Hello everyone, and welcome to this weeks Dev Diary!

 

I took a relaxed approach to last week and gave my self more time to relax and do some "mechanics research" or as people would more often call it - play video games. I uploaded the intro video previews to the Project Taival YouTube channel and put together a quick history, where the current 4 intros fade in to each other in chronological order. Please feel free to comment on what has the more preferred style to you

 

This is also a learning experience, as the videos will be released on scheduled manner, one each day at 15.00 / 3.00 PM UTC, starting from today, 25.02.2019. There is nothing hype-worthy about the videos, but experimenting on most basic things might become valuable eventually.

 

Here is the timetable for the premiers;

 

Project Taival - Second Preview of the First Intro Video

https://youtu.be/6zF4c9-iWMQ

 

Description;

This is the second preview of the first intro video. I tried to add the same effects that I had in Photoshop, but the look is totally different to the previous video. I managed to copy the text layer of the original picture, with it's effects, straight from the Photoshop, into After Effects and was able to change the text layers to vector shapes. This is why the resolution (or definition) of the text is much higher and the text dimensions a bit different.

 

 

Project Taival - Third Preview of the First Intro Video

https://youtu.be/BwTGHCnr8Rc

 

Description;

This is the third preview of the first intro video. I attempted to make the text look more solid and add some lighting to it. Still, I feel there is a lot missing from this. I also made a project wide error of overwriting a single project file with my progress so far, which makes it harder to test out this style again with different effects, without re-discovering it first. Live and learn

 

 

Project Taival - Fourth Preview of the First Intro Video

https://youtu.be/mDdk2sJ2Idg

 

Description;

This is the fourth preview of the first intro video. Tried making the text darker and have an eerie glow to it. I'm also testing if some vanishing method would make it more appealing and you can see a rapid dissolve effect here. I also added some more snowfall to the background, and made the background snow more visible. Let me know which you like better, more snow or the original amount? Less than in this video but more visible?

 

 

Project Taival - Preview History of the First Intro Video

https://youtu.be/QxApqEk8OjU

 

Description;

This is the first Preview History of the First Intro Video, where the first 4 iterations of the preview fade out chronologically. For some reason the first video fades to black before the underlying video starts showing. This is why i think that the first intro video lost it's alpha layer after I ran it through VirtualDub2 with incorrect settings, which is why it fades out differently from the rest of the videos. Weird though, as it shouldn't effect the underlying videos and they should pop out as soon as the overlaying video fades out, just like all the later iterations of the intro videos do.

 

 

Remember, the Premiere function includes a chatroom for the video, that you can go troll in if you'd like to

 

In the near future, I plan on making a playable, internal preview build of the house for my friends, who wish to help with my project. There will be none of the mechanics in the game, as it is only for visualizing purposes, what types of things might happen in which corner of the house. In conjunction with this, I will be finalizing the demo-room within a month at earliest, taking into consideration all that can go wrong with the design work. One thing I have learned is to not make too tight schedules, or else it will take it's toll on me.

 

To be able to work efficiently, I'm practicing moderation in how much work I do and it can take some time for me to find the sweet spot. Every day I start working with the project, I could easily do it for the whole day - it is so enjoyable that it's hard to stop - and sometimes even annoying to stop right then and there, when need be Yes, I have a serious enthusiasm problem, but I'm managing it.

 

I have had 2 more Time-Lapse videos hanging on shelf for quite some time now and when I get the first final preview ready, I'll be releasing those time-lapses with the intro and embedded royalty free musics. I'm also planning on releasing the mildly cut versions of the actual workflow, that shows my workflow in nearly real-time speed, but doesn't have all the pauses I made to take measurements of the real world objects.

 

I have also considered making some tutorial videos or posts about what I have learned, so that anyone interested can have some more tools to follow my footsteps if they so incline. More on that as the idea becomes topical

 

Thank you again for tuning in to my weekly happenings and thoughts, and I'll see you on the next weeks Dev Diary!