I Hraet You -- Act 1 Recap

The first rule of I Hraet You recap videos is: you do not talk about how long it took to make I Hraet You recap videos.  And that’s all I feel like saying about that.

In any case, here’s a little something from me to you.In preparation for the upcoming deluge of new chapters for I Hraet You -- the so-called web serial novel thingamajig that’s been a fixture of this blog for the past year or so -- I’ve managed to put together a video that sums up everything that’s happened so far.  Well, “slide show” is probably the more appropriate term, but you get the idea.  In any case, this right here is fifty-five chapters (at least a hundred thousand words) summarized and compressed into a ten-minute video…featuring music from The King of Fighters…and one song from World of Goo.  I’m really getting a lot of mileage out of that four-disc soundtrack that came with KoF XIII.

Shame they didn't include any of the songs from 2002 UM, though.  Undercover is my jam.  And they left off the KoF XI version of Still Green?  That's just -- oh, right, I Hraet You.  Can't get too carried away now.

In any case, you can consider this a time-preserving effort on my part.  Granted what I’ve got here isn’t an absolute fix -- summary or not, there’s a LOT to be gained from diving into a canon for yourself -- but the way I see it, this is a way to prevent the continuity lockout from getting too extreme.  One should always keep the fans’ well-being in mind.

So here you go.  Enjoy.

And there you go.  Did you enjoy?

Considering how...troublesome making this thing was, don’t expect another one for a long time.  Probably not until the second act/hiatus comes around.  Granted I might type up little posts of what happened every now and then; I haven’t decided how I’ll handle that, if at all.  In any case, I’ve got this video up, and you can keep the details fresh in mind for the new batch of chapters, or you can use it as a launching point to get in deep with IHY.  I know I’ll be using it to try and rope in people across the net soon enough, so in a way this is a bit of a foundation.  Hopefully not a shaky one.

Some stray details, by the way:

-- You’d be surprised what you can do with MS Paint, PowerPoint, and Windows Movie Maker.  You can’t make a masterpiece, mind, but in a way this is a semi-suitable method for me.  I don’t have much in the way of technical skill or too-advanced programs, and in this case the inherent limitations are something to be valued.  Sometimes limitations give way to creativity -- you know, getting the most out of what you’ve got.

-- That still doesn’t excuse the sheer amount of tediousness, though.

-- The next time you see this post, it might not have the details and format on display now.  Ignoring the fact that I plan to do a site redesign soon (or soon-ish), the plan is to integrate this page under the IHY tab…somehow.  So things might change here and there once this is off the front page.

-- The character page will be up pretty soon; one of the benefits of working on this video is that it forced me to make art assets for most of the cast so far.  I’m still debating whether or not I’ll end up coloring them; I’ll have to see if the thicker lines look good with the coloring style I have in mind.

-- I’m a little surprised at how well Mrs. Overdose’s art came out -- at least relative to my skill level.  Considering that that was the first time I’ve drawn her (and the same can be said for a number of characters), I’m pretty happy with how her art came out.

-- With that in mind, I feel like Lien-Hua’s art is a disaster.  I’ll probably end up doing her over again.  (Also, I could have sworn that I gave her glasses.  But I guess not…at least, I sure hope I didn’t in a later chapter.)

-- There’s more stuff that I should try to add later on beyond a recap page and a character page…but for now, I’ll keep my plans under wraps.  Of course, if you readers have ideas on what I can/should add, you know what to do.

-- You know what goes really well with hot dogs?  Barbecue-flavored chips.

And that’ll do it for now.  Stay hraet-y, my friends.