Yamakooki
View this clip on Vimeo
This is a test of the better settings Mike Brent suggested for me in Thursday's comments. Manual video source settings and frame averaging at 15 fps. I think the image is more clear, sufficiently at least for practicing animation.
I'm going to have to study up some on iMovie. I'll be the one going through the SMA handbook (http://www.stopmotionanimation.com/handbook/) for some education.
Sampling of glitches today:
• imported the Framethief frames to a Quicktime clip and imported it into iMovie but that didn't seem to provide any scrubbing capability.
• imported the individual frames instead but they came in a random sequence and the 106 frames had to be placed in the timeline by hand.
• couldn't "Split Selected Clip at Playback Head" as it was greyed out and I haven't been able to figure out why yet.
• wasn't sure what formatting to use when compressing to QuickTime or anywhere else for that matter, etc.
I didn't get to the armature today because I foolishly spent most of the day, I had set aside for 1/2 Land progress, feasting on the Banquet that is the Interweb instead.
One thing done nearly on course, was to download an eyebrow raising music app called; Virtual Composer (http://www.virtualcomposer2000.com/) $50 shareware/demo download free. I fiddled in it for a bit and stumbled into a feature where I could throw random notes on a staff and then select several 1/2 Land sound effects as the "instruments". I made a serviceable rain, footfall, door creek, birdsong, stream gurgle, as well as some cello and violin renditions of several sample pieces with it. The music language/controls were way over my head, I was every bit a chimp driving a spaceship. But when I get to the soundscape stage of this I may be able to fake it enough to get some sound tracks roughed in. There may be better solutions, but that's for later. I just couldn't resist exploring a possible sound solution a bit.
Shelley Shelley Shelley.......
ReplyDeleteOOOOOOooooooooooooohhh, what's going on over there??!!!
I wish I was there, to see just what you're doing and show you. It would be so much easier than trying to figure it out through these little boxes. But alas, little boxes is what we got!
I figured out iMovie mostly through the help pages, but it wasn't easy, or at all intuitively laid out. It took a while to figure out even simple things. But like I say, once you learn a couple of things, that's all you really need. Try googling "iMovie tutorial"... there are quite a few out there.
Advice I can give...
You probably don't need to even click "create video clip from animation" or whatever in FT.... if you check in your folder where the image files are stored, it automatically creates an uncompressed MOV file each time you close a project... at least mine seems to. If it doesn';t then just create one (make sure it's uncompressed) and drag it right into a box in the clips pane of iMovie or straight into the timeline. I can't understand why it wouldn't let you scrub through. Something is basically wrong here.... check a few tuts and you'll probably get it up and running in no time.
Oh, and make sure to set your image files to uncompressed TIFFs when you create your Framethief project.... check my Framethief Primer tutorial at StopMoShorts for more advice.
About exporting a QT movie.... you want to work with uncompressed digital video all the way through the process until the very end, then compress using Sorensen 3 for good quality and the absolute best compatibility. There are codecs that will make a nicer file at a smaller size, but they aren't universally compatible the way Sorensen is. It will make clips that will play on any computer with quicktime, period.
Check Jason's : compression tutorial
Your image quality is looking a lot better. Keep fiddling around with those manual settings, it took me days to really understand and get it all optimized. You're still getting some light fluctuations... not sure what's causing that. Could be reflections from you or your clothes, or maybe you're occasionally blocking some light, or there could be an uncontrolled light source like a TV or light coming from another room. Or it could be your electricity.
I basically am in the same boat as far as music goes...my brother-in-law was an aspiring DJ for a bit and gave me a program called FruityLoops or FL Studio, unbelievable possibilities as far as sound effects and composing, but to me it may as well be written in Klingon...makes me feel like a caveman with a copy of 'War and Peace'...in the software, the notes themselves (no matter what instrument or sound effect you're working with) are selected on a virtual piano keyboard, so I'm thinking it might be easier for me to sit at a real live piano, find the score there, write down the sequence of notes in some kind of me-created musical language...then play it in the software and experiment with different instruments, embellishments...I think I can even import my own recorded tracks or sound effects into the program...definitely something for me to eventually 'fiddle' with :P
ReplyDeleteSo much to learn, so little time...
HI Mike! Wouldn't it be wonderful if we all could somehow share a renovated vintage factory and each have giant loft workspaces and could visit eachother's projects and contribute what we each know to eachother? Yeah. Well, this isn't sooo bad, I mean before the Web, we wouldn't even know eachother were out here. And we wouldn't have all these fantastic resources just a click away, and we wouldn't have the animation apps and capabilities, etc. So, like you say, this is what we got!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the direct links to some tech help. I believe after I crack open, even the slightest tut, I'll be quick to improve. I've been plowing ahead here without even the patience to look at my instructive notes from several months ago.
And Jeffery, "it may as well be written in Klingon...makes me feel like a caveman with a copy of 'War and Peace'", that's it exactly! Funny! Virtual Composer sounds very similar to FL. We can do this! We can do this! We can do this!