#352 - New Bobi-verse!

I slept great.

I got to my desk by nine, and the messages were pouring in. The way things have worked out, my supervisor and I are leapfrogging each other. I supervise one episode and she does the next. But we are now in a spot where we are both working on multiple episodes at the same time, often two or three each.

It can mess with your mind a little as shows begin to meld together and your sense of completion never gets fulfilled. I had some pesky revisions to do, and I had let them until the end to deal with. I got stuck into those first thing and was able to get all the revisions done before lunch.

Robyn and I were able to get our walk in the park this afternoon. It felt like a long time since we were able to do that. It was a perfect walking day as the weather was cool and there was a nice breeze for most of the way. There were plenty of dogs on the trail todays as well. Their tails wagging and walking in such a way as to nearly run you off the path. I’m not sure why they do that. They veer across your path at the last second.

One dog looked almost sad when we didn’t stop to say hello to it.

After the walk, I made myself a peanut butter sandwich and got back to work. I started analysing the next episode I was supervising. Some of the painters were already on it. I double checked to see if all the reference was there for the painters and then started looking at the light direction for all the paintings. There is nothing worse than having to relight your painting because the camera flipped 180 degrees.

And knowing what direction the camera is facing can be a real challenge.

At some point the art director got into the episode I was working on and made some revision notes as well as approving plenty of the paintings.

I jumped on rendering the approvals straight off the bat and had one my leads started on the revisions. My goal was to get as many assets as possible to the next team. And that team was already breathing down my neck. There were some render farm issues along the way, and I took steps to render those files a second time and make sure they would go through.

The best way I have found to do that is to save a new version of the file and flatten all the layers and then trim it to the edges. This makes the file much smaller and easier for the render farm to handle. It’s an extra step, but it ensures that the file will be ready for the morning.

I worked passed five thirty and then took a break. I sat outside for a spell and played a game of chess before heading back inside to check on the render farm. I did this off and on, watching some YouTube videos and checking the farm.

My noise cancelling over the ear headphones arrived from Amazon today. And they arrived at just the right time. One of my favourite authors released a new audio book yesterday and I just happened to add it to my library. The new headphones worked straight out of the box and sounded great. The only thing missing was a carrying bag that the older used pair I bought came with. Not that a bag is dealbreaker!

I ordered a cheap case for the headphones, so they won’t get too beat up during the commute when I store them in my bag.

The new book on Audible is by Dennis E. Taylor and is the fifth novel in the Bobiverse series. I love these books for their witty banter, cultural references and the sci fi stories. You should definitely check it out if you haven’t already. It’s a real Geekfest, but I love it.

With the new headphones on, I went about clearing out the cabinets above the stove. The installation guy is coming on Friday to install the new microwave and that cupboard gets coated in grease. I used a really good degreaser and scrubbed it all down after removing all the sauces, oils and vinegars we store up in that space.

It cleaned up really well and I put all the things that used to be stored there into a cooler, so I could move them all around at once and put them out of the way.

When Robyn came home, we ate dinner at the table. Salmon with crab stuffing and some roasted sweet potato alongside some green beans. This meal was cooked by kiddo #1! Nice to have the kids cooking a meal now and again.

We retreated upstairs to our room afterwards and we watched an episode of Lioness which had all kinds of actions and suspense. Then we ended the night with Ted Lasso for a little heart-warming comedy with a little life lesson thrown in.

There was one part of the show I liked. One of the coaches decides in the advice of some online guru to just say yes to everything, which you can imagine ends up being hilarious. But then Lasso takes them aside and teaches them to say “Yes, and…” And this puts the power back into the individual. The coach now says yes…and asks for something or adds a caveat.

Silly perhaps?

But I liked it.

I’m up early to go into the studio tomorrow and it’s just about midnight. Time to call it a night. I need that beauty sleep more and more.

Until tomorrow.