I Shot Some Footage for the Store Scene

I shot some footage for the store scene. I wanted it to be on a corner because 2 of my 3 shots are flat, which is OK in a book, but a pretty boring animation.
I am building a 3D environment and matching it to the scene now.

Re-framing the role of Myth (Narrative?)

When Andy Warhol created "Brillo Boxes" he was making a satirical statement. By using techniques that required a mastery of printmaking, the time, and the effort of a hand crafted work of art to make something that was indistinguishable from a stack of common Brillo Pads boxes, Warhol challenged definitions and made an argument about the social qualifications for good art. The comment, though clever when Warhol made it, would not be accepted in the same form again. The Heroes' Journey has been mapped, structured into formula, and it continues to emerge. There are fundamental differences between the anti-fairy-tale I am trying to tell and The Heroes' Journey. When I signed up for the class, I hoped I would find an corresponding pattern for ironic children's stories, and recreate the circumstances that lead George Lucas to the creation of Star Wars. Mythologist and philosopher Leszek Kołakowski was of the belief that myth could not be consciously created because the knowledge of its profane origins would undermine the conditional perception as aethereal. The analogous elements I am coming to determine are between the hubris in an attempt to reproduce a phenomenon instead of culturing an original, and the inherent flaw in consciously constructing your own god.
I think an approach that would be more conducive to successful creation in my situation would be the study myth as a frame of reference rather than a recipe. For my final paper in Myth and Religion, I am going to try to find research studies on Volksgemeinschaft and the self esteem movement to contrast and compare as functional mythologies in the sense that both are social constructs that impart the culture's instruction onto its participants about "what is and is not a value" (Kolakowski 25).

Key thinkers in the self esteem movement:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Branden

Volksgemeinschaft:
I need to find this author

Piaget (Context)

Jean Piaget's Genetic Epistemology study played a big part in child psychology around the middle of the 20th century as a foundation for understanding the development of knowledge in children... Not sure how this relates yet, but his ideas influenced just about every aspect of child psychology, and I should be able to talk about if it comes up.

Piaget on Piaget
Wikipedia

Looking at Character Archetypes (Narrative/Social Context)

Looking at Character Archetypes
http://www.soulcraft.co/essays/the_12_common_archetypes.html
http://www.uiltexas.org/files/capitalconference/Twelve_Character_Archetypes.pdf

Gaggling (Narrative)

I thought this book might be beneficial in the construction of a dialogue.

"There is a need for general theoretical principles describing/explaining effective design -- those which demonstrate "unity" and enhance comprehension and usability. Theories of cohesion from linguistics and of comprehension in psychology are likely sources of such general principles. Unfortunately, linguistic approaches to discourse unity have focused exclusively on semantic elements such as synonymy or anaphora, and have ignored other linguistic elements such as syntactic parallelism and phonological alliteration. They have also overlooked the non-linguistic elements -- visual factors such as typography or color, and auditory components such as pitch or duration. In addition, linguistic approaches have met with criticism because they have failed to explain the relationship between semantic cohesive elements and coherence. On the other hand, psychological approaches to discourse comprehension have considered the impact of a wider range of discourse elements -- typographical cuing of key terms to enhance comprehension -- but have failed to provide general theoretical explanations for such observations.This volume uses Gestalt theory to provide general principles for predicting one aspect of coherence -- that of continuity -- across the entire range of discourse elements, and also to outline the relationship between cohesion and coherence. The theoretical core of this book argues that the cognitive principles that explain why humans "sense" unity in a succession of sounds (a whole musical piece) or in a configuration of visual shapes (a complete object) are the basis of principles which explain why we "sense" unity in oral, written, and electronically produced documents." Coherence, Continuity, and Cohesion: Theoretical Foundations for Document Design. Hillsdale, N.J: L. Earlbaum Associates, 1995. Print.

http://librarytitles.ebrary.com/docDetail.action?docID=10784426

I am reminded of the end of Perfume... Maybe if I could understand the theories behind semantic perception and alliteration, I wouldn't have to make sense or know what I was talking about...
Or maybe I could write a narrative that complimented and supported my story...
Or figure the knowing of all the sense making talking them what does the runnings of this university place are all about...

Meeting with Professor Chan (Thesis Overview)

I am putting together an outline for a presentation for my committee

More tests with ncloth (Process)

This has nothing to do with the animation I am working on, I was trying what I learned from n cloths with a different model and different attributes...

Glitch Facade

Catch 22 (Process)

There is a bit of a problem with the technique I am using...
You have to erase history and apply texture before you transform (see above), but I want the first frame and the last to be a perfect projection... What I have been doing is putting the polygons in the initial position, applying the texture, and then creating the fabric deformer. The problem I am having is, the exact position of the last frame is unknown until the deformer does it's thing...
Maybe if I take the last frame, delete history, and create a blend shape to a shape with the polys in the right spot...

Applying Texture and Animation to the Page Turn Transition

There are a number of different ways to apply texture to an object. I have only used a couple, and never a 2 sided texture. I also have little experience with cloth deformers...

First test... The cloth is a little bouncy. I am using gravity to turn the page, and the camera was a perspective, rather than orthographic... There is an odd distortion in the texture as the page turns, so I am looking up ways to apply UV maps, and switching to an orthographic camera. Next I will apply the 2nd sided texture.

Trouble with the Bump Map (Process)

I am trying to make a realistic brick wall, but the bump map is off. It might be a glitch, because some of the images I alter in Gimp do not work at all.

The Return Walk

If the character is walking left (returning from a right facing action), the text following the character would have to go in the other direction. This action reversal is unlike a book, so I am looking into ways to compensate, without crossing the line of action.
This shot works, the text is in the background on the wall, so the wall needs to be photo realistic.

I Reshot Background for the Shot when TubaGoose is Walking down the Street

But it came out a bit off... The guy I was shooting fidgeted a lot and seems to have a bit of a stress condition (speaking as someone who has been working on one for a few years)... I gave him some cash, and he didn't seem to mind being filmed (I told him I was going to be shooting on this street, and he didn't have to move or anything), but his role in the footage is different from what I intended.

On the one hand, I wanted the video to have emotionally heavy elements, on the other I feel like it might be inappropriate... Maybe if I showed him what I am doing and i was sure he really understood...

The LAST thing I want to make is this:

Test Shots of Graffiti and Flying Text

These are test shots, so the background is just a low resolution representation, the tuba is missing the ring around the lip, the connector ring is not beveled, the shadows are a bit low resolution, and there are a few details on the tuba that are missing to speed up render time.

I didn't realize that the goose would need to be going the other direction for this shot to swipe right until after I rendered the first test shot, so I reversed the text. I mirror a lot to compensate for the side the tuba is on, so I think it will pass.

It's kind of hard to see, but there is a flying V of text that says "Regular Goose"

Neither texts read well... So, I guess what I got out of this is:
1. To preserve the line of action and the swipe direction, I should use text following the goose to go left and text on the background to go right...
2. Pick a more readable font for graffiti and a flatter surface for reflection text...
Stuff to build on or a way someone might use my research???

Flying text

Working on blending the text with the animation
I am looking into goose flocking for use with the text. Most footage has camera movement, which makes rotoscoping impossible.
http://static-movie-usa.glencoesoftware.com/webm/10.1073/637/3f5dbbd81af0ad9d2f18282401686b1333724625/pnas.1413589112.sm01.webm

Getting my environment reflection spheres from google to save time on the tests (this is really useful).
http://jamiecardoso-mentalray.blogspot.com/2015/01/google-maps-to-streetview-grabber.html

when I find a scene that is final, I will go out with a light probe and make an environment sphere, but if you just want to make test shots, and the environment sphere is really important because your object is highly reflective; this saves the time of going out to shoot an environment sphere for each test shot.

Text as an Environment and Text as a Character

R    e      g      u    l    a        r

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I am looking at Zoomorphic Calligraphy and use of text as, and in, a physical environment.

http://theyellowsparrow.com/calligraphy-breathing-life-back-dying-art-form/

I have played around with light painting, and I have some Blinky-tape. It is a beautiful effect, but it it can only be done at night, and it requires a long exposure, so animation cannot be done live, only in stop motion.

http://www.graffiticreator.net/htm/creator_jedimind.htm#.VhgwkPlVhBc

Graphiti Text

(they give themselves much trouble and expected nothing less)

R    e      g      u    l    a        r

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The Role of Empathy in Regard to Affection and Sentiment (and How it Relates to Geese, Mickey Mouse, Gilgamesh, and Nazis)

I want the audience to develop a sense of affection for my character between the first and last scene, and the narratives I wrote last year do not really accomplish my goal.

While brainstorming with Maria we noticed animations with a similar sentiment for involve the main character enduring injustice.

Der Störenfried vs. Education for Death

Not everyone loves an underdog... At least not historically.
Showing a character enduring injustice as a literary device to engender affection is not a universal thing, and I can't find many historic examples (other than The Bible).

It is not a quality common to the "heroes journey" or in line with Grimm fairy-tales or Beowulf

I think it might be a new thing, or at least not a tactic used in fascist societies. In fact, it is the antithesis of the moral in this Volksgemeinschaft propaganda video.

 

The above video is caricaturized in this satirical Disney short (at 5:39)

These two videos are an impressive microcosm for the shift in narrative ideation coinciding with the end of WWII. 


Further evidence that suggests the idea that enduring injustice is not cross cultural or a historic universal literary device is in the reception of the Vedas (Arya texts dating around 1500 b.c.e.). The Arya were not empathetic or politically correct by modern standards. The Arya were a group of nobility who resided in India, distinguishing themselves from the Dasa (dark colored slaves) with language, tools, social organization, and religion (Patton 182),but the Nazis and several groups of Hindu Nationalists claimed descent to the technologically superior Arya, supporting their perception of racially based intellectual superiority and the propensity for their lineage to fill the role of dominance in the natural order. [1]

1) Derived from Myths of Arya, Varna, and Jati in the Hindu Tradition by Laurie L. Patton

Camera Trouble

I wanted to re-shoot the walking text shot before I added personality to the text because the original shot was a still photo, and I wanted some motion on the street. Unfortunately, the zoom on my Canon is only 18-55 mm and to get the right angle of the street, the only place to set up is 3 or more floors up, across the street. I had another lens, but it has lost a screw, consequently the focus on the top of the image does not match the bottom.

This is the image from the animatic. I had to crop a lot from a higher resolution still to get this usable image.

I am borrowing a camera tomorrow with an 18 to 88 mm zoom.

Text as a Character

I haven't been posting much this week because I was putting together a Power Point presentation for class on Monday. The feedback I got from faculty was very helpful. It didn't really dawn on me that the text was beginning to anthropomorphize until yesterday, so now I am starting to think of it more like a character. It was suggested that I change the font, and I am starting to think about how and when it should move to imply cognition, personality, and intent.
My initial ideas;

• I was going to try to make it look like the words are dawdling in the shot where it is following the goose (like a train of goslings, or implying a meandering mind). 
•  I was thinking the exclamation mark might shake like a fist in the air as the words "Who Let that animal in here!?!?" is chasing the goose out of the store.

Interactive Book Animatic

More design concepts for the interactive book...

The swipe direction was counter-intuitive at times (eg. I expected the scene and anticipated motion to look/feel right with a right swipe, but a left swipe was the only way that made any visual sense in practice). So I was thinking about establishing a direction arrow with a set of animated goose track footprints to tell the viewer when and where to swipe.

Animatic for Computer Illustrations and 3D Transitions in an Interactive Book

Youtube