I was feeling a bit lost, jumping around between different tasks, which is not an issue in and of itself, but without a plan, it could lead to not accomplishing much. I decided to step back and put a task list together. I use a mind mapping tool. This task list will be continuously changing. Unfortunately, I don't have a way to actually make the mind map viewable on the site. But here is a link to download it. You can use "freeplane" for linux or "freemind" for windows to open it.

You can visit this page for a text based version of the map.

Okay, I learned this the hard way. When you export from makehuman the default for the character is the "A" pose. If you try to change the T-Pose and import into blender using MHX2, the bones are kinda screwed, looks like the axis are flipped. Tried to fix it with no luck, so I chose the simpler method.

My solution is to change the A-pose to the T-pose and set that as the rest-pose. I think it should work, have to try and parent the clothes next and see how that works.

Well using autorig or even the rigify face rig was a failed experiment. Either way, I think it'll be a good idea to refresh my rigging skills. I have done a few before, but I'm far from a pro. And I'm out of practice. Therefore, I'll take the plunge. I decided to get better acquainted with rigging. I'm not looking forward to weight painting; seems like a lot of trial and error. I updated the Resources page with more courses on Rigging. These are the best I've run into.

Okay, I think it's great. It produces really nice characters and the rig is awesome. Only problem is that it doesn't have a facial rig. I'm gonna have to try and create my own using the Autorig add-on. It's a paid add-on but not expensive at all. Let's see if I can create a hybrid rig with the Maneul Bastioni provided one. Stay tuned.

I had a great discussion with Nicole Panton on the story and how to improve it. Notes are here.

Well that says it all. I've been trying to do a test animation. To do that I need to get the character rigged properly and it's freakin' hard. I'm drowning in a sea of bones, facial rigs, drivers and shape keys. Just gotta keep at it.

I got my first tidbit of feedback today. It was simple and to the point, but I think it's valid and worth thinking through. The Chaos character needs to be developed further. I agree. I have a few questions about Chaos:

1. Who was he before he became Professor Chaos?
2. What happened to him to push him over the edge?
3. Why does he want the power of the signet?
4. What's he planning to do with the power of the signet?

When I think of Professor Chaos I think of Doctor Horrible in "Dr. Horrible's Sing-along-blog".

Basically, Chaos is aptly named. He want to plunge the world into chaos. He has been betrayed by the system (still need to determine how) and now he wants to destroy the system completely, preferring chaos over order. Will spend some time fleshing it out.

I added all my scribbles on the site here. This is my usual process. I just start writing random thoughts until something clicks. Then I ask myself questions like what's the world like? Who are the characters? What are the relationships between the characters? Why do they like or hate each other? and so on. Then I answer these questions. Out of these random ideas I try to write a 10K foot view of the story, then I keep iterating through the story adding more details in each iteration. Currently, I'm outlining the episodes. After this, I'll do another pass and refine and add more details, hidden themes, re-write some of the episodes, etc.

I moved the below paragraph from my initial entry on this page. I tried to keep the first entry as an introduction without any philosophical thoughts. But below is my reasoning for doing this project and how it evolved from a short film to an episodic series.

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The main reason I was looking to do something short was because I feared not getting the project done. I hate starting projects and not finishing them, gives me a sinking feeling in my stomach. I asked myself what's the motivation of doing this project? Do I want to be a famous filmmaker? It would be nice, but no. After thinking about it for a while the only reasonable answer was to make something I enjoy. To be honest, I want to do something I'm passionate about. Get good with Blender. And express my creative energy. If that results in a bunch of people watching it, then cool. If not, then at least I would've made something I'm proud of. People's opinions should be secondary. Doesn't mean I don't take other's input seriously, but I don't want people's opinions to shape my path.

I ended up settling on doing a long form episodic series. The season would tell an entire story, but it will be divided into a series of episodes, which would be between 7-10 minutes.

I'm currently writing the story and we'll see how it goes.

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I've been trying to come up with a workflow for this project to keep myself organized. Here is what I came up with so far... Nothing earth shattering, but at least it's a structure

1. Outline all the episodes in the season
2. Write the script for the first 3 episodes
3. Do a script breakdown for the first episode to identify characters, settings, locations, props, etc
4. Create an animatic/storyboard (not gonna do two separate steps for that)
   • Do the blocking for the scene
   • Identify camera positions
   • Create storyboard
5. Create/assemble the models
   • Will probably have to scrounge up the models. I'm not going to buy models. This way I can provide them for free to the public.
6. Rig the characters
7. Texture the models
8. Find voice actors for the different parts and do a recording session
   • Bringing in actors might warrant writing all the scripts so we can record all the dialogue in a short period of time; reduces the risk of having to switch talent mid production.
9. Animation
   • Work with actors to pin down the performances required. These don't need to be the same as the voice actors, although that would provide good continuity from a characterization perspective. Will use the actors performances as a base for the animation.
10. VFX
11. Lighting
12. Rendering
    • Will need to spend sometime on software R&D at this point to finish up my Distributed renderer application. I have a few GTX graphic cards at my disposal, so I can speed up the rendering by using my small render farm.
13. Compositing
14. Color correction

I suspect this project might take 2 years or so.

I'm gonna geek out a bit here. Blender 2.8 is shaping up and I'm pretty excited about it. The coolest feature I'm looking forward to is EEVEE; the built-in real time renderer. I already tried it and it gives pretty good results... And did I mention... It's freakin' real time. What does that mean? It means that I can work on the animation and have the final result in EEVEE run in realtime. Of course cycles would probably provide higher quality results, but at the cost of compounded render time. So I'm planning to have all my effects, textures and materials in both EEVEE and Cycles.

Of course there are some disadvantages I have to be aware of. First off, Blender 2.8 is still Beta. So there are bugs. However the official release is coming out early next year, so good news there. Many of the add-ons are still not Blender 2.8 compatible. This is going to be a pain. There are a few add-ons I use, which probably won't work in blender 2.8.

My workflow will need to accommodate both Blender 2.79 and Blender 2.8. I'll have to use some of the add-ons in blender 2.79 and then import the result in 2.8. I'll also look at modifying the add-ons to work in Blender 2.8, which means I'll have to get down and dirty with Python programming. Should be interesting.

I'm getting excited, I think. Got my two year plan roughed out. My objective is to get the animated series draft 1 done in 2 years. What does that mean? The way I'm currently thinking about it, and it's very possible this will change as I get more experience, is to finish a non-polished draft of the episodes. Basically, all the elements will be there, but not in their finalized form. For example, there will need to be quiet a bit of ruined buildings. There are a lot of details in a ruined building; rubble, dust, etc. Modeling such a building is time consuming and detracts from progress, I think. My goal is to use a place holder for such detailed models. It'll still look like a ruined building, but not as detailed. I have to see how that'll work with the animation. This might not be a general rule. I might make a lot of exceptions, but it's what I'm thinking of now. The goal is not to get bogged down with all the details, rather do an iterative method, where I start with a rough draft and keep polishing it, until I get it to where I want.

Here is my current plan. It'll be fleshed out as I move along

I made some updates to the Flex-Rig Assets:

• Split the clothing to Top, Bottom, Tie and Shoes. This gives me more flexibility to select the combination I want
• Added more clothing (and in the process of adding more)
• Created a few more Characters to use in the Open Movie Project

I'll be uploading the update in the next while, as I'm still cleaning up the file.

I wanted to share here the steps to add your own clothing assets to the characters:

• Steps to add Clothing
  • Design the clothing (or get them from some where). I found fuse to have a nice library of clothing
  • Use the base character to fit the clothing
  • Make sure to Ctrl+A (Apply transformation)
  • Parent the clothing item to the armature
  • Transfer the weights from the model to the clothing item
    • Select the mesh with the weights (the body of the character in this case)
    • Select the target (the clothing item in this case)
    • Go to weight paint mode
    • Weights (menu item) -> Transfer weights
    • Use "by Name"
  • Transfer the shape-keys from the character to the clothing. To do that we need an add-on (Shape Key Tools) - I have made some modification to this add-on which aren't published yet.
    • Select the source mesh
    • Select the destination mesh
    • Copy the list of shape keys by using the "Copy Shape Keys" button
    • Remove any unneeded shape keys. In my case its the face shape keys as they don't really apply to the clothing
    • Paste them back in the list of shape keys to transfer using the "Insert Shape keys" button
    • Hit the "Transfer Listed Shape Keys". This will transfer the shape keys to the clothing
  • Do any required cleanups
    • Hit the transfer drivers from shape keys
    • Copy the drivers on the shape keys
    • This will require modifying the add-on to copy the driver from each shape key and then add it to the copied shape key
    • Drivers are needed so the clothing can follow the modification in the body variants
  • Modify the pose_bones['body_variants']['clothes_top'] and pose_bones['body_variants']['clothes_bottom'] to account for the new clothing
  • Modify the driver on the mask modifier invert button so that when the variable is set to whatever specific value make the clothes appear or disappear
  • Modify the mask drivers on the model to make sure that they kick in when the clothes are selected.

Depending on time I might do a video tutorial on this