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Most of you will have seen our teaser video before ValveTime.net launched. We were fortunate enough to have Merle Dandridge, the voice of Alyx Vance, to have done a voiceover for us and there was no friendlier a face than Alyx Vance to welcome you to our new home.
We needed someone to fire up the SDK and use faceposer to match up the words to the face. This wouldn’t be easy. Pi Mu Rho, our resident staff modder has an allergic reaction to using the SDK these days, so we needed to outsource. I needed someone I could trust with a good record of shipping finished mods to a high quality. But I couldn’t find one of those. So I asked Au-Heppa (From Half-life Short Stories – Human Error, Water and Last Zombie).
Au-Heppa was very happy to help our cause, being a long term visitor and contributor to halflife2.net. With a huge range of skills at his finger tips, I knew I could have complete confidence in his ability to turn my vision into reality. We parted ways that evening after having sent Au-Heppa the audio file of Merle’s voice over and the site was coming together beautifully thanks to Yorick and Chris_D. I drifted off to sleep with a smile on my face.
You may be wondering what my initial vision was. Well, the final version you’ve seen is very close. Alyx’s face central, a quaint smile, a bright and happy background of any sorts, then Alyx soothes our ears with ‘Valvetime.net, coming soon’ and a gentle fade away. When I woke up the next morning, the workhorse that is Au-Heppa had already delivered. And so I present version #1 as Au-Heppa begins his assault on my sanity.
I sat there for the next 10 minutes trying to determine the most tactful way in which to provide ‘constructive criticism’. I felt just as a structural surveyor would when visiting a newly built house and being told the foundations were made of placentas. Perhaps it was my fault; I had been quite vague and allowed Au-Heppa artistic freedom. I thanked him for his efforts and suggested (while gritting my teeth and pounding my fists) the mood of the video could be lighter. It didn’t need to include a zombie escaping a bathroom and Alyx should be smiling, not verging on the suicidal. Au-Heppa understood completely and quickly set about his tools to reinvent the scene. But he was just warming up...
Now I was verging on the suicidal. The audio clip sent to Au-Heppa included me asking Merle for the soundbite ‘Valvetime.net, coming soon’ to which Merle asks ‘Valvetime.net?’ and I reply ‘That’s right, perfect’. This part was never meant to see the light of day however Au-Heppa went to his recycle bin and found a use. A conversation between Alyx (Merle) and Barney (myself) was now part of the scene. You will also note besides this major tangent the tone is still sombre and Alyx looks as close to cracking a smile as she did at the end of Episode 2. In fact, the very purpose of announcing the site name no longer existed in the video! Just as Alyx had done, Au-Heppa back in Finland was shouting “NO”. Yet again, I thanked him for his efforts and prayed to the spaghetti monster for something with a happier tone. And you know...something slightly closer to what I needed. Au-Heppa was very understanding, he knew exactly how to fix those problems and bring a smile to my face.
Except, it was Barney’s face (with my voice) which had the smile. I began to wonder if I were perhaps speaking in riddles or if I had said “the video should contain this sequence of events OR WHATEVER YOU THINK OF”. I sensed Au-Heppa could feel my frustration from video 2 and video 3 mocked me as Barney Calhoun grabbing Alyx’s legs, desperate for her to say those words. Still keeping in my voice, the Alyx and Barney conversation and the sombre tone (none of which I asked for!) Au-Heppa had conceded some territory and provided the Alyx smile I had endlessly campaigned for. The freakish yellow glow (of jaundice I assume?) would have to do. It was progress at least. Again, in my subdued anguish I spelt out what had to go. NO BARNEY CONVERSATION, PLEASE REMOVE. Au-Heppa said “ok” and went offline immediately.
I have a feeling I once told Au-Heppa I like the Die Hard films (except 4.0 obviously) so he went and made me an action sequence. Yet again, not in the script I asked for but I was getting used to this problem. I was expecting to see Alyx replaced by Father Grigori at some point. I actually liked this video a lot, even though it wasn’t even close to the original concept and my voice still remained. I still don’t quite follow the story, perhaps it is some kind of Combine audition to be the new face of ValveTime.net but Alyx wanted the job so badly she kicks the door down, kills the guards and as the director I’m so impressed I hire the murdering psychopath. In one last ditch attempt I pleaded with Au-Heppa to add some colour to the video and make it a cheerier atmosphere. He gave me his word he would. I prepared myself for being disappointed while Chris_D told me “it’s going to be alright”.
This is the point I quit and Chris_D had to save me from jumping. YES I got my cheerier atmosphere in a lovely flowering meadow, YES we had full blown Technicolor images but my voice remained and the largest plot twist in Half-life had been revealed. The Gman rocks up in VW Beetle (parking it in a fence) and shows he’s the puppet master for Alyx Vance. In a video which was just supposed to be an introduction to ValveTime.net, we had been to some dark and far away places. I didn’t know where this was going to end and in the chaos of preparing for the site launch I had neglected to notice that Au-Heppa had been playing me for days.
I was well and truly defeated, battered and bruised by an opponent I didn’t know I was fighting. I went to Au-Heppa in a moment of need and vulnerability and he trolled me over a fortnight. Never once did he crack or lose focus on his mission and for that I commend his skill and persistence. The eventual finished video you saw above was produced in a heartbeat by Au-Heppa after Chris_D intervened, removing me from the project and by alerting HM Revenue and Customs to hold the harpoon gun I had ordered. Au-Heppa still considers the finished video “the boring version” which I wish was a phrase I had coined much earlier on so I could have said “make a boring version”. However, now all versions are here for the world to see, what is your favourite? As crazy as this completely true sequence of events was, mine definitely isn’t “the boring version” after all.
Additionally, if you'd like to hear the interview I did alongside William with Merle Dandridge go here.
We needed someone to fire up the SDK and use faceposer to match up the words to the face. This wouldn’t be easy. Pi Mu Rho, our resident staff modder has an allergic reaction to using the SDK these days, so we needed to outsource. I needed someone I could trust with a good record of shipping finished mods to a high quality. But I couldn’t find one of those. So I asked Au-Heppa (From Half-life Short Stories – Human Error, Water and Last Zombie).
Au-Heppa was very happy to help our cause, being a long term visitor and contributor to halflife2.net. With a huge range of skills at his finger tips, I knew I could have complete confidence in his ability to turn my vision into reality. We parted ways that evening after having sent Au-Heppa the audio file of Merle’s voice over and the site was coming together beautifully thanks to Yorick and Chris_D. I drifted off to sleep with a smile on my face.
You may be wondering what my initial vision was. Well, the final version you’ve seen is very close. Alyx’s face central, a quaint smile, a bright and happy background of any sorts, then Alyx soothes our ears with ‘Valvetime.net, coming soon’ and a gentle fade away. When I woke up the next morning, the workhorse that is Au-Heppa had already delivered. And so I present version #1 as Au-Heppa begins his assault on my sanity.
I sat there for the next 10 minutes trying to determine the most tactful way in which to provide ‘constructive criticism’. I felt just as a structural surveyor would when visiting a newly built house and being told the foundations were made of placentas. Perhaps it was my fault; I had been quite vague and allowed Au-Heppa artistic freedom. I thanked him for his efforts and suggested (while gritting my teeth and pounding my fists) the mood of the video could be lighter. It didn’t need to include a zombie escaping a bathroom and Alyx should be smiling, not verging on the suicidal. Au-Heppa understood completely and quickly set about his tools to reinvent the scene. But he was just warming up...
Now I was verging on the suicidal. The audio clip sent to Au-Heppa included me asking Merle for the soundbite ‘Valvetime.net, coming soon’ to which Merle asks ‘Valvetime.net?’ and I reply ‘That’s right, perfect’. This part was never meant to see the light of day however Au-Heppa went to his recycle bin and found a use. A conversation between Alyx (Merle) and Barney (myself) was now part of the scene. You will also note besides this major tangent the tone is still sombre and Alyx looks as close to cracking a smile as she did at the end of Episode 2. In fact, the very purpose of announcing the site name no longer existed in the video! Just as Alyx had done, Au-Heppa back in Finland was shouting “NO”. Yet again, I thanked him for his efforts and prayed to the spaghetti monster for something with a happier tone. And you know...something slightly closer to what I needed. Au-Heppa was very understanding, he knew exactly how to fix those problems and bring a smile to my face.
Except, it was Barney’s face (with my voice) which had the smile. I began to wonder if I were perhaps speaking in riddles or if I had said “the video should contain this sequence of events OR WHATEVER YOU THINK OF”. I sensed Au-Heppa could feel my frustration from video 2 and video 3 mocked me as Barney Calhoun grabbing Alyx’s legs, desperate for her to say those words. Still keeping in my voice, the Alyx and Barney conversation and the sombre tone (none of which I asked for!) Au-Heppa had conceded some territory and provided the Alyx smile I had endlessly campaigned for. The freakish yellow glow (of jaundice I assume?) would have to do. It was progress at least. Again, in my subdued anguish I spelt out what had to go. NO BARNEY CONVERSATION, PLEASE REMOVE. Au-Heppa said “ok” and went offline immediately.
I have a feeling I once told Au-Heppa I like the Die Hard films (except 4.0 obviously) so he went and made me an action sequence. Yet again, not in the script I asked for but I was getting used to this problem. I was expecting to see Alyx replaced by Father Grigori at some point. I actually liked this video a lot, even though it wasn’t even close to the original concept and my voice still remained. I still don’t quite follow the story, perhaps it is some kind of Combine audition to be the new face of ValveTime.net but Alyx wanted the job so badly she kicks the door down, kills the guards and as the director I’m so impressed I hire the murdering psychopath. In one last ditch attempt I pleaded with Au-Heppa to add some colour to the video and make it a cheerier atmosphere. He gave me his word he would. I prepared myself for being disappointed while Chris_D told me “it’s going to be alright”.
This is the point I quit and Chris_D had to save me from jumping. YES I got my cheerier atmosphere in a lovely flowering meadow, YES we had full blown Technicolor images but my voice remained and the largest plot twist in Half-life had been revealed. The Gman rocks up in VW Beetle (parking it in a fence) and shows he’s the puppet master for Alyx Vance. In a video which was just supposed to be an introduction to ValveTime.net, we had been to some dark and far away places. I didn’t know where this was going to end and in the chaos of preparing for the site launch I had neglected to notice that Au-Heppa had been playing me for days.
I was well and truly defeated, battered and bruised by an opponent I didn’t know I was fighting. I went to Au-Heppa in a moment of need and vulnerability and he trolled me over a fortnight. Never once did he crack or lose focus on his mission and for that I commend his skill and persistence. The eventual finished video you saw above was produced in a heartbeat by Au-Heppa after Chris_D intervened, removing me from the project and by alerting HM Revenue and Customs to hold the harpoon gun I had ordered. Au-Heppa still considers the finished video “the boring version” which I wish was a phrase I had coined much earlier on so I could have said “make a boring version”. However, now all versions are here for the world to see, what is your favourite? As crazy as this completely true sequence of events was, mine definitely isn’t “the boring version” after all.
Additionally, if you'd like to hear the interview I did alongside William with Merle Dandridge go here.
