CaptainDisillusion

New Series Early Access

Hello friends,

Thank you for your patience. Here it is! A new thing! I call it "CD /" ... Like file paths in my brain to particular technical concepts that I try to explain in the fastest and simplest way possible.

It's a slight change of vibe. Not as zany. But I wanted to try my hand at this explainer format. It will help me to produce videos quicker. Let me know what you think! And don't worry, the traditional videos I'm known for will also continue.

At the end of this int...

New Sub-series

I've been thinking about how to produce stuff more efficiently without overworking and missing deadlines. So I'm trying a new thing. It's a companion series where Captain D focuses on explaining simple video/filmmaking tech concepts, while hopefully still being entertaining.

I'm imposing some style rules on myself that'll force me to keep it simple. (Although that's exactly how Quick D started and... I managed to make that complicated anyway!) I just want to see if I'm capable ...

Music & Sound Effects Track - Laminar Flow Disambiguation

Haven't done one of these in a while. In my videos I try to keep the audio side as rich as the visuals, so there's a dense soundscape of music and sound effects throughout. But there's a limit to what you can hear with the talking over it. So here's the episode with the dialogue track removed but everything else intact.

I hope the Bad Lip Reading guys are not patrons 'cause armed with this they could really do some damage :)

Balloon Stab Outtakes

It's made to look easy in the episode, but it actually took us a few attempts to get the punctured balloon to produce a nice, steady, laminar stream that lasts. Each take was separated by a cleanup and resetting process - a bit tedious for the last shot of a long day!

New Video Early Access: Laminar Flow DISAMBIGUATION

Hi friends,

What can I say? I've been a little traumatized by the arduousness of creating this video. But I think it turned out ok. I hope it's entertaining. I hope I didn't misspell stuff.

Please enjoy!

Meanwhile, I'll try to reacquaint myself with the concept of sleep.

Cursed Delays

Guys, I was so keen to start the year off right and not be late with the new video. I wrote it quickly and we filmed it early enough in the month. But then I filled it with a bunch of effects I haven't tried before and THEN Destin from Smarter Every Day happened to come out with a video about the same topic (laminar flow). It's doing very well. Passed a million views in a couple days...

Ugh.

Just kidding. It's ok, these things happen and hopefully my take will feel sufficiently di...

New Set Build (progress pics)

For the upcoming video I wanted an alternate location where I can physically demonstrate some stuff. I figured it could be set up around the kitchen entrance of our new "soundstage" and started improvising with insulation sheets and gaffer's tape.

Strips of mounting tape + sandbags and other weights were enough to keep the facade standing because the material is very light.

2019-01-18 20:58:11 +0000 UTC View Post

Patreon Exclusive - Zomblogalypse Intro

Happy New Year, everyone!

I did something a bit unusual for December and I hope you'll roll with it. It's a collab of sorts with old friends of mine who make Zomblogalypse, a British comedy/horror web series. It's very low-budget and very funny.

They're finishing post-production on an indie feature film based on the series and it opens with a faux episode of Captain Disillusion, which sets the mood. I wanted to...

Behind the Scenes: "Artificial Intelligence" Shot Breakdown

Hey guys,

Here's a detailed making-of about one of the animated shots in the last episode. With free, slightly dry commentary!

What do you think about this format? It wasn't too excruciating to make, so I could do more if you like it.

Hope everyone has a pleasant holiday!

Early Access: 'Mr. Flare Explains: The Virgin Mary'

Hello!

Well, once again I took a long time to make a short thing, but I gave it my best. Somehow I always think Mr. Flare episodes are easy because I don't have to film anything. I forget that what would normally be filmed is replaced by animation... That's harder! What's wrong with me?

Anyway, hope you enjoy the video. I'll catch up on posting some bonus content next!

ThinkerCon

Living a jet-setter lifestyle lately. Having just come back from Amsterdam, I'm headed off to and even more glamorous place: Huntsville, Alabama for ThinkerCon, a meet-up of educational YouTubers that Destin from SmarterEveryDay was kind enough to invite me to.

I'm still not convinced I'm an educational YouTuber, but fine.

I will attempt to capture some footage for the next vide...

'Blender Reality' Instrumental Track

Yesterday I posted the Blender song on SoundCloud, but exclusively for you guys, here's an instrumental version for, you know, singing loudly in the privacy of your own home.

Production Notes

The original tune had been collecting dust in my musical ideas folder for years. It was initially going to be a song about how a [fictional] ex-lover who's become famous now sucks, in the opinion of t...

New Video Early Access: World's Greatest Blenderer

Boooooy.

Fixing up the recording of my talk ended up a bigger job than I expected. The original livestream was okay, but there were quite a few technical issues, including some important visuals not being shown at the right time.

I color-corrected the entire video, remixed the sound and edited some of the excessive stammering and water drinking I was doing on stage to make this near-perfect "director's cut" version of the show.

You'll notice that the Patreon community and a few ind...

Next Mission

Hi, human friends!

I don't know if it showed, but my last video (the collab with Mark) was actually produced at breakneck speed while I was already gearing up for my upcoming Blender Conference presentation. I mean "gearing up" literally - I had to gather some equipment for all the weird stuff I want to do on stage.

I... might be biting off more than I could chew with this one...

We've now entered October, but there's still a ton of writing, video making, and rehearsing to do on th...

New Video Early Access - Quick D: Mobile Drone

Guys!

I did a collab with educational YouTube megastar Mark Rober! Unfortunately the schedule was such that I couldn't time posting this a day early. (He and I both need to post our respective videos at the same time.)

But for what it's worth, here it is just a few minutes early. Please enjoy!

I'll make it up to ya with somethin' else!

---

Update:

1) Someone kindly found a spelling error, so I need to re-upload. The link will be down for a few min...

New Video Early Access: Wall Walking

It's short... it's dense... it's a Quick D!

Quickest D Ever?

As a personal challenge, I'm trying to knock out another video before the end of the month. We filmed the day before yesterday and a rough cut is coming together nicely.

It will be a (very) Quick D about an old-timey visual effect trope in movies, with "advice" on different methods of achieving it.

Picture unrelated. Well, somewhat related - it's from the shoot.

Creating the Babylon 5 Parody Sequence

I'm full of impractical ideas. My latest was to take a simple section of the script, summarizing the Escherian Stairwell thesis paper, and present it as an elaborate spoof of the 90s sci-fi TV series Babylon 5 intro.

Why? Well, I happened to be binge re-watching the show. The endearing earnestness of the low-budget (by today's standards) production trying to tackle grand spectacles resonated with how the thesis paper felt to me - a deep, scholarly analysis of what is ultimately just a silly Yo...

Tweaks!

Just a heads-up. I made minor adjustments to a couple of edits in the new video, so I had to re-upload it. The early access post has been updated with the new link, but I'm afraid any comments you may have left directly on YouTube are now gone.

Try to remember exactly what you said and repost all of the comments in the original order, and also give it the same amount of early views, ok thanks.

NEW VIDEO EARLY ACCESS: Escherian Stairwell Deconstruction

Guys... I can't believe I'm finally done.

This was one of the most all-around demanding videos I've ever worked on. I'm happy with how it came out and I hope you enjoy it!

An Exciting Non-update!

I don't want to reveal its topic, but the upcoming video is one that I have been attempting to make since the beginning of the year. A month would start and I'd embark on producing it. Then I'd realize it's too massive to finish in time, put it aside and do something simpler instead.

After the catch-up month, I decided to finally tackle it, no matter what. And MAN, has it been a lot of work. There were many script drafts, two days of shooting, tons of voiceover and more rough cut versions than...

New Tutorial - Easy Procedural Spacescapes

Star Wars, Star Trek, Starsky & Hutch. What do all of these shows have in common (except for the last one)? That's right, tons of scenes that feature outer space visuals.

In this After Effects tutorial I demonstrate my take on a common method for creating star fields and nebulas without using stock images or doing any manual painting, while giving you maximum control over the look of the final product.

Hope you find it useful!

Production Art - Holly Receives Pin

I guess "mixed media" is part of the Captain Disillusion video style. Sometimes I'll throw in traditionally animated shots for no reason. In the case of this quick animation toward the end of the last video, I just couldn't think of any other visual to accompany that part of the voiceover.

I drew the character in Photoshop, including some replacement eyes and a Captain arm, using various Kyle T. Webster brushes. For the pin I took the original Illustrator file I'd made for manufacturing the ph...

Behind the Scenes Photos

We were pretty busy trying to get everything shot, but I do have a few pics from the set. Most of our the time, as usual, was spent trying to learn the lines (above).

But first there was the makeup. I'm not used to having to share a mirror.

The setups were pretty simple, but we did do a few moves. And of course one of the moving shots was what had to be re-shot the next day for sound. Of course!...

Directorial Tweaks

From the moment of this post for about 10 minutes the link to the early access video will be down because I'm replacing it with an updated version. But please check back in a bit and it will work again.

Everything was basically fine, but a couple of technical moments kept bugging me. Here's what I adjusted:

• Raised the level of some of the background music. When I work on the sound for too long I become paranoid about dialogue clarity and end up pushing background a...
  2018-06-27 16:26:43 +0000 UTC View Post

New Video Early Access - Marble Sorting Machine DEBUNK

Well, after that much time editing it, my brain has no frame of reference left to say anything about the video other than... it is a new video.

Please enjoy!

Sound - Perfectionized

Yay, the audio mix is done!

Quite a different view of the Pro Tools session with all the edits, sound effects and music. But note how there's not a single clip in the "ADR" tracks...

I managed to clean up every problematic line of dialogue without re-recording anything! Sigh, small victories.

Usually while I work on the mix, I spot several shots where I need to make minor corrections to the VFX. I found a bunch this time, but none of them are too complicated. So that's the final ta...

Sound Time

Ohhh man. This was quite an editing/VFX period. There's nothing super unusual occurring in this episode, but it somehow ended up being extremely challenging. Just the sheer volume of shots, I suppose.

But I'm finally done with the visuals and have started on the sound mix!

As mentioned, there are some interesting audio problems to solve, in addition to the usual polishing, sound effects & music. Going to give it my best shot! I thought it might be interesting to compare the before/af...

UPDATE!

Friends,

You may have received too many email notifications today or you may be wondering where the new video is. Or you may be wondering BOTH of those things.

Well, here I am, explaining all about it in video form. Over to you, me!

Guess Who's Baaack

Lauren was in town and we shot over 2 hours of footage for an interesting Holly episode. I'm in the process of editing it now.

The bad news? Our microphones had some issues so I'm going to have to use all of the world's most expensive software and audio engineering knowledge to try to make the dialogue sound decent.

But it's a, you know... fun challenge. Yeah, that's it!