Progress Report - April 25, 2022 - Overbreed Episode 0 Pre-Production! (Patreon)

Hello, everyone!

I promised a proper Progress Report this week, and you're damn well getting a proper Progress Report. I apologize for completely slipping the past few weeks. What more, I decided to make this progress report available to all patrons, regardless of their Pledge. I'd make it public for all to read, but Patreon has made it very clear to me in the past they don't like it when NSFW artists like myself do that. So, "any pledge" is the best I can do.

If you follow my Twitter, then you're likely aware of why said slippage happened. But for those that don't, allow me to summarize it all:

A few weeks back, I realized that Overbreed was announced 8 months ago.

I am extremely happy with the efforts made in the months since - not only have I blocked together 15 minutes of bespoke animation for Overbreed itself (and, in my humble opinion, animation that is pretty consistently the best animation I've ever done to date), but I've also managed to release just shy of 14 minutes of fully-voiced video across 4 "mini-vids" (or just shy of 21 minutes across 5, if you want to include the "stream-vid" Pharmmetra video) during that timeframe.

But, at the same time, I recognize that while the 15 minutes of animation I've made for Overbreed is absolutely not insignificant, I also recognize that it is only a small fraction of all the animation that needs to be done. And with what I have done having taken 8 months to produce, I don't think it's reasonable to assume that it will take me at least another 8 months before Overbreed Episode 1 is done. And honestly, I think that's a very optimistic projection.

This sobering realization was quickly followed by a second revelation: despite Overbreed having been publicly announced 8 months ago, I have put out virtually zero information publicly about what Overbreed actually is. People know that it involves Mercy fucking Sombra with a huge futa dick, and that's really about it. My public pinned Tweet explains that it's a 6-part miniseries, and the daring few who actually read the thread will see how I explain that each episode works to resolve 3 separate-but-related plots, which suggests that there is an actual plot.

But, I realized, I never actually publicly share any information about what that plot is. At all.

A third elucidation was hot on this second revelation's heel, and that is that not even my patrons - you wonderful, amazing individuals, really know that much about the story itself. I've certainly shared more of it here than I have publicly, and those who read the early draft of the first episode's screenplay might even be able to piece together a skeleton of the plot as a whole.

But I don't think even the most diligent patron actually has the full picture at their hands. And I don't mean that in a "plot spoilers" sense - I mean that in a "information provided in a barebones announcement trailer" sense.

Put another way: even my most devoted patrons have less working information on what Overbreed is about than is given by the flimsiest first film trailer released by movie studios.

And so, with these three elements in mind, I decided to fix that. I decided to make an "Episode 0" to Overbreed, which is effectively a glorified teaser for both the story and the contents.

But in order to properly capture the full breadth of Overbreed, I needed to build all of the characters. There are 13 ladies involved in the story of Overbreed, and all of them are important to the story - even excluding one weakens the overall story. And so properly showing them in this "Episode 0" teaser is essential.

And so, that's what I have been doing for the past 2 weeks. It took me about 6 months to build the first 6 Overwatch ladies - DVa, Sombra, Mercy, Pharah, Symmetra, and Zarya. It's taken me 2 weeks to build the next six - Tracer, Widowmaker, Ashe, Brigitte, Mei, and Ana. Moira is all that remains to be built.

Of course, preproduction isn't just building characters. Ohhh no no no, there's more to be done after that. Importantly, Pharah and Widowmaker need casual outfits - and Symmetra just needs an outfit, period. DVa already had one (two, actually), and I built Brigitte exclusively with a "casual" outfit in a mechanics' jumpsuit and Mei in the Pajamei outfit. Zarya actually has an unreleased casual outfit I intend to finish up and use for this as well. Sombra, Mercy, Tracer, Ashe, Mei, and Ana have default outfits that are sufficiently non-militarized (compare to Zarya's or Pharah's armor to see what I mean by "militarized") that they can serve as casual outfits.

And then beyond all of that asset work, there is the matter of writing out Episode 0 itself. I already have the skeleton of the project keyed in: it is going to be a montage sequence, not dissimilar to the Rabbit.Hole introduction. Though it is going to be more deliberate, and will consist of two separate layers and a rigid structure.

The first layer is a non-diegetic voice-over of Mercy explaining the backstory to Overbreed (recapping and extending the existing Overwatch lore, because it's such a fucking mess I had to basically write my own lore to slap on top of Overwatch's to actually make something usable), framed as her giving a ceremonial speech.

The second layer is an audio-less (minus Foley, like footsteps and slap-slap-slaps; again, think the Rabbit.Hole intro sequence, which doesn't have DVa make any sounds but does have sound effects like slapping her bum) montage sequence, built as a stylistic homage to Wes Anderson and his iconic "cubicle panning" sequences in his films. This montage will be split into two sections, first establishing various character relationships and major narrative plot points, and the showing the various ways the characters all fuck each other throughout the course of the miniseries. Because of course it does.

This layered monologue/montage sequence will be bookended by diegetic videos teasing the Zarya and Mei subplots, starting with Zarya, and ending with Mei. I am pointedly omitting them both from the montage sequence itself, because their stories are both pivotal moments in the story of Overbreed, where acts turn. Which is also why they're bookending and existing outside of the montage - to highlight their importance to the story, without giving out why or how they're important.

That is the structure of the Episode 0 teaser, but I don't actually have anything concrete written yet. The monologue is currently a bullet-point list, and the montage is honestly not even that, more a loose collection of sticky notes fighting to peel off the wall faster than I can put them back up.

Once Moira is built, and the remaining outfits are resolved, then I will turn my attention to writing out Episode 0. And then I will be putting it together.

All in all, I am expecting Episode 0 to take a month or two to produce. But I think the amount of narrative exposition, as well as the content foresight of what the miniseries as a whole has in store, will more than justify the setback. To say nothing of the fact that, in the face of 8+ more months of production time on Episode 1, spending 2 months on Episode 0 is honestly a drop in the ocean. I'm not concerned at all by it.

So yeah. That's why I've been slipping on the progress reports. I've had my nose to the grindstone, churning out these models and moving all the pieces into place for Episode 0.

Hopefully next week I will have all of the characters built, as well as all of their outfits. I'd love to show off the casual outfits for everyone (for those who aren't using their in-game outfits, anyways), and maybe even have something to show off in the writing department. But right now, I'm just aiming for finishing up the model-work.

That's all for now. Until next week, everyone!