IT LOOKS LIKE CHRISTMAS...

Here it is ... Christmas Eve. the stockings are stuffed ... packages are wrapped and I've gained weight. Things are right on track.

While I sit here in a stupor caused from feasting, I want to reflect on my ... I think ... my 8th online Christmas card. It started with a simple picture and playing , "Here Comes Santa Claus" on Yoko's dulcimer. Over the year's I have explored different programs ... different methods. The common element ... at least one of them is the lack of time to do what I really want to do.

This year was no different. I started by being almost finished a month ago. I had Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Present flying through London. But I wasn't happy with it. The Street scenes did not merge well enough. So I decided to go another direction.

I took "Aunt Rhodie" and changed the lyrics to a warning about her bringing fruitcake. I made the puppets in Photoshop and recorded the sound track. Then life intervened and I found me short of time and making compromises.



I can only move on and enjoy the successes I enjoyed on this year's card. In some ways it is the slickest of the cards I have done to this point. The background was painted and I animated Rhodie's hat flower. I did not get the snow done or the sophistication and detail of the animation I wanted . But the base is there and people laughed.

My current plan is to renew the push to get the first 3 Dulci-toons done and start next years card. Time will see if I can pull this off.

FELIX WALKS ON

There use to be a price to be paid for me getting them into the Magic Kingdom.

A penny to put in the mutoscope at the Penny Arcade on Mai Street. What is a Mutoscope you ask? It is a mechanized flip book. The frames are printed on stiff paper and attached to a drum. You turn a crank and the the pictures are flipped in front of a slot.

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I fell in love with these things going to a restaurant called Aunt Hattie's. And I remember spending an afternoon at the state fair with a whole tent full of these marvels. The third time around I was watching them frame by frame. I think the barker was glad to see me go,

The one mutoscope that I would spend all those pennies on in Main Street had a Felix the Cat cartoon.



Now this always seemed to be poetic justice ... that in the land of the Mouse that Felix the Mickey of the silent era would be there.

So Felix is my first attempt at a walk using cutouts in Flash. This took me about 3 hours or maybe 4, Lost count, to do about 5 seconds.




It came ok for baby steps. I am 2 frames off. 14 instead 12. 12 will give ma a more musical rhythm beat.Still a learning lesson.

I'VE BEEN A BAAAAAAD BOY

Been working on a character ... a female barbarian named, Conanna. Just something I came up with at work. Been working on a design for some time now. Wanted to see what she would look like in Flash ... with minimal effort.

Geraldine Mc Bong Bong from John Morgan on Vimeo.

So I'm sort of happy with it. 2 hours worth of work involved. Think I'd like to see her in Toon Boom ... or perhaps play around with the rendering process.

One distinct problem is dealing with the color tiles. I have problems picking colors in this program. Yes, I am color blind ... but this goes beyond this. I can navigate other programs. Photoshop ... Painter X ... Toon Boom ...

Maybe I will have to resort to the number codes.

Thank You Big Time ... Sissy!!!

The only thing Della Ashton is besides extremely talented is giving and supportive.

I had the great fortune of meeting Della at the Mount Dora Dulcimer and Autohop Festival.She befriended a lone fellow wandering in a dulci-uphoric haze. She suggested a gathering that became the Jam'N'Que , an acoustic (dulcimer oriented) jam/bar-b-que. I have seen her grow in skill and enrich other's lives mine included.

Della was sweet enough to record "Hail to the Chief" for me. I will use it for the series Dulci-Toons: Presidential Dulcimers. I have the first planned out ... actually I have the first 3 planned ... and tentatively it will be the 4th Dulci-Toon.

Now I have songs by 3 artists ... Stephen Seifert, John Hawk/John Cole and now Della Ashton.

Thanks Della!

40 HOUR WEEK

I think Yoko is still shaking her head.

All this week, I have been working on my Dulci-Toons cartoons. Maybe not hard enough .... But Hey!!! It is vacation.

I have been working on my changes I wanted to ... needed to make to something that was already finished. But there were 3 parts that didn't quite work. The first was a part that was where I yelled into the camera, "I'm crazy!!!" Redid it with a Terry Gilliam styled animation with me as a straight jacketed bobble head. Much better!

The second was the explanation of the work process and the amount of labor. Not wanting to try and match scenes, I did a montage of found footage with my voice over. Mucho Bettero!

Yesterday I started on the first piece I had started to redo. The ending. The scene is a combination of live action and rotoscope. I shot my part in front of a green screen, with the idea of running it through a filter in Photoshop to give it a drawn look. The problem was that I did not think it was strong enough. So using the drawing tablet and Photoshop I am taking every grabbed frame (30 frames per second) and am drawing over them. I'm afraid they will be a little wobbly (there is a learning curve in this ... Hell, there's a learning curve in just using the tablet) but it will just make it look more of a drawing.

Maybe I should of listened to my own montage. The old method of filtering the drawing took appropriately 3 minutes to render. The drawing takes 5 times as long. At 4 an hour, we are looking at 25 hours left of work. In total ... 4o hours for about 4 seconds of footage.

Makes me think ... I want to do quality work ... but it takes so long. And I got some ideas on how to make this work ... I'm just not sure. I've just seen a whole bunch of UPA shorts. Don't know if I ever really saw these ... except for the Magoos. But this style would really work for Flash. but do I want to redesign EVERYTHING again. I need to look at the Snuffy Smiths and get Beany/Cecil and Rocky/Bullwinkle and really study them. The nuts and bolts. Can I use them to get things out in a reasonable time?

Time will tell.

Call it research ... Yeah that's it ...

Okay ... I've been a BAAAAAAD boy!!!

Vacation is half over. The plan was to work on projects. And yes I have been working on such ... Yesterday, I got the cartoon montage done. It belongs to my introduction to Dulcitooons , I had collected my shots. Footage of Windsor McCay, Nina Paely and a Van Beuren cartoon. I had a shot of Walt Disney pointing to a drawing on a story board that I animated. Funny story ... when I told Yoko what I was doing ... I said I was animating "Walt." She thought I meant Walt "Deanovich" ... a dear friend of mine. The Van Beuren cartoon is in public domain. It's subject is the cartoon process. Paley espouses reverse copyrights where you can make a derivative work so I used her "Sita" to illustrate the artist animator.

This I reedited with a narrative I wrote. But the program was a little wonky. Each time I edited a clip the sound track would go bad ... cut. This slowed the process and it took me much longer.

Seems to be SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) ... perhaps I should name the studio "Snail's Pace."

Today I hope to redo the "I'm crazy!!!" part. A whopping 4 secs . Shouldn't take me more than 2 days :)

I have been moving slower because I should be working from morning to night ... but I'm not. I have been watching cartoons and making copies for Mike and Walt. Christmas is right around the corner. Been studying the Terry Toons. Wish Walt was closer to get him to do work for these. I would love to for him to do backgrounds. Am on the last disc of the UPA cartoons. These are the granddaddy of Flash cartoons ... if artfully done. Makes me think about redoing the the cartoons that way.

Hmmmm. I could do a parody ... a "homage" ... Was thinking of doing a "DPA" or "UDA" using the UPA logo with picks.

Could work ...

Could be fun ...

Now if my vacation was only longer ...

I GET BY WITH SOME HELP FROM MY FRIENDS.

Went back and took a look at "Dulcitoons 000" ... I need to redo about 3 sections. The first is where I talk about the time involved and the progress involved. I have a series of clips to insert. The next is where I extoll the one quality to do this project. I have found the clip art/stock photos needed. And lastly, I have to redo the end. This is about half done.

I have vacation coming up in 3 days. I will have 5 days to work on this and to get to work on the other two.

I have a talented friend, Della Ashton, who is being kind enough to record "Hail to the Chief." And this weekend to my surprise, I was contacted by Lauri Cole. She and her husband, John have a recording studio. They recorded John Hawks and his new album. John Hawk is an amazing player. They all saw my posted character Gee Cee the grey cat on Facebook. They kindly offered his newly recorded cut of "Grey Cat on a Tennessee Farm." With the tracks already laid down by Stephen Seifert, I will have some real talent on this project.

Now if only I can show some talent.