Re: [lojban] Re: Lojban Kids Show

[Matt Arnold <matt.mattarn@gmail.com>]

The issue with the Maya/StudioMax/Blender option is rendering time.
Only one student at my community college has ever rendered out an
animated short film, because it monopolized two whole computer labs
running around the clock for almost two weeks. I have considered
running Blender under Linux using the Amazon cloud, but that is likely
to get expensive.

Personally, I support the idea of an intermediate approach. We model
only the sets and motionless props in Wings/Blender/Sculptris. Then we
position the camera to render one frame in cel-shaded style, per each
scene of the film. Autotrace that in Adobe Illustrator. Import that
into Flash/ToonBoom/KToon. This is a quick way to generate consistent
backgrounds. Then we animate the characters and moving things in
Flash/ToonBoom/KToon.

I agree that we can, and should, export our final Flash animations as
YouTube videos. "Flash the format" is not the same as "Flash the
animation tool". However, we may consider ToonBoom Studio instead of
Flash, as it is a dramatically superior vector-based animation
environment. I haven't tried the free/open source alternative in this
space yet (KToon), so you may wish to explore KToon and see if it
makes you want to gauge out your eyes.

What I did before discovering ToonBoom was animate in Adobe
Illustrator, because it's an awesome drawing tool. Flash is so
terrible for drawing, on par with Inkscape, that it is completely
prohibitive. I draw the character in Illustrator, duplicate the layer,
make a change, duplicate the layer, make a change, etc. Then I import
that document into Flash using the "convert layers to frames" feature.
That's how I made the elements in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6xTujaVkzQ

I'm very excited about this project! I hope you don't mind, however,
if my current education in animation keeps me busy and temporarily
limits my involvement.

-Eppcott


On Sat, Jul 10, 2010 at 10:41 AM, CosmicRay <cr@cosmicray.co.uk> wrote:
> Actually I agree with those several people, Flash as a proprietary format is a really bad medium.  Luckily that doesn't stop us using it as Flash the tool and then exporting the results into one or more proper video formats - the video output may grow by quite a degree but at least it could be playable anywhere.
>
> Or, how about it's put together through motion capture and rendered in 3D with Blender + a mix of royalty-free and community-grown 3D models - Matt A must have some pretty good advice in this area?
>
> Sorry I had to cut my last message short regarding the storyline, here's my take on adding some kid-friendly pizazz:
>
> -----
> First episode:
>
> Boy flying through clouds with a giant cartoon moose next to him, his arms outstretched, heading for a tropical island, "Wheeeee!"
>
> Moose shouts to boy, "we're almost there," whizzing in circles around the boy, "we're nearly at jbogu'e!"
>
> Scene cuts to close up of boy's face, eyes closed, big grin, shot zooms out showing he's actually in a plane seat next to his stuffed moose toy.
>
> Boy opens his eyes and excitedly sits up to look out of the window, "I can't believe we're finally going, Chocolate!"
>
> (Continues with previous monologue, spoken aloud):  "I've been pen-pals with somebody in jbogu'e for a few years now, and we're finally going to meet.  I started a programme for studying abroad and naturally chose jbogu'e for my schooling. It's a little island somewhere out in the Pacific that was colonised a long time ago by a lot of different people from different countries."  Overlay of a picture book with pages turning, showing some of the history, original flags and dress, and exciting customs of the natives.
>
> "Hey, let's play a game!" says the boy, closing his eyes again.  Scene switches to boy and giant cartoon moose, with an array of objects around them.  "Let's practice naming things in Lojban!"
>
> Boy and Chocolate take turns pointing at objects, and for each there's a little cut scene showing the object in its normal use, and the name said by the boy or moose.  For some, the boy can be a little unsure, and Chocolate helps.  Immediately after each name is said, its written name is shown as a subtitle and then it's said again, deliberately and clearly.
>
> Scene changes to the plane landing, and the protagonist collecting his things.  "Just look at this place," says the boy in awe, his face against the glass at the airport arrivals terminal.  Shot pans across jbogu'e and its busy populace (details to be filled in).
>
> End of episode
> -----
>
> The second episode, meeting the family at the airport and the journey to their dwelling, can focus on pronunciation and sumti-selbri relations.
>
> The third can be the start of exploring jbogu'e, more vocabulary, and some complete phrases.
>
> Kids really need to be excited about what might *happen* in the next episode (and even the next scene), so best to keep the tempo of scene changes relatively high whilst breaking down the learning into small digestible sections, such that it is almost transparent to the plot.  As for the plot itself, go crazy, kids identify with creative and imagination-stimulating material, but don't make any cliff hangers *too* blatant or extreme.
>
> Just my 2p,
>
> kozmikreis
>
>
>
>
>
> On 9 Jul 2010, at 23:24, Lindar wrote:
>
>> Several people have expressed that Flash is a really bad medium (for
>> whatever reason).
>> Personally I don't see how it's feasible to do it in anything -but-
>> flash considering how small of a crew we'd have.
>> I mean, we could individually animate each frame for all two dozen
>> frames a second and then drop that into Avid/Final Cut, but forget
>> that.
>> I'm not sure what's going to be done with the animation, but for now
>> we're going to (once we actually get to this part) storyboard the
>> first episode in Photoshop, then do an audio-and-keyframe animation
>> using the storyboard illustrations as keyframes. Once we're happy with
>> that, we'll start actual animation.
>>
>> Thank you for the suggestion, and I will keep in mind that it needs to
>> be punched up.
>>
>> --
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "lojban" group.
>> To post to this group, send email to lojban@googlegroups.com.
>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to lojban+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
>> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/lojban?hl=en.
>>
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "lojban" group.
> To post to this group, send email to lojban@googlegroups.com.
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to lojban+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/lojban?hl=en.
>
>

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "lojban" group.
To post to this group, send email to lojban@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to lojban+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/lojban?hl=en.