Ross Scott

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

Download 672x384 WMV (68MB) Here's the new episode of Freeman's Mind. This one isn't the most interesting since it's mainly just backtracking through the level, however I promise the one after this will be more exciting. I did record new intro footage, however it's not quite as elaborate as I wanted. I wanted to add scientists doing things, but it turns out recompiling the exact same maps from Half-Life Source causes mysterious lighting glitches, so I doubt I'll be editing the maps to HL Source anytime soon. I'll still try and swap out new introductions every so often. After I finish the next episode, my plans are to work exclusively on the next Civil Protection and not do anything else until it's done (unless I run into a new show-stopping bug). That episode has been delayed for about 2.5 years now, so I'm going a little batty having it still uncompleted. If you've written to me and still haven't gotten a response, I have about 150 emails I still need to respond to, so be patient. However, I've stopped replying to emails that have atrocious grammar, are asking me questions answered in the FAQ, or are asking questions that can be answered with five minutes spent looking up the answer on a search engine. If your email doesn't fall into those categories, you'll probably get a response eventually. I appreciate people's interest, but I'm focusing more on getting more videos out right now.

Download 672x384 WMV (96MB) Well finally here's the next episode. This got delayed at least 2 weeks more than I anticipated, being sick really wiped out my voice for a while. Also some of you watched this one early and I've gotten some questions as to how this happened. Here's how it works: 1. I was done with the video last week and sent it to Machinima.com. 2. They ask me to wait until they can post it on Youtube before I put up alternate links to it. This leads to a gazillion more views. 3. Machinima leaked the video on their own site before being able to get it up on Youtube. 4. Users of course download it and post it on Youtube. 5. I can hardly fault people for posting it online themselves, but this isn't supposed to happen either, so it's sort of a mess. It reminds me of this comic. In case anyone's wondering, I'm not upset with anyone about this, I'm happy people want to watch the videos. Machinima.com is probably less happy when this sort of thing happens though. Right now my plan is to get a couple more episodes made, then work exclusively on finishing The Tunnel. I'm finding I work better when I can focus on one thing at a time. On the contrary, when I have to focus on many different things (like I have been), I can often take longer than I would if I did everything consecutively. Sort of anti-gestalt. Maybe there's an actual word for this concept. On that note, I haven't forgotten about website improvements, more subtitles, and the many emails I've received. I'll get to all that as I'm not getting distracted by something else. EDIT: I'm getting a lot of people saying Episode 25 is the same as 24. I don't know what to say here. I've doublechecked the links several times now and they all work on my end. EDIT 2: One of the web guys informed me that it was the EMBEDDED video that was messed up, that never occurred to me. He went and fixed it, so hopefully now everything's alright.

This may sound like a direct contradiction, but since I made the last post I've fallen sick with something relatively substantial, my guess is some sort of flu. While the next FM episode is mostly done, I'm too weak and congested to finish the voice acting on it right now. I feel like a zombie. Not the fast kind that run around screaming, but the Romero kind that moan and run into walls. This is kind of ironic since the entire time I was in LA I rode the bus and didn't get sick once since my immunity system is usually pretty good. This makes me think east coast viruses are more hardcore, but all I have is this anecdotal evidence. My apologies about having to go back on what I said about the estimated release time, but I can't change reality. If my energy comes back before my voice, I'll get back to work on The Tunnel. I'll finish the next FM episode as soon I'm able. If you're having trouble imagining what this virus feels like and want a better idea, try headbutting a smooth (to avoid lacerations) concrete wall. If it doesn't feel so bad, you're not doing it hard enough. UPDATE: I'm better and I've finished the voicework for the next FM episode. I plan to finish the editing later today, so given the Machinima.com pipeline it should appear before too long. UPDATE 2: I submitted the completed video days ago. I thought it would be up by now, but I never really know how long it takes Machinima.com to post it. I've started working on Episode 26 in the meantime.

Hey, I'm just letting people know that I'm working on the next FM episode and hope to get the voicework done in the next day or two. Since there's always lagtime on when the video actually comes out, you can probably expect it out sometime next week. The good news is that this will be one of the longer episodes. - - - - - Also I have a geeky request to anyone that's interested (only read this if you're a graphics freak): I love the use of antialiasing in 3D games and have been experimenting with different modes of it for a long time. I've been using a supersampling mode on my Nvidia card for a while on the videos because I've found it yields the best visual results on the Source engine. ATI's new batch of cards support supersampling natively and I'm curious how it compares. Every review I've seen of it seems ignorant of the capacity to already have supersampling in newer Nvidia cards. So here's my request: If you own a Radeon 5000 series card and a copy of Half-Life 2 and are interested in coordinating some screenshots with me, go ahead and send me an email. I'd like to do my own comparison test. To everyone else: don't worry, this isn't holding up production. It's just an experiment I want to try.

Download 672x384 WMV (67MB) Well here's the next episode of Freeman's Mind. I tried my best, but the bug of demo recording omitting blood decals and bodies is still present, so I guess just use your imagination. While time estimates aren't my strong point, you can expect more FM episodes for this month. This has been by no means the longest time in between episodes, though I received more complaints about not having a new episode up than ever before. For those of you who were patient, thanks. For those of you that weren't, when I produce more videos this year than I have for any other year in the past, remember it's because I had time to get resituated, do research, etc. Maybe some of you will understand the concept of cause and effect. Maybe. Things are more or less the same otherwise, though the bug I was having with Source may have been fixed by coder Alexander Morton, I still need to verify this. If so, this is very good news. EDIT: I've been getting these questions a lot, so here are some more answers: Q. Will you be selling a DVD of the episodes? A. No. I can't do that legally since it's a mess as far as intellectual property goes. At some point I hope to get higher quality versions of the episodes up for download however. Q. Did you change the codec for more recent episodes? A. No, but I changed the encoder. The fade-in for the new introduction caused problems with my old encoding method and produced artifacts every time. I'm surprised it's causing problems for some people. I use Media Player Classic to watch them if that's any help.

I have several small updates and I know some of you get restless: -I've started the next Freeman's Mind episode and plan to be done in a couple days. I can't promise when it will be released since I never know how long Machinima.com's release pipeline takes, but I can't imagine it will be any later than next week. -I've uploaded the missing download links Machinima.com deleted for FM episodes 1,3,7, and 11. Sorry this took so long. -Multiple volunteers are now helping me take over managing the subtitles. Right now they're mostly responding to emails that are months old. If you've contacted me about making subtitles for the show before, you can hopefully expect a reply back sometime in the near future. I don't want to accept new subtitle offers just yet, because they have a lot to sort through, but I think we'll be able to resume full subtitle production soon. -I've run into a new bug that's holding up production on "The Tunnel." I still want to do some more research on this, but this one is pretty bad and potentially affects all future work in the Source engine. If we can't solve it, I'll make an official post on it, complete with all the details and files so hopefully someone else can. For those curious, it's related to NPCs jerking around erratically during demo playback. -I'm surprised with how many people are interested in donating. I think I may reconsider my stance on this, but only once I get more videos made and more goodies on the website rolled out. While I like money as much as the next person, I plan to continue making videos regardless of user contributions. -Contrary to how people may have read my last post, my life is not hell, far from it. I'm happy I'm going to be able to make progress working on some of my more ambitious ideas this year. It IS busy however. I wasn't trying to garner sympathy in the last post, I just wanted to give a bit of a defense as to why more hasn't been produced lately. EDIT: The next episode is done, though I don't know when it's going up, your guess is as good as mine. I've started on the next one too, so just hold on.

Hey people, I thought I'd give a minor update since several of you seem restless from the comments. Many of you can't wait for another Freeman's Mind episode it seems. The biggest reason I haven't been working on it is because I haven't had a place to record. At the moment I'm just staying with family. At Machinima.com, I could come into the office in the middle of the night and record it then. Right now everything's in flux. I noticed some comments claiming the reason I haven't released anything lately is because I have a life. That's incorrect. A lot of what I've been up to is hunting for a place to live where I can make noise for recording that I can also afford. You can complain all you want more Freeman's Mind hasn't been coming out, but the series isn't exactly known for Freeman talking in a hushed tone, so I'm not going to make new ones unless I can do them properly. The good news is I just yesterday found a place, though I still need to take care of things like internet hookup, phone service, etc., but I should be getting back on track on soon. Once I'm set up in my new place, my plans are to make a new FM episode as soon as possible, then continue work on The Tunnel, then see where things go from there. In the meantime, I'm still trying to keep on top of many other things. The website needs work. A new system for managing subtitles is still being established. Machinima.com has deleted more episode download links at random, which I need to put back up. I'm way behind on responding to emails. My files are a mess and very disorganized from working on two different computers for The Tunnel. I still have a ton of animation work to do for The Tunnel. There are some minor map fixes needed for The Tunnel. I'm trying to find time to research new animation techniques and technology that may help things go faster in the future. I need furniture. I'm probably going to need a car again. My headphones are falling apart. At the moment I have no health insurance. I'll probably die alone. My motherboard chipset fan is making this buzzing sound that makes me want to take an axe to it. The pilot surprise episode is completely on hold at the moment. I'm facing new issues regarding my use of game soundtracks. I'm running into new problems with the Source engine. I'm also busy with stuff that I'm keeping under wraps for various reasons, but I think you'll be pleased with in the long-term. I know it's easy to think that I'm just slacking off and not working on anything, but the best way I can describe things is that I'm retooling everything so that I can start becoming a mini machinima factory. I personally believe I'm going to produce more videos for 2010 than I have for any other year. If you don't believe me, feel free to count up the most I've produced in a year so far and give me hell if I don't meet that goal by 2011. In the meantime, chill. HL2 Episode 3 is late. Black Mesa mod is late. The Crossing is on hold. They Hunger: Lost Souls hasn't updated in a year. SiN Episodes died. Many projects associated with the Source engine have a tendency to take for-frigging-ever or die. I'm trying, people.

Download 640x480 WMV (11MB) Well here's the surprise video I mentioned, I hope I didn't hype it up too much. This is the first non-machinima video I've released. I filmed this back in 2003, but never got around to editing it, so it's been sitting on my hard drive for years. Since I didn't have a place to record the past couple weeks and didn't have a lot of time due to moving, this was the only thing I could think of that I could get out relatively quickly. There are a few video artifacts because I waited longer than I should have before transferring the video from tape, but it's still watchable. I'm embarrassed to say I've forgotten the names of the actors in this, if anyone recognizes them today, let me know, I'll remember their names once I hear them again. Also due to various reasons I ended up doing the narration for this myself. I'm sure someone else could have done a better job, but the time restraints were tighter than normal. I'd still like to thank everyone who did send me a sample reel, my apologies that I ended up not using you for the voiceover, I can be a picky bastard sometimes. As for the video itself, if there's any confusion, I didn't make a real show about this, it's just a fake teaser commercial. After uploading this to Youtube, it looks like I'm not the first with this concept, though when I wrote this I was not aware of any other pigeon hunter videos. And yes, we did end up killing a pigeon in the making of this, but it was by accident. The original script didn't call for killing pigeons, however, one of the actors ended up stepping on one of the pigeons by accident and broke its neck, so I decided to use that for an extra shot where he held it up as a game trophy. In other news, I'll be looking for a new place to live soon, but I plan to focus on finishing The Tunnel. Regardless of how far I get, I'll probably make another Freeman's Mind for January just because I get the feeling viewers will be ready to lynch me if I don't. I plan to have many more FM episodes this year, but I'll be alternating between them and some of my more ambitious projects.