Highlights

This month included work on compositing the shots for the “Launch” sequence (“LA”); upgrading our YunoHost-based virtual studio site; and customization work on the new WordPress and PeerTube applications. I also made improvements to the release/landing page at https://lunatics.tv.

Production

Lunatics

I finally got the NLA strip situation worked out with combining “ride” animation with the character interaction in the “LA-5-A” and “LA-5-B” shots. Respectively, that’s the normal cabin-camera shot of Sergei reporting to the ground controller and the 2-shot of Sergei talking to Georgiana. Honestly, I think I might have to tweak LA-5-A, because the lip-sync is too subtle. But I’m leaving that to work on later if I feel like I must.

I also converted all the shot files from an older node system to the ABX “Ink & Paint” Multilayer EXR format that I have standardized on. One noticeable difference is that I changed from calling the paint layer “Color” to calling it “Paint”, but the important differences have to do with the layer breakdown in the files. Since I have a server on-site that can do rendering relatively fast, it isn’t such a burden to have to re-render shots (still much slower than re-compositing the EXRs, though!).

And then I created “S1E01-LA-Launch-compos.blend” which is a Blender file with a scene for each shot in the sequence, providing the compositing from rendered Multilayer-EXR streams to the composited PNG streams (not to be confused with the pre-composited PNG streams that I generate at render time to check my output — the composited PNGs don’t have metadata stamped on them, and of course, they may have additional parameter tweaks and masking, which is the point of working this way).

After this, I started working on setting up a Kdenlive edit with the composited files, but this was only just started at the end of the month.

Experimental

I also experimented further with creating silent video loops (which Mastodon perversely calls “GIFs”, even though they are MP4 format, not GIF). I recorded some video of trees swaying in the wind, which I edited to try to make loop videos from, without a noticeable jump at the point where they loop. It was moderately successful. I did this in Kdenlive by lining up two copies of the video with one semi-transparently overlaid, to try to find a good transition. Then I did a dissolve at that point. This makes the seam in the middle of the video. I then clipped the videos so that the actual loop point is an exact frame match (i.e. the actual start/end of the clip is actually from the middle of the original video and frame-matched). As these were just quick experiments, I don’t have them published, except on my RealSocial account: Juniper and Elm.

Promotionals

Back at the beginning of this project, I used an advertising network that relied mostly on web comic sites, called “Project Wonderful”. It was also unusual in that it charged based on renting space per interval (day), rather than counting clicks. It inherently has much less tracking than today’s “ad tech”. Sadly, Project Wonderful folded, but another company took over the niche, with “ComicAd.net“. They use similar banner/ad sizes, as well. But all my old ads are very out-of-date. I decided to create a series of promotional art for use with them and other sites using similar formats. I think this may be more in-line with my “community-friendly” ideas for promotion. In any, I think it’s good to have the promotional art. I also made some larger/higher-resolution graphics similar to the squares that are popular on a number of social media sites. These were mostly featuring 3D-rendered character poses (taken from the turnaround videos I did awhile back), combined with some of the PR stills.

IT Work

Installed a new APC BackUPS 1050 on Sintel after some unceremonious UPS shutdowns during power blips that should not be a problem with a UPS (although as I am writing this in December, my Thermaltake power supply unit was also nearing failure, which might have been a factor).

Upgraded YunoHost to v12. I’d been putting this off for awhile, because I was worried everything would break. However, I was impressed with how smoothly it went. The one serious complication had to do with a symlink setup I had created to get around the limitations of the Digital Ocean “droplet” VPS I had been using. This put major storage (including PeerTube videos) on a “sidecar” volume attached to the droplet. Unfortunately, this did not work well with YunoHost’s backup system. I had to spend some time unwinding this before I could do the upgrade. Of course, this was entirely my own doing.

My applications mostly upgraded normally, with the exception of Misskey, which is currently flagged as “broken” in the YunoHost app build system. However, the old version continues to work just fine in YunoHost 12.

Furthermore, it is actually possible to install the upgraded Misskey using the command line interface and the “testing” version of the app. Doing so reveals a new feature I’ve been anxious about: the ability to migrate to a new server. When I first migrated my account to Misskey, I was upset to discover that while I could migrate from Mastodon to Misskey, I could not go back, because Misskey did not support the account-forwarding feature that makes account migration work on Mastodon servers. Oh no — trapped! But if I can upgrade and then migrate, that means I have an exit strategy — which, paradoxically, makes migrating less of a priority!

However, I likely will migrate to either Iceshrimp or Sharkey, two promising Misskey forks which are both supported by YunoHost apps and have some nice extended features, including support for the Mastodon API (which means my mobile apps, like FediLab, should work with them). I might alternatively migrate to Friendica, which I do intend to install — I’m just not sure if I want it to be my main professional account or not. The main advantage to Friendica for me is that it can be seen by more of the Fediverse, due to support for DFRN and Diaspora protocols, as well as ActivityPub.

The new version of WordPress (6.8.3) forced me to make some plugin changes. I needed to replace the “ClassicEditor” plugin with the “DisableGutenberg” plugin. And I did install “SimplyStatic” for making a static copy of the site, as well as some image management tools. With the SimplyStatic plugin, I also created an archive to install on the static release/landing site. This way, if the higher-maintenance dynamic project site is down, there will be a static archive available. This required some tinkering on the release site.

The new version of PeerTube (7.3.0) added some long-anticipated features, such as the ability to upload replacement videos (great if I make a mistake!), but also broke my theme pretty badly, so I had to do some redesign work. The new version allows for more customization through the web administration interface, rather than relying entirely on CSS. The video management interface is also improved.

On the static release website, in addition to the static archive of the production log, I made some additional changes. I fixed bad navigation links (previously, I had incompletely edited these, leaving some pointing to the old structure of the Production Log site). I replaced all the Vimeo video embeds with PeerTube embeds. And I added a new “News” page with a fanout point to several different sources for project news, rather than the old link which simply went to the Production Log (and thus was also redundant with the “Open Project” link).

Purchases

Epson FastFoto FF-680W photo scanner. This is a pretty nifty device that can do bulk scanning of small, stiff sheets — which includes photos, but also index cards. This is a fast way to ingest hand-drawn storyboard art from the 4×6 index cards I drew them on. I do also have some old photos I’d like to scan.  I’ll post more about this, with pictures, when I set it up.

Fudoni Smart Projector. I picked this up from a church auction, so it was more of an opportunity buy. It’s an inexpensive video projector. I’m a little worried by the “Smart” part, but hopefully it won’t be too smart. I really just want something I can plug an HDMI cable into. Or maybe a USB stick with video? Brightness might be an issue, depending on how large a venue I might want to use this at, but it could be a way to show my videos or presentations. Maybe pictures later, when I try it out.

Apress System Administration Humble Bundle. I often buy technical books in e-book format to read on my e-reader. At least that’s the theory. Tech books are among the ones with the shortest useful life, so I figure it’s an environmental (and shelfspace) win to get them in electronic format. I have not yet really formed the habit of using e-books, though. Maybe I need to read more fiction in e-book format? I think the only e-book novel I have read all the way through is “Dracula” by Bram Stoker, though I have some others on my hard drive. And I read that one on my smartphone, actually.

30W USB-C Fast Charger. I did not know this was a thing. Apparently, one of the advantages to USB-C is a higher power rating? Anyway, the new Samsung phone that I bought for installing LinneageOS was basically dead, because the regular (slow) USB wall charger I had just doesn’t put out enough power (I think it does about 3W?). So I got a higher-powered one, and wow, that works. I keep learning things!

November 2025 Production Timelapse

Video Logs

Video Log 2025-11-12: Website Upgrades

Video Log 2025-11-21: Web Work and Compositing

Video Log 2025-11-29: Compositing Launch Sequence

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