False Start (Chapter 3)

I began working on Chapter 3 last night, but I will probably have to discard the renders I did so far (just a couple actually). The chapter involves Richard Augustus, Alexander’s older brother, and it was supposed to begin with several renders of Richard walking down a long corridor. After doing the renders last night, however, I was not at all happy with how it looked. Since I already bought the asset for the hallway itself, I would like to use it in some way, but perhaps I will need to rethink my original plan for the shots. While I was lying in bed last night, I thought of a slightly different way of doing it, so I will try that tonight hopefully.

As for the chapter itself, it will mostly be information about the political environment of the Imperium, specifically the Five Families and the balance of power between them. It will also show the relationship between Richard (the “responsible” one) and Alexander (the playboy).

Post Publication Depression

I’ve noticed a curious psychological effect from publishing my newest chapter (and it happened after the previous one as well): I fall into a sort of creative depression for several days to a week. Apparently, with all the effort I put into a work, there is a “let down” once it goes live. So, since last Sunday I’ve been feeling rather blue, or at least not very creative. I’ve needed to update the Character page to reflect some of the new characters that appeared in Ch 2. There are five of them, but writing their brief bios (not more than a few sentences) has been like pulling teeth. Perhaps, creatively anyway, I need a week or so to recharge my batteries before diving into the next thing (in this case, Chapter 3). On the other hand, perhaps I’m just getting lazy. :-)

Chapter 2 Now Online!

After over a month of work, Chapter 2 is now online! I was able to meet my goal to publish by the end of the weekend, although I still need to update the Character, Race, and Credits pages. Nevertheless, I hope everyone will like the new chapter. And I hope that the next one won’t take so long to finish!

The Longest Page

I was beginning to think page 17 was going to be the death of me. Not only did I spend 3 hours doing the renders Wednesday, last night I spent another 2 hours doing the post work. I think that means I’ve spent more time on 17 than any other page so far. I hope I can still publish on time (Sunday), which would mean I’ve spent a little over a month on chapter 2. Ironically, I had originally thought it would take a month, although that was when I estimated the length of the chapter would be only 12-15 pages. As it turns out, it’ll be 19.

The Longest Day

I worked on page 17 for three and half hours last night, and that’s after working eight hours at my day job (which also involves being in front of the computer). On the bright side, I got all 9 renders done for the page, although I still have the Photoshop work left. There will be two more pages in the chapter, but I think I should be done by the end of this weekend.

I seem to be averaging four renders an hour, including setting up each shot. With Poser, at least on my machine, everything is time consuming. Even going from the rendered view to the edit view takes time as the computer whirls. I have a decent machine (500 megs of RAM), but if possible I’d like my next computer to have a full Gig of RAM. Also, they’ve come out with Poser 6. I’m currently not in a hurry to buy that, but I will eventually get it, I’m sure.

So, for anyone waiting for chapter 2, it should be ready “soon.” Sorry for the delays!