Random Antistasi Bullshittery - Update #4 (Patreon)

Good evening folks. Another update on bullshittery progress. It's a bit of a gruelling project, I'm afraid.

It's the start of week 5 on Random Antistasi Bullshittery (part 5), and thus far I've been able to hit that 13 minute mid-point previously mentioned. A natural point to stop and polish what's been made so far.

From Thursday last week I've been quality-assuring what I've done to try and bring the first 13 minutes to you as soon as I can.

As of this afternoon, I've reached around about the 6th minute mark for QA, with another 6 remaining. At which point I'd like to present the first 12 minutes to you. It's entirely up to you whether you'd like to watch it then, or wait until the complete package.

I'm noticing a bit of a flaw in my workflow recently. I'm finding that my quality assurance rounds are a lot "meatier" in terms of editing than they used to be. Often being a sort of 'secondary editing phase', rather than polishing work that a QA would typically imply.This is because I'm intentionally leaving some bigger decisions (or even whole compositions) structurally cut in the first pass, but not properly keyframed, for lots of different reasons. Such as not being sure how best to do it, or unsure whether that clip is going to be funny enough. Or simply because it's going to be a particularly tricky edit that I want to leave until later.

I mention this, because the quality assurance has been slower than I'd expected. With lots of multi-hour snags.

I'm wondering if it's something I should attempt to correct. Or just acknowledge that there's something of a primary editing phase, followed by a secondary editing phase to catch what the first one intentionally excluded. Rather than lump it all in with the act of true quality control (spotting bad edits, spelling errors etc). I'll ponder this problem.

Late last week, I decided that a 38 second scene in the edit needed a bit more 'panache'. And since the Rising Storm: Vietnam puppets went down so well, I figured I'd repeat the style, commissioning BewBewDingo to make soldier puppets for mrbatty and Dinklebean, as they had a conversation near my unconscious body in the background. My p.o.v at the time consisted the solid ground, as I was waiting for a medic. My Youtube format gives me some very hard limitations, forcing me to get creative.

That animation, whilst it is in the first half, will need to wait until the second half I'm afraid. It's quite a lot of work to also add to the quality assurance phase. Still, a big thank you to BewBew for her amazing work.

So if I had to describe Arma editing it would be "merciless". Certain games make light work of editing, CSGO being a particularly good example. With clearly identifiable coloured arrows above player heads, and models that don't move too far from the camera, or in unexpected ways.

Arma on the other hand often has a very inconsistent frame-rate, a lot of head bob, few clear points of contrast for auto-tracking, and foliage or player-held weapons to get infront of everything. As a result, the keyframe requirements are often pretty heavy to sell the illusion that the text is diegetic - or 'part of the scene'. And the game never seems to do you any favors, since there are few moments where people are standing still, and talking.

This, combined with the project length, is making it a particular arduous edit. But I'm hoping it turns out all right. I just need more time.

The editing continues.