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"The Animated Fog Stories Diary."

I thought it would be nice to start a diary. It won't be funny, it won't be a paperback best seller, and go on to make a girly film with Geri Halliwell singing the soundtrack... it's just a bog standard diary. I'll try and update it as much as I can, to show you the progress through the animation.

Why?

Because I can.

Of course, anyone else contributing to the animation, such as Pb, are very welcome to add to it... perhaps we could pile it together at the end, fling it on a DVD, and call it a 'Special Edition', even though it's utter crap.

First of all, if you haven't seen this pic yet, perhaps now is the time to do so.

http://swordspines.homestead.com /files/Tafs.jpg

What I'm basically doing first, is creating all the characters, faces, arms, bodies... so on. I first sketch them in my drawing pad... and then draw them on pc, from what I made.

That was the early Sheepy on the left, and Sniper on the right... unfortunatly, because I smoothed out the face too early, I had to start it again. All it takes away is time though, it will still look the same.

I've nearly finished Sheepys head now, including hair... Fancy a look?

No?

Ah well.

I'll at least give you the choice.

http://swordspines.homestead.com /files/Sheepy-mock2.jpg

The mouth will need to be made properly, and the eyes could be tidied up...

Apart from that, pretty good I think. It's the first time I've done hair, and I think it looks ok.

Here's something for you to do though... I'm not sure wherever or not to give him ears. I personally don't want to, basically because it's hard, and I'm lazy.

One thing I'm worried about at the moment is lip sync... it's not going to happen. If you have this wonderful vision of all the characters speaking perfectly, get your brain brush, and scrub them clear. You'll get a lovely *mouth open-mouth closed* movement. No more, no less.

And that concludes todays update. I've drawn Ant already, so I may start him tommorrow... or I'll start Sniper again. If you have any ideas, or comments, please put them forward.

Roger Moore, and me. :0)

And that's as good a picture you'll ever get of me on the net, so be grateful. :0)

heh, nice
who's the dude?

I would just like to point out that I rule.

Small update to the website, www.swordspines.com if you didn't know, :0), just changing the image on the front page. I'm very proud.

A lack of pictures is rather disappointing... but still, it's only because I'm spending more time animating, and less time thinking about stuff like that. However, I can now tell you that the trailer is coming soon, I promise you.

The music I'm using... I'd just like to say... rocks. :0)

Here we are you muppets. :0)

http://www.swordspines.com/2-12.mpg

Please don't stream it, Freeola don't seem to like that.

Just copy it into getright or something. :0)

Amazingly, the music that I've chosen for falling off the chair fits the scene perfectly, and somehow makes it funnier. Making a little tune when the fall appears.

I think I'll put a movie up for you.

No pictures for you today, sorry to disappoint you and all... I know how much it means to you...

But instead I'm going to write a small passage.

----------

The physics of falling off a chair.

Sounds easy enough, doesn't it? Simple animation, someone falling off a chair. Can't be that hard? Surely?

Well first, for it to work, then there has to be tension. Pretty daft just making some immedietely fall off a chair. Spoils the whole thing.

So timing has to be perfect. And of course... timing means a lot of animation before what you want to get to actually happens... so that has to be perfect too.

Well, to be frank, it's not perfect. It's not even good. But it will do.

Then comes the part of falling off a chair.

What actually does happen when you fall off a chair?

So I tried. I put my chair out in the middle of the room, and fell off it a few times.

There are several things.

Your arms flail up in the air.

The chair moves.

Your legs go up in the air, and then are relaxed and fall down.

Ok, so basic animations covered there. But HOW and WHERE do you fall off a chair? What position do you land in?

This is where it gets difficult. Your legs carry a lot of weight, and could pull you over to a different side.

Too much movement and it looks fake.

Too little movement and it's looks too smooth, just like a crappy animation would. Just wait until you see someone walk. It's like they're ice skating. But I never expected it to be perfect, I'm looking for the line between really shoddy and very funny.

Shoddy funny.

Do you knock the chair over? It depends on the leg weight again... and how momentum carries it forward. Love doing this stuff, very interesting.

And in the end... it doesn't actually look that bad. It's just about fast enough... as if gravity really was pulling down... the legs flail a bit, arms hardly at all... but the chair movement does it for me. Excellent.

And now comes the real problem. I've got to make a sound effect.

So back to falling off the chair again. But he falls onto sand... how the hell can I do that? I'll have to go to the sodding beach with a chair, put a stereo recording me, and then fall off it multiple times.

Thank God it's Winter. Perhaps I could just fall off a chair here and muffle it though. Probably a bit easier.

Well at least I managed to get going on the speech at last!

I'm trying to learn 3D graphics, so using Flash would be a bit of a b****r...

And anyway, I have to draw with Flash. With this I can just make stuff.

Updateio anywho. For you lucky lucky people who are actually following this.

Yup.

Two pictures for you today. One is taken of an early Dagobah... and also shows someone you might recognise...

http://www.swordspines.com/pictures/Dagobah.jpg

And the second is... it's easier to just look at it than explain it.

http://www.swordspines.com/pictures/Teaser.jpg

As always, the pictures are archived, and can be viewed normally just by browsing the site.

I might even upload some animations soon...

would you be annoyed if i sugested that you could do this all on Flash 5.

Ok so no nice 3d graphics but if you ever see some of the animations flash can do...

also would be really quick.

anyway

Hehehehe@Grix

Ugly goit... :-D