Hey everyone!

So, I have been extra busy this last couple of weeks, and have fallen VERY behind in these updates. Considering that we’ve had a relatively slow couple of weeks, I am combining these updates into one single post.

First, some notes about the project status. We’ve been fighting against a particular roadblock since the beginning of this year, and while we keep making good progress, we still aren’t performing to full potential. This has everything to do with people’s schedules, mine included, but I do believe that we can overcome this. One topic that has come up repeatedly in the last two weeks is team-building. We’re all friends here, and getting along is not a problem. What we haven’t spent much time doing is building skills in working with each other technically. So we could use some team-building, especially considering the physical distance and timezone constraints among us. One of the options discussed was setting small animation tasks for teams of two, with a week or two deadline. At the end of that deadline, the work is given constructive criticism by the rest of the group, and new teams of two are paired. You may be asking yourself “but isn’t that taking away from OWF time?”…yes, it is. However, this is an unavoidable step we will have to take, and we’d be better suited to do this step now, before we delve deep into the actual film.  More information on this will be coming soon. Check out this thread for more information.

On to the news of the last couple of weeks!

First, Hunter551 came out of nowhere with a Blender build that seems to solve our hair rendering/simulation issues! Please download it and test it out. The discussion about this can be found in these two locations:

http://www.openworldfilm.com/Forums/viewtopic.php?p=6057#p6057

http://www.openworldfilm.com/Forums/viewtopic.php?f=68&p=6063#p6063

Next, Funddevi has been posting updates on the Scene 5 storyboards. Very nice work so far, check it out here:

http://www.openworldfilm.com/Forums/viewtopic.php?f=54&p=6056#p6056

On this thread, we are back to the discussion of Nia’s skin tone color. Please chime in here, this is a subject that has managed to slip by unnoticed so far!

http://www.openworldfilm.com/Forums/viewtopic.php?f=58&p=6050#p6050

Tictoon has posted more storyboards for scene 9:

http://www.openworldfilm.com/Forums/viewtopic.php?f=54&p=6040#p6040

The File Management System is functional now, and a link has been added in the header of the forums. Please start using the FMS to upload your WIP work. There may be some hiccups at first as we really get this system running full speed ahead, so make sure to keep backups just in case.

So that wraps it up for this week. Sorry for the delay and the condensed nature of these last recaps!

-CJ Maynard