Episode 11 Update - 01/23/23

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Every set is now complete.  I am very satisfied with this 3D artist's work and plan to utilize hiring him for everything down the line.  He is currently on hold while the character animation gets finished, and will be taking over all the destruction and special effects down the line.

I'm now in the process of working with 3D animators on the character animation process.  Despite combing through a lot of the applicants and giving people animation tests, I have been less than pleased with the results.

The person doing a lot of the body mechanics work is getting a lot done, but has thus far needed a lot of guidance from me, and, aside from some run cycles, has yet to complete any sequences that I'm satisfied with.  He is, at this time working on implementing my notes.  I have a feeling that, although I'm going to use his work, I'm going to have to alter his animations heavily before putting it into the episode.  This person is currently working on sequences from scenes "B" and "C".  After he is done with the "C" sequences, I plan on taking on the rest of "C" by myself.

The newest hire, who did the best on my animation test, is so far, doing not so great on the sequence I've assigned to him ("A").  I am hoping that this is just an early part of the process, and that he takes my notes to heart, but if what I've been seeing thus far continues, I'm not sure it'll work out.  I'm a bit nervous about that one.

The third animator, who agreed to start in January, and was given the most important sequence in the episode, has not been responding to any of my messages.  This one I'm really nervous about.

Unless things change, it seems that I will once again be doing almost all of the character animation for the episode.  This is the one thing I really, really wanted to avoid.  I was really hoping to get this out in Summer, on the 10 year anniversary of the series, but in order for that to happen, I need my hired help to pick up the slack.  I might have to look to some of the later applicants and hand out more tests.  In the meantime, I am handling Scene "D" - the longest scene, and animating as much as I can so that someone else can pick it up once I've mapped it out thoroughly enough.  I plan on doing "B" and "C" completely by myself afterwards.  I am hoping things start picking up in the near future.  Although things are moving along, they're not going as smoothly as I need them to right now.