Breaking the Barrier

[kiyakotari]

Riding high off of greenjudy's slipstream with her awesome short of Eric Tseng waiting for (or about to make) a very important (one might even say...permanent) cellphone call, I decided to try my hand at a bit of animation myself, using my trusty Canon Powershot A720 IS and Adobe Premier Pro.

It's very short, but I've already learned a lot just from this one little bit (namely, that stop motion animation is even more tedious than writing websites out by hand). Further adventures will, I expect, be longer. Sorry it's a rather large file - at least there's only one of them, right? ^_^;; (Okay, so 9.18 MB isn't exactly a back-breaker, but I apologize to anyone out there on dial-up.)

I originally tried this on YouTube, but the quality was actually better in the GIF I rendered, so...Youtube Link Here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=exv3Ppk6ZcA

I suggest letting the GIF load and run through its loop once before you try to watch it, especially if you've got a slower connection.

Comments

[saintsavin.livejournal.com]

*LOL*

That's spiffy! I never would have had the patience to do such a thing ^^.

[kiyakotari.livejournal.com]

**grin** I've gotten a "spiffy!" Whoo hoo! ^____^ I'm glad you like it.

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

That's very nice. I hear you on how tough it is to do.

[kiyakotari.livejournal.com]

^__^ It's not terribly difficult...just time consuming. Though I figured out some shortcuts in resetting the length of the frames, near the end, that should help me out next time (the default length for these in Adobe Premier was 5 seconds, whereas I have them set to .02 seconds per frame).

[euphorias-child.livejournal.com]

You did a great job on it. I've played around with it before, but I used the really old cameras to do it that you transferred onto reel-to-reel tape (as embarrassing as it is to admit that). It was fun, but I was never really any good at it. And oh so tiring. My goodness. Bless your heart. You have the patience of...

...Well, actually, you don't have patience.

This just shows off a really good moment. *teases*

[kiyakotari.livejournal.com]

That is so, SO awesome! <3 I can't imagine doing that. I don't think I would have the patience for it. I'm a computer gal, all the way.

[euphorias-child.livejournal.com]

If it makes you feel any better, I was very young when I toyed with it...You know how well I love technology (It hardly ever works for me. I practically have developed phobias( kidding of course) with it unless you count robotics and automatons.) You should see the youngsters in the next generation. Holy cow! Some of my second graders are pros at programs like Paint Shop Pro. I kid you not. They can play around with their iPods quicker than you can shout "O.o You have one of those at your age?! I only had a crappy (Fill in the blank)!"

Wren's still one of my favorites. Your smaller group is. Darryl, Talon, Wren, Jian. Those were the ones I stalked the most. *pouts.* I miss them.

...Plus my writing is going to seed. *clucks tongue.*I need someone to beat me with a writing manual.

[euphorias-child.livejournal.com]

By the way, I think I'm killing off Lex.

[kiyakotari.livejournal.com]

0_0 Whoa. Dude.

You've gotta do what you've gotta do, though.

Darryl: ...

[greenjudy.livejournal.com]

Woo-Hoo!!!!

That is a quintessentially Wren-like response to a camera, I think. XD

**is facepalmed by Wren**

Tseng: My god, what have I done.

[kiyakotari.livejournal.com]

I didn't intend for her to do that! Honest! She was supposed to kinda...sneak down a hallway, then pull the knife from the back of her pants and go off-frame. But when she realized that there was motion involved in this process, she seemed to get really intensely interested in the camera itself, and then....well.

Wren: Nothing bad, Eric. Don't concern yourself. You've simply loosed us. This, it isn't terrible. This is simply the next step in evolution. You were merely a catalyst.

[kiyakotari.livejournal.com]

I've noticed some things I'll need to pay more attention to in future animations, of course. For example, Wren's movement toward the camera is too smooth - there's no hint of a gait in the shoulders and hips, no head-bob at all. I'll need to make sure I include that next time. The lighting isn't as consistent as I'd like, but it's not terrible, either.

[greenjudy.livejournal.com]

Actually, I was admiring the life in her motion, especially right as she turns her head and puts a hand on (near?) her hip. You can feel her weight shifting and detect a touch of impatience in the angle of her head.

[kiyakotari.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I liked that moment, too. It's the motion toward the camera - what would have been either a lunge to grab it or a couple of steps forward - that's just too smooth. I thought that, because I was only photographing her from the hips up, I could get away with just sliding her along the surface and not worry about making her actually "walk." I was wrong. XD

It's hard to see in those pictures, but she's actually grabbing the handle of a small tanto-style knife stuck through the back beltloop of her jeans. ^__^

[greenjudy.livejournal.com]

Salley: **whispers** It's the tripod. The tripod is fucking with his head.

Tseng: It's not the tripod.

Salley: Uh-huh. **whispers** It's the tripod.

[kiyakotari.livejournal.com]

Wren: So you're telling me, Salley, that the tripod was the catalyst, rather than Eric here? Interesting idea, that. Very interesting. We lean on the tripod, then. Its stasis allows our progress.

[greenjudy.livejournal.com]

Tseng: No tripod was used in the first shoot, Salley.

**pause**

Tseng: And stop drinking beer on my goddamned stakeout.

**Editor's Note**: Apparently Tseng prefers to think of himself as the catalyst here.

GJ: You really, really liked it, didn't you, Eric.

Tseng: . . .

GJ: We're going to try again today. With the tripod.

Salley: Maybe he can't handle the tripod.

Tseng: Maybe that tripod can go somewhere. **twitch**

[kiyakotari.livejournal.com]

Wren: Salley, I really don't think Eric is in a mood in which pushing his buttons would be...advisable. I also can't believe you're drinking beer on a stakeout. Are you trying to get fired, or killed? Then again, with Zelin, it really amounts to the same thing, doesn't it?

[greenjudy.livejournal.com]

Salley: Maybe it's enough to say that Zelin did not set me up with a 401K, and just kind of leave it at that. **sweats**

[kiyakotari.livejournal.com]

Wren: Oh my. That is a rather implicative decision, considering the circumstances. ...Then again, if they're going to kill you anyway, the 401K wouldn't really matter all that much. Silly businessmen. Always trying to cut corners.

love it

[soft-n-strange.livejournal.com]

Laur, I love it. I absolutely love it. It is strange going from seeing her kneeling at your feet staring absently at Valiants Cage during Dune to holding such an intense seductive power over the camera.

Re: love it

[kiyakotari.livejournal.com]

**beams** I'm glad you like it!! It's so weird, to see her going from static to capable of motion, even if it's on a screen. I think the most surreal moment in the process was uploading the photos from my camera to my laptop. The computer kept moving them around inside the file as it did so, and I was faced with a screen full of tiny, 1-inch tall moving Wrens that I hadn't started to animate yet. It was startling.

[sweet-lolitas.livejournal.com]

You did a great job! I've always wanted to try this but I'm not sure I would have the skill/patience :P

[kiyakotari.livejournal.com]

It wasn't that hard. There are a lot of free GIF animators out there. I used a rather fancy program for this, since I wanted both GIF and AVI that I could upload to YouTube, but something like Ulead GIF Animator 5, which is freeware, would be totally capable of this.

Also, like greenjudy discovered, a tripod is a MUST.

[torimiko.livejournal.com]

That was both cool and scary. Her hand coming up to the camera was very ring like to me....but it was a completely Wren move too!

[kiyakotari.livejournal.com]

You know, I've never actually seen The Ring? I really need to get around to it one of these days.

Glad you liked!