Top 20 Puzzles I DID in World's Largest Bookspace (MIT Mystery Hunt 2022)

Описание: Eugene has a bookspace for stories from the world’s biggest puzzlehunt event. Time to turn the page!

You can try out the puzzles from palindrome at https://puzzles.mit.edu/2022/ ! Chapters range from literary classic homages like Phantom Tollbooth to the world’s largest crossword, but which one comes out on top?

==Commentary==

This is no doubt becoming one of my biggest video projects ever … after all, it’s the MIT Mystery Hunt that I’m talking about! Developing this video (from script writing to post production) lasted over three months.

Thanks to some feedback for prior videos, I’m attempting to be more descriptive about the puzzle mechanics and solving process for the newcomers. But to keep things engaging for the veterans, I’m putting in more animation styles – including traditional 2D animation from ibisPaint X that a friend shared, stop motion animation, and even 3D animation from Blender. This led to lots of interesting setups.

Unlike past videos about Puzzlehunt Countdowns, I made use of a tutorial for book animation at    • Blender Tutorial - Book Opening Animation   for the transitions. Later used these books for the 3D scenery (after combining the covers and spine as one object). Most of my animation involved moving the camera with keyframes, but I also learned how to animate a page flying out of a book on my own. The UV mapping is janky though … but if I want to put up a sign on a completely flat surface, I know what to do.

I also made a simplified 3D recreation of the Ministry map on Blender. Being precise with the dimensions put my AutoCAD skills I learned a while back to good use, and using the Boolean modify and then applying to the object is helpful in creating holes or sliced-off surfaces. The trickiest part was the middle section, but the Mirror modify meant I only have to worry about one section.

By using a laser pointer effect while screen recording my tablet, I can create a slash effect. The sounds from the Final Cut Pro weapon throw with the last bit replaced by a sword swing is just so cool to hear.

Final Cut Pro has a compound clip feature that allows me to make the scenes first and then apply ken-burns on the entire thing. This is useful for keyframe animations.

The stop motion segment involved using an actual Scrabble board. I took a page out of the Lego commercials by building the stacked tiles first, and then filming the frames while disassembling.

The segment with Tock can make for a nice way to emphasize time. So I screen recorded a clock from livecloud.online and used a shape mask to make the shape circular, fitting for Tock.

Oh, and that naturally led to more opportunities to jam references to all sorts of stories that shape my life — especially those that math students may not get to see in math tests. With that said, I still have to be mindful of tasks and other responsibilities and need to ensure I have enough time and energy to do well on those.

Finally, it’s also worth mentioning that one of the clue answers discussed in the video is an area that has some … not so good things done to it over the past few months (and unfortunately still ongoing as of this video’s release). If you know, you know. Can two melons be combined for free?

==Chapters==

0:00 (Kick Off)
0:49 (20th-17th)
2:05 (16th-15th)
3:08 (14th)
3:59 (13th-11th)
5:07 (10th)
5:50 (9th)
6:25 (8th)
7:09 (7th)
7:49 (6th)
8:27 (5th)
9:00 (4th)
9:52 (3rd)
10:54 (2nd)
12:02 (HMs)
13:00 (1st)
14:01 (Wrap Up)

#puzzlehunt