Highlights

Production

Many small tweaks and changes to get to finished animation. Animation adjustments in SU-SuitingUp fixed jumping or sliding characters, due to incorrect animation timing near in/out points for shots.

Found a very strange glitch in one frame of SR-1-C (from Soyuz Rollout), in which Freestyle crashed, apparently due to some math error with geometry. I was able to nudge the camera position by about 1 mm, which fixed the problem. Weirdly. I guess it was probably some kind of “divide-by-zero” problem, if you were to dig into it. But it looks like it happens very rarely.

Finished the “sunbeam” and “blink” shots in the SF-SoyuzFlight sequence, including some more complex compositing effects. These finally replace the last vestiges of the 2013 Teaser Trailer version of this animation.

Added some on-screen text to specify setting and characters in the TR-Train sequence. I decided to add this, because I realized that the characters — Hiromi in particular — isn’t really called by name in the dialog (the reporter calls her “Mrs. Lerner”). You can, technically see her name plate in some shots, but I figured it’d be better to put something on screen. I also just kind of think it gives it a “historical drama” look, which I like.

There was an error in the rendering of the ink masks in LA-1-B (the shot of the astronauts approaching the launch pad). This resulted in an annoying blinking effect for background extras. But the shot is quite difficult to render, due to very long Freestyle ink rendering times. However, I didn’t really need to re-render the Freestyle ink. Just the masks. So I created a special “salvage” version of the render file, with the Freestyle rendering turned off, and compositing nodes which simply copied the Freestyle render from the previous version of the render. This worked pretty well, even though there is still a bit of flickering, which I’ve decided to just accept.

Extended versions of the TB-TouringBaikonur and SR-SoyuzRollout scenes, correct some minor pacing/flow problems, and this all fits in with my feeling that the episode was slightly too short, so I could afford to relax the timing a bit.

Lipsync timing was corrected in some scenes by either moving the animation to match the audio, or vice-versa.

In the end, I reached “Picture Lock”, meaning there are no more timing changes, and essentially, the animation is completely finished. Which means I’m now focused on finishing up the sound.

I discovered that the final shot in the LA-Launch scene was actually just a still image. I had never replaced it. I came up with a better animated shot, which improves the transition to the SF-SoyuzFlight scene.

I also discovered that some shots I had thought were fully-composited actually weren’t, and so I fixed that (mostly just re-rendering).

Server IT

Upgraded the YunoHost platform and applications on it (WordPress, PeerTube, Misskey, and Pixelfed). After upgrade, Misskey stopped accepting uploads to the local drive. An issue on the app package gave a work-around for this, which I used. It involved overriding some systemd settings to prevent a process from crashing, due to misconfigured security. It’s really a bug in the packaging for YunoHost, but this workaround was adequate to fix it.

Installed Squid on the server, which provides an HTTP proxy that I can configure in Firefox to avoid some silly IP blocks that my ISP has set up. Of particular importance, this allowed me to get to the sound files on the FreeSound.org site, which had been blocked. This is obviously pretty important to me, especially now that I’m reviewing the audio production.

Writing/Publishing

I updated my “Lunatics – No Children in the Space – The Coloring Book” to print on demand with Lulu.com. I ordered a few of these for a table event I will be at on July 4th, but unfortunately, I didn’t allow enough lead time, so it wasn’t ready for that. I’ll keep them for the next table event and also sell them through the storefront, once I set it up. I need some initial products to start with, anyway.

June 2026 Production Timelapse

This is the final stages of the visual animation production for the pilot episode of “Lunatics!” (not counting credits and other on-screen text elements).

00:00 Titlecard
00:05 Updating out-of-date composites
04:10 Updating Episode Assembly
10:02 New shot LA-2-E in the Mission Control Room (replaces a pan & zoom still)
11:00 4th Episode Assembly
11:49 Improving glare on Georgiana’s visor in SF-1-C
12:47 Adjusting Sergei’s position in SF-1-A (sunbeam shot)
13:02 More work on the glare effect in SF-1-C
13:17 Re-rendering SF-1-A
13:44 “Salvage” render of LA-1-B, to avoid re-rendering Freestyle ink
14:56 Ink masking in composite for SU-1-B (top of the PLCC)
15:31 SU-1-E, F, G changed to accommodate the lipsync
16:01 Correcting lipsync errors in TR-3 (train interior)
16:21 Updated composites and assembly
17:40 Extending Soyuz Rollout scene to get better timelapse shots
20:50 5th Episode Assembly
21:47 Smoothing animation of the rocket transporter in the back of the SR-1-B shot
22:52 On-Screen Text in TR scene (gives names for Hiromi and Georgiana as well as specifying time and place)
24:52 6th Episode Assembly
26:51 PICTURE LOCK! (Major production milestone)
32:43 On-Screen Text Updates
35:05 Reviewing and Marking Recordings
39:25 Baikonur Ambience
40:50 Patreon Titlecard

June 2026 Video Logs

Video Log 2026-06-06: Third Episode Assembly

This week, I worked through fixing errors in the assembled scenes, including making sure they are using the right composited PNG stream output. And then assembled them all again. But there are still some problem areas to fix, though they are getting more trivial.

00:00 Intro
00:09 Assembling Scenes
00:51 Assembling the Episode
01:14 In/Out Shot Issues (“pops and slides”) in the SU-SuitingUp scene, still there
01:42 New shot needed for LA/SF transition. Replacing a pan-and-zoom I left in. Easy, though. Will be “LA-2-E”.
02:23 So… another iteration coming.
02:55 Conclusion
02:57 Trying out a new recording spot indoors, because it’s raining
03:10 Story about my Starlog Magazine “Robby the Robot” plan/poster
03:51 Story about the Deep Space One poster
04:11 The shotgun mic makes this recording spot work, otherwise too close to my workstation, with noisy fans!
04:34 Conclusion… for realz.
04:42 Elm Grove

Video Log 2026-06-14: 4th Episode Assembly

This week, I went through another cycle of refinements to shots in the pilot episode. It’s getting down to picky details now.

00:00 Intro
00:07 4th Episode Assembly and Review
00:23 Moved Sergei into his seat (SF-1-A “sunbeam” shot)
00:45 Lighting on Georgiana (SF-1-C) (turns away from sun)
01:07 New shot (LA-2-E) of Mission Control (replacing a pan-and-zoom still)
01:51 Flashing billboard extras — bad alpha masks and a dirty render
02:43 How to re-render without having to re-render the Freestyle (“salvage” version of the Blender file)
04:16 Picky details: some shots are still renders (with metadata on screen — oops!)
04:28 Editing decisions in “Soyuz Rollout” — want to extend a couple of shots, shorten others to compensate
05:53 Conclusions
06:16 Wasps nesting (got really a close view, because they’re on the window)

Sorry about the background rumbling — I got some wind during recording. It was actually still a bit rainy. And there’s always traffic sounds in my videos. We live out in the country, but on a highway intersection — a lot of trucks go by. I tend to tune them out, so it kind of surprises me how loud they are in the recordings.

Video Log 2026-06-20: PICTURE LOCK!

Hurray! I have finished animation work on the pilot episode “No Children in Space” of “Lunatics!”
Production now moves on to correcting and refining the soundtrack, subtitles, credits, etc.

00:00 Intro (Hello/Summer Solstice)
00:19 Following up on “salvage” of LA-1-B — yes, it worked!
00:38 Longer edit of SR-SoyuzRollout, fixes several minor animation issues
01:47 Weird Freestyle bug in SR-1-C. Fixed by nudging the camera position slightly.
03:21 SR-1-B gopher shot is a little longer, and smoother
03:55 Sixth time is the charm — PICTURE LOCK ACHIEVED! YAY!
04:21 IT Problems ISP, Updating YunoHost apps
05:28 Installing Squid, Using it with Firefox, Access to FreeSound again!
05:52 Collecting sound recordings from FreeSound.org for sound work
06:02 Exporting “guide” and “timing” (“beep”) tracks for audio retiming in Audacity
07:09 Creating new ambience and sound effects
07:55 Podstaging sound
09:40 Ancillary visual editing work: new preview, preview for episode 2, etc.
10:59 End credits revisions
11:24 Overall episode specs (~22min with main title, 24min total).
12:29 Conclusion
12:50 Hungry black swallowtail caterpillar on a prairie dill plant

The lovely country sound ambient environment on this video courtesy many loud cicadas, the neighbors’ chickens, and the ever present sound of highway traffic.

Video Log 2026-06-27: IT & Audio

Production has pivoted from animation to audio production. To do this, I needed access restored to FreeSound, which entailed doing some IT work on our project server. So I did both this week.

00:00 Intro
00:11 Upgrades to Server: WordPress, PeerTube, Misskey (and YunoHost system)
00:28 Misskey problems — image uploads. Was a YunoHost configuration issue. Fixed.
01:00 Installing Squid3 on server and configuring Firefox to use it.
01:32 Back surfing sounds on FreeSound
02:33 Reviewing and Marking Original Recordings
03:41 Synchronizing Voice and Effects with Guide Tracks (TR-Train Sequence, mostly).
05:20 Changing Format for Video Logs to Accommodate Audio (Next Week)
05:55 Conclusion
06:04 Birds Singing in the Rain

I apologize for the rough audio — there was some wind that the microphone picked up, and noise removal only does so much.
Also, it’s high Summer and the cicadas are in full force and at full volume now!

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