This shot from COVID Dystopia has the doctor arching his back and looking up at the barrel of the tank cannon. I used the free online depth tool to zoom in slightly into the scene.

Back in the day people respected heath care workers for their tireless work trying to save people from COVID-19. Since then people have learned to hate heath care workers who they feel were responsible for letting them know some of the dangers from repeat COVID infections.

Over the past decades healthcare has made strides to prolong life expectancy. However since the start of the pandemic healthcare has reverted back to the 1800s.

I recently went to a doctors appointment since I needed to get a refill on a prescription. No one in the office was masked except for one secretary who wore his mask as a chin strap. Doctors offices have patients pack into a waiting room and then go into a tiny examination room. I glanced around for any sign of HEPA air filtration but there was non. Doctors seem to want to get repeatedly infected and pass that virus on to their patients.

Much of the American population has been infected. Once infected the virus must alter brain cells because the infected, might have once taken basic precautions, but they then feel the need to pack into crowded restaurants and other venues. Though smart, people can’t accept that they are not immune after suffering an infection. The saying vaxed and relaxed goes for the infected as well. The rush to a “New Normal” is too strong for most to resist. The risk benefit ratio swings in favor of repeated mass infection when a decent indoor restaurant is a consideration.

This scene in COVID Dystopia simply had the bound man in the hazmat suit slumping forward a bit. It is enough motion for the moment. Several of the previous scenes shared could use some animation but right now I am crunching in a season’s worth of posters for the Orlando Shakes. I suspect the posters will dominate my focus for at least a month. I did a whole series of thumbnails of possible poster images the last two days and shared those. Now I need to get serious and do several large scale poser images for each show to get each poster approved.

I will also be doing sketches of the construction work being done at the Orlando Science Center. They are building a new area called Nature which features three separate environments. From what I heard, construction is close to being complete and animals are being moved in. The plan for now is to do 3 drawings on location and more if requested.

On top of all this I am having to move at the start of April. The house I will be renting has a nice large living room which will become the studio area. My mail and WiFi have to be moved to the new location. My studio is now half boxed up. I need to get maybe 10 more moving boxes to finish for the move. There are going to a lot of balls in the air this month. I just have to keep juggling.

This is the first illustration I did for the COVID Dystopia series. It appears in the film about a quarter of the way in. I decided it worked well with Andy’s lyrics, “I was there when the end of days descended on your town.” It was actually one of the first scenes I worked into the timeline of the film structure. The two foreground figures in hazmat suits pivot as they are moving a body bag. All the other figures are held cells and I think that works fine.

Today is the day that I should be getting the Digital Cinema Package which I then will need to ship off to the film festival that has yet to be named. I haven’t heard back about any technical issues which is hopefully a good thing. I was considering reworking every scene, all 200 of them to get the timing to 24 frames per second. I am hoping that the technicians have faced this timing issue before and there will be no problem with the final DCP. Eventually Ii will need to make another DCP since there are audio corrections that slipped through because there was no time for me to get changes made.

Besides adding finishing touches to the film, I will be searching for an apartment to rent in the coming months, which will cause quite a shuffle before I head off to the next film festival. I was thinking about it this morning as I woke up. So long as I find a place to sit my laptop and iPad, along with some sort of table and my art stool, I will be fine to continue working. In terms of sketching, I can set up anywhere. I am a tumble weed again. Besides looking for a place in Orlando to start, I am also considering NYC and LA long term. I have to think back to my days when I rode my bicycle across the country. As long as I keep peddling and moving forward, I will make progress. I am just not sure of the destination.