Introduction
Hi, everyone. For those who keep up with the series, you may have noticed five new episodes have been released on the official YouTube channel. These new episodes are called: “Samantha’s Quest: Isles of Galerock (Episode 1)“, etc. The main difference is that they are now presented as episodes rather than parts.
I felt this name change made sense, given that a “part” is usually tied to a specific segment within an episode, whereas an “episode” is usually all the segments put together. I plan to create these updated episodes all the way up to Episode 10, and then continue the story from Episode 11 and onwards.
So, how exactly are these newest videos different from the previous 10 videos? Perhaps the best way of describing them, in a single sentence, is that they are the “final cut” or “definitive” editions.
Samantha’s Quest: From Beginning to Now
Early Days
When I first started creating Samantha’s Quest, the video series, I had literally just learned how to make films in Unity. In fact, I was still in the process of learning how to make films in Unity while releasing the first few videos.
I was originally creating Samantha’s Quest as a 3D Platformer Adventure game (which I began at some point in 2023). But after working very hard on it for a year as a solo game developer, I became very discouraged when I realised how difficult it was to do this all by myself, how much troubleshooting was required for making scripts that all work together in harmony, and how I was still so far away from finishing it, even after working so hard and long. So, I asked myself: “What do I really want to accomplish from this? Do I want to make a game above all… or tell a story?” I realised that what I really wanted to do was tell a story, regardless of the medium… and it just so happened that I could transfer my game design skills over to making animated short films, which turned out to be significantly easier and more doable!
And so, I started “Samantha’s Quest: Isles of Galerock (Part 1)” as an experiment, so to speak. To find out: is this doable? It was still a steep learning curve, but after about two weeks of working hard on Part 1 (I was on a holiday break at the time, and at one point I recall working 12 hours straight on the video, with few breaks in between), I finally finished and released it on 6 January 2025. It wasn’t perfect, or particularly inspiring. But it was a beginning. And for me, it was a huge source of encouragement, because beforehand, I had scrapped many other projects and never got them published. But Samantha’s Quest is special to me, because it’s the first and only creative project that I actually published and never gave up on.
From Beginner to Advanced
Part 6 was when I first introduced music to the series, which improved it drastically. It was also when I used Unity Recorder for the first time for cleaner frames per second quality. After I had released Part 7, I decided to go back and improve Parts 1–5 quality-wise: adding music and improving the FPS, mainly (these were known as “Samantha’s Quest: Isles of Galerock (Part 1) (Remastered)“, etc.). By Parts 8–10, I was able to improve the quality further, switching from Unity Recorder’s “Movie” recorder (which converted the result straight to an MP4 format) to the “Image Sequence” recorder, and then rendering the image sequence via Da Vinci Resolve.
Since Episodes 1–10 basically constitute a story “arc”, I decided that after releasing Episode 10, it would be a good moment to pause and reflect on Samantha’s Quest so far. I thought about making a movie at first, by re-rendering Parts 1–10, and then combining all the videos together.
But as I was doing this, I noticed there were some imperfections in the previous parts. A camera angle that’s not ideal here, an animation that could be improved there. A spelling error here, a lighting issue there. As I was correcting these small issues, it got to the point where I thought: “Why don’t I just try, as much as possible, to improve the overall quality of each part, and so make a kind of “Ultimate” edition?” And this is when I decided to make the “final cut” or “definitive” (“episode“) editions.
How “Episode 1” Is Different from “Part 1” and “Part 1 (Remastered)” (And So on…)
Truth be told, it would take too long if were I to list all the changes and improvements I made in the updated editions (I actually am listing all of the changes in dot-point format, and so far, it’s 15 pages long for episodes 1–7… and still going). But here are some of the main differences (if you’re not interested in reading this part, go to “Summary” below):
- Visual Enhancements:
- I updated some character animations and expressions to bring out more personality or improve the blend between different animations. I also added some shape keys to a couple of Samantha’s animations in Blender, to improve the quality.
- I updated various camera angles to look “better”, in my opinion.
- I fixed all spelling and grammatical errors.
- Camera transitions are now hard cuts, and no longer leave “ghost frames”.
- I updated a huge amount of environmental and background details. There are too many to list, so here just are a few examples:
- A fan in Samantha’s room and an air conditioner downstairs.
- Light switches around the house.
- Letter boxes and address numbers in front of each unit.
- More guard railings everywhere.
- Lights on in the buildings at night.
- Apartment complexes here and there.
- An entirely new Entertainment District (seen only in the distance so far).
- Ferns, flowers, bushes, and tall grass in the forest realm.
- An updated waterfall and rocky surface behind it.
- Properly updated UV maps of certain structures, such as the shops, houses, and portal.
- Signs in front of the shops and a light in the front and at the back of each unit.
- A back door in Samantha’s unit.
- An SDS logo on Riley’s uniform and improved body proportions for the male character models (the female character models are already acceptable).
- And much more.
- I majorly improved the lighting. I did this by making spotlights shine on Samantha, Amy, and Riley’s faces during the night time scenes, so that there are no dark shadows on their faces. I also added an “Exposure” override to the Global Volumes, and set a fixed exposure for consistent scene lighting.
- Audio Enhancements:
- I updated the volume of various SFX and music clips, as appropriate.
- I updated Riley’s voice so that it’s better suited for the “cool, calm professional” soldier type (this means that from now on I won’t be voicing Riley. It was fun doing so while it lasted, but I was only voicing him as a temporary arrangement till I found a better match.)
- I provided special effects for the Ethereal Voice’s lines, so that she now sounds other-worldly.
- I added a “thinking” special effect for when characters have internal monologue, such as Amy and Riley.
- I updated the character lines in episode 1, so that the news reporter’s voice sounds like it’s coming from the computer, and Amy’s voice sounds like it’s coming from Samantha’s phone.
- I provided the “water” sound effect by the fountain in episode 5, which was missing before.
- Improved Overall Video Quality from a Higher-quality Render / Export:
- Now, I use three programs for exporting my videos to YouTube. Here’s the full process:
- 1. In Unity, I record the scene timeline using Unity Recorder. I record the audio there as a WAV file, and then for the video, I capture each frame as a PNG image for lossless quality (called “Image Sequencing”).
- 2. In Da Vinci Resolve, I import the image sequence folder (Resolve automatically converts all the images there into a video clip, provided you tell the program to do so) and audio track, and drag both onto the timeline. I then render it as a QuickTime video file for near lossless quality.
- 3. In HandBrake, I import the QuickTime video file (the “Master” file) and re-encode it using high-quality settings (either as a H.264 or AV1 encoder, which I also upscale to 2560 by 1440, so that YouTube re-encodes the video with higher settings) to get a high-quality compressed file. I then upload this video file to YouTube.
- Miscellaneous:
- I updated some character lines in the script. However, I updated only a handful, and no one will likely notice any real difference.
- There are also a handful of differences in scenes. For example, now in Episode 3, Samantha returns Amy’s hug, whereas before she didn’t. Again, there aren’t many changes like this, but when they happen, I believe they all add to the quality of the story.
- I re-organised my Unity project and Blend files in the process.
Summary
If you didn’t read the above section (I don’t blame you!), all you basically need to know is that the newest updated episodes are basically the “final cut” or “definitive” editions. They make up the most polished and refined version of Samantha’s Quest that I’ve released, the result of hundreds of hours of work, and it’s the version that I want people to watch.
Overall, the newest editions look better, sound better, and feel “finished”. I most likely will not make any more updated editions for previous episodes. Once these updated episodes are finished (up to Episode 10), I will move on to Episode 11, and continue the series with the same level of quality.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoy the higher level of quality found in these updated episodes. While it took lot of time and effort, I think it was worth it, because Samantha’s Quest means a lot to me. As an indie animator and filmmaker, I’m always learning as I create new content, and I look forward to finding even better techniques to improve this series. In the meantime, Samantha still has a quest to fulfil, and I invite you to join Samantha and her friends on this grand (and often cosy!) journey.
All praise and glory be to Jesus Christ, to whom I am forever indebted for saving me.
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