better sound editing!!!!
YEAH!

below is the animation i finished tonight.
i think in total, since our last class meeting i've spent about 8 hrs on it.
i am SO happy with this.

i didn't use any of dan's music, but i think its okay. i am so happy with the way the timing of the music and this syncs up... its too perfect. i never would have found this song if i didnt show this animation to lindsey so... big thanks to her.

i posted this on youtube and on my personal blog and i've gotten alot of good feedback. even though i didn't fly through the space i really think that i achieved the objectives of the assignment.
i also made something that i think is really beautiful so... either way, i'm HAPPY.

I JUST LOST EVERYTHING I DID TODAY.

i didn't even know that this texture still existed on my computer. i saved it and sent it to myself. i really think that i'm going to get it printed on some fabric and turn it into a sculpture!!!!!! (or a dress. because its pretty awesome, if i do say so myself...)

so today, i'm still plugging away on the emitters and deflectors... trying to get the basic idea of the scene down before i start rendering. i did a little bit of work last night on the formation of boxes but they weren't emitting any pattern that i was relatively happy with.

i still need to remember how to change the color of the actual boxes. i'm thinking instead of changing it in the property tracks, i can animate a texture and apply that to the boxes. i just don't want the change in color to be overwhelming. i want it to be just subtle enough to make a significant impact.

also- blyth if you could send me those readings on chaos theory and the bird flight patterns and bait balls and all that jazz that would be really helpful!

is it possible to animate color??

i really like the last part of my factory animation, where the cubes rapidly bombard the screen and through the rotation and layering of the cubes, it creates abstract shapes that shift from 2 and 3 dimensions.

for my final animation, i think that i'm going to try and do this for an entire video, but there will be a color shift in the cubes when the sound starts to build so for various voices and parts of the song, the colors (and hopefully the speed) will change. i want to start with lighter, more subtle colors and then progress into brighter more vibrant colors.

i have thought a little bit more about my final project. i'm still struggling with this a little bit, but i think that i have a somewhat solid idea floating around in my head.

again, i'll be working with boxes, but i want to work with them in a move intuitive/expressive way.

the song that i'm thinking about using now is different from build voice. there is something really incredible about this song, because it has this giant "swell" in it. its just different layers of voices and sounds that build and build and build and then fade out at the end. i would really like to apply the idea of a swarm, or a swell to the creation of these boxes, and try and get them to behave in a way that is not indicative of how boxes would/could normally behave.

i'm kind of approaching this with the idea that i am either making a music video or some sort of animation that will be shown specifically for this music. emailing back and forth with dan deacon has been really awesome, because hes encouraged me to send him the project after i'm done, even though i'm not sure if i will...

---


i am also going to sub-divide this animation again once i have the storyboards done. making things happen in different phases seems to be a good way of working for me. its like a divide and conquer thing. i'd rather look at something with a lot of little parts that seem easy to accomplish, rather than looking at one huge project and feeling overwhelmed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWdUewGv49s

dan deacon- build voice.

i intend to use this concept for my animation. i'm not sure how the idea of "building voice" will translate into little boxes, but i think that this idea has potential and could work.

i've been ignoring my blogggg.

okay so- i changed my presentation topic, because i was researching debb todd wheeler and was sort of confused. its not that i don't understand her, or her work, because i really do like it, but i guess i just wanted to learn more about ANIMATION as a whole, rather than one specific animator. i am worried actually now that my presentation is going to be TOO long... but as of 12:40 only three of us have shown up for class so i guess that isn't an issue.


i am really happy with the outcome of my factory, although watching it before class made me think of specific things i could have tweaked/changed. the only section i'm REALLY not satisfied with is when the colored boxes start to emit from the large dark cube. i wanted them to appear incredibly random, so i literally did nothing to organize them or the emitters. i sort of just threw them into the space. last night i was satisfied with the way they look but... today, not so much. this is something that will be fixed before this animation is shown in a more public setting.

shazam... opening sequence i'm prettttttttty sure is good to go.
i don't like the sound but thats still up in the air. i sort of just added these noises because its fun. all of that stuff will come this weekend. i am thinking about editing/manipulating the pete seeger recording of little boxes i have. i've been playing with alot of pitch bending and all of that jazz in audacity and garage band. i'm pretty sure something interesting could come of this.

i am also a day ahead of my planning document. woohoo!

i just have to get the middle sequence finished by wednesday, but it will be easy. i got quite a bit done in class today so i'm almost there!!!!

http://www.freefarm.co.uk/freefarm.php?project_id=147

took a much needed break over vacation. originally i didn't have plans to return to NH to see my family, but maaaaan was it necessary.

my planning document is obviously a little bit off now, but i'm going to adjust and move forward accordingly.
today, i'm going to be DONE with the opening sequence of the factory. i have some videos rendered and i need to just put everything in imovie and get crackin'.

factory- breakdown of three sequences, and then each main sequence has 3 parts.

1. Opening Sequence

a.) boxes will exit larger box, get deflected twice and then fade into the space.
there will also be an alternate view in order to establish that the boxes are being produced by a larger box.
b.) boxes will then move along a straight line, get deflected through a series of obstacles and enter a second box.
c.) there will be a pause- and noises.

2. Middle Sequence

a.) boxes will start to emit from second box- sorted by color light shades of (green, pink, blue, yellow)
b.) boxes will then travel through another series of deflectors.
c.) boxes will be funneled into a holding area.

3. End Sequence

a.) boxes will stay in holding area for x amount of frames
b.) boxes will start exiting holding area.
c.) boxes will arrange in a grid, sorted by color... they will then start traveling away from the camera and fade into the white space.

---

today i am going to finish modeling all the elements of the opening sequence.

is it possible to make a 3D movie out of this?
i want to turn this idea into an environment.

http://www.behance.net/Gallery/MTV-ORGANIC/431459

i thought that the video at the bottom was great. not sure how this was made.

self eval- flythru

my flythru isn't really my flythru anymore. i sort of added to and worked on one of my practice projects. i did make a flythru, but i guess it just didn't mean as much to me as making something that i was happy with. the first animation i made, i feel like the modeling is really good and i learned alot technically, but i feel like i was setting myself up to make video games or something... which is not really what i'm interested in at all (not that theres anything wrong with video games).

i really enjoyed this project because i feel like it is a starting point for a lot of other ideas. not only am i learning technical things, but i feel like there is an opportunity to explore more meaningful ways of controlling objects. i'm already thinking about how i can interpret the same idea (just using squares) for the factory project. what goes in to make the squares go out? why are the squares being made? i feel like i could spend my entire semester creating variations on this theme. especially after shanth's talk... i think it would be interesting to explore the symbolism more, and try to be a little bit more expressive with the animation.

second life response-

although i missed second life in class i explored it a little on my own time. i also read the article on jeffrey lipsky AND coincidentally, i'm friends with him on facebook. he added me a while ago, while i was on break for the winter and i wondered why.... now i know! i have also looked at his paintings and enjoy them.

however- i am not sure i'm entirely sold on second life or the idea of heavily participating in virtual reality. i think that the biggest issue i have with it, is quite frankly, it scares me...

i feel like this is an extreme example, and probably not something i will ever be alive to witness, but, humans are becoming increasingly more dependent on technology to communicate and i worry that there will be a time in the history of mankind where spoken language and person to person contact is kind of unnecessary and undesirable.

i have no issues with technology being used to help aid us in our quest for more knowledge or easier lives, and often wonder what the potential of man will be when robotic/interactive technology has freed us from labor. (to me- this idea is very Brave New World). BUT- as much as there is potential for good in the increase of people participating in virtual reality, i also think that there is a lot of room for massive error.

the thing that i don't get, is... even though it is difficult to start an "art career", why would someone at least not try to do such a thing in the REAL world, rather than just doing it in virtual reality. maybe i don't understand because i'm young and full of ideas and the world hasn't really gotten to me yet... but i guess i just feel like, instead of creating a virtual world for yourself or creating a place like Brooklyn Is Watching, why not just go do it in the real world? why not get a whole bunch of people together and make outstanding things and bust your ass trying to make a name for yourself in your real and waking life?

i think it is kind of unhealthy to be so heavily dependent on a fantasy world. even though it may be positive for a lot of people, its something that i don't think i could ever involve myself in. i think for me, it would be devastating to be wildly successful in a virtual world, only to have to worry about things like getting evicted from my studio in my real life. i feel like making and experiencing art is incredibly visceral. is it possible to feel the same when you look at a de kooning on a computer screen as you do in real life? i'm not so sure it is...

research topic- deb todd wheeler and other artists who use 3D animation to aid in the process of creating objects!

more to comeeeee. just writing this down and a reminder.

http://www.storyboards-east.com/sb_enoc_crimetime.htm

i love this. i think the characters are adorable.

hmm. so i'm trying to upload my video but i can't. anyway. i'll just explain it i guess.

its just a continuation of the squares video posted earlier (that may no longer be working. i've got to check the link) but with sound.

basically, what i noticed was sort of happening when i was expanding the clips and then editing the sound in the video, a ping happens and the squares scatter and then- when there is a whistle they all gather together. this would be kind of an interesting thing to explore i think...

i'm trying to brainstorm every day sounds (that are related to technology) that would make people gather or scatter. or what noises do we hear in our lives that make us gather or scatter? what noises are repulsive enough to make us leave an area and what noises are pleasant enough to draw us in?

i really like the idea of a whistle even though it is not electronic. something about that noise i think suggests discipline and order. is there an electronic noise that is similar that still suggests the same thing? i was thinking about sounds my computer makes when i do something wrong, but it still does not conjure the same feeling as a whistle, and i don't think an alarm will work either, because alarms make me want to leave an area, not maintain order.

i'm also not entirely sold on the electronic ping yet. i am trying to think of electronic noises that i find to be comforting, but i guess i can't think of any of the top of my head. i may however play around with audacity and garage band and try and make some of my own music. i also have some sort of "ambient" (even though i hate that word) electronic music i've made with friends outside of school that might be applicable for this situation.

i am really interested in continuing to make electronic music. so maybe these two ideas can be meshed together for this project? if i can make a track that encompasses this concept and then make a longer version of the moving squares video where the movements are more controlled.... that would make me pretttyyyyyyyy happy.

IPR- in progress render!

still don't know how to make things appear and disappear.

i believe that this has potential! i am actually starting to not be as frustrated. this is a gooooooooooooood thing.

rendered my plato project. timing is an issue (ha. ha. ha.)

no- really. its difficult to translate the passage of the appropriate amount of time spent in once specific place in the virtual world. its different when filming something for real, because you understand how to move through time and move through a particular place/space, because you are physically doing it. i feel like i have no idea how small or how large the worlds i create are, and because of that, i have no idea how to move through the spaces yet. i guess its just a matter of manipulating the cameras and practicing moving them around and creating specific pathways. i feel like these are valuable concepts to mull over, although i'm not sure how they will be applicable to any other area of my life outside of making animated worlds (but i'm sure they will be).

this doesn't really make a lot of sense. i feel like this is kind of just coming out of my head right now...
---

i will most likely be working on this on saturday evening. i plan on finishing the modeling, animation and rendering that day.
---

http://www.ondulation.net/about.html

interior fly thru.

from my notes... "upon this bank and shoal of time. how can you move through time? time time time... why am i perpetually trying to learn how to comprehend how people move through/exist in time?"

(you is the character/camera...)

in the beginning, you will be shown a large expanse of flat black space with an opening that is brightly lit. you will go into that opening.
stepping into the opening will reveal an interior space that has a large expanse of two rows of columns that create a sort of hallway. you have no choice but to go down this hallway. the columns are blocking your access to the other parts of the space. this is a very sterile, white space... at the end of the "hallway" created by columns there is a flickering/shimmery golden/yellow light.

you will move slowly down the constructed hallway, occasionally glancing to the sides, trying to see if there is anything outside of the columns, but there isn't. its just white space. the light keeps flickering... but becomes less intense as you get closer to the end of the hallway.

you keep walking, but finally and somewhat abruptly you reach the end of the hallway. when you get there you will be confronted with just a plain wall with text on it. the text will read...

"by the time you got here it was already gone."

if it is possible to make this happen... there is no longer any golden light coming from anywhere. it is completely faded. the light just looks the same as everywhere else in the space. plain and white.
---

i'm still not sure how this will resolve, though. this... if it was an installation, would be about the fleeting nature of time. how something can seem so incredible and exciting when its in the future, but when it becomes the present it is absurd and not ideal. the nature of the text will address how we think that we can catch up to this thing that is in the future that may be incredible, but by the time we get to it in the present it is no longer there.

so... how does what the viewer sees in this fly thru become part of the past? do they simply just turn around and walk out of the space?

i'm not really sure if any of that last part made sense. it did in my head.


---

i am really satisfied with the way this project is going right now.
intentionally, i feel like this is a modern interpretation of an ancient temple. i feel like there is a lot of potential for "poeticism" in animation... even though i think that word sounds kind of hokey.




again- i am just having the feeling that i wish that i had the space and resources to actually make these installations (in the real world). i keep looking at super large scale works and drooling over how these people get to do this kind of stuff (julian schnabels pink palace???? WANT.) i'm wondering if this could be done with a canvas tent like structure and some lights and a few columns i make myself.

thinking thinking thinking...

I CANT GET MY IMAGE TO PRINT.
WAAAAAAAH.

right now this seems kind of overwhelming. i'm not sure why i'm so intimidated by using programs like this, but i just feel like i would rather learn how to do these things in real life first, rather than replicate them on a computer.... but i'm hoping that if i ever get the chance to learn how to make large scale pieces like this, it will be significantly easier now that i've made them virtually.

anyway. i have done alot of work in my "world" and i think it looks pretty incredible. i still really wish that there was a way i could plan this as an installation. maybe after my animation is finished i can find a space that i can do this in.

i feel bad about taking a video from youtube... i think that i might do some work in imovie this evening and try to add some more clips in with the video that i have now. i still want to add some images of fashion shows and commercials. i'm still kind of novice when it comes to imovie so i guess i just have alot of experimenting to do.
---

allegory of the cave

this is seriously making me want investors and an 8 zillion dollar budget to go make large scale light and sound installations all over the worlddddddd!!!!

maybeeeee if i keep my fingers crossed...
---

anyway, i am starting to get the hang of things i guess. i also think i need to start keeping small written notes in my notebook. right now i can't remember how to make photos into textures and i need to. my head is like spinning right now with all of the useful applications of this software. even just setting up a show of objects- you could map the gallery space and experiment with the placement of your objects. bingo! i'm definitely buying this software sometime in the near future.

---
i really like what i'm making. part of me wishes that i was able to draw the forms myself but i like the model that i have so it will be ok for now.

i could see this being a really incredible installation but i think that it is outside the scope of my abilities right now.

ideally and if this was in real life, it would be in a gallery space that had two doors. you, as the viewer are going to be given a choice on which door to enter. you either enter the installation as someone watching the projection or someone controlling the projection. ideally, the projection would be a video-type collage of images or objects, tv static, commercials etc that people behind the wall diving the space could control. maybe with speed, or color or content? i'm not sure how that would work.
---

allegory of the cave- assignment 1.

ok. so maybe this wont be as bad as i thought. i just made a pretty sweet spikey deer world.

---

for our next project, i am immediately thinking of something fashion related- when i first searched for readymade 3D objects (not sure what they are called)... there was a site with all of these really interesting forms of somewhat androgynous human beings...
i'm trying to think about how this could be related to how i feel about consumerism and fashion and the concept of perfection, in terms of the human body. there is a part in the text about how there are men passing along the back wall of the cave carrying vessels. maybe this could be kind of like a runway show, or something. people just sit there and absorb what trends are being given to them every season and don't really question it. i don't know... this kind of sounds like a malformed idea right now because i write like i think (and i'm warning you blyth... it will probably always be like this, so... welcome to how the inside of my head works...)

---

"you have shown me a strange image. and they are strange prisoners."

alexander mcqueen. ok so this is not the allegory of the cave, but this is platos atlantis. and thissssss blew my mind when i saw it. this could be an interesting thing to explore in terms of creating a world... i mean, i just remember watching this and being kind of mesmerized, and then after digesting it i was sort of appalled because i don't understand how this could ever exist in the real world. fashion flirts with this line between reality and fantasy and i like that sometimes, but here it sort of pisses me off. people just kind of like, suck up this stuff and spit it out and don't question why its being made. HEEL HEIGHTS for example... the only reason heel heights ever change is to make women buy more shoes? right? i know thats what i do. i feel like a slave to fashion sometimes, even though i am not a SUPER fashionable person (a lot of that has to do with lack of funding). sometimes when i look at things like this and fall in love with them, i feel like one of the people tied up and watching shadows on the wall. as hard as i try to break away from it i can't.



---

i don't know, this is just kind of coming out of my head right now so i'm assuming it doesn't make a lot of sense.

i wish that i could upload an image of the spikey deer world... because i really like it.


(this post has also been edited over the course of two days. i will probably keep operating this way on posts that have to do with discussing ideas. i will not do this with technical posts because it wouldn't make sense to track progress that way. it just seems that for the "thinking" part of assignments, if i have everything in one entry and i can keep coming back and adding to it... it gives me a kind of workspace other than my notebook to flesh out ideas.)

i'm sort of afraid of this class.
the only videogame i have ever played is wii bowling.


ohh my god.