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cheesy Xmas cheer ... with dragons!
Dec. 8th, 2011 04:33 pmIt's the best kind. ^.~
It's the best kind. ^.~
Technology, how you mock me
Feb. 16th, 2011 04:24 pmMost folks who know me, know that I love animating. Something I do very rarely now. A combination of not being able to afford the programs I *really* want, and a hand that has gone from "okay" to bad to worse in pain. It's no longer just my fingers; the pain, though mild, has spread to my wrist, and up my arm to the elbow and shoulder joint. But bitching about the hand pain is for another post at another time.
Now, with much effort and penny pinching I have a computer that can, for the most part, run anything I want. I have to say, I've been really happy with the jump to Windows 7. Most I need right now is either some new ram, or to upgrade my processor/motherboard. But what I have now will most certainly do the job.
So that leaves the programs.
I have Hash atm. While a good program for learning and messing around, the version I have is sorely out of date. I'm also feeling uneasy with the companies slow, steady decline. Also, I keep bumping into issues that drive me nutz, mostly involving importing and exporting to other formats. Hash very much follows the "Don't play well with others" model that programs held 20+ years ago. That and I keep running into technical issues. So much so I've pretty much stopped working in it.
I love Vue. It does one thing and one thing really well: environments. I cannot sing this program's praises enough. However, it only does one thing. And I'm a character animator. Even using Vue, I'll need something else to do the characters in. But considering most other programs fall to pieces trying to do what Vue does without blinking, having two separate programs is not bad way of going. Oh, and Vue very much likes playing with others. ^.^
What I really want - Maya. There is a reason why Maya is on the top of the heep. I've worked with Maya in the past when it first came out. It's an environment I know and like. It's modeling tools that work well, and gives me options on how things will be built. And some of the available rigging plugins from 3rd parties are to die for (looking at you, The Setup Machine).
But what I am being forced into - Blender. The Gimp of the 3D world. Le sigh.
^this is what I have had to choose and wrestle with for some time. So far, my choice is to not work in any of them and help Radio get back a web presence. But this stalling action is not going to last forever.
However, there's a new one on the block for a limited time, Messiah. For a limited time - they are offering a mass deal of $10.00 basic and $40.00 pro versions of their animation package. In fact- according to their site- I have 7 hours to make up my mind, as of this posting. Problem is, this is an animation only program. feh. I dislike making split second decisions on funds I have so few of. Frack it! *hits the buy now button*
Also... got an email today. AutoDesk, the makers of Max, Maya & Softimage are offering 0% financing until April. It's really temping. really really tempting. But I know that I have no income, per say and we're not out of debt consolidation yet.
Why? why do you mock me so?
In other tech news - Watson (IMB's AI) is playing Jeopardy this week. So far the match is off to a good start.
pt.1
pt.2
Now, with much effort and penny pinching I have a computer that can, for the most part, run anything I want. I have to say, I've been really happy with the jump to Windows 7. Most I need right now is either some new ram, or to upgrade my processor/motherboard. But what I have now will most certainly do the job.
So that leaves the programs.
I have Hash atm. While a good program for learning and messing around, the version I have is sorely out of date. I'm also feeling uneasy with the companies slow, steady decline. Also, I keep bumping into issues that drive me nutz, mostly involving importing and exporting to other formats. Hash very much follows the "Don't play well with others" model that programs held 20+ years ago. That and I keep running into technical issues. So much so I've pretty much stopped working in it.
I love Vue. It does one thing and one thing really well: environments. I cannot sing this program's praises enough. However, it only does one thing. And I'm a character animator. Even using Vue, I'll need something else to do the characters in. But considering most other programs fall to pieces trying to do what Vue does without blinking, having two separate programs is not bad way of going. Oh, and Vue very much likes playing with others. ^.^
What I really want - Maya. There is a reason why Maya is on the top of the heep. I've worked with Maya in the past when it first came out. It's an environment I know and like. It's modeling tools that work well, and gives me options on how things will be built. And some of the available rigging plugins from 3rd parties are to die for (looking at you, The Setup Machine).
But what I am being forced into - Blender. The Gimp of the 3D world. Le sigh.
^this is what I have had to choose and wrestle with for some time. So far, my choice is to not work in any of them and help Radio get back a web presence. But this stalling action is not going to last forever.
However, there's a new one on the block for a limited time, Messiah. For a limited time - they are offering a mass deal of $10.00 basic and $40.00 pro versions of their animation package. In fact- according to their site- I have 7 hours to make up my mind, as of this posting. Problem is, this is an animation only program. feh. I dislike making split second decisions on funds I have so few of. Frack it! *hits the buy now button*
Also... got an email today. AutoDesk, the makers of Max, Maya & Softimage are offering 0% financing until April. It's really temping. really really tempting. But I know that I have no income, per say and we're not out of debt consolidation yet.
Why? why do you mock me so?
In other tech news - Watson (IMB's AI) is playing Jeopardy this week. So far the match is off to a good start.
pt.1
pt.2
Animation, jazz style
Jan. 3rd, 2011 03:37 pmwhile waiting for some files to transfer I did a random link-through at some of the animation sites I follow and found one worth sharing. It's a trailer for an independent foreign film called Chico and Rita.
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/chicoandrita/
Cuba, 1948. Chico is a young piano player with big dreams. Rita is a beautiful singer with an extraordinary voice. Music and romantic desire unites them, but their journey - in the tradition of the Latin ballad, the bolero - brings heartache and torment. From Havana to New York, Paris, Hollywood and Las Vegas, two passionate individuals battle impossible odds to unite in music and love.
Want. to. see!
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/chicoandrita/
Cuba, 1948. Chico is a young piano player with big dreams. Rita is a beautiful singer with an extraordinary voice. Music and romantic desire unites them, but their journey - in the tradition of the Latin ballad, the bolero - brings heartache and torment. From Havana to New York, Paris, Hollywood and Las Vegas, two passionate individuals battle impossible odds to unite in music and love.
Want. to. see!
Giving Wreckamovie.com a try
May. 19th, 2010 04:45 pmSo, in my constant flay-lings at trying to finish many of my animation project, the one thing I've discovered is... I can't do it all.
Literally.
Suddenly stumbling across something in a production that I can't do is like hitting a huge brick wall at 30 miles an hour, that you never saw coming. And when I hit that brick wall, I have no were to turn to. At lest until now.
In my wondering today, I've stumbled across Wreckamove.com a site that specializes in connecting people together to work on film projects from around the world on an volunteer basis. So I figured I'd give that a try, starting with Longing for Home.
I posted my need for a tree model and a star-field mat painting there and see what develops. ^.^
If you wanna check it out and see how Longing for Home is developing, please feel free!
http://www.wreckamovie.com/longingforhome
Cross-your fingers.
Literally.
Suddenly stumbling across something in a production that I can't do is like hitting a huge brick wall at 30 miles an hour, that you never saw coming. And when I hit that brick wall, I have no were to turn to. At lest until now.
In my wondering today, I've stumbled across Wreckamove.com a site that specializes in connecting people together to work on film projects from around the world on an volunteer basis. So I figured I'd give that a try, starting with Longing for Home.
I posted my need for a tree model and a star-field mat painting there and see what develops. ^.^
If you wanna check it out and see how Longing for Home is developing, please feel free!
http://www.wreckamovie.com/longingforhome
Cross-your fingers.
Starting, stopping and starting again.
Apr. 7th, 2010 03:14 pmEvery now and again, I get a note or message wondering if I'm going to be finishing one of my 2 animation projects that I have languishing on my harddrive.
The Answer? I have no clue. I guess the answer lies within why I stopped.
With Longing for Home, it comes down to me waiting to squirrel away... $15.00 to by a tree model. Yup - that's it. That's why that has stalled. It went on so long that it got pushed out of the way for other concerns. Now, bigger issues are in the way - mostly in that I need to reinstall and figure out what version of Hash I should be on to complete the short. Oh, and I still need that tree, because my trees suck. Stupid lack of money. >.<
For Stolen Child, it's a little more complicated. The simple one is I sent a model off for rigging (a very complicated folded to in-flight wing-structure that was beyond my abilities) but never got it back. The complicated one... has more to do with my own morals than anything else. The artist for the music/song has made a very complected life decision that ... I don't exactly agree with. It is her life, however, and none of my business. But it does complicate things, and gives me a rather creepy feeling every time I sit down and work on the piece. I'm still on the fence on wither I should continue or not.
Anyway, that's where I currently stand. More thoughts on animation later. Right now I need to give James a ride to the Chiropractor.
The Answer? I have no clue. I guess the answer lies within why I stopped.
With Longing for Home, it comes down to me waiting to squirrel away... $15.00 to by a tree model. Yup - that's it. That's why that has stalled. It went on so long that it got pushed out of the way for other concerns. Now, bigger issues are in the way - mostly in that I need to reinstall and figure out what version of Hash I should be on to complete the short. Oh, and I still need that tree, because my trees suck. Stupid lack of money. >.<
For Stolen Child, it's a little more complicated. The simple one is I sent a model off for rigging (a very complicated folded to in-flight wing-structure that was beyond my abilities) but never got it back. The complicated one... has more to do with my own morals than anything else. The artist for the music/song has made a very complected life decision that ... I don't exactly agree with. It is her life, however, and none of my business. But it does complicate things, and gives me a rather creepy feeling every time I sit down and work on the piece. I'm still on the fence on wither I should continue or not.
Anyway, that's where I currently stand. More thoughts on animation later. Right now I need to give James a ride to the Chiropractor.
hand-drawn animation via flash
Mar. 23rd, 2010 01:10 amDone in Flash.
Don't laugh too hard - I haven't hand animated in years. Was trying an experiment where I'd block out my big volumes first with circles and stuff. Helped me keep my volumes nicely for where I used them. For the most part it worked out successfully, though by the end of the night my hand hurt... lots. At this point I have no clue if I can even clean this up or not. Too bad I blow at drawing with a tablet. Yeah, a Cintiq would be awesome and would probably make this a lot more feasible. Maybe when I'm rich. ^.^
I spent yesterday doing the painful work of deleting most of BackBreaker from the server. All but the comic section and the database which will remain up until one week after BMI concludes. Then, that too will go down. I know I said I'd wait for the Sys-Admin of the server boxes to email me saying his work was done, but I just wanted to get it over with.
I tried to create a 404 (missing page) file with links to were the artists person sites/contact are but the server has defeated me on such things overwriting it with an Apache install page. Tug? if I could get some help with that, that would be awesome!
Still trying to get in touch with the new home for BMI and Ebin & May and work out the arrangements. RL seems to conspire against me though as they are swamped. Keep your fingers X-ed.
I have not yet figured out what to do whit my films. More than likely I'll keep them up on YouTube/Veoh/ect semi abandoned in place for now. I'm going to concentrate on find home fro the web-comics first, then I shall go forward with sorting out the animations. Am I going to do more animations? I don't know at this point. I'd like to, but I have other things viaing for my attention that come first. One thing at a time.
Needless to say, yesterday I spent in kind of a funk. Having Phalloide run around with Theo/Ducky and Alexa {Hells Angus} over on E'T in World of Warcraft helped a lot. It may not be "surrounded in RL by friends" but it was a close second. I got more depressed after I logged out for dinner, and floundered more before catching up with other even-more-close-friends on my main server, Muradin. Oif sounded like he was having just as depressing of a day as me (but for different reasons), but Tsula was her players' chipper self. Oif and I just let that chipperness surround us as we beat the tar out of Ogers.
One of the reasons I feel Backbreaker failed is that I'm poor at my communication/self-promotion. So I'm trying to rectify that. It'll take time. For now, I'm going though a pile of art on my desk. Trying to get my three art archives online sorted out so they have all the same thing (or at least close to it for genera purposes). This involves a lot of rescanning and X-posting to blogs.
Looking at my recent work, there seems to be an "offness" about it, in many instances, and almost amateurish look. I don't know if that is do to my slowly eroding confidence in my work (which has been going on for years now, much of it tied to falling sales and bad reviews/dissing from art directors and whom I considered piers). I'll probably go ahead and post them anyways, just for completeness sake. After all, if something is learned from them time working on them would not have been waisted.
Off I go to scan and post!
Archive sites:
devantART
FurAffinity
VCL
Current Blogs:
ComicSpace
devantART
FurAffinity
LiveJorurnal
WithoutABox
I tried to create a 404 (missing page) file with links to were the artists person sites/contact are but the server has defeated me on such things overwriting it with an Apache install page. Tug? if I could get some help with that, that would be awesome!
Still trying to get in touch with the new home for BMI and Ebin & May and work out the arrangements. RL seems to conspire against me though as they are swamped. Keep your fingers X-ed.
I have not yet figured out what to do whit my films. More than likely I'll keep them up on YouTube/Veoh/ect semi abandoned in place for now. I'm going to concentrate on find home fro the web-comics first, then I shall go forward with sorting out the animations. Am I going to do more animations? I don't know at this point. I'd like to, but I have other things viaing for my attention that come first. One thing at a time.
Needless to say, yesterday I spent in kind of a funk. Having Phalloide run around with Theo/Ducky and Alexa {Hells Angus} over on E'T in World of Warcraft helped a lot. It may not be "surrounded in RL by friends" but it was a close second. I got more depressed after I logged out for dinner, and floundered more before catching up with other even-more-close-friends on my main server, Muradin. Oif sounded like he was having just as depressing of a day as me (but for different reasons), but Tsula was her players' chipper self. Oif and I just let that chipperness surround us as we beat the tar out of Ogers.
One of the reasons I feel Backbreaker failed is that I'm poor at my communication/self-promotion. So I'm trying to rectify that. It'll take time. For now, I'm going though a pile of art on my desk. Trying to get my three art archives online sorted out so they have all the same thing (or at least close to it for genera purposes). This involves a lot of rescanning and X-posting to blogs.
Looking at my recent work, there seems to be an "offness" about it, in many instances, and almost amateurish look. I don't know if that is do to my slowly eroding confidence in my work (which has been going on for years now, much of it tied to falling sales and bad reviews/dissing from art directors and whom I considered piers). I'll probably go ahead and post them anyways, just for completeness sake. After all, if something is learned from them time working on them would not have been waisted.
Off I go to scan and post!
Archive sites:
devantART
FurAffinity
VCL
Current Blogs:
ComicSpace
devantART
FurAffinity
LiveJorurnal
WithoutABox
Farewell Stage6, Hello Blip.tv & Veoh
Feb. 27th, 2008 09:56 amWell, crud.
2 days ago, Stage6 suddenly announced that they were shutting down. As someone who has films hosted there, I was really bummed. For high quality, high definition video it was the best site I had ever worked with and they were a driving force in the internet independent movie scene. But as of the 28th (tomorrow), it will be no more.
Stated reason for closing? It got too big, too fast, and DivX (the parent company) felt it was taking away too much of their resources from their main focus, the DivX codex. Of course, no sooner has the announcement been made than the rumors started flying. Everything from a money collapse from lawsuits by the MPAA over copyright infringement (Stage6 had also quickly became a haven for illegal video distribution, despite Stage6's best efforts to thwart this), to a possible buyout from Google. I'm just sad that such a great tool for distributing actually viewable video (unlike YouTube) is slipping away.
This leaves me looking for new places to host High quality versions of my films. Fortunately, I've found 2, Blip.tv and Veoh. For the past couple of days I've been going in and setting up the files for the new systems. So far, I'm actually liking Blip.tv a little better. But there is nothing stopping me from hosting on both systems, along side our own private hosting and the films on YouTube. Heaven knows, my work needs all the exposer it can get.
So, here's our new video channels:
Blip.tv: http://backbreakerstudios.blip.tv/
Veoh: http://www.veoh.com/channels/BackBreakerStudios
Come poke around and tell me what you think. ^.^
2 days ago, Stage6 suddenly announced that they were shutting down. As someone who has films hosted there, I was really bummed. For high quality, high definition video it was the best site I had ever worked with and they were a driving force in the internet independent movie scene. But as of the 28th (tomorrow), it will be no more.
Stated reason for closing? It got too big, too fast, and DivX (the parent company) felt it was taking away too much of their resources from their main focus, the DivX codex. Of course, no sooner has the announcement been made than the rumors started flying. Everything from a money collapse from lawsuits by the MPAA over copyright infringement (Stage6 had also quickly became a haven for illegal video distribution, despite Stage6's best efforts to thwart this), to a possible buyout from Google. I'm just sad that such a great tool for distributing actually viewable video (unlike YouTube) is slipping away.
This leaves me looking for new places to host High quality versions of my films. Fortunately, I've found 2, Blip.tv and Veoh. For the past couple of days I've been going in and setting up the files for the new systems. So far, I'm actually liking Blip.tv a little better. But there is nothing stopping me from hosting on both systems, along side our own private hosting and the films on YouTube. Heaven knows, my work needs all the exposer it can get.
So, here's our new video channels:
Blip.tv: http://backbreakerstudios.blip.tv/
Veoh: http://www.veoh.com/channels/BackBreakerStudios
Come poke around and tell me what you think. ^.^
So ... I've finally feeling well enough to start poking at some of my animation projects again. Digging though the archive, I deleted a bunch of non-relevant test anims to try and squeak a few more megs out of my too-full hard-drive and finally dig up the last render of "Longing for Home". Well, that's as good of a place to start as any.
Here's the current move as it stands --
And here's what I started with back in 2005 --
Current to-do list for the film
Backgrounds/Texture maps --
1) Star field needs to be replaced. I had originally asked Baron to paint a nice one up for me but RL nixed that. Maybe I should bug Pat Duke for one instead. Hummm.
2) Need to paint up the grassy field too. Have a drawing of it that I need to scan and then its Photoshop O' Rama time and pray I just don't destroy it entirely. As you can see, I have great confidence in my painting abilities. ;p
3) Forest needs to be replanned. As you can see in the video, there's a weird error that's occurring with the toon line where it intersects the transparency of the tree models. Not good. I'll probably have to render the shot with three separate passes: The background trees, Rose, and the foreground trees that pass in front of her, then compile the entire shading-ding in my editing program. Oh, and I should think about repainting the trees and background too.
4) Cliff painting. Right now it's just a bare model with a flat colored surface for a place holder. Need to pant a nifty sky too. Maybe with some little puffy clouds... and pray I don't look like crap.
5) Need to texture the ship. Badly.
Animation --
1) Well, I new that I needed to "touch up" the recorder playing animation, but on review of the file I suddenly realized that it needs more than a touch up... since I animated the hands in the opposite position from how you play. DOH! Not so bad for most of the shots, but for the first shot where she pulls the pipe out... Oh-boy, am I in for a rough time. That first shot has a lot of constraints that it's dancing between and it mean I'll have to redue most if not all of those connections. Fun, fun, fun!
2) I still wish I could find the sheet music for this music. It'll make animating so much easier. But alas, for now it means that I need to try and match the notes with my own recorder that I can barely play and hope that I'm not too far off. Because I guaranty you, that within a month of putting a fork into the project and calling it done, some wise-ass piping fanatic on the internet will come forward and tell me all the thing I did wrong with the piping. My only consultation is that I'm not trying to do a train ....
Let's see how much farther I can get this thing. Done would be nice. But RL has a nasty habit of getting in the way. Dang, I wish I could make money at this. It would solve a lot of problems and keep me focused on finishing these much better. Alas - like in most art endeavors, there is no money in being an independent animator doing your own thing. Doesn't mean I can't wish, can I?
Here's the current move as it stands --
And here's what I started with back in 2005 --
Current to-do list for the film
Backgrounds/Texture maps --
1) Star field needs to be replaced. I had originally asked Baron to paint a nice one up for me but RL nixed that. Maybe I should bug Pat Duke for one instead. Hummm.
2) Need to paint up the grassy field too. Have a drawing of it that I need to scan and then its Photoshop O' Rama time and pray I just don't destroy it entirely. As you can see, I have great confidence in my painting abilities. ;p
3) Forest needs to be replanned. As you can see in the video, there's a weird error that's occurring with the toon line where it intersects the transparency of the tree models. Not good. I'll probably have to render the shot with three separate passes: The background trees, Rose, and the foreground trees that pass in front of her, then compile the entire shading-ding in my editing program. Oh, and I should think about repainting the trees and background too.
4) Cliff painting. Right now it's just a bare model with a flat colored surface for a place holder. Need to pant a nifty sky too. Maybe with some little puffy clouds... and pray I don't look like crap.
5) Need to texture the ship. Badly.
Animation --
1) Well, I new that I needed to "touch up" the recorder playing animation, but on review of the file I suddenly realized that it needs more than a touch up... since I animated the hands in the opposite position from how you play. DOH! Not so bad for most of the shots, but for the first shot where she pulls the pipe out... Oh-boy, am I in for a rough time. That first shot has a lot of constraints that it's dancing between and it mean I'll have to redue most if not all of those connections. Fun, fun, fun!
2) I still wish I could find the sheet music for this music. It'll make animating so much easier. But alas, for now it means that I need to try and match the notes with my own recorder that I can barely play and hope that I'm not too far off. Because I guaranty you, that within a month of putting a fork into the project and calling it done, some wise-ass piping fanatic on the internet will come forward and tell me all the thing I did wrong with the piping. My only consultation is that I'm not trying to do a train ....
Let's see how much farther I can get this thing. Done would be nice. But RL has a nasty habit of getting in the way. Dang, I wish I could make money at this. It would solve a lot of problems and keep me focused on finishing these much better. Alas - like in most art endeavors, there is no money in being an independent animator doing your own thing. Doesn't mean I can't wish, can I?
We've got a new place to find our animations on the web. Stage 6, from the makers of the DivX codex. I've create a whole new BackBreaker Studios Channel there just for BackBreaker Studios. Come check it out!
There's an added bonus of Stage 6 too. BackBreaker after years of being on the web, finally has it's own forum as part of Stage 6. That's right, a place that folks can come and hang out with BackBreaker. you'll need a login to Stage 6 (as par typical), but that's it. Come and stop on by!
There's an added bonus of Stage 6 too. BackBreaker after years of being on the web, finally has it's own forum as part of Stage 6. That's right, a place that folks can come and hang out with BackBreaker. you'll need a login to Stage 6 (as par typical), but that's it. Come and stop on by!
