The ReDeath and FBBB discs are pretty much done. I’ll watch them one more time and unless I missed something, they’ll be good to go.

And now, the fun part. Somehow, my project file for the Nesca disc got replaced with a version of the FBBB project file. So now I gotta rebuild the sucker from scratch. At least I still have test discs to remind myself of the menu design I came up with, which I rather like. It shouldn’t take too long, but damn, what a waste.

If you’ve written me e-mail lately, sorry I’ve been ignoring you, I’m waiting for the discs to be done before I respond to any further requests. With luck, I’ll start going through them shortly after the start of August.

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.

Even before I heard back from anyone in my test group, a possible glitch popped up in my head, and sure enough it was there. The problem is that if one video file has more than one audio track, then all video files will have more than one audio track, albeit comprised of silence. For obvious reasons, I didn’t make audio selection menus for the sections that only had one audio track. So if you select that second audio track for that one file, then decide to watch some other video on the disc, you will hear silence unless you use your remote to change the audio on the fly or go back to the audio selection menu for that one file and select the first track. Whew!

The solution was simple: add a bit of code to the menus for the parts that have only one track so that the audio is automatically set to that first track and then prevent the user from switching the audio while those files are playing (I learned earlier the same thing had to be done for subtitles). I actually added the lockout the first time around, but didn’t realize that the one-audio-track videos would not play that track by default. Oops.

If this sounds confusing, don’t worry, the idea is that if everything is running smoothly, you won’t notice how much work it took to get it that way. Meanwhile, I wait for the reports to come in…

DVDs are… done?

I’m sending out a few to close friends for testing. If I hear no problems, we’ll start slipping them to cons.