Bacon Wrapped Avocado

I have no idea WHAT happened to February. We were very cold and very busy.

Our latest video is up: Elle’s First Day

That one took a lot longer than we’d originally hoped, but there were good reasons for it. First of all, we started working on it in December, so Christmas. Then we ran into some issues that we solved by researching a new workflow and a new way of editing character movements. Then we decided that for the YouTube Shorts we wanted higher resolution images, so we migrated the project from a VR template to a game template in Unreal Engine…and also updated it for the most recent engine. So, yeah, it took 10 weeks to complete, but I think the time was well-spent. Not only does this one look better than it did, but the next one(s) should come together faster and also look better.

Actually the next ones will look better for a few reasons. Not only will they be in the higher resolution, but Meescha is tweaking all the textures.

Jose has been doing some work on our servers. That will fix the problems we’ve had with reliability. (Apologies if you ever tried to show our site to a friend and had issues connecting!) It will also make it MUCH easier for me to post updates.

Don’t worry! We haven’t given up on VR! Giovanni is working on the app, so that it will hit the benchmarks required for a beta release.

In the meantime, we’re looking at making more shorts and/or making another episode for our app. Check back here to find out which we choose next!

Happy New Year!

(Can I still say that near the end of January??)

What’s new here?

Well, we did take some time off over the holidays, but we’re in the middle of making another short. We hope to have it up in a week or so. It introduces our newest character, a waitress at the Dark Alley Diner. We’ll add her to the cast list above once we publish her short.

Meescha has yet another character in the works for us.

Giovanni is smoothing the way for us to upgrade to Unreal Engine 5.4.

Jose is working on new scripts for complete episodes, as well as more shorts.

Laurel is working on the short that is currently half-finished—getting all the characters assembled and synched, etc.

We also have a new episode up for our podcast, and a second one recorded that we’ll post very soon. Also, our podcast is now available through Apple Podcasts, as well as Amazon Music, and Spotify.

We’re still waiting for word on the Epic MegaGrant we applied for in October, but we’re working hard while we wait. We plan to submit a full episode to some film festivals that accept VR animations. It’s amazing how many do that now! We’ll keep you updated as that progresses, too.

We’re pretty excited: we submitted our application to Epic MegaGrants!

Now we wait…and continue working.

We’ve spent some time cleaning up our project, and planning for next steps.

• Giovanni is figuring out how we can add new episodes as DLCs.
• Meescha is creating new characters and learning how to clean up animation in iClone.
• Jose and I started recording a podcast. I’m just beginning to post the episodes here: Bacon Wrapped Avocado: Creativity Unwrapped You can also find them on Spotify, Amazon Music, Podcast Index, Fountain, and True Fans. I’ll be adding more episodes and listing it on more podcast servers soon.
• We’re also scripting additional full episodes for Season One. We’ll let you know as we get more done and add shorts to our channel.

One reason I haven’t posted recently has been that my MBA class this term has kept me busier than previously.  Part of it was a simulation that just ended. My team scored in the top 10% worldwide, so that was fun. Three more classes to go!

I hope you’re enjoying your autumn. We are!