Production Changes and Progress Update

tl;dr: We're starting another (much shorter and easier) Down the Rabbit Hole while we wait for the graphics to be finished on the current one and I'm bringing on potentially permanent help for research. Graphics are coming along steadily and the final orchestration for the current video has begun.

It's been a minute everyone, I hope you've all been well. Work from Ryan (composer) and Arc (graphic designer and animator) has been continuing steadily while I've been preoccupied with my transatlantic move, but with things calming down, I can move my gaze farther forward.

First, the video on Foxhole: the amount of graphic design and animation work required for it is equivalent to all that was done for the EVE video by Arc's estimations. Below you'll be able to see some of his progress.

The first half of the video's music is also plotted out and is receiving final orchestration, and Ryan is also creating another song to act as the theme and the credits music, for which we've brought on a new vocalist. It's much heavier than what he's made in the past but I think suits the subject matter well. We're playing this battle in a video game completely straight-faced.

However, with Arc and Ryan both toiling away in the content mines, I've been left to twiddle my thumbs a bit in regards to this video, and so rather than remain idle, I'm beginning work on the video AFTER this one, meaning that this is the first time that we've had two videos in production at the same time. This video will be MUCH smaller in scope and lighter in research than either the EVE or Foxhole videos; the primary factor in their production lengths was the research, but this new topic is extremely straightforward comparatively, reminiscent of videos like the Purr Cat Cafe and the Final Fantasy House. In many ways, it feels like a return to form. I also expect the runtime to be in that same region.

It's extremely likely that this video will be completed before the Foxhole video, in the next couple of months. Should this be the case, I will release it first and delay the launch of the Foxhole video so that I can create a backlog to space out releases; I intend to do much smaller and simpler videos for the foreseeable future. I would like to exit my George R. R. Martin phase (but still stay shy of entering a Philip K. Dick phase).

I am also looking to bring on research help in the form of Vex (previously credited as DerEineSchwarzeRabe). You are likely familiar with their work: they were instrumental in tracking down obscure books and information for the Austrian Wine Poisoning video and have also done illustration for that video (the mysterious man with the German accent), Deep Blue, and The Battle of May Island. They have already performed preliminary research for the next video, and so we should be able to move on to the writing phase shortly. I'll keep all of you apprised. Should this arrangement work out well for both of us, they will join the team in a permanent fashion to expedite production. Research has always been the longest and most laborious part of any of my videos, and so having assistance is a blessing. This will potentially alleviate the tightest production bottleneck with which we've struggled and could mean that all parts of the team are working near-constantly.

Below you'll find some (but not all) of the work that Arc has completed along with an update from him. In particular we'd like to show off the intricate maps that he's made; locations of events are extremely important both in terms of the battle itself and viewer comprehension, and so we've taken special pains to make sure that they're clear and useful. We'll be zooming out and in frequently to make sure that everyone can understand the battle as best they can.

(Please excuse the "October Progress Update" labels, I'd have liked to have this update out before the move but my extremely tight schedule dictated otherwise)

-Fredrik

Hey everyone, Christopher “Arcaxon” here to share my progress on the animations so far.
Since the last update I’ve basically completed the detailed map of the baths, created most assets required for the animations, and have started working full time on animations! The animations will feature audio for effects such as gunshots and explosions. As detailed in the last update, me and Fred have had various meetings and I’ve been able to annotate the whole script & created an animation breakdown for most of the animations. Additionally I’ll be sharing the final update to the closeup map of the baths.

Creating the Detailed Map of the Baths:

Below is the process I took to make the detailed(Close-up) map of the Baths.

Before starting a detailed map of the Baths, it was necessary to also make the map of the Drowned Vale region.

First I took a screenshot of the in-game map, this map helped me place basic things such as the water, roads, and basic shape of the land and its obstacles.

However the in-game map lacks a lot of detail & includes confusing colours and land colouration which is not incredibly useful due to the colour blobs not always representing things accurately or distinctly enough.

To map detailed terrain I used Rustard’s improved map mod via Foxhole Planner, my own footage, and the original in-game maps. This offered everything needed to complete the region map!

This is the mostly final Drowned Vale Region Map.

With the final Region map done, it was time to make the detailed map of the baths, which includes player-made fortifications & world structures such as Safe Houses and Town Centers.
To create the closeup map with the player-made fortifications I used 5 hours of footage of the fight at the baths graciously sent to us by RobertLuvsGames, and footage I got myself by travelling to the Baths, the latter footage only being used for world structures which have not changed since War 106.

I scrubbed through all 5 hours of footage one part of the baths at a time while placing anything I saw in a Foxhole Planner project focused on the Drowned Vale Region. Foxhole Planner is a great tool normally used by players to plan out facilities in game.

[Note from Fredrik: it's true, I use Foxhole Planner regularly]

This Foxhole Planner Project file was the result after a few days of scrubbing the footage, placing things down, moving them around & confirming their placement.

I took the screenshot of my Foxhole Planner project and lined it up with the features already part of the regional map.

This was the beginning of the long process of creating the bunker base’s layouts and trying to get them to fit on the map.

After a few hours I realized the scale of my original bunkers and their angles were a bit off making it impossible to properly replicate the map made in Foxhole planner, and so I revised the bunker’s dimensions and shape to be more accurate with the game’s assets and the foxhole project file and it was able to comfortably fit the constraints of the map.

This is the current close-up map of the bath. It’s complete, or at least its most detail intensive version is completed.

This map contains every player made structure at the time of the footage, and all world-structures. The ground’s colour was changed so it would be easier to see buildings, players, and vehicles.
The map will only truly be final once it’s integrated into animations due to structures within the map changing over the course of the video.


This should be my last update on asset creation, as the only assets being made now are on a per-animation basis and mostly minor.

Animation Work:

The workload for the animations this time around is perhaps more involved and complex than the Eve video. However it is a lot more focused and on a personal level it is rather straightforward because I understand most if not all of Foxhole’s game mechanics being a long time player. Rendering these animations has been easier as earlier this year I was able to build a new PC which is much better at rendering than my previous computer.

About sound effects and animation; The sound effects are from the game, and sourcing these sounds is all done in-game(as of now), which can be slightly inconvenient when the sound is hard to source. Thankfully most sounds aren’t too hard to source and if it is not possible to get a specific sound, it can be replaced with another similar one from the game.
(If you’re curious as to when the first time audio was used for animations: It was when Fred recorded his own sound effect for when chess pieces are placed down in the Deep Blue episode.)

So far only a few animations have been finalized, but a vast amount of reusable animations such as gunshots, tank turrets firing, explosions, and player states have already been created thanks to Anim4 named: “Bridge Fights Explained”. Below is a short clip of Anim4.

This animation is a “Bird’s Eye View” animation within an explanation window with a themed border specially created for this episode.

Going forward short animation clips like these will be shared whenever I give a progress update.

That’s all I had to share today; thanks for reading.

-Arcaxon