Literary Felt

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A Little Fun for the Weekend

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Tenth Dimension, A Point?

There's an animation on this site that gives a wonderful explanation of how we get to ten dimensions.

To get to it, you have to click on the "Imagining the Tenth Dimension" in the navigation bar. There's a lot of stuff there, so it may not be great for slow connections, but it was great.

Problem with Music

I finished my animation on Sunday afternoon, before work. There's something up with the music, it wouldn't sync the way it's supposed to, as in, let's say, I have a scene that 158 frames long, when I cut the music to be 158 frames, it would be too short, so I figured out a way to make it run through the whole thing then fade out a little bit before the whole thing ends. I wanted to be able to edit the music better, but I don't know how to. Oh well. It's due tonight, and I think I did a pretty good job.

Flash

How important is it to have moving clouds in every outdoor scene of my animation? Probably not very, but I just added them to each one. Why? Because I'm anal, that's why. This must be what real animators go through. They must constantly ask themselves how much detail to add. Everyone wants these things to be as close to reality as possible, but no one wants to do extra work if they don't have to. So, how important are the damn clouds? To me? Very important. I have to have them to prove that I can do it. It's like all the movement in the first chunk of animation, do I need it? A moving roller coaster, a moving Ferris Wheel, a moving flag, then they all get larger so I can do a zoom. Will anyone out there really notice these things on the first or second viewing? Do I need to stay consistent with the positioning? Should blueberry pie vomit have bobbing chunks of blueberries? Will I go mad trying to answer all of these questions?

I didn't go to work today, but I've been workin' hard.

Except for the two hour sanity break this afternoon (and a couple of trips to the potty room), I've been working on the next Flash project for my class since ten AM. So, that's like ten hours of work. Thats a lot. I'm almost finished. I know what my problem is, I made it too complicated for me. Lots of things moving and not enough repitition.

Tomorrow, before work, I have to complete one more scene then add the music, then I'm done. Hooray! Only two more projects and summer school is done! Hooray!

Waltzing with Hedwig

With my recent obsession with Harry Potter (see the June 21st entry for further details), I watched the first movie today. (I think I would have started reading the books again, but I only have my copy of the fifth book with me, and that's not the right place to start rereading the series, is it? I'd be like starting to reread the Dragonlance books with Legends book 2: War of the Twins, wouldn't it?) Just finished the movie in fact. And, as with any pretty good movie, I noticed something new. No, it's not something that's missing, I think I noticed all of those things by the second time I watched the movie. What I noticed was that the main musical phrase, I guess is what it could be called, entitled Hedwig's Theme is a waltz. It's got that definite 1, 2, 3, 4 idea that's always underneath what the music is doing.

A waltz.

Huh.

It's given me an idea of what to do with my slowly growing Flash skills. I think I want to do a sort of Fantasia thing with Hedwig's Theme. Strange shapes waltzing with each other across the screen. Twirling, changing, multiplying with the music. Hopefully very strange. I've got to start sketching this out.

If I ever complete it (although really starting on it will be an enormous move for me), that'll be the day that I will guarantee that I'll get my own website. Before that day, you'll have to live with my blogs.

Funnies

Has anyone else out there watched the Bush in 30 Seconds winners? They're pretty great. All of the finalists are good, really. My favorites are (in their low bandwidth settings) Leave No Billioniare Behind, If the Bush Administration Was Your Roommate, School Yard Politics, and Al Keyda.

Enjoy.

Interview

This is an interview I conducted on myself earlier today. I hope you enjoy it.

Josh the Interviewer: So, I've heard that you moved to Sacramento--

Josh the Answerer: Yep, I've moved to our state's capital, or as I prefer to call it the "cowcity." I figure that if where I was before was a cowtown, why can't this be a cowcity? I ask you, why? If you're gonna answer me, I'll need three good reasons for why this can't be a cowcity, and "because I think it's stupid" isn't a good reason.

I lived in Davis for two years of my life, but I didn't really care for it and now I'm in Sacramento, the big city by Davis. I can't say that I'll like it here anymore than I liked it there. I'm not a big city person. Sure, they're nice to visit, but I don't like living there. It's too crowded. Too many people. Too many buildings. Too many cars. There's just too much crammed into one place.

I probably don't like it because I'm not really a people person. I don't like people. They say that man's a social animal, but I'm not. I don't like most people that I've met and I don't going to large parties with people I've never met and I don't want to make lots of friend when I like the one's I've got very well, thank you very much.

But, overall, I think that moving to this cowcity will be good for me. Maybe I'll like more people. Or maybe I'll win the lottery and move into a cave in the mountain where I'll be left alone and my only human contact will be through the internet and that frightened child who'll bring groceries to my cave's entrance each week. At least I'll be able to see some good movies, even if the other things don't happen.

JtI: Okay... Well... You moved to continue to go to school, why--

JtA: That's right. I felt like there wasn't enough offered where I was. It was a good school, don't get me wrong, I liked it a lot, but there was no where that I could really go. I was stuck. I wanted to do this graphic design thing, but they didn't offer anything more than the basics, and I had nearly finished those. So, I didn't take any Photoshop courses, big deal. I know Illustrator inside-and-almost-out. I know InDesign, and that's going to challenge the industry standard of Quark. And I started to teach myself how to use the Flash animation, with some less than stellar results, but I'm trying, none the less.

The school I'm currently attending, my first class was today, American River College, which was named years before September 11th, is a decent one. I had my first class today, which is and will continue to be the fundamentals of design. I have to take it because everyone has to, who's interested in graphic design. What I really want to get into is the animation stuff. They offer a class that's on Flash animation and a 3D animation class. I can't wait. If I'm good enough, I should be able to start that stuff next fall, but I have to work over one of the counselors first, try to shmooze my way around some prerequisites and into the classes. Will it work? I dunno, but I hope it does.

I'm really looking forward to that animation stuff, you know? I've always wanted to be involved, but I'm not so good at the drawing by hand. I can draw something, but it'll never look remotely the same when I try to draw it again, unless it's a straight line, that is, and even then I have some problems, lots of problems actually. I don't know what's wrong. I like art. I enjoy going to museums. I want to be able to do that sort of thing, but I can't. I'm told that practice makes perfect in art and that everyone can do it, but that's really a load of crap. You need some innate ability to do it well and lots of that ability truly be one of the greats, even if you never sell a painting in your life time....

Sorry, I got a little off topic. What was the questions again?

JtI: I wanted to know why you are still going to school--

JtA: Didn't I just answer that?

JtI: Yes and no. That wasn't my whole question.

JtA: Oh.

Pause

JtA: You can finish you're question if you'd like because I'd really like to answer it.

JtI: Okay. I wanted to know why you're going to school, at a junior college, when you already have a BA in English?

JtA: Is that all? Well, there are a three reasons.

The first is financial. I don't want to pay my loans and as long as I'm in school at least half time, I don't have to. I don't have the money to really start paying those suckers off, so I don't want to. If paying 600ish dollars a school year keeps me from paying 80 dollars a month for the next twenty years, or whatever it is, then I'll do it.

The second has to do with work, which, I suppose, is sort of financial, if you want to pick at nits. Like you said, I graduated with a degree in English and while I love the stuff I learned about I have to ask, what the fuck can you do with an English degree? Teach? Well, I talked to some teachers and even the advisor for the education department at Stan State and in the end we came up with the fact that I wouldn't be so good at teaching high school because I have very little patience for people who don't want to be there and in a high school English class, that's like 90% of the students, if I was one of the lucky ones. I could go into journalism, but I took a couple of classes in that, and while I was told that my writing was strong, my interviews tended to be haphazard and unfocused. And I don't think that interviewing is something that a person should learn on the job. Part of me feels bad that I don't think I can do it, but if I don't think I can then I won't, right?

And the third reason is that I like this graphic design stuff. I like to take an idea and try to distill it down then slap it on paper. I liked making this logo and still enjoy looking at it. Do I want to do this the rest of my life? I'm not sure. Hell, I'm not sure that I'll even finish the program here. Maybe I'll actually start writing my novel, or go to grad school, or get married. Who knows? For now, though, I'm sticking to school because it's here and pretty safe.

JtI: Well, that it for this interview. If you have any more questions for Josh then put them in the thing below, he'll do his best to provide you with an answer that may or may not actually answer you're question.

Oh, and if you’re reading this, Dani, be sure to keep your pictures, Josh likes to see the things you draw. Thanks.

(This interview was written under the influence of, what I like to call, the Sweat Pants of Writing. I have yet to purchase a pair of Sweat Pants of Good Writing. Keep your fingers crossed.)

New Programs

I got my Macromedia programs Thursday night. I loaded them on the computer Friday and started playing with Flash.

I have one animation, made with shapes in the program. It's a ball bouncing across a sidewalk, or street, and changing colors as it does. I gave it a shadow that gets dimmer and larger as the ball gets higher. Now I'm trying to make my commercial for the contest. Everyone I've told the idea to, and everyone my dad has told it to (which is many more than I have), and is more libral minded think it's a funny idea, but agree that it's crude. I've run ito many problems with the animation. I'm getting a book to help me, hopefully that'll help me.

Oh, is there something wrong with Crumpled?

A Wonderfully Horrible Idea

It came to me while I was doing dishes. An idea that I first thought was horrible, then I realized that if I had friends in the TV business it would probably be marketable. Awful.

I call it Rivendell High.

We all know what happens in the end of The Lord of The Rings, but what were Sam, Frodo, and all the rest like when they were in high school? That's what this animated show's about.

Frodo, Sam, Pippin, and Merry are Freshmen and the only Hobbits at Rivendell High (a boarding school that was originally for Elfs, of whom there are the most, Humans and Dwarfs were eventually allowed in, and finally, with these four, Hobbits), are unpopular, and seem to attract trouble like iron to a magnet, but they are all destined to greatness, right? It's thier first time away from the Shire, but they have more than enough Shire in them to drive the other students and the teachers nuts. They don't mean to cause trouble or "borrow" things, it's just what being a Hobbit is about and it's about time Rivendell learned to adjust.

With the help of some seniors, Aragorn AKA "The Stride" (an aloof and dirty, handsome ranger in training), Gimli (loudmouth dwarf who's the fiercest fighter and fiercest friend you could want), Legolas (archery champ and the least popular Elf in school because he hangs out with a Dwarf), and the mega-popular Arwen (the principal's daughter and Aragon's squeeze), the Hobbits are out to foil the plots of History of Middle-Earth teacher Saruman, and his favorite student Wormtongue, who wants to take over the school from Principal Elrond and his Assistant-Principal\Magic teacher Gandalf. Some other teachers include: Bilbo, Poetry and Song; Galadriel, Healing and Herb Lore; Tom Bombadil, Creatures of Middle-Earth; and Thodin, Horsemanship.

When the Hobbits and their friends aren't foiling the plots of Saruman and Wormtongue they are out to keep the school from losing to Mordor High School, where the evil Headmaster Sauron is out to defeat Rivendell in everything with his hordes of under-educated Orc and others of their ilk.

And lurking around the school is the mysterious Gollum, always searching for his Precious, but never finding it or any help from the students he meets.

There you have it. My horrible idea for Saturday morning's newest hit. I know you'd be curious, even if you would never admit to actually watching. Don't even try to deny it.