Hypercompendia

This project has just been a dabble really, working with images that have already been used and worked into a short film clip. This, I think, was the easiest way to get into the program quickly, since I was focusing on 1) using more than two images, and 2) morphing rather than warping.

Now I’m playing a bit with the warp feature and already, while I think it’s neat, I don’t think it’s as flexible as what I’ve done in Photoshop. I think that in Photoshop, using the Liquify feature, there was a lot of fine detail moving that used a point that could be controlled by the cursor as to what was moved and how much and in what direction (also, the size of the selector tool). Morpheus would work differently, using dots as markers set up on one image, then moved point by point (dot by dot–see photos in post below) where there could of course be a lot of control and accuracy, depending upon number of points placed, but it would be a lot of work.

Also, Photoshop allowed the use of other tools in its vast array; color tones, shadows, effects, etc. whereas Morpheus does not include anything like this in the software.

I’ll see what I can come up with in Morpheus using Warp, starting with a new image and post soon on the progress.

I think I have it here in a flash file:

Recycling Transition

The other thing is that I was able to fix a major mess up in the marking layout; what happened was that I must have been moving a dot and hiccuped, thus moving the dot way northeast of where it was originally on the previous image. This resulted in some odd stuff happening.

I never would have figured out how to fix it until I selected “show triangles” from one of the menus and came up with this, which obviously showed the dot that was off on vacation (can’t see it here, it’s been fixed, but think of taking one of these dots and moving it and the resulting effect on the pattern).

Well, aside from some major mess-ups–didn’t realize that any dots added to an image in the sequence adds dots to ALL the images, even those prior to that image, I’ve put together this file from the Recycling segment. Problem is, that while I can email the preview in a .swf version, I can’t seem to send it to a website like this to include it in a post.

Workin’ on that problem.

Found out that yes, I can do a series of images into Morpheus though I haven’t finished the sequence. What concerned me was that I wanted to be able to replicate (for now, as practice) the Recyling transition from face to fetus that needs to be done in stages. Since it follows the lines of a poem, the images relate to those specific lines, and this is what happens throughout that poem, from Poe turning into Jesus Christ, to the finale of tunnel to birth canal. This may come up in future work.

Evidently this can be done. I’ll have the short clip ready probably tomorrow, but the work area of the program, at the portion where I’m currently working–image three into image four– is below. What is being done is dots made on one image show up on the others (that follow), then those marker dots can be moved on the next image to bring them into sync when the sequence is run. More later.

Just got myself a few new “toys” – that means software that’s fun to play with despite its nature of productivity. What I got was Smith Micro’s Poser 7, Anime Studio Pro 6, and their Morpheus Animation Suite. (Links are to the latest versions.) Obviously, these aren’t the latest version of each, but at a total cost of $60, it was better for me to feel I could afford these on a whim rather than either wait until I could afford to get them at full cost or feel pressured.

The easiest one to learn was the first one I’m trying and that’s Morpheus. There is a limit to exactly what you can do, but I must say that already I can see where I could have used this to make my life much easier in the 2008 production of Recycling, a poem I made into a movie with images I worked over in Photoshop and then dropped into Windows Movie Maker.

The sequence in particular that I’m working with is the transition of a photograph of a face (mine) into a fetus. Here are the images I’d used in the final piece:

Now there were several images in between these as steps in the process, but these were the finals I used. There were transition effects between them, available in the Movie Maker program.

But Morpheus, while still requiring much of the work to be done in Photoshop (though I haven’t learned the Warp feature to see how much it can do) I think that the transition between the shots in the sequence could be much more vibrant, more physical, in the Morpheus platform.

I intend to play with these to see what possible effects can be achieved, for example, I am not sure if it’s possible to do a continuous strip from a series of images such as the above eight. The program has a setup of making A into B, but there is also a movie strip with frames so that may be the way to work it–though between the pairs, I’m not sure what happens.

At any rate, I’ll be back with the details as I work.

I’ve been a fan of Dreaming Methods for a long time though I’m still stubbornly into text as the load-bearing walls of story, but today’s tweet offering the free source code of many visual effects and my new zest and zeal for taking my hypertext pieces further was more than I could resist.

My other problem has been that I’m rather a purist about not copying what’s already been done (excluding what Steve Ersinghaus has taught me in effects, but he’s a friend) and seeing it as unoriginal. I’m just accepting that I am incapable of both seriously understanding and developing the code and instead am better geared toward story and language and should use the skill and talent of the creative coders to better advantage.

Dreaming Methods also has a resource kit available that I’ve been eying for a while.

Thanks to Dorothee Lang’s review of the Ars Electronica Prixars Competition for CyberArts I maneuvered around and found a most entrancing film clip by Spy Films that just took my breath away.

Without a single word of dialogue, a story of two strangers meeting is both beautifully and horrifically presented in Nuit Blanche. While the writer has described it as  “(it) explores a fleeting moment between two strangers, revealing their brief connection in a hyper real fantasy.” I would say, even after a single viewing, that there is so much more within it. For me, the car, the spilled wine, the flying glass, are metaphors for the trials and resulting wounds we suffer and heal from in life; something we all normally go through before those more rare moments of perfect alignment in time and connection with another human being. I see that instant of possibility and potential that can be life-changing, yet is often overseen or ignored.

Another great feature of this film is that there is a “How” it was produced film that is indeed fascinating (once you see the visual effects in the film, you’re going to want to know how they were accomplished). While the process is over my head, I can see that it is a combination of slow motion, and computer animation that brings about the resulting story, and that it entails an awful lot of work and talent and skill to accomplish.

Absolutely awesome piece.

I do love the audio visual narratives that play up the graphics and motion over story, but isn’t there a place for digital text as the main vehicle of narrative? It seems that hypertext as a way of storytelling, without the added pizazz of preferably moving visuals and audio that to me at least sounds annoying when repetitiously run throughout the piece, is either a dinosaur or needs the help of much more than color and background images. And yes, sentences that sing no long mean eloquent writing.

There’s much to think about.

(Update: a relative post at HtLit here.)

There are only so many technology toys I can afford, most are luxuries these days. So when a friend mentioned I should read Mark Twain’s Mysterious Stranger, I added it to my Amazon book wish list. He mentioned that’s it’s available free on Kindle and since I don’t have a Kindle, said that a free download of “Kindle for Mac” on the Amazon site would enable me to read books on my Mac. Who knew? Somehow, when I know something’s sort of a luxury item I just don’t dig any deeper because I know I’ll just feel that much worse that I won’t allow myself to have it. (Man, would I love to have gotten a job!)

Meanwhile, I found book online at the Sam Houston State University at Texas. Here’s a view of the opening page:

Of course, I can make the print larger though it’s a decent size. It’s more the full page across that’s annoying. That too I can fix. But here’s the downloaded book via Kindle:

Obviously, the font, format, etc. have all been planned specifically for the reader’s normal enjoyable and preferred reading manner. To be fair, SHSU has done a great service by offering this (and much more) for free to the internet public, but the text is planned for reading, research, and literary review rather than pleasure.

I’m getting used to the Kindle for Mac format, and I do like it, mainly because I’m on the laptop for a large part of my waking day so this gives me a great opportunity to get back into reading the literature I just don’t seem to find time for lately. The image above is also a bit misleading: while the right-hand “notes and marks” would make this application extremely useful for organizing my notes for reviews (and keep me reading in longer spurts rather than dropping the book and running for the computer), it is inactive in the Kindle for Mac program. Why? I don’t know. I’m hoping they work on this. I’m sure it’s not the make or break decision to purchase the Kindle.

More on the story itself will be posted on Spinning.

Sometime last week or so I posted about a man I knew years ago who did panoramic photography. Well in reading around today I found an article on Wired called “Do It Yourself 3D” and that brought back memories too.

I worked/lived with a photographer a couple decades ago and so ran into folks seeking special photographic printing which my partner did very well (I did the picture framing and tried to learn photography on field trips taking rolls of film of a turtle on a stump). One of our customers did manage to rig up a camera system that took images in stereoscope (?) that produced a 3D effect.

Some things come through and stick. Some things come as a trend and fade away. And some things drift in and out like clouds, better each time for the passing.