Its been a long time since I posted and many of you are wondering why. Well it all comes down to money. I have no money to work on the project. So at the moment I am praying and thinking about what direction to take.

Hi everyone sorry its been so long since I published an update. Things have slowed down as I have been working on getting the money to pay bills and taxes. This is still not worked out but I am sure God has a plan:)

As for the project I have been doing lots of planning and have I think worked out how to do it with the best quality and the least money. More details coming soon.

Hi all just wanted to post a quick update on state of the project and site. And since I like lists below is a list:)

1. Its possible there could be some big news about the project later this week. So make sure and check back and please keep me and the project in your prayers.

2. Yesterday out of the blue the place that hosts the video pages stage6.com sent out an email saying they were shutting down the site on the 28th of this month. Needless to say this was unexpected of a site with 17 million visitors a month. Any way instead of explain why again here is a link to a story about it. So of course this sent me into a mild panic as I tried to find another place to host high quality DivX video. But with some prayer and searching I found Blip.tv Beta and uploaded the video pages there. Then I had to get the site developer Klaus to update the code to be able to work with the new video source. But he very nicely and dropped the other things he was doing and updated the code of the site for me. And every thing is already moved over so we do not have to worry about any down time for the site. Also the way he updated the site it will not be much faster to deal with problems with the hosts for the videos.

3. Money - Money always seems to be a problem and a blessing. God seems to never give me enough to feel comfortable but the money that is needed always some how turns up. And thats kind of the mode I am in right now. I have a couple of small jobs it looks like I will be doing and I am also stepping out in faith to setup a TV site. The TV site will be a collection of Christian and family TV feeds, radio feed and videos. I really really have been praying about doing this and about spending the money. But in the big picture the $280 or so is hardly any money but to me its a LOT at the moment. And I am still worried about spending it and if its the best way to do it but when I prayed about God showing me the way I got an email just shortly after from someone saying how much they liked the Beta version and how it was a blessing to them. So I am going to take this as a sign to spend the money on the project and trust in God to provide money for my other needs.

Also if you are interested you can play with the beta at TVgismo.com. The beta only has a few channels but the finished site will have many hundreds or thousands of links in an easy to use interface. You can see a non working mockup of the new site here Mockup.

4. Any way with all of that going on I have not had much time to work on the design for Adam and the look of the garden of eden. But I hope to be able to get back to working on that in another week or two.

Well now that the sites finally up and the first couple of video pages I can take a deep breath. Ahhhh Ok well now back to work:) The next thing I am working on is creating the look of Adam and Eve. And even more importantly I am working out the production process for the rest of the project. As I get more information on this I will make sure to post the information to help others working on no-budget or microbudget project.

Here is a sneak peak of Eve where she stands now. Including the 3D model without hair etc. She will probably not change much except maybe the hair. Let me know what you think.

Well just thought I would update everyone on the new computer and studio news. At the moment I have most of the custom water cooling system done and I am just saving money to by the rest of the system all at one time. I also have most of the new office/studio done and when I have the extra time and money will get moved in. Here is a link to some images of both and below is a picture of the external cooling tower I built. http://www.pwlawrence.com/temp_art/water_cooling/

I thought I would post some information about Digital Matte Painting and Camera Mapping for those that did now know anything about it. Basicly what happens is that a camera in the 3D program projects the background matte painting onto 3D shapes that are made to match the basic shape of the background. Then this allows you to move the camera some and get a little sense of depth. That way it does not look like you are just shooting a flat image. If you want to get a better idea of how this works watch Dylan Cole’s demo real . Dylan Cole is one of the more well known matte painters and you have probobly seen his work if you have seen any big buget movies lately. Dylan’s Site/Demo Reel

Also here is a very easy and simple video to show how it works but not as impressive as Dylans work of course.

Well after much research and testing I think I have finaly decided on the animation technics to use.  And since I like lists let me list what was needed and what will be used.

 Needed:

1. Not so labor intensive that 1 person or a small group could not get it done in 1-2 years.

2. Not so costly that it cant be done on my micro budget.

 3. A style that is aesthetically pleasing to me.

 4. If done with computers rendering times that were fast enough to be able to get done in a reasonable time. Also rendering times fast enough to be able to make test shots etc.

 5. A style that would be aesthetically pleasing to the audience.

6. A style that would tell the story well.

After figuring out what was needing and looking at every style/technic I could find I have finaly decided on how it will be done. First all animation will be done digitaly. Mostly in 3ds Max. Backgrounds will be mostly 2.5D camera mapped matte paintings to save on render times. Middle and forground enviroment will be a combination of true 3D , 2.5D and 2D objects.  Characters will be  true 3D , 2.5D and 2D. 

With using this aproach instead of doing full 3D on everything it will cut render times by a HUGE amount. Using this combination aproach it should allow for a very rich and full visual experience for the audience but still come in on our limited budget.

Well now that we have the new script up for keeping track of the production log lets start with getting every one up to date. 

Things are finaly starting to come together now. Here is a list (I like lists) of some things that come to mind….

1. We have the script done and the narration all recorded.

2. I have had some experts look at the high definition work flow and said it would work fine.

3. The storyboards and visuals are being worked out to get the final shot list.

4. I am doing lots of tests to come up with the final animation technics to be used and this should be finalized this week. Then this will be used as a standard to setup each shot with.

 5. Basic music choices have selected and priced.  The good news is since we are using mainly the great classical music done by large orchestras and choirs it solves two problems. We get both great world class music and its cheap to license it.

 So whats lacking?  Well since this is a micro budget project money is always a problem. At the moment I am working on making some extra money to be able to buy Cineform’s Aspect HD. With a discount I found its $399 and we have to have it to do the HD video editing.  We will also be needing Premiere cs3 and its running about $399 on ebay.  These are my to most immediate needs.

I will also be needing more computer power for faster rending times etc.  And I have already started working on this buying a Lian Li PC-V2000B case. This case is great for over clocking and has a huge amount of room for hard drives. I have also done the research and put together a top of the line cooling system. The next step is to buy the fastest Quad core system I can afford and to over clock. This will give me a huge improvement in render times without the added complication of a small render farm.