Website Work

Well, I did a 30 minute go at designing a new blog/website the other day and have got a lot done since. I started with sketching out ideas, what I wanted and what I liked, then moved onto the computer. Since then I've spent so much more time on it. I really trying to get it so that it looks good and professional. I don't want to add all these bells and whistles to it, but rather make it functional, full of information, but also looks good. I've been learning a few things from my Graphic Design class and the number of tutorials on the web and I see that the point of the design should not to be to look pretty but to rather enhance the user's experience. So that I'm trying to do, going through every little bit slowly tweaking it to my liking. I've also looked over a number of well designed blogs to get ideas of what my things should look like. Hopefully I'll be able to get the blog to something that I think works and that I like sometime soon and then I'll be able to start thinking more about the main site. I've done some sketches and things about it, but haven't come up with anything final.

I need to really start working on "The Hole" some more too, but I've realized that I think that the site is more important than getting that done. I've already spent more time over a longer period of time on the site and I would like to get it done and finished so that people can enjoy it. If I get around to it and don't have too much homework, I'll try to balance out my site and claymation times.

Video: MUTO

Here's an awesome video I first saw about 2 months ago, but forgot to share. It's a stop motion video where somebody painted on walls in a city or something. If you ask me, it's pretty amazing.

Blog: The Mason

Here's a blog about a stop motion project called The Mason done by Vibeke Cleaverly. It looks like it is finished now, so there isn't any posting going on, but try going back into the archives and seeing some of the processes it took to get to the final result. You may learn something or even get inspired to make something yourself.

The Mason Blog

A Little More Work Done

This past week I got a tiny bit of work done on "The Hole" animatic. I pretty much finished up section 1 of 10. If I really pushed myself and stopped wasting time on doing other things, I would probably be able to finish the whole thing in two or three weeks, even with school going on. I really need to try hard to get things finished soon so that I'll be able to finish this thing before going off to college.

I also think about the website every few days and how I wish that I could get it done. It will take lots of work just finding and compiling the new stuff I want to put on it and the design is not even done yet. Some how, I'll have to also convert all my tutorials in to html/css format which is not an easy task since I don't know css, there are quite a few to get done, and I'm not sure if I'd have to completely redesign them or if I could use the same basic layout as the image files for the web. To anybody out there reading this, don't design your tutorials as an image file if you're going to put it on the web. You'll end up having to do twice the work if you want to convert it to html. Recently, I've been thinking about a new blog design. I've been subscribing to different blogs to get ideas on how to make it better and as a result, I've decided that the current design is not good enough for my standards. Although it looks okay, it's not very professional or original looking. With the new design, I'll have to tie it into the new site design somehow, I'm still not sure if I want it to look a little different or not. I'll also probably be chaning over to Wordpress eventually because I think you can do things more to your liking with it. I haven't come up with anything solid yet, hopefully I will soon.

Too much stuff needs to be done. I need to set up a schedule or something for myself where I work on each of these for at least 30 mins a day or something if I want to finish them soon.

Sound Effects and Resources

Do you need some sound effects for your animation? Well, here is a list of a few sites that I've found that have free sound effects available on the web. When I first started using sound effects, I mainly used FindSounds, but more recently I found Sound Snap, a nice site that is dedicated to giving out free, good quality sound effects. It's really easy to browse through and already has a nice collection available for download. So if your looking for sound effects, first give Sound Snap a look and then FindSounds, if you can't find what your looking for at either of them, take a look at the last link I gave you. If even there, you can't find what you're looking for, try looking for something on Google, edit it using an editing program like Audacity(Free), or create it yourself. Hope you find what you're looking for.

Sound Snap
FindSounds
Partners in Rhyme

First Animation

Here's one of the first animations I ever did in my life. It was a flip book animation done in elementary school of a magician on stage. Speaking of school and animation, in the second semester of the school year, I'm going to be taking an animation class. I'm not totally sure what we'll be doing in it, right now I'm assuming some flash animation as well as some hand drawn, but we'll see.

Nofby's Corner

One blog I've been keeping close track of lately is called Nofby's Corner. It's done by a guy by the name of Seamus Jennings who enjoys both music and stop motion animation. On his blog, he posts updates about the projects he has been working on as well as other things that he would like to share. What I'm keeping my eye on mainly at his blog though, is the project he's working on. Right now, he's mainly been creating different set pieces and props and I'm loving the style. It's all new and interesting to look at, but you can tell you don't need a huge budget to make something like that. It's the perfect scenario, awesome style without a huge budget. Each time I see a new piece, it looks awesome. I can't wait until the final film is out. If you would like to check it out as well, the link is below. I've also included another blog of his in the list.

Nofby's Corner Blog
Nofby's Corner Tips and Tricks Blog