Spinning plates! (Blog) (Patreon)

So since the last post I've been busying myself with a few things for the next few videos.

October/Halloween Video:

I've been playing the next game for the Halloween themed video all of this afternoon and I've basically finished with it.

I say basically, because there's technically other stuff to do but it doesn't seem like the reward for doing it all will be worth it after what I've experienced so far...

I've found other means of getting footage for what that would be though so it's no big deal. I'll go back and record a little bit more footage of the game as and when as it'd literally just be the odd few seconds here and there I'd want for the sake of demonstration.

I also have a reason to bust out the SNES mini I bought a few months back for some HD footage of one of the games on there. It'll only be on screen for the sake of one comparison but... I may as well use it!

I've been making notes and have rough script after so I think a few runs through of what I have along with some tweaking, a final version of the script should be done in the next couple of days, with voice-over to be done a day or two after!

December/Christmas Video:

Yes! I am actually planning this far ahead of myself, and for once I'm actually attempting to stick to a long-term plan with the channel :D

At the moment it's at the very early stages of pre-production with some digging around for assets relating to the game I'd like to do in December.

Firstly, I've managed to find the game's entire soundtrack online which wasn't difficult, but it's always handy to have as I try to keep the background music for each video relate to the subject at hand.

And in the weeks running up to writing/editing phase of things I like to listen to the soundtrack(s) as they can help me come up with ideas for certain camera segments.

But... I've ran into a problem regarding image assets that I'm in the process of attempting to remedy on my own.

So you've no doubt seen I've sort of found a way of making my thumbnails lately that I'm quite happy with. I like to keep things basic but with enough visual information to know exactly what's going on at a glance...

• The word "Review" in big text themed in the same style as the game where possible
• my stupid face reacting to the game
• and a decent sized picture of the main character...

Two of those three elements are fine. The text and a photo of me is no problem at all but there's barley anything for me to work with regarding a good picture of the main character...

The version of them on the box art is covered by the games logo, and after a lot of searching I was able to find ONE full body shot, but the resolution is so low it looks awful when blown up to the size that I would use in a thumbnail...

 So, using the same program I use to make my custom logos (CLIP STUDIO PAINT) l I've started an attempt to redraw the character at a much higher resolution. 

The image above shows you what I've been doing without spoiling anything, but yeah. The scan I found online was around 200 x 500 pixels wide, and I've drawn over it from top to bottom after scaling the original image up, with the idea being that I'm "remastering" the artwork.

I'm actually really lucky that the character is fairly cartoony looking on the front cover of the game, and doesn't have much in the way of detailed clothing or features so I just need to gradually add to it to ensure things like shading look right in the end.

I'm not aiming to make changes to the artwork, but literally just remaster it at a higher resolution so I've got something to work with! I really want to show you guys what I've done... but it'd IMMEDIATELY ruin the surprise.

Once it's done and the video is public I'll put up a raw version of the artwork on here for you guys though!

Again all of this drawing stuff is for the DECEMBER video, so it's a way off yet...

October (again)

October's video I'm aiming to get a lot of crap done in the coming weeks to ensure it releases... actually during October.

Given I usually upload on Fridays this means I'm aiming for the 27th... but at a push I can delay it a few days until the 31st if absolutely necessary.

Truth be told if miss that deadline then I'm still going through with this video regardless... but it's themed around Halloween so October is perfect for it, if I can get the work done!

Hope you enjoyed the update, it's been a kinda productive week this week!

Cheers,

- Pete :)