STATUS REPORT:
I've finished converting all of the videos for the fullscreen section to a set of PNG images (thousands of them, actually - for each video), and a .wav audio track. It looks like the only one that will need a frame-rate adjustment is mine, which I'll do soon with the application I'm writing right now for mass file copying and renaming based on an ASCII list (I'll also need it to make video segments out of the bumpers and narrative images).
I've also finished creating the set images for the fullscreen section, at least for all of the videos I have images to make a set of (Songbird's video being the exception). This step was a bit of a pain until I realized the GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) would let me just resize and paste each image into the set's "television screen" if I kept the orignal open and exported the resulting pictures as copies rather than saving the whole thing each time. From that point forward each one probably took me about 10-15 seconds to complete. There were a few images where I had to cut off part of the picture to convey what looked like the significant detail on the small screen area I had to work with, and a few others (really just the Edward Scissorhands screencaps) where I had to adjust the brightness/contrast levels to keep the image from being drowned out in the brightness of the "set". I loved the film, but most of the lovely gothic fairytale was too dimly lit to look good in a background chosen to complement vibrent animation cells. I also decided to leave a few images out if they weren't specifically mentioned in a script and there were enough submissions that the "slideshow" would look rushed given the brevety of the narratives.
This morning I also completed a Java utility that lets me fade an image in and out from black. I could extend it pretty easily to make it fade to white, or to another image, but I decided to leave well enough alone for now and just write the part that I need for fading the set and bumpers in and out. When I do extend it to do everything it really should be capable of as a fade transition maker, I'll publish source under the MIT licence (it's a non-copyleft open-source licence, for any legal or technical types who might want to know). Until then, I'm just using it to make the set and bumper fades.
I'm a little behind on the audio recordings, having only done a couple of tests to make sure all of my software settings were set up right, but I should have those done soon as well, especially if the scripts keep coming in as they are.
The FTP is down for now. I'm having issues with my school's network firewall and don't remember what I had to do to work around it last time (servers are allowed, but the technical setup makes them a bit of a challenge for an overextended novice among the technical clericy I've found myself surrounded by). For now, I decided it was better to concentrate on getting the project done before classes start (both for the sake of trying to get this done for all of you, after we originally planned to have it ready by the 4th of July, and for the sake of my currently short-of-what-I-desired grades) than to play around with the network. This means you won't be able to FTP anything up to me right now, but you can just as easily send scripts and images through e-mail. As far as I know, all of the final videos are in (I dearly hope so, because I've been spending a lot of time working with the ones I have), so the big files have already been transferred. I also need both of my computers at 100% capacity for all of this rendering work, and am working within the directory used by the FTP (no room to copy all of that AND make the PNG image streams - don't worry though, I'm just reading the video files, not directly editing them), so having the servers turned off for the moment is a good idea from a stability and speed perspective as well.
I will get the web server working, and post the fullscreen segment as soon as I have it done (initially in an unlinked-to folder for just you, which I will make and tell you about when I get to that point in the project, then on an updated Instrumentality page). After I finish the fullscreen section I'll do the same thing for the widescreen section.
I'm doing the two sections one at a time for two reasons:
1) Even I have a limited amount of disk space to work with - and I'm rapidly approaching that limit.
2) This way you can see the first part while I'm still working on the second.
I'm also putting together my full credits sheet, based which the actual credits will be made. I've just added DWP for his improved version of the Instrumentality project page, and Kalium as one of the people providing FTP mirrors. I'll post that once it's a bit more organized so you can look it over and point out mistakes and omissions before I go through the whole time-consuming process of making the credits video.
WHAT I STILL NEED FOR THE FULLSCREEN SECTION (URGENT):
Songbird - I need your script and images.
WHAT I STILL NEED FOR THE WIDESCREEN SECTION (NOT AS URGENT):
Bakadeshi - Images for Oratorio of Ghibli
Pen-Pen - Images for Requiem for a Nightmare
WHAT I WOULD FIND SOMEWHAT USEFUL, BUT DON'T ABSOLUTELY NEED:
Jasper-Isis/Bakadeshi - A copy of the font(s) used for the bumper titles and DVD covers. I'm assuming it's a TrueType, OpenType, or Type 1 - in which case I can also use it when I make the "intermission" and credits.
WHAT I MIGHT BE ABLE TO PROVIDE IF IT'S STILL NEEDED:
Bakadeshi - still want 720 by 480 MPEG2 renders for the DVD? I think I can make those as well, if you are still looking to make a DVD. If you aren't, I think I'll try it myself (it'd be yet another fun thing to learn, I have some good tutorials on it, and I could use an excuse for buying a DVD burner). Either way works for me, I just imagine that it'd be faster for someone who already has some experience and a commercial authoring tool to do it.
MY MARGINALLY SIGNIFICANT QUESTION OF THE DAY:
Think I should use some of the artwork I've had posted on my web gallery (or at
http://rose4emily.deviantart.com) for the "intermission"? I imagine dressing it up with something would be a good idea, and that some yellowed versions of the pencil drawings might be a nice random visual to accompany the Part1 credits.
MY INANE OBSERVATIONS OF THE DAY:
One of the clips from Scintilla's "The NERV Evening News with Dan Rather" is really from Monty Python.
Listing to Louis Armstrong for some reason brings back the smell of trumpet valve oil and the spit-covered carpet of my middle-school bandroom.
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