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November 14, 2006
superNOVember - 11
by sven at 11:59 pm
Today's stopmo progress:
- I put examples of Papagayo and Magpie outputs online
Due to a bizarre hiccup in my sleep pattern, I was good for nothing today. Stopmo-wise, all I did was put together examples of Papagayo and Magpie in response to comments re yesterday's post. To make things easy, I'll repeat the info here...
Here is the Papagayo list of keyframes. You do lipsync analysis for each character separately -- so what I've done is cut and paste Dad's dialogue over into Jimmy's document. (His line is "Grrrrr.") Also, Papagayo doesn't write out what the actual words are -- only phonemes -- so I've added the text of the dialogue in, too. And I've put some spaces in, to make it easier to see where phrases begin and end.
Here's Magpie's X sheet output. The demo version of Magpie only allows you to print 16 frames, so there's not a lot there... But you can see that the waveform is included; there are columns for each actor and the physical parts of the actor that I'm analyzing; and the dialogue (which I included in a comment field) is transfered over.posted by sven | November 14, 2006 11:59 PM | comments (7) | categories: stopmo
Comments
I'm not sure if you're feeling the same way I am lately about our whole marathon thing, but I've been having second thoughts about it, and I'll air them here and see if anyone else is in agreement. I bring this up because, like myself and Shelley, you're not making daily progress and blogging it.
Here's what's kinda buggin' me about it:
First, I really doubt anybody (other than our own small group) is checking our blogs on a daily basis - and even if they are, most people don't really care to see minuscle progress made each day.... dozens and dozens of posts with minimal progress made between each. For that reason I think it would be a better service to our readers to post when we have some significant progress made.
Second, it's making me feel like a schoolboy. Like I have to do my homework every day, and if I don't I'd better have a good excuse. I get enough of that at my job! My animation is the one thing in my life that's truly my own, that I do entirely for my own satisfaction, and where nobody can tell me what to do (or demand resons for why I do or don't do anything).
Don't get me wrong... I do like the idea of the marathons, but I just think we could rethink them a bit. I think daily posting is excessive... in fact, I think we need to handle it more on an individual basis. Each of us works at our own rate and should post at our own rate. I think I'm going to go back to posting every few days or every week or so, like I used to do. Enough to keep the momentum of the blog going, but without feeling like I'm blathering incessantly to people who probably don't care and if anything driving away readers.
Anyway, just my take on it. Like I say, each of us to his or her own, and if anyone sees any benefit in daily posting, by all means do so. Just explaining why I'm going to be slowing down a bit.
Posted by: Darkstrider at November 15, 2006 1:39 AM
To clarify a bit - lately you ARE amaking great daily progress (except on the days when you don't - if that makes any sense) so you might want to keep up the daily posting as you see fit. But in my case, if I foam up two or three more bodies that look basically the same as the last two or three.... what's the point in posting more pics? I'd rather wait till I get them all foamed up and post a group pic or something. And I'm sure there'll be times when I am making fast progress that I feel is worth sharing daily, in which case I'll do exactly that. And Shelley is using the marathon to keep up her own momentum (the reason I first suggested it), so for her purposes it would work to keep up with daily bloggage.
Posted by: Darkstrider at November 15, 2006 1:45 AM
You know.... I probably should have done this through email....
Posted by: Darkstrider at November 15, 2006 1:46 AM
I have mixed feelings...
On the one hand, I have been feeling a bit of that "gotta get my homework done" feeling.
On the other, I suspect that I really have been making more progress than I would be were the marathon not on. I think the principle of posting small bits of progress daily is still good.
Here's what I think I should change: I'd limit future marathons to no more than 10 days -- and probably 7 days is even better.
It seems to me that a month is a veeeerrry long push. In the realm of organizing daily life, I find that I'm never able to plan more than three or four days ahead. Well -- I can have outlines for large-scale events, and set up face-to-face meetings with people that help keep it moving -- but an emotional spark of inspiration never burns more than a few days.
(Monster Month was a different animal entirely for me. There was just one task: drawing. I didn't have to keep figuring out "what comes next?" And I could do a large batch all at once, then set the posts to go up automatically according to a schedule. My natural work rhythm seems to be one of short, intense bursts.)
I could be content ending the 'thon. I'd call it a successful experiment -- one that we've learned from, and can improve upon in the future. But I also don't want to bail on folks... Which I guess really means Shelley. If this is helping you, Shells, then I'm content to continue.
As for promises to myself? My main motivation here was feeling like I'd missed out on the camaraderie of the push that folks made for the last StopMoShorts competition. I've gotten what I wanted -- some community spirit -- so I could go either way now.
Posted by: sven at November 15, 2006 2:25 AM
I totally understand, Mike. Really. If it isn't fun or working, why do it I say. It's got to be a joy in some fashion. I, as this Thonmaster, hereby officially take you (and Sven) off your hook(s).
As you say, it works for me to try to move my project forward each day so that weeks/months/years don't slip by. It's strictly my own personal issue and kind of cool that you two don't have to deal with it.
It helps me tremendously to make even small progress daily and blog it, even if that makes for boring fare to visitors. I am completely happy to make progress and have no audience as I do. It'll perhaps be interesting to someone after the fact as a scroll read, all payoff, no wait, like a decorating show.
Posted by: shelley Noble at November 15, 2006 2:25 AM
Wow, that was quick!
Ok, I don't really mean to bail on the marathon..... except in certain particulars. I mean that I hope to keep making daily progress - but I just won't be posting it daily. And yeah, that might take away the motive power that actually keeps me MAKING daily progress, and I might find myself slipping back into listlessness and inactivity. We'll see. If so then I need to rethink. I really felt kind of stupid posting pictures of that illustration every day after erasing and redrawing a few lines. And lately my progress in foaming up bodies is really slow, I'd feel bad posting it. Though it could well be true that, without the daily post-push I might not even be making that much progress. So consider it a re-think that might necessitate it's own re-think soon.
Posted by: Darkstrider at November 15, 2006 2:42 AM
I hear you both on this. When I first started posting small progress instead of what I felt appropriate to show, back many months ago, I think at Sven and/or the community's urging that doing so was beneficial, it was a real strain on my sense of things and my ego, believe me. I got to a place of realizing that people were correct, these things are done in tiny pieces, not grand sweeping fits like I had thought in the past.
It does indeed move a heartfelt, passion-project into the rest of life's mundanities for me too, damn it. But I figure the other way wasn't working for me at all (15 years!) as other things took precedence day to day.
All this to say, I plan to keep going with my effort towards daily progress for myself and anyone is welcome to join in for their own momentum, or not. So you know...you guys aren't letting me down, or bailing on me at all, just exploring what methods work for you too... which is all I would want, everyone working the way that works best for them.
Posted by: shelley Noble at November 15, 2006 11:51 AM
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