No, the project will not be shelved because of any sudden sick or twisting feeling in my stomach- I've had those since the beginning, and have completed other large-scale projects before.  I just thought it a good idea to note that there won't be any serious animation begun this winter- modeling the sets will continue on for probably a half year here, even as rapid as I'm going.  When it comes to texturing and coloring- well, how do I explain this.  Ok, let me say it this way: while I've taken the technique of placing more weight on minor modeling than letting texturing bear the burden, texturing is STILL going to be significantly tough for the "look" I'm going for.  What do I mean by this?  I mean while I will model such details as buttons on coats (simple 8 patch forms) so that they read perfectly in a render rather than try to bumpmap them, the subtle details I want in how things appear means there will be a bumpmap for those buttons regardless (if they feature in any shot- and I'm almost to the point of having each shot story boarded), and probably colormaps and other levels applied.  With unlimited RAM to load them in, and practically unlimted storage area, my only concern is rendering speed, and if AM can handle the load- then I'm going for it.  By the time I get to rendering I may have a 2000Mhz processor and more than a few rigs to render out to rather than the single 900Mhz I have now, so hey! :o)

Anyway, I had thought that by this month I would have been able to begin some of the shots, but it ain't happening.  I began to rush and cut corners.  That ain't allowed.  So I'm slowing down to take care of the details.  Make the models exceptionally clean and usable, and basically choose the Cheap and Good pair in the eternal 3 qualities of which we must choose 2: Cheap, Fast, and Good.  So Fast is out, however, I'm getting pretty fast with models anyway.

6 Dec 01:
Forgot to mention in the last update: I got really distracted for a week or so messing around with a silly flying logo I wanted to do for the animation "studio" that is "producing" Ballet pour ma fille.  -er- that would be me and me alone... well, my wife is helping with ideas, and QA (she has clearly higher standards than I do), but the point is- it was silly fun.  I did some music/sound effects for it too; the 3d text that will say AppleSnake Studio hasn't been layered into the final, as I'm back into more "serious" modeling efforts for now.  You can check out the little silent flyby in the sweatbox if you like.

Got DG's room up and going sorta, and am final scaling objects and the room itself.  But that is only half of this set, as a staircase and hallway are attached to her room that will also need to be done, assuming the one camera angle that uses those areas gets final approval from the director... -er- that would be little ol' me again... :o)  "No cutting CORNERS, MAKE the stairs!  This is BIG budget animation, BIG BUDGET!" -sigh- okay...

1 Dec 01:
No, all is not lost and forgotten.  Just have been distracted with school, midterms, now finals, and a new job that looks very promising.  Pretty much finished Ravel's study, but progress is only creeping forward now.  I have two other projects over Xmas break, so I won't exactly be racing ahead during break here, but maybe if I can finish theother projects rapidly, I'll be able to get back to work on this with more regularity.  The goal will be to complete the WWI Verdun set and DG's bedroom room in Paris circa 1920.

17 Oct 01:
I know what the mysterious prop is... turned out not to be a toy at all... but I'm not telling you, you'll have to wait until you see the film.  I'm very happy with what it turned out to be.  Ideal really... perfect.  It'll fit into the first scene and not even stand out and then at the end of the film... ahahahaaaaa!  You'll have to watch it all twice to see my convoluted mind at work.

All the details to Ravel's study have taken a lot longer than I expected.  The place just didn't look right until ALL the little details were in place- moulding, window frames, french-style cieling, french-style shutters, egads!  But I've got the system worked out now, run some test renders, and got it down for the other internal locations I'll need to construct...  The three outdoor locales worry me a bit, but heck- conquer each piece as it comes.

 So far AM has been a dream to work with- crashing only when I predict it will, and not even burping when I loaded up Ravel's study full of props and Monsieur Ravel himself.  The render speed didn't even take a noticeable hit. (!)  I'm so  pleased with the speed I keep upping my final rendering size, with CD-R/RW at hand storage space of single frames is simply not an issue.  I'll be rendering out single frames then slapping 'em together in a few different formats.  Oh YES what a time to be alive!  Only three years ago this was all impossible!

13 Sep 01:
Have finished modeling every prop in DG's room and am beginning some set-building, beginning with Ravel's Study where the film will start.  Once I've got it mostly up, I'll be finishing texturing and materials.  I enjoy texturing a lot as it goes hand in hand with the overall color design I've already decided on for the film.  Seeing the colors all come together to "say"something gives me satisfaction.

There is one *critical* prop in the film that I have not only NOT modeled yet, but I don't even know what it is!  This is causing me no end of script problems and is holding up a lot of things.  How can I not know what it is?  Well, I know it is a dearly beloved toy owned by DG and eventually given to Ravel by her, but I'm not sure what type of toy is so dear to her... the character hasn't yet spoken to me about it...  Those of you out there who write probably know this experience quite well.

I found myself stalling for a week and wasted a lot of time because I was afriad to approach modeling the sets, but now that it's begun, things are rolling along again.  I've decided to add some painted/drawn backdrops of a certain style to some scenes- particularly the Paris neighborhood around DG's home.

I thought I had the final render specs decided upon but in reading further about which sizes can best be used with which medium I having to think carefully about my real target "audience" for this piece.

17 Aug 01:
Still haven't moved the site as the new ISP has yet to send me DNS and other info... hope Qwest doesn't pull the plug before then.

Loads of models finished for DG's room: her vanity, rocking chair, perfume bottles, brush, stuff like that.  I'm about 66% finished with the props in her room.  I'm thinking of a small rewrite that allows for a more detailed exchange between the characters in this room- expanding the scene that takes place in it or adding an additional scene that Ravel doesn't witness but never the less affects his perceptions.  There's something about this room that is magical to me.

I was going to explain what I mean when I write I'm 90% done with a model as I have written so many times before.  What that means is that the model is really done except for bones and textures.  Rigging bones isn't too tough compared to texturing as so many others have blazed the trail for me with bipedal set-ups.  However, that being said, I won't e using Raf's set-up or any other of the set-ups out there.  I've got my own ideas and my own way of working- and simplicity is the key.  And having experimented with the cat and Ravel a bit, I think something far, far more simple than the rigs I've seen out there is in order, I'll save the complexity for multiple rigs on characters for various motions I'll need them to accomplish.  I'm not a fan of "one-rig solves all problems" thinking.

Odd trivia: 42 models completed so far.  No, I'm not going to count how many there are to go... I'll do that when I'm DONE!

12 Aug 01:
Moving ISP's again- not by my choice this time, as Qwest sold me to MSN.  The move should happen in a few weeks.

Finished drawing layouts of all sets and floorplans.  I think I have a complete prop list done, and am about 40% of the way through making them.  Oh thank my stars and garters I'm nearly through with the construction phase... what an effort!  Me and my stupid promise to myself to use *only* original models in this film... :o)  Well, I've learned a lot, and my modeling speed is about 10x what it was a few months ago.

While there are a lot of set decorative props in this film, there are not a lot of hand-props, so that makes the modeling a little easier as I neither have to bone everything nor do I have to model a lot of things in such a way that they have moving parts.  Big exceptions to this were the pianos which while they don't move much at all in the film (for example when Ravel plays them I will *not* be showing the keys indent), I *did* build them so that the covers over the strings and the keys are moveable.

Funny, but I designed a pretty complex spiraling lamp and thought it would be difficult to model but it didn't take long at all (a few hours).  What really *stumped* me were two hardcover books in Ravel's study.  For the life of me I could not figure out how to go about modeling the pages inside and the external cover.  It took one day of failing, the next day of thinking about it, and then two more hours of finally getting it right- after my plan failed yet again.  Simple books... yeah right.  I wanted detail in the spine and the covers to overlap the pages; that took some serious thinking and hairpulling.

While modeling DGM and BGM I took a series of screen captures (19 of DGM and 46 of BGM) and when (if) I have time and there is any interest, I will put together some text to go along with the series of shots.  My approach to head modeling doesn't match anyone else's that I've read about who uses AM.  While there is a small "flaw" to my approach in two places near the lips, the patch count is ridiculously low, animates really well, is a BREEZE to create from a front and side view roto of your head- in fact its so simple that I create them from scratch rather than modify an old one when I want to create a new character.  I can't believe I'm about to say this (remembering how I was when I started) but- making heads is relaxing now.

3 Aug 01:
Finished a load of props (paintings, snowglobe, table, N11, clock, etc), but had a huge interuption this last week with a class running the entire week from 9am to 4pm, but now things are settling back into a routine.  Nearly completed with floorplans for sets so the prop list can be completed.  Along with the floorplans and set designs has gone a lot of work on camera angles and story boarding and designing of shots.  Had fun animating as a swarm a bunch of golden glitter in a large snowglobe- pretty cool effect.  Well, after a few days rest I should be back at the stuff needed to get BPMF rolling again...

24 Jul 01:
Completed manuscripts, and did a simple rig on the one the Blond Girl will hand to Ravel when they meet during the war.  Took an odd turn in my modeling plans and got bored with domestic stuff- so I'm deep into a Nieuport 11 that appears in the film.  Then it'll be back to chairs and paintings and candelabras and a snow globe!

20 Jul 01:
Finally back in production after a week of moving.  Not fun.  Completed Ravel's piano.  It was difficult to begin it, but once I had a process down it went extremely smoothly- mechanical modeling is a breeze compared to character, even the elegant curves of a grand piano are nothing compared to the curve between a cheek and a chin.  The piano bench took about an hour once I settled on the design and how it would match the piano.

Overall for this animation, I'm basing things on reality, but not modeling strictly realistic replicas of objects, and that includes the piano.  I found a few photos of Ravel sitting at his piano and I've read about every biography of Ravel so I think I understand his sense of style and thus created the piano based on what I think he would like.  It's tricky because Ravel in reality was a short, small man, and I emphasized that when I modeled him but he still has to be able to sit at his piano and play/reach the pedals, compose, etc.

07 Jul 01:
Small re-writes to the story.  Characters are being written out and actors let go!  Oh NO!  Career's are in the offing here.  But seriously, in going over the script I realized I wanted just one cat weaving through all the time lines.  All the human actors are still working, but if you see a stray actor cat in need of employment... go soft on him.  He may have just been let go from this years (and probably next's) biggest budget highest profile glamor production... :o)

Finished with eyes for the most part.  I realized in this project I have three different types of eyelids.  Integrated ones for the cat, just top half-circle lids for Ravel and the girls, and both bottom and top half-circles for the other adults.  They all have different looks to them.  I'll probably add the lower lids to Ravel, just too busy to go back and fix him right now.

06 Jul 01:
Went through each of the adult characters and redid their shoulders.  Took awhile to figure out a trick using 5-point patches.  The splines through them needed to be continuous.  Shoulders look much nicer now.  Joints are hard to do.  refaced all their normals too to correct them.  Don't know why but quite often the surface normals end up facing the wrong way on even simple lathed objects.  I think Ravel as a civilian is finally at the level the other characters are at with all I've learned, and so soon it will be props props props and sets...

02 Jul 01
Finished most of the characters' eyes and added eyebrows as well.  Now I'll need to respline the arm joints of the characters in order to make them adequate for bending.  I had just put two splines through the elbow and one on the shoulder in order to get moving on with the larger form and look of each model.  Now that I've settled on how they all look and modeled them, time to tweak them.  This is a less artistic process and so won't be as fun and won't take as long as the modeling has.

Then it will be on to props.  Most of them are non-interactive and so will be pretty low spline counts.

29 Jun 01
RAF 90%.  Went back and added some details to Ravel Military after learning from my approach to the RAF model.

25 June 01
Military Ravel 90%.  Have had to redo a lot of shoulder joints on other models as I came up with a better method that has less surface ambiguities.  I'm building up a lot of new techniques that mean civilian Ravel will need some real work before I call it wraps on character modeling.

22 June 01
Good heavens, either  my modeling skill is improving rapidly or my standards are falling through the floor.  Things are picking up.  BGM at 90% so it's on to RAF (Ravel's Army Friend) and last will be R in military garb and then a re-splining of R himself with all the new skills I've picked up along the way to polish him off.

BGM's body was NOT so standard as I thought- it involved cloth simulation for her skirt and a pair of legs that had to bend juuuuust right, and a resplining of the shoulder joint.

19 June 01
90% complete w/BGM's face.  Her body should be straightforward as it will be based on DGM's, though BGM will have a shorter skirt and articulated legs.  A few days ago I experimented with DGM's ribbons she has in her hair trying them out as cloth affected by forces and they worked magnificently- they don't check for collisions with each other but the effect is quite nice.  For now I have an animation test posted of her over in the Sweatbox.  I may try out BGM's skirt as a cloth as well, this would simplify some of the animation of her, and AM's cloth effect is working quite nicely for me so far.

I'm getting quite anxious to start lighting tests and color/texturing schemes... -erg- if only I could model faster!  But hey, a face in two days isn't bad.

14 June 01
DMG 95% completed.  Learned something interesting about modeling lips that will allow me to improve Ravel's and drop a few patches to boot.

The Athlon is up and running and render times are down by about 70%.  This will help.  A lot. :o)

8 June 01
Pieces of an Athlon Thunderbird litter the floor.  Only thing missing is the processor which will arrive on Monday.

Still heavy into modeling.  Completed Ravel a few days ago and am now working on the character known as DGM (one of the mothers, the other being BGM).  It's going rather smoothly and happily.  I really enjoy the flowing splines of the feminine form, Ravel's chunkiness was frustrating, but rewarding.

Am finalizing the story from the main idea sketchbook where everything is contained.  Made relatively minor changes from the source, however storyboarding will change a lot, I'm sure.

28 May 01
I'm designing BPMF currently on a measly PII350.  When I began the project it looked like this might be the computer rendering it, so low patch counts were important.  Every main character has a budget of around 750 patches.  It's been a challenge, but with Ravel himself coming in at only 722, I think this won't be a problem.  I'm learning how to be very careful with detail and the design approach before I even touch the computer.  This also means I've designed into the story multiplaning effects and pre-rendered backgrounds (both animated and still).   I don't want compromise on having beautiful shadow work, camera work, and lighting...

The good news is that an Athlon seems headed this way, about a GHz of processing power added to the "studio," things will keep rolling when I hit rendering.  With about 14,400- 21,600 frames (at 24fps) in which to tell the story, I'm budgeting at least 4 minutes per frame in rendering and can allow up to 15 for a few critical scenes involving transparencies and effects.  That's only five months of time at 8 hours rendering per day.  Hey, computers need to be dreaming about something while they sleep!  These estimates were for my PII350, with the Athlon in line I'll keep the same estimates and call it the Murphy's law discount- actually make the estimated deadline.