Based on my perceptions during this year’s Fanime screenings of Nesca 1.7 and the FBBB director’s cut (first time for either with myself in attendence), I made some changes to both which alter their existing timing. And by changing their exisiting timing there’s a whole bunch of other tasks that need to be performed as well:

-Re-encode altered scenes in MPEG-2 format 
-Re-export audio for entire feature
-Rejoin all MPEG-2 files into one big file
-Convert audio into AC-3
-Reimport into authoring program
-Re-add chapter stops
-Redirect menu selections to chapter stops in new file
-Retime subtitles around changes

All this because I felt a joke in Nesca needed 2/5ths a second more pause before the punchline. I’m still aiming to be done before the end of June, though me taking a trip to Anime Expo next weekend might make that tricky.

I’m hoping for a good time at AX or even better, some inspiration. Last time I went (in the year 2000…), I came back with several of the ideas for what would become Fanboy Bebop (the reg line scene was directly inspired by my AX reg line experience) and Nescaflowné (they premiered the movie that year, and my most lasting impression was that the Folken character looked just like David Bowie in Labyrinth). Perhaps my muse is waiting for me in SoCal.

My testers have been tied up with various things (something called “life” keeps coming up) so I haven’t been able to finalize the discs by FanimeCon as I was hoping. Since I sent the test discs out I’ve made a few corrections, mostly that audio glitch I mentioned in the last post for ReDeath and better menu controls on all three. The big thing on my plate now is to fix some frame glitches in Nesca that cropped up in a couple of scenes I re-lipsynched, something I didn’t notice until the Fanime screening. Plus, there’s a gag I retimed that I want to tweak some more, so yes, Nesca v1.8 is on the way.

I want to be done with these dang things by the end of June.