HIGHLIGHTS
PRODUCTION
Started blocking the shot file for the new “PLSS control panel” animation.
Migrated back to a staged pre-render approach for assembling sequences into the episode, because I had too many problems with embedding Kdenlive projects as shots. It was a cool concept, but it broke down too much (I think there must be some bugs in Kdenlive, related to calculating the extents of the animation).
Created “textless” openings and closings for Lunatics. I hadn’t tried this before, but it seemed like a good extra to produce.
WORKFLOW DEV
When I migrated the source directory to a new local path (“LunaticsProject”, instead of “Lunatics”), this broke my Kdenlive sequence files, due to embedded absolute URLs. I found that the “Clip Problems” recovery dialog does not work to solve image references in title clips (only one broken image can be recovered).
I then explored direct-editing of the Kdenlive files to convert them to a relocatable format, by replacing absolute URLs with relative ones. This works, but it turns out only to work properly when opening Kdenlive edits from the file browser. When attempting from the GUI menu in the program, it completes the relative links from the user’s home directory, rather than from the location of the Kdenlive file, resulting in absolute paths that break.
WEBSITES
Researched and tested options for embedding dynamic content on static sites, with fallback capabilities. The simplest seems to be to provide
iframes with link/target buttons to load different back-end sources.
Discontinued my Vimeo Plus membership and then purged minor videos from Vimeo to reduce to the free account service level. Decided that, in future, I will only be using Vimeo for temporary performance reasons and a few key accounts. It will no longer be a definitive source. That role will move to my self-hosted PeerTube.
My one serious concern with this plan is that, if I should fail to maintain the server, the PeerTube site would die, so I should really have the important videos on a 3rd party site. I decided the best way to deal with this would be to publish these videos on the Internet Archive as well — so that is now my “legacy backup” solution.
When I visited the lunatics.tv site with an e-ink reader (see below), I realized that it looks terrible, because of the animated background. I should use a CSS media query to decide if the background should be omitted or not animated — another design issue to fix.
ON-SITE IT
Did some investigation into playback performance issues and video hardware on my production workstation (Sintel). This appeared to be only the result of my screencast logging system. There doesn’t appear to be any need to improve the hardware, nor does there appear to be a problem with the video files I’m creating.
I have purchased and started using an e-ink e-book reader, which I think is particularly good for technical books. This means I’ll waste less paper and shelf space on reference books which tend to become obsolete after a few years, and I can carry them around as needed.
PERSONAL
Our car broke down, the dealership was unhelpful (perhaps actually harmful), but we ultimately got it fixed. The problem was the “inverter cooling pump”, which is apparently a common problem for a high-mileage Gen-2 Prius. (This actually continued a little into the beginning of August).
Also repaired our portable generator and worked on the mower, although we didn’t get the latter working. Of course, this also means the grass goes unmowed, which is a potential fire hazard and an impediment to other work on the land.
The mower problems included a clogged carburetor, fuel filter, possibly debris in the fuel tank and/or line, and a bad battery.
Video Logs for July
2024-07-07
Static Website, E-Reader, Kdenlive Path Problems, and Blender Dependencies
2024-07-16
Video Playback Performance, Kdenlive Portability, Refactoring Kdenlive
2024-07-23
Kdenlive Portability, File-Open vs Menu-Open, Nested vs Staged Editing
2024-07-31
Animating Again!
Selected Photos from July
