Animation again, schedule blues

I finished animating the remainder of line six of the poem, and will soon be starting on the chorus (most likely after dinner tonight).  Animation progress so far can be seen here, with tinny audio (the nice audio is here, and I hope to stream it in the final).  I’m looking forward to having parts of the upcoming poem already animated (particularly the rotoscoped rotating self among planets and the white-on-black rotoscoped silhouette).

In other news, I registered for classes this morning.  So far I’m taking 5 credits, but I need to find 7 more in order to keep various scholarships and financial aid (contingent on me being enrolled in 12 credit hours worth of classes).  Urgh.  I may have to find out if I should take some credits of HC Thesis or something, so that I have work time for it (similar to what I’m doing this term).  I’m trying to decide whether to take a 10am class, on the grounds that it will force me to get up and be productive, or a 2pm class on the grounds that I’ll never risk missing a class due to not sleeping well and the ensuing migraine.  It’s “chance and determinism in the physical world” versus “global climate change,” and on a purely topical basis, the former wins hands down.

UPDATE: Went back and fixed/fiddled with some things that had been bothering me, mainly the second line’s head-turn roto and the fourth line’s eye.  Finalized a few transitions, sorted all the library items in flash into folders (yay! I can find things without looking through the whole list now!), and made way for the chorus.  Animation progress is here.  And now to bed!

Transitions and text (and the Olympics, of course!)

Okay, I did get a lot of work done yesterday, but I didn’t post because I was watching figure skating on NBC’s olympics coverage (wow; some painful falls!).  I also forgot to post a link to the valentine I made a while ago and posted yesterday.  Then I did more work this morning; the progress animation for today will cover both days of work.  I plan to eat dinner early, go to Fencing Club, and then possibly leave a bit early so I can rush through my shower and beg that the TV in the lounge be tuned to channel 3 for the second installment of pairs figure skating!  Yay!  If not, I will watch the clips online…  And speaking of watching things online, I’m on episode 22 of Cowboy Bebop (that’s “Cowboy Funk,” the one with the Teddy Bomber and that annoying dude with the horse whose name happily escapes me).

Transitions: how I go from image to image, or animation to animation.  It varies; I’ve used lots of fades and zooms, and a few animated changes (line four’s eye reflection turns into line five’s silhouette); the animations take more work, but I really like the results, so I hope to do more of those.  Likewise coloring; monochrome gives a nice effect, but the mood of the poem/song fluctuates between dark (minor key, verses) and light (major key, chorus), so I’m using more color for the chorus segments.  See, it all makes sense, Subconscious!  I told you it would!

Text: I’m doing a handwritten style for the personal, intimate feel and flexibility it gives me; I usually do several draft letterings and pick my favorite to use (heh; a typo made that “sue” for a moment).  They writing also reflects the mood to a degree, but the style of the scene/image/animation is a stronger influence.  I’m doing mostly static type, so that the animated type of certain sections stands out more (line five, particularly, as well as forthcoming lines six and eight).  It reads a bit like a picture book at the moment; the type is wavering between being like a static block of text and a fully integrated element of the image.  At this point, I’m not sure where it will go eventually, but I’m excited to find out.

Go USA!  Make me proud! *insert a rare instance of patriotic fervor in yours truly*

Rotoscoping.

Yup, more of same.  Finished one sequence and the transition between it and the previous, and am working on one of my favorites, visually—the last part of todays progress.  I’m a little over halfway through with the white-on-black segment, and am really enjoying the vibrant, lyrical drawing technique, although I’m redrawing many small lines to connect in *just* the right way, perfectionist that I am.  In contrast, what I did earlier today looks a bit clunky.  I may rework that when I finish EVERYTHING ELSE.  Lol.

Also, here is the piano version of the song to whose lyrics I’m animating everything.  And here’s the version with an ad-libbed piano descant I intend to hammer into tunefullness and tempo.  The note velocity is inconsistent throughout most of the music; I really want a 88-key piano keyboard with fully weighted hammer action, but there are priorities other than music, alas!  (Aka new sewing machine!  Software!  Shoes that aren’t falling apart!  Apartment fund to keep me out of my parents’ house come next year!)

In other news, this is the second week in a row that I’ve been really out of breath and tired at Judo; it’s also at least the second week in a row that I’ve skipped Fencing Club on Monday.  Are these two facts related?  Just to be safe, I will do my best to make it to Fencing Club, particularly on Mondays.  I get little exercise besides biking to and from classes aka very little, as I have few regular classes) and biking around Eugene on nice days (often at the expense of work, unfortunately), so I should try harder to do what active things I enjoy and can reasonably explain away.  Also, I *will* throw myself more into my research, both for the thesis project and for my paper for the Honors Science Colloquia I’m taking this term (urgh, two papers at once!  I am so spoiled!).  Cyteen: The Rebirth is unfortunately much more readable than what I ought to be reading, but the past has shown me that I can control my baser instincts (reading and doing other non-school-productive things).  Here’s to hoping!

The Slow and Meticulous—The Long-Awaited Blockbuster Sequel!

Okay, I really need to do something else; my titles are suffering!

I skipped Fencing Club to work on my thesis project.  It had better be worth it in the long run!  Filmed some reference footage (both stills and video; PhotoBooth is great for fast, low-res stuff); finished coloring last week’s title animation, drew the background (wood grain looks nice but is painstaking to draw), and started on the final project (the actual putting together of all the parts, transitioning in between).  Title animation is done!  It lasts eight seconds (the first seven or so of which are flexible), and the transition will flow into the next line.  Time for bed; I hope to be up early tomorrow working!