For the first time, I’m doing some test renders at 1280×720, which is expected to be the screen resolution of the completed short. For optimal antialiasing, the foreground characters need to be rendered out at an even higher resolution—1920×1080!—then scaled to fit in post. I’ve been quite pleased with the results.

Shot-4_720p.jpg (or just click on the image)

For once, my obsessive attention to detail works in my favor. Having already retextured most of the models back in April, and having already fine-tuned my compositing workflow during the animatic stage, there wasn’t much left to do except render at a higher resolution than usual.

For those keeping track, this is more or less what the finished short is going to look like.

A freelance project is currently taking up the bulk of my nights and weekends, leaving me with only intermittent chunks of time to work on the remaining shots. So, I’ve been trying to focus on smaller, less commitment-intensive tasks, like polishing some scenes from the screenplay and researching animation tutorials.

In an effort to keep the project from getting too delayed, I’ve decided to start reworking Ebon’s walk cycle, which affects portions of five different shots, making it the best bang for my buck right now. I’ll post a clip when I’ve got some progress made.

So here it is, shot 11. As good as I can get it, given my current level of skill.

lipsync_shot11-3.mov

Times like this I wish I had more of a venue for this stuff. I toil alone for five weeks, show the finished shot to a couple of my friends, and go back to work. Feels unbalanced.

Anyway. Hope you enjoy the clip.