Only Good News This Time! - Update 08/14/2021

Sup ya'll!

Apologies once again for the delayed update, but this time I come back with just a pile of overwhelmingly good news. First and foremost, as you've likely noticed, there's a new preview of both the opening credits as well as a rough cut of the entirety of Day 6 & 7.    

That said, as you can see above, this is not all the progress that's been made. Not even close. Above is what the timeline currently looks like. I am quite happy to report that the rough cut of Day 8 is also, for all intents and purposes, completed. The only reason it's not been included here is that Day 8 just so happens to be the one day to feature a handful of actors who don't really appear elsewhere, but have a TON of lines there, and unfortunately at the moment I have almost none of the dialogue of these particular performers. So, like, it is complete, but experiencing as in it's current state would likely involve more reading than listening which I'd rather not have be everyone's first experience with it if I can help it. This does mean though that by the time I DO have those lines, I'll also have editing on the largely asset-complete Day 9 finished, so the next update later this month will likely have 2 full days on offer.

Additionally, the more Pathologic experienced among you may have noticed that the intro is not only narrated by the ever incredible RagnarRox, but also features a song that isn't actually from the game's OST. This piece was actually created by Chris Doerksen, who has graciously offered to contribute his talent to these proceedings. I've been working closely with him for a while now and it's been absolutely amazing to see his work come together. One of my biggest anxieties for this whole project is that Pathologic just... does not have that much music? I mean, it's all very good, I enjoy it quite a bit, but It's also only around 6 tracks with a couple variations on each, and for an hours long project like this, it was gonna be hard to avoid it becoming repetitive or properly fitting for the mood I'd like to convey here. Fortunately, Chris has put together some exceptional tracks in the spirit of Pathologic and they have just been absolutely incredible. These tracks have already been compiled and released in the albums Darker Colors and Steppe by Steppe, both of which are absolutely worth your time if you dig darker synth music, though his real bread and butter tends to be more upbeat synth way. It's all absolutely incredibly work that I can't recommend enough and I'm overjoyed to have him contributing to this project. His tracks will be making appearances all through out the video, including the ending of Day 7 in the current preview as well as featuring prominently in the currently planned grand finale.

SPEAKING OF, THAT'S STILL NOT ALL.

Some of you may have noticed in the last update that the Direction Sheet I posted had a note for a section slated to be animated. This was not a mistake or exaggeration. Thanks in no small part to your support, we've been able to take the liberty of commissioning an original animatic for the grand finale on Day 12 from the wonderfully talented @Peachy_Dani on Twitter, whom you may remember from her own animatic of some of the scenes from Part 1.

This is part of why this update was so long coming. Due to poor planning on my part, I needed to drop work on the main video for a couple days in order to put together a storyboard to make sure we were on the same page about what I had in mind. If you saw me asking about Pathologic model names and xml files over on Twitter a couple weeks ago so I could spawn models, this is why.   

And make no mistake, as someone with no traditional art training, it was kind of an endeavor on it's own figuring out how to put together a storyboard like this using only console commands and in-game screenshots. In spite of that though, it is a fairly long and intricate thing that exists now which I'm quite happy with, especially seeing how the early previews are coming together because I am increasingly convinced this is gonna be something really special. As such, I'm proud to say that the last 11-12 minutes of Day 12 are in good hands independent of mine, allowing me to focus on everything else with complete confidence that it is gonna be absolutely incredible when it's done.

I'll be sharing the storyboard as well as animation samples in time, likely even in the next update, but much like Day 8 with, I'm gonna hold off on sharing that for just a *little* longer. As I've said before, I only like to show previews I think are worth watching, and there's a couple surprises in the finale that I'd rather your first impression with were something at least a bit closer to the final product. Once we've got that, then we'll be able to also look at how the interesting bits started. Gotta save some of the behind-the-scene for when you've seen the actually scenes, ya know? ~

As a cherry on top of all of this, the entirety of my personal audio for up until the end of Day 12 has been recorded and edited. Audio editing is often the one of the biggest time sinks for me, so this is a really strong indicator that all of this is in a great place right now. Suffice to say, I am more confidant than ever that I'll be able to meet my goal of having at least Day 10 done by the end of the month. In fact, if I continue at the pace I have been, I'd be willing to guess that the rough cut of the main 7 days will be ready for preview by the middle of September. Baring an act of God, I'm incredibly confident about this going up some time in early to mid-October. I am in fact already beginning to consider future plans for once this is off the table. Ideally, I'd rather this not be my last video of the year. What follows it up though is still to be decided. One thing at a time for now.

I'm only getting more and more excited to see this all come together, think this is gonna be something really special and I thank you all once again for accompanying me on this adventure/ordeal/torture chamber. Looking forward to having even more to show next time, cause I have no doubt: It's gonna be great. See ya again soon B)

Peace <3
Ruby Seals