Ross Scott

As mentioned in the last post, I'm currently working on a custom video with a deadline in early November. I'm scrambling to try and get all the animation done hopefully by the end of the month, leaving a little bit of time afterwards for sound and music. I have some great people helping me right now, but if one of them were to disappear (which is VERY possible), then I may have problems. On that note, I'd rather play things cautiously and want to ask for some additional help just in case more is needed. Here are the positions I'm looking for:

 

3RD PARTY SOFTWARE ANIMATOR - There are two areas to help here. One is doing some custom character animation for a Valve skeleton, you can use any software you want for this, as long as you can export to .SMD or .DMX format. The other will involve altering a model and creating some simple animations for it. For this you will either need to decompile a Source model or else import a Softimage scene file into whichever software you use.

 

SOURCE FILMMAKER ANIMATOR - Depending on your skill level, may involve facial expression animation, movement of simple objects, patching together some scenes, car animation, maybe some lighting, could be several different minor things.

 

HAMMER HELPER - Someone to do misc. touch-up work to maps in Hammer. This will involve placing additional props, testing light settings, replacing and rotating a lot of textures, simple stuff like that. You do not need to be a skilled map maker for this (already have great people on that), but you do need to be familiar with Hammer for Source SDK.

 

If you're interested in helping with any of this, please contact me at [email protected], thanks.

I guess "volunteer" is almost the wrong word in this case, since the plan was he was going to be getting half the profits from the shirts for managing things. I ran into the same thing while working at Machinima.com for "The Tunnel." Machinima.com was willing to pay an animator to work on the video and help me with key animations I needed. It didn't matter that they were offering hundreds to work on it, that STILL wasn't enough to motivate him at the time. Most of the time I don't have money beyond what's needed for rent and groceries, but it seems like in the few times I have, it doesn't seem to make a noticeable difference as far as motivating people. Someone would probably need living wages in order for that to change, which is money I simply don't have access to. I still plan on using the donation money for key aspects of the movie project however. If it turns out I can get volunteer help with that, I'll use the money to help promote it and maybe distribute the rest of it to key people who stuck with the project.

Is this the aforementioned dark comedy thing you wanted to make, or is it a different project entirely. If it's the same, why is there a deadline, if you don't mind me asking. Is it self imposed? Other than that, glad to hear the move went well and there's still air in your chest.

No, this is something that came at me from elsewhere, but that I'm interested in. After this, animation projects will be focused almost exclusively on the movie. After THAT, then I'll be committed to the dark comedy series I was mentioning. I really wish I had more animation help, I have ideas for 10x the videos I've made.

 

Please please pleeeeease get the swag ready soon. I pledge to buy at least 3 t-shirts from you if you can get them ready by Christmas time. I love your work, your videos have gotten me through some very rough times over the past few years and provided me with great laughs when I really needed them. I'd love to wear a t-shirt that said "Hey, we've ALL got a train to catch". I'd be willing to pre-order them if that would help.

 

Even if you can't get the swag up and running by this Christmas, I'll still try to kick you down a donation by December, it's the least I can do for the hours upon hours of free entertainment you've given to me and my family and friends. Thanks Ross, you're awesome.

Urg, I thought we would, but the guy helping me on that has sort of flaked out, so now it may be mostly on me again to do this (welcome to the world of volunteer help). I have a backup plan for this that I'll pursue more aggressively in November if he still hasn't emerged.

This is just a news post to let people know I'm not dead, again. I've successfully moved and my computer didn't suffer any casualties in the process. Since then I've been working almost exclusively on the mystery video discussed in the last post since that one has a deadline. I'll have to be done with it one way or another by early November, I sincerely hope it will be before then. Without revealing too much, it will be a short video, not part of an existing series, kind of a surreal and slightly creepy comedy. I'll be filming it in Source Filmmaker, even though I still plan to transition to UDK in the long term. While I don't know if I'll be able to start the "month of Freeman" on November 1st, I promise I'll focus on outputting a spree of Freeman's Mind episodes as soon as I'm done with this side project. Also I haven't forgotten about the downloadable copies of the last episodes, I just need to organize a bunch of my files before processing everything.

 

ADHD version: Ross is working on a mystery video, he'll make a bunch of FM episodes afterwards.

 

 

Downloadable copy will be up after I move

 

 

 

Here's the next exciting cliffhanger episode to Freeman's Mind. If you think the laser in this episode acts strange, you can blame that on Source's amazing demo recording code. It will be a while before the next episode comes out since I'm going to be moving very soon, but I still plan to have a spree of episodes done at some point, hopefully in November. I'm mostly going to be working on one of the mystery video projects between now and then.

 

This episode uses my new microphone setup, which I'm pretty happy with and will likely be the standard for videos I voice for several years. This episode also has a new sound editor for Freeman's Mind, Max Petrosky, who does the additional sound effects work that you hear in the game and will likely help with a lot of future FM episodes. The old editor, Otto Beumelburg, will still be helping me with other video projects however.

 

And in case you missed the post before this, I will not be switching to the Black Mesa mod for Freeman's Mind.

Actually since I made that post I remembered a secret I plan to do with FM in the future that would make BM less desirable than HL Source for a certain reason.

 

Also I never know what I'm doing for April Fool's, if people want to email me months in advance, I can take it into consideration. I have ideas, but like a lot of mine, they tend to be more time consuming than I want.

I was going to wait and mention this when the next Freeman's Mind episode came out (hopefully this week), but since I've already received 5 emails on it, I can see it can't wait. The mod Black Mesa is coming out and will be partially finished. I've had people ask me if I plan to switch Freeman's Mind over to the new game. No, I don't. I think the graphical difference would be somewhat disruptive / distracting to the series, especially if I get to Xen before the BM team does. I originally considered switching over after Freeman blacked out since that would be a smoother transition, but I passed that point, so I'm just going to keep going on Half-Life: Source.

My thoughts on S-3D (stereoscopic 3D):

 

GOOD 3D is flat out amazing. It's like you're in another world. I was using the Elsa Revelator shutter glasses back around 2000. When it worked well, it's been about the most immersive experience I've experienced in a game. I also saw an old 1950s alien movie in 3D before that was again, fantastic. There was real depth, things would pop out of the screen, it would make you duck and jump, etc. Very engrossing.

 

I have not seen good 3D in any modern movies so far. I've seen Avatar, Tron, and Pirates of the Caribbean 4 in the theater in 3D. All adventure movies that I felt had a chance to show off some eye candy. At best, they would have one scene that had any real depth at all, at worst, it's like it wasn't even on. Most of the time everything felt too flat and blurry. Avatar should have given me vertigo with the cliff scenes it had, instead it felt more like paper cutouts positioned at various depths, not wanting to push things too far.

 

My attitude on 3D is you either need to go all-out and make it the most immersive experience you possibly can, or not do it all. Do it half-assed (like the industry appears to be doing) and it's the worse than leaving it 2D.

 

I don't think I'll do it for Freeman's Mind, but I have had an idea of doing 3D for a Civil Protection episode for a couple years now. I wouldn't make it a regular thing, but I thought doing one episode to show people what GOOD 3d is like would be interesting. At the time it wasn't really possible with the Source recorder with any of the S-3D drivers, but that may have changed with SFM or by porting things to UDK. It's the sort of thing I can revisit at a later date.

I was planning on making a post about this later after I move, but I'm toying with the idea of starting a DayZ group. I'd probably want to do low population servers since I personally find this game plenty hard enough with just the zombies without having other people shoot at me as well. My long term goal would be to tour every landmark on the map.

Yeah I can't say I'm a fan of Ubisoft at all, but I was interested in this game.

Well it's about that time where some people are wondering if I'm dead or not again, so I thought I should give an update. I've been busy with lots of different things, here's what I'm involved with at the moment:

 

FREEMAN'S MIND:

The next episode is underway and will be a longer one. The one after that (45) will unfortunately be delayed more because what I have planned for it presents some unique challenges. To make up for the delays, I'll have to see how busy I am and what my situation is, but I am considering making November "the month of Freeman" where ALL I work on is Freeman's Mind and no other projects and see how many episodes get done during that time. Also I plan on getting the downloadable copy for #43 up soon.

 

MYSTERY VIDEO PROJECT #1:

While I was originally planning to have the movie project be the only animated thing I was going to work on for the foreseeable future, some interesting developments came up where I will be working on an original short that will be going up sometime early December (won't be Christmas related). It's still uncertain whether this will be filmed using the Unreal 3 engine (UDK) or in Source. If you have mapping experience in either, feel free to contact me at [email protected]. Be sure to send me samples or screenshots of your previous work. Who gets picked will be determined by previous map visual quality + how much free time the person will have. It will involve a forested area and will be in a contemporary setting.

 

MYSTERY VIDEO PROJECT #2:

In another set of interesting circumstances, I've agreed to help with a video project that may become a series. I won't be directing or animating it, but I am doing the writing for it and voice acting for one of the characters. More details will be revealed later.

 

MOVING:

My past has caught up with me and I am moving to a mysterious location once again. I'll be leaving in about 2 weeks, I may not have internet or a place to record for a little while afterwards, but I'll get on track ASAP. I'll get the next FM video uploaded before I leave.

 

T-SHIRTS:

Work is slowly progressing to set up an online store so that people will be able to buy Freeman's Mind and Civil Protection t-shirts (with more stuff later). I'm hoping this will become fully operational in a month or two with more shirt designs rolling out later on.

 

 

ADHD version: Ross is working on stuff! More videos coming!

The meetups are now over! My thanks to everyone who came and sorry to everyone else who was too scattered globally to come. This meetup ended up being a lot like the North one, with the exception of us being stopped by the police on the way there:

 

 

Something about how you're NOT supposed to fire roman candles at other cars while the vehicle is moving. Anyway, I think everyone who didn't collapse from heat exhaustion had a pretty good time. Here are the results of the revised poll!

 

 

The results were pretty close to what I was expecting after the first poll (including the would-be time travellers). What I didn't expect were a few people to meet us completely by coincidence! The other thing I didn't expect is that out of the fans that said "yes", one of them was MacGyver!

 

 

He still remembered a lot from the show and taught me how to make a polygraph using tweezers, a battery, plastic wrap, and some string.

He's also the voice of the Shadow Man and cameraman in the Civil Protection videos. He's also a friend of mine and Craig's. I hope to eventually get him some juicier roles than the ones he's had so far, he can definitely do voice acting.

Good news everyone! A friend of mine has an AKG D88 S and I tested it out and it sounds great. He's willing to sell it to me for not too much. With this mic I think I'll still need a pre-amp, but it's such a relief to find one that I know will sound like what I need.

 

I sent you an email on the 26th with an audio clip of me talking normally and then briefly yelling, but it may have been buried under other emails if you get lots on a daily basis.

I got it, I was referring to Chuck's sample, he sent me a new one. Sorry for the confusion. Would you recommend the pre-amp that you're using?

I was hoping for an isolated sound file, it's not as helpful for me hearing stuff that's been processed and mixed in with everything else. Again, I'm trying to get a feel for different mics seeing what they sound like when a person is absolutely being as loud as possible into them.

 

The next meetup is coming up soon, the details below are pretty similar to the North one:

 

ITINERARY:

 

Date: August 4th

Location: Carowinds – Charlotte, NC / SC

 

9:00am - 10:45

Meet at Shoney's restaurant, which is very close to Carowinds

 

Link to Google Maps

 

I'll be inside having breakfast or outside in the parking lot. T-shirts and prints will be available for sale outside (though they'll be for sale all day). We should have higher quality ones this time, including Civil Protection ones. If you don't want to pay for the cost of the amusement park, you can stop by during this time for free.

 

11:00 - 11:30

Arrive at Carowinds, Meet outside the south gate (not the north one). Here's a picture from google maps:

 

 

WARNING: There is a $15 parking fee inside Carowinds because they're jackals. You might want to try to park somewhere else and carpool with people.

 

11:30 – 2:00

Enter Carowinds, go on rides. If you still need a ticket, here’s the info to get a discount on it if you buy one online:

 

Price: $41 for August 4th if you use this link to purchase tickets. ($36 + $5 BS "processing" fee.)

 

2:00 - 2:30

Meet at the Carolina Skytower structure (should be the tallest structure in sight) in case more latercomers arrive or people get lost. We'll probably eat after this.

 

5:00 - 5:30

Meet again at the Carolina Skytower structure.

 

~10:15pm (as park closes)

Meet outside south gate again.

 

- - -

 

Like the last meet, things will be pretty informal. I'll answer questions, sign things, you can stick with me while I go on rides, split off and do your own thing, whatever you want. If you hang around, be prepared to have an answer for what you would do with an island if you were rich enough to buy your own.

 

HOW TO FIND ME:

 

I'll be wearing a bright lime green t-shirt to remain as visible as I can. If you come late, you're welcome to track me down "Where's Waldo?" style. Here's a picture of me from the last meetup:

 

 

Once again, if you're colorblind, you should probably arrive on time. If you don't see me, look for a large man wearing a Freeman's Mind t-shirt, he'll know what to do.

 

Hope to see more people at the meet!

My hair looks like a rag mop in the funnel cake picture. I think the 90 degree weather with 100% humidity didn't help that. The others look pretty good.

I live close enough that it'd be a short day trip so yes...I do plan on attending the South Meetup! (and dragging a friend or two along)

 

However, I still need to buy the tickets and plan the trip so it'd be wonderful if you were to post an itinerary journal post for the South Meetup like you did for the North creepy picture notwithstanding

I will soon, I just need to figure out where we'll be ahead of time. As for the tickets, the link to buy them at the reduced price is still the same, just check the link at the top of this news post.

Actually one viewer sent me this in an email after an exchange I had with him about what I'm after. It's making me think a dynamic mic might make more sense afterall:

 

"

Lets look at what you need:

intensity of my shouting - Condensers (like a Rode NT1-A) are best here, they pick up all the little things in a voice more accurately than dynamics creating a more believable tone to a voice. Dynamics usually pick up the average sound and getting rid of the rest, so for stuff like voice acting you need to over do it (think like theatre) for it to pick up the little subtleties but can then sound too "plastic" (think like theatre again). Dynamics are also designed for very loud signals so depending on the microphone, shouting won't sound like shouting that much from the mic since it can record volcanoes exploding which is much louder than a voice.

 

 

doesn't volume clip - Dynamics win here, they can pick up pretty much everything without clipping... be aware that the microphone won't clip but the other stuff in your chain may due to the loud sounds (look at previous email for more explanation). Condensers are much less predictable and each one contains a rating of how loud they can go before they clip the microphone.

 

 

doesn't pick up much else in the room - Dynamics like the one you have and the SM58 are best here, since they are designed to only pick up sound after a certain loudness (a whisper, but not the cat running in the other room), dynamics also only work best from anything under 3 ft and can't pick up sound that well out of that range unless its louder than a normal conversation (so not much sound bouncing off your walls will get back into the microphone). Condensers are electrically powered and pick up every quiet noise as well as loud ones, so that means unless your room sounds good your going to hear all the little echo bounces.

"

 

Picking up every little noise is not something that will help me. I'll definitely listen to any samples people send me before making any judgments though.

Hey,

 

I've gotten a lot of suggestions on the mics, still trying to figure out what's a good match for me. For everyone recommending a particular mic, would you mind making a recording of yourself shouting something as loud as you can? Hearing is believing, so if I hear a really intense shout coming from your mic setup, that's a pretty good recommendation for me. You can email me directly if you want ([email protected]).

I've owned both in the past and I currently like Nvidia better, but only because they have more robust options with regards to Antialiasing. They're kind of hidden away and sometimes you have to hunt down the info, but there are plenty of games out there you can get real AA on with a Nvidia card, but not a AMD one. If that situation ever changes in the future, I could easily jump ships again.

I'd say that system is fine, it just needs a dedicated graphics card if you want to do real gaming on it. Also find out what power supply you have, since it may not be designed to handle the load a GPU would add.

*** ONE MORE MEETUP ON AUGUST 4TH! *** 

 

Well the first meetup is over and went well. I got to meet several fans and have some intense fun at the park. I learned some things about myself too, specifically that I can mostly stay in control when it appears that I'm falling to my death. The people that came were all great; I feel like if there was a zombie apocalypse, then the group we had would be very functional and survive. All in all it was a lot of fun and I'm glad I had the meet. Really my only complaint about the meetup is that the numbers were a little short of what was projected in the earlier poll:

 

 

Now the second meetup hasn't happened yet, so the results of this are still inconclusive. It could be that 1300 of you are coming to the south meetup, that would be great. If that happens, then I won't understand why the Confederate states lost the Civil War. If the second meetup turns out like the first however, we can make some interesting conclusions:

 

-If internet people say they are interested in attending something, over 99% of them will not actually attend.

 

-If an internet person says "maybe" they will attend something, there is a 100% chance they will not attend it.

 

I don't want to pass judgment too quickly about internet people however, maybe some people got scared off after seeing my picture, or some of you weren't able to make parole afterall. In light of this, I'm launching a new poll to see what we can expect:

 

 

[poll id=7]

Yeah, I'll sign whatever.

Hey everyone, this is just a quick post for the people attending the Accursed Farms North meetup. The nice way of saying this is things have gone less than optimal with the t-shirts and the final quality is what you would expect more of a rushed Chinese counterfeit copy.

 

There will only be the Freeman's Mind logo of shirts for sale, I vetoed producing the Civil Protection logo after seeing how the FM ones came out. Anyway, I felt like I had to make a quick announcement about this, otherwise I would feel like a con man. My apologies to everyone on this.

 

The good news is we'll have nice high quality prints for sale that I can sign!