What's the news, Naughty?

One question that always seems to be on everyone's lips is "what's the news on chapter X?". Usually,  I'm hard pressed to come up with a coherent answer. 

"It's underway" is the best I can muster most of the time, unless we're getting really close, then I can say "it's nearly there." The new progress indicator thingy up there in the "latest info" post, pinned at the top, is more informative than I could hope to be in that regard.

Still, I get where the question is coming from, but instead of trying to answer it and coming up short, I'll deflect and tell you what's been going on instead, and see if that's more interesting.

So, last two weeks I've been working on a single monster scene. It's about as complex as they get, with lots moments where characters are interacting, four sets, (one of which has action involving four different camera angles, or five if you allow for some reused poses), and two sets of wardrobes. 

On top of that, due to the lighting conditions, the rendering is slow (although that takes place when I'm busy doing other useful things), the scenes take ages to load for some reason I haven't gotten round to figuring out yet, and more than one character requires lengthy dforce simulation after any pose change. 

Spending about two weeks of work (roughly 60/80 hrs) on a single scene can be a bit daunting.  At the start, when you realize how much work is done, or near the end, when you're itching to be done with it and move on to something else but for the effin' rework and clip fixes and final tweaks. And all that for something that'll run for 5 to 10 minutes ingame. 

Still, it's worth it in the end. 

For one, usually these types of scenes offer a whole bunch off challenges that you don't get from doing another run of emote paper doll sprites against a different variation of an office background, and that helps to hone your skills. Then there's the satisfaction of pulling off something complex (or the disappointment of not quite getting it right, of course, because one can't exist without the other). 

Finally, it's the hope that it somehow brings something extra to the game, that will make you go "heh, that's neat". If it succeeds in doing that, it's effort well spent.