, etc. Apparently none of this matters. Due mainly to Youtube's paranoia about any DMCA violation, the rules have changed for submitting videos are much stricter regarding any music use. Any loophole I find (and have found) is basically irrelevant because it won't change this policy any. Yes, I could theoretically not release through Youtube or Machinima.com, but that's not really practical if I want to maintain a fanbase. Despite whatever you may think, views through Machinima.com and Youtube are ENORMOUS compared to any other distribution method for the medium. Rooster Teeth may be the only exception to this, but they have a contract with Microsoft and were one of the first groups on the scene. Now you may wonder why this is such a big deal for me. The biggest reason is that I am a soundtrack FREAK. Probably half the music I have doesn't even have words. Having listened to many, many soundtracks over the years, this makes it much easier for me to pick out the kind of music I'm looking for in a scene. In fact, many ideas I've had for videos come from listening to soundtrack music and trying to envision what sort of situation would fit that the best, then working a script around that. Also since I have listened to so much soundtrack music, I enjoy being able to share selections many people may not be familiar with. In the case of dead game companies and old, obscure games, I almost looked at including picks as a way or resurrecting some interest. While there are still many other things to fix and add with the website first, in the future I may even try to exploit the current fanbase and add a side section for people interested in old or obscure game soundtracks like myself. For those who don't care about any of this, don't worry, this is a low priority for me next to making more videos. Another point some people may think is that it's not unreasonable to ask me not to use other people's composition work. I suppose not, but I have some gripes about the current legal system regarding this. The last thing I want to do is upset any of the composers who have created so much great music. If I ever received a request from composers not to use their music, I would never fight that. All the music I've used is with the intention of showcasing it because I think it's great or ideal for the situation I want to use with it. I've credited the music I use in the videos I've created because I want people to know where it's from and who did it. What I don't like is that much of this music is likely doomed to obscurity due to complications with copyright law. I've written fan mails to several game music composers in the past. Everyone I contacted seemed flattered I enjoyed their music and was happy for people to listen to it. I think the situation for the vast majority of the music I was planning to use in future episodes was that the composers would be happy for me to use it, the game companies that aren't dead would probably either not care or else would like the additional exposure on an old product, but there's no legal precedent for any of this, so I can't use it. I think very, very few game companies would be willing to respond to an inquiry about music use, let alone give an official ruling on it. Many composers I simply can't track down any contact information for (Chuck Barth, I want the soundtrack to Rama!), so a lot of music is tied up legally when the reality is it's unlikely anyone actually cares about it anymore (besides me). As much as I love lots of game soundtrack music and want to share it with others, it's becoming apparent to me this is a losing battle. Now there is some good news to all this. First, Craig Kesicke is an excellent composer who's offered to continue making music for the videos I work on. He has a very wide range of styles, which is necessary, given my music tastes. Based on what he's done for me so far (a lot of it's unreleased), I anticipate him becoming the lead composer for future videos here. The second piece of good news is that for the one soundtrack I really, REALLY wanted to use for the next CP episode, I was able to contact the composer and got direct permission to use in the upcoming video. So with the kind of help I'm getting with the audio, it should end up very close to the mood I'm looking for. As for the next CP episode, it's still underway. Animation is going slowly and I've run into new bugs with the Source engine I've never seen before. Fortunately these new ones I've been able to work around and production is continuing. I realize this is going slowly, but no one wants to finish this episode more than myself. I'll make an announcement when it's closer to being finished.

Arr, I been hearin' me some chatter regardin' me speech on the last tale. It seems to me ye gobs been out at sea so long ye forgotten what the King's English be soundin' like. Arr, I suppose it best I be goin' back to talkin' in yer accent what ye can understand me proper. So here goes: The subtitles for Episode 27 are now up on Youtube, which should shed some light on it for all you 21st century people. Also a handful of episodes are getting new subtitles posted, which will be up sometime in the near future; they're being posted by Machinima.com on Youtube and a web admin for the site. Viewers seem pretty polarized on the last episode. If you liked it, great. If you hated it, great. It was easily my favorite episode of Freeman's Mind, though my accent could have been better, by far the most difficult part of it was trying to keep it consistent. I did break my own rule of reading some of the Youtube comments for that episode (which is something I'm never going to do again), and the wisdom of the masses there seemed to think I was going to release a "normal" episode 27. No, I'm not. The only reason I did a redo of episode 10.5 last year was because this is a continuous series and the main character DIED. I'm sure this has ruined the series for some of you, as we all know there are no other points in the game where Freeman fights soldiers again, but oh well. I'll be working on Civil Protection and taxes. I really cannot promise anything as far as CP, but it's my goal to get the next episode out sometime this month.

Download 672x384 WMV (52MB) Arr mateys, here be a new tale for ye to gander at. This ought to quell yer squawkin' fer a spell, though I knows thar be no pleasin' some o' thee. But consider this, I sez: If I were to tell the tale any faster, then I'd be done before me voyage was over and me crew would mutiny on me. Where would I be then, I asks? Nay, I'd flog some sense into ye swabs if ye were aboard my ship, but thar be so many of thee me lashing arm would get tired long a'fore I were done. Arrr. Me own crew is a sight less ornery than yer lot. They serves me loyal even when our ship keep springin' leaks as it oft do. Arr, we'll steer her in to port soon enough and have wonders to show all. May ye have fair winds and calm seas, unless ye be lookin' to cross me crew, then may ye dies a most painful death what with yer innards spilled open and yer head on a pike. -Cap'n Ross Scott