Episode 11 Update - 04/05/25

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March was a really, really bad month for me, and far too much went wrong.

I really thought we were around the corner with animation, but when I tried locking down the details, getting it looking "complete" proved to be far, far harder for me than I thought it'd be. In addition, I found so many mistakes and unfinished bits with this character that I'd forgotten about and had to just re-do. As of writing this, Character "C" from the last post is now finished, and locking down the details of Character "B" is the final remaining obstacle. However, I am terrified that after I finish scene D, I might look back at the other scenes and see mistakes and errors that I've left uncorrected. I was already planning on doing a "correction" pass of everything when I move to refine all the cameras, but I am now terrified that I might have unknowingly overlooked some things and left work unfinished. However, I really need to send "Scene D" over to my effects guy, and can't do that until it's complete, so I'm still stuck in character animation for the time being.

The musician that I have been waiting on a draft for about a year now has finally emailed me back with an update. Apparently he has lost everything from the track, including gigabytes of his own work, tried in vain for months to recover everything, and must start over completely. I am glad I don't have to do very much on the music end, and I hope it works out, because he really seems to be struggling and quite busy as well. If he is able to produce the music soon, that would be great, but it's not a high priority, and I have some others lined up for when it's time to get my hands dirty with scoring. It was fortunate I got him on this so early, it seems.

Worst of all, though, this past month, my beloved dog experienced a steep and spiraling decline in his health that ultimately lead to his death. Caring for and comforting him completely sapped my time and focus, and then his passing took a deep emotional toll on me. For several days, I wasn't able to work on Squad at all, which made this a little worse, as working on Starter Squad is the only thing that truly fulfills me. I am currently back and working, but I am most definitely leaving room to grieve and stepping back to feel things, as I don't want to repress anything. In any case, I am very sad to see him go, but am happy that he is finally at peace and no longer suffering.

On the plus side, the "face" effect of one character is coming along really well. I've been going back an forth with the effect artist for several months now. We are now doing the work that constitutes the final draft and will be seen in the episode. I don't want to spoil what it is, because it's my favorite bit of the episode and it's really funny, but it requires a lot of time and effort to accomplish this intended effect. When you see the episode, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about, and you'll have the knowledge that this character's face cost several months of labor and thousands of dollars. At this point, I'm paying more monthly than I'm receiving from Patreon in order to pay this particular artist, so I'm very thankful to you all, as your contributions are directly funding this.

Here's all that's left to do for me, in this order.
- FINISH the final character animation on Scene D
- Send off completed scenes D and B to VFX for final particle effects
- Do a final "Camera Pass" for Scenes C, B, A, D, then F, fixing and polishing errors along the way.
- Work with VFX on final "Effects Pass" for specific parts of Scenes B and F.
- Knit all scenes together and send over to sound mixer
- Score completed scenes with musicians
- Light and render every frame
- Compile, make thumbnail and trailer/teaser

As of now, I'm okay. I'm not at a standstill. I'm coping in the right ways, but still working diligently. I thought I'd have better news by now, but the roadblocks this month slowed me down. I'll keep going and keep you in the loop with where I'm at.