Highlights

Compositing and audio revisions, mainly to the LA-Launch sequence in the pilot, but I did not get to the finish line, nor start on the shots that need revision in SF-SoyuzFlight, so I’m rolling over into January 2026.
Reviewing the highlights of the year, and what I’m going to try to do in 2026 (what practices to keep and what to change).

Production Work

Started out the month by finishing the compositing renders and assembly into the LA-Launch sequence. I found that I had accidentally omitted the specular reflection from my compositing nodes. This didn’t make as big a difference as I expected, but it does make the rocket look shinier:

The edit has grown a little bit in length, so I needed to retime some of the audio. This also means we’ll need a little bit more foley sound in parts of it, because we can’t rely entirely on the music to carry it.

Since I couldn’t get to FreeSound, I decided to look for some local sounds to use for the gantry sound effects in the launch sequence. I originally thought I might get an appropriate sound from an old swingset, so we checked local playgrounds. I think the best sounds came from a couple of different kinds of metal gates, though. I haven’t processed them yet, though.

And between Christmas and New Years, I finally found the time to record a little a cappella / voice art thing I’ve been thinking about for… maybe 10 or 15 years, which I call “The Crab Chorus”. I’ll need to do the mixing in January.

Writing

Started, but did not finish, a couple of articles: my personal “Fediverse Guide” and my plans for the “Mitaka Lib-Ray Architecture”, which is a simplified approach for getting Lib-Ray working (now in 2026). I participated in a “Free Software Advent” challenge on my personal Mastodon account, though, and that became 27 Essential FOSS Packages Our Animation Studio Relies On.

IT Problems

Power supply failed on my workstation and had to be replaced. Annoying because normally I buy parts online, but this required getting the PSU locally, both because I would normally shop using that computer and because I can’t wait for shipping.

Also discovered more geoblocks of some important websites: the Libre Office release website is blocked and the back-end server for Free Sound. Both appear to be hosted in datacenters controlled by Hetzner GMBH, in Germany and Finnland. I have no idea why my ISP would want to block those, even if I weren’t categorically against a blunt instrument like geoblocking websites. I think I’m going to have to set up a proxy on my server for browsing. Fortunately, there is a YunoHost app for Squid, so that’s not so hard.

Holidays

Of course, I do stuff on the Solstice and Christmas. And Rosalyn made a very nice series of audio reflections for Kwanzaa this year. And I really did not get much work done, which is probably as it should be.

Umoja	Kugichagulia	Ujima	Ujamaa	Nia	Kuumba	Imani

Assessing 2025

I find it immensely frustrating not to be finished with episode one of “Lunatics!” even a full year after the “New Years 2025” release I made for Patron backers, because we were switching to a monthly subscription. It seemed like there wasn’t that much left to do. But in 2025, I worked out the compositing workflow, fixed serious modeling and animation problems for the “Suiting Up” sequence, solved a long-standing mystery with the “Aquarium Room” set so that I could re-render parts of “Press Conference” and “Suiting Up”, and composited most of the episode. I modified some of the editing and let the episode grow a small amount. It’s now closer to 19-min long, I believe.

Goals for 2026 Quarter One

What remains to be done is finishing the Soyuz Flight interior action shots, including replacing two shots that are holdovers from the 2013 Teaser Trailer, and getting the exterior Train shot with the camel reflections to render correctly again, as well as tweaking some minor elements in the Train sequence. I think it’s feasible to finish these in January, but given my prediction track-record on production schedule, I’m hesitate to promise anything. We’ll see how it goes.

I also have a number of technical problems to solve:

• Finishing the build-out of the “Virtual Studio” dynamic website.
• Setting up our self-hosted merch store
• Putting the production source code back online with Nextcloud
• Rearranging our on-premise computer equipment (some building work)
• Getting the Primera Bravo II Disc Duplicator working from Linux (experimental development)

Also still in the middle of remodeling our bathroom. That’s taking a really long time. Next time I get ideas like this, I should probably hire contractors. But I kid — I don’t have that kind of money.

December Production Timelapse

Work-In-Progress: LA-Launch Sequence

Obligatory spoiler warning: this is a full scene in not-quite-final state. I haven’t posted this video anywhere, even for Patreon backers before. You can see that the compositing really improves things, and if nothing else, the on-screen metadata is gone. However, the audio is still pretty rough in this cut. You’ll notice the dialog between Sergei and Georgiana sounds a lot better than it did in the NY2025 edit, though.

Video Logs

Video Log 2025-12-06: Launch Edit & Technical Illustrations

This week, I finished a draft edit for the LA-Launch sequence and made some technical illustrations for upcoming articles and videos.

00:00 Intro
00:14 Review and commentary on of LA-Launch draft edit
04:36 The scary to-do list and time blindness
05:56 Titlecards
06:19 On the Fediverse
07:12 Fediverse Guide illustrations
07:56 Computer configuration drawings
08:41 Plans for next week
09:57 Conclusion
10:09 Storm clouds

Video Log 2025-12-14: Audio Mixing

This week, I had some unexpected IT work to do, and started on the audio mixing and retiming for the “Launch” sequence.

00:00 Intro
00:08 Power Supply Failure / Replacement
00:36 Better custom wipe for LA-1-A to B
01:02 November Timelapse/Summary up on Production Log
01:19 Caught missing specular reflection nodes in compositing files
02:25 Retiming audio stems in Audacity for Launch
04:17 Applying stems to Kdenlive edit
05:21 Ardour workflow for 5.1 surround sound (pros and cons)
08:51 Outro / Until Next Time
09:03 Sunny but cold today

Some extra notes about the 5.1 workflow: I know I was kind of meandering on this. With Audacity, I can map tracks to output a 5.1 surround flie, which I can then play in VLC, but I can’t directly monitor it or pan tracks with it. I can do that in Ardour. Or at least, I think so. I played around with this in an earlier version. I hope to have a little bit more concrete experience to share next week.

Video Log 2025-12-21: Compositing on the Solstice

This week, I revisited the compositing in the LA-Launch sequence, correcting the missing spec nodes and fixing the billboard alpha nodes. I also discovered a shot (LA-3-A) that I’ll need to re-render. Sadly, I also found out that my ISP is IP-blocking FreeSound.org, which is a whole new kettle of worms. And of course, Christmas is up, so this may be my last report until New Years Eve.

00:00 Intro / Sappy Solstice!
00:09 Compositing in LA-Launch
00:38 Shot file error in LA-3-A that requires re-rendering
01:08 Compositing Billboard Extras Material ID error
01:39 Sound effects
02:18 FreeSound is blocked by my ISP
02:56 Just about all I can do in 2025?
03:38 Conclusion / Happy Holidays!
03:55 This rosemary bush used to be a rosemary Christmas tree, look at it now!

I said I’ll see you after Christmas, but it’ll probably just be a year-end message, because I don’t anticipate being able to do a lot. But we’ll see what happens.

Video Log 2025-12-31: Recapping 2025

My final video log for 2025, reviews December, but also the whole year of 2025.

00:00 Intro / Happy New Year!
00:24 Took Christmas Off (No production work since last log)
00:36 Geoblocking problems
00:58 Scouting sound effects locally
01:21 Background landscapes for Train sequence
02:00 Audio side project (“Crab Chorus”)
02:59 Sadly, I still have not finished “No Children in Space” in 2025
03:17 However, I did do a lot of work on it…
03:24 Started with the New Years 2025 Edit
03:49 Compositing workflow developed and tested (February)
04:21 Fixing the Press Conference Aquarium Room set to work in Blender 2.79 (March)
05:20 Re-rendered, fixed animation, and composited Press Conference (April)
05:46 Corrected animation, added new shots, rebuilt “Suiting Up” scene (May/June)
06:50 Created shots for Mission Control in “Launch” scene (July)
07:06 Fixed missing LipSync (Press Conference, Launch) (July-August)
07:43 Problems with NLA Editing and subtracting base pose (August-October)
08:29 Writing
08:38 Political Essays “Dark Forest”
08:58 DVD Release Design Article
09:18 Compositing Workflow
09:23 AI, Automation, Ritual, and Process in Art
09:46 Lunatics “No Children in Space”, the Coloring Book
10:11 Project History Part 4: Fixed Media Publishing
10:42 27 Essential FOSS Packages
11:20 December Projects
11:54 Remaining Shots
13:06 ISP Geoblocking, Proxy, and VPN Issues
14:14 Website build-out / Nextcloud and Production Sources
15:25 Web Store with Abantecart
15:54 Goals for January 2026
18:35 Kinetic sculpture

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