I resent the fact that I must name my blog.

On... one final of a post :]

2010-05-12T14:12:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is! I'm posting links to both the process and the product videos. I'd like to keep working on it for sure. It's been a fun process, learned a ton.

Thanks for a fun semester!

Process

Product

Some photos!

2010-04-25T00:10:00.000-07:00

I took some graduation photos for my friend Amber this past week. She's graduating in May, and wanted to print photo invitations instead of the traditional stuff.
Now, I'm no portrait photographer... but I think they turned out pretty good. I'm posting a couple of my favorites... I'd love some feedback! Click the photos for a larger version.

Greenscreen project... yayyyy....

2010-04-24T00:55:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is. Not as complete or bug-free as I wanted the code to be, but like you said, learning process... and I'm definitely learning tons. Our project write up can be found on Hannah's blog... I'm posting the scripts here. We ended up using a combination of bash & ffmpeg, javascript, photoshop actions, and python.

We are going to reshoot in the next week or so, and after that's accomplished, I have a couple of main goals I'd like to finish up:
-Fix the audio sync issues
-Clean up the green screen even more
-Code an alternate background subtraction method to compare
-Code the glow mask for the iPod
-Code the text to follow above the actor's heads
-Clean up the output - I'd love to be able to have the finalized script be HD resolution.

And, quite honestly, I've found that though droplets are handy for GUI drag-drop purposes, they're a pain in the butt to utilize within a script... so I'd like to try to convert our droplet completely to Javascript... or Applescript, if I must.

Neither my linux account nor my website knew what to do with my droplet... so it's not uploaded. Sad.
runChroma.py
chroma.py
extractFrames.s
compileFrames.s

And last but not least.... the link to the video...

Woo.

Video stuff.

2010-04-16T19:48:00.000-07:00

So, Hannah, Shem and I did indeed shoot some video... Hannah has it posted on her blog for you to see. I must say, even though I felt like we went into the shoot with things planned and covered... turns out they weren't. It's a long story, but I learned many a lesson, and I'll be quite happy if I never have to rent equipment from the Cinematic Arts cage ever again. The footage we have is definitely preliminary, and if we don't reshoot this upcoming week, we will definitely before the end of the semester. Ugh. Either way, at least we now have some pretty realistic footage to work with for coding. Yippee!

On... Movement

2010-04-14T23:04:00.000-07:00

I LOVE this photo. The movement in it is incredible. How the flowers, the trees, and even the clouds all direct your eye to the left. I thought it was relevant because of our discussion on movement in class, and to me, this just screams "movement". Also, the color harmony between the pale pinks/purples of the sky and the flower buds brings the composition together, and keeps it from becoming too asymmetrical. Pretty.

iPod talk Storyboards

2010-04-10T00:39:00.000-07:00

So, here's the link to Hannah, Shem and my storyboards. We've titled it "iPod talk" :]

www.carolpayneanimation.com/frames.zip

We still need to add in the dialogue to the storyboard, but we'll do that soon. We have a finalized script, though!

A midterm script or two...

2010-03-25T09:19:00.000-07:00

So, for this awesome midterm assignment, I created three scripts. Two are auxiliary, and can be reused: one extracts frames from a video file, and the other compiles them into a movie. They are both user-input based, so the use can decide things like directory names, file types, etc., as well a the video/frames you're working on. The third script utilizes both, as well as taking the frames and applying a fun oil paint/sepia tone adjustment. This script utilizes ImageMagick. I'm working on a counterpart that uses Netpbm, but it's a little more complicated, as I found out that it doesn't support the nice %d string formatting... sad. I just need to write a workaround up, which I'll probably do in Python, as its formatting process is similar. That will be another auxiliary script, so that whenever I want to use Netpbm on a group of frames, I'll just call it.

On a side note... seems to take up quite a lot of CPU power. Makes sense, but takes FOREVER to run. My poor laptop. Therefore, I'm including a sample frame of the end result, until I can sit and let the thing run to get the video.

Here are the links to my scripts:

extractFrames
compileFrames
cpPaintSepia

They are in .txt, because my website won't upload any fun extensions. ;]
The notes at the top of the file include the inputs the script needs to run.

A sneek peek... Photoshop CS5!!

2010-03-24T12:51:00.001-07:00

Wow. I'm in awe. Once again.

I'm in awe.

2010-03-24T12:13:00.000-07:00

g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

Amazing potential, once the technology is refined and improved and all that jazz...

oblong's tamper system 1801011309 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

On... Shell Scripting

2010-03-08T11:32:00.000-08:00

So, it's all up and running! Macports, Imagemagick, FFmpeg. It was all pretty simple once Andree reminded me that the rsync port is blocked on Lobo-Wifi, duh! I did have to update my Xcode in order to get Macports up and running, as well.

As for Python shell scripting...I did a little research, as most of the Python code we did with Andree in CS 152 was image manipulation based - and even more important - it was Jython, not true Python! So, most of the libraries (er, modules in python...) were Java. We never really unlocked the true potential of Python.

I have to say that one of my favorite aspects of Python is its string manipulation. It's relatively simple and intuitive, especially when compared to a language like Java. I'd choose to parse a file in Python over Java any day! For example, in Python, it's totally legal to write the following code:

>>> hello = "hello!"

>>> print hello*5

hello!hello!hello!hello!hello!

An operation like this is like breathing fresh air after spending some time coding in Java. I also love that the slice operations in Python follow C conventions, i.e.:

>>> word = "Hello"

>>> word[3]

'l'

>>> word[0:3]

'Hel'

>>> word[:2]

'He'

>>> word[-1]

'o'

These same conventions carry over to Python lists, which I appreciate, even with my grudge against lists.... I prefer vectors. However, in Python that's not an option, so I am happy with the same conveniences applied to lists.

I also learned about a useful module in Python called subprocess.. one that gives Python the ability to make system calls, just like bash. The following lines of code yield the same results as a bash ls -l command:

>>> import subprocess

>>> subprocess.call("ls -l", shell=True)

total 16

drwx------+ 13 carolpayne staff 442 Mar 3 19:12 Desktop

drwx------+ 27 carolpayne staff 918 Mar 2 14:55 Documents

drwx------+ 498 carolpayne staff 16932 Mar 8 16:01 Downloads

drwx------+ 46 carolpayne staff 1564 Mar 1 14:00 Library

drwxr-xr-x 3 carolpayne staff 102 Dec 11 2008 Montage Backups

drwx------+ 8 carolpayne staff 272 Nov 14 16:13 Movies

drwx---rwx+ 7 carolpayne staff 238 Apr 17 2009 Music

drwx------+ 12 carolpayne staff 408 Apr 2 2009 Pictures

drwxr-xrwx+ 7 carolpayne staff 238 Apr 18 2009 Public

lrwxr-xr-x 1 root staff 60 Oct 3 2008 Send Registration -> /Users/carolpayne/Library/Assistants/Send Registration.setup

drwxr-xr-x+ 5 carolpayne staff 170 Oct 3 2008 Sites

-rwxr-xr-x 1 carolpayne staff 1284 Sep 29 10:28 workspace.mel

>>>

Now, I'm going to have to keep investigating why I would want to use Python in my shell over bash, which was developed as a shell tool... but if I find a reason, I'll be sure to let you know!

Overall, Python sure is easy on the eyes, ha!

To Flash... or Not to Flash!

2010-02-28T19:37:00.000-08:00

Or both! So, I ended up taking some new pictures after class on Thursday. I still haven't quite perfected it, but I've been able to get a lot closer to a nice mask. Yay!

Here's the mask....

And the image! Woo.

I'm gonna keep working on the process.. it gets better every time!

On... A Color Wheel Script!

2010-02-25T16:06:00.000-08:00

Weeeeellll, it's finally done. I'm pretty happy with the result! There are a couple more UI elements I'd like to add, and I still haven't gotten the scripts to respond properly used in another script. I'll post another update once I get that working. But, they work great individually! :]

I've uploaded the color strips here, and the color wheel here.

On... Swirlies (an update!)

2010-02-17T11:48:00.000-08:00

As an update to my previous post, I figured I would show the finished product of the videos I made for our youth retreat. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, but there really are only "swirlies" at the very beginning... hehe! I've uploaded one of the four videos here. They're all similar, so I figured one would do. I learned a lot about particle systems in After Effects, which I really came to enjoy. I used both the default cc_ParticleWorld and a third party system called Trapcode Particular. They really are nice looking effects. I think, if I was forced to choose a favorite Adobe product, it would be After Effects... versatility, power, and a great interface!

I've also really started getting into the built-in scripting language (based on JavaScript) that they named "expressions". It's really very convenient. In these particular videos, I used an expression to control the animation timing for all layers. That way, I could just change the timing and values in one place, and it would adjust all the layers automatically. Very handy, as getting the timing right for an explosion can be a beast... and with multiple layers of particles and text, it was a saving grace.

On... Gradients... #2

2010-02-16T01:04:00.000-08:00

Here's my update to my previous script. It's in .txt format, sorry, my website won't let me upload .scm files. I added the functionality to let the user pick fg/bg colors, and the position coordinates.

Sorry it's a little late, I literally just got back into town an hour ago, and didn't have wifi to upload it all weekend.

On... Gradients.

2010-02-09T23:47:00.000-08:00

So here's what I found out about gradients in script-fu....

1.) create an image and display it.

(define image(gimp-image-new 512 512 0))

(gimp-display-new (car image))

2.) define a new layer as a variable, and add it to your image.

(define gradLayer (gimp-layer-new (car image) 512 512 0 "gradLayer" 100 0))

(gimp-image-add-layer (car image) (car gradLayer) -1)

3.) define the active drawable of your image

(define ad (gimp-image-get-active-drawable (car image)))

4.) add a default gradient to your drawable

(gimp-edit-blend (car ad) 0 0 0 100 0 0 FALSE TRUE 4 3 TRUE 0 0 (car (gimp-drawable-width (car ad))) (car (gimp-drawable-height (car ad))))

The param's of gimp-edit-blend, in order, are as follows:

drawable, blend-mode (I chose FG-BG-RBG), paint-mode (I chose normal), gradient-type (linear), opacity, offset, repeat (none), reverse, super-sample, max-depth, threshold, dither, x1 (0), y1 (0), x2 (drawable width), y2 (drawable height).

Phew! That should display a nice little gradient in whatever colors you have set as your fg/bg colors in GIMP. Sweet.

On... Scheme.

2010-02-08T22:44:00.000-08:00

So, for the scripting assignment in Scheme this week... I think I bit off a little more than I could chew. I've learned a ton about Scheme, though... yay! I found this script that duplicates a drawable a number of times specified by the user, and also offsets the duplicates a specified amount. I thought it would be cool to also have the script scale the drawables a certain amount each time it was duplicated. Sounded simple enough at the time. A little naive, I'll admit.

The finished script is still a little buggy... and when all's said and done, I only added one stinking line of code. Granted, it's a long line... needs a little cleaning up.

I spent a fair bit of time deciphering the original script... it was a little daunting and not commented. Here is the original file. It's in .txt so as to upload it. I spent some time researching drawables and vectors in Scheme, as these were the prominent features in the script.

So then I looked up scaling in script-fu. Found an easy way to do it under gimp-image-scale. This is where I learned a lot about lists in Scheme, and how to access their contents. Got that working in the console, great. Not what I needed, though. I needed to scale drawables, not the entire image. At first I tried a workaround - trying to access the drawable through the image (gimp-image-get-active-drawable). Found out cheating's not the way to go in Scheme ;]. I found you can scale drawables, as well (gimp-drawable-transform-scale-default). Yay!

The way the script was working, it first checked for exact/inexact numbers, and truncated them accordingly. Then it checked for a layer mask in the drawable. Then it went into the loops where it copied the drawable the specified number of times, then added the offsets. So it made sense that my scaling code go somewhere in that loop, so that each drawable got scaled along with the duplicating. My line of code looked as follows:

(gimp-drawable-transform-scale-default (vector-ref V (- k 1)) ox oy (*(car(gimp-drawable-width (vector-ref V k))) 0.5) (*(car (gimp-drawable-height (vector-ref V k))) 0.5) TRUE 0)

The drawable scale function took 7 parameters. Drawable, new top x-coor, new top y-coor, new bottom right x-coor, new bottom right y-coor, interpolation/supersampling, clip type. So, as the code was using a vector to store the different drawables, I used that vector-ref to access the correct drawable. I also used the already computed x and y offsets as the new top x/y coords.

It works... kinda. It's buggy. I'm still working on it. Right now, it only works for up to 3 copies - I think this has to to with the drawable's size (as it's multiplying down in scale each time, eventually it will hit negatives). I'll keep debugging this.

It also moves the original drawable to last, but keeps the others in order. So the biggest drawable appears last instead of first. Not quite sure on this one.

My edited script is here. Work in progress. I really feel like I learned a ton from this assignment... we'll see!

On... Swirlies.

2010-02-04T09:18:00.000-08:00

Yes, "swirlies". Not a typo. I am a media/graphics intern at my church, and my most recent project is some videos for our youth retreat we're going on next week. There are four different pastors preaching up there, so these videos are supposed to introduce both pastor & sermon. The only guideline they gave me was "make it have swirlies and a picture of the pastor". Well, that's great. At least they can't get mad if they don't like what I come up with. Swirlies. Really?

So, I ventured along to my favorite after effects website, videocopilot.net. I remember there being a tutorial on there for some neon-looking streaks that could resemble "swirlies". It's actually a tutorial on capturing the effect from a (now) old iPod Nano commercial (here). Looked pretty cool. I went through the tutorial, it's pretty simple, and uses a particle engine made for After Effects. Pretty simple. The tutorial cut out half way through, so I just ended up finishing it how I wanted... The videos aren't done yet... next step: I want to figure out how to use these streaks as a mask to cover/uncover the picture and titles. That's it for now!

On... the making of a color wheel.

2010-02-02T15:23:00.000-08:00

So... my write-up ended up being longer than I expected, and with the screen captures and all that... I just ended up uploading my .doc file to my website, here, so it could be easily viewed. I had a ton of fun with this assignment. It fed my OCD quite nicely ;]. To do the finished product justice, I've also uploaded the finished product, here. The max file size for this blog is 8mb, and that just hurt my soul. My original .psd was more than 50 times that size. Hehehehe.

I put together a simple little video of my different wheels....here.

Happy Tutu Day! :]

HDR..and all that jazz

2010-01-26T21:40:00.000-08:00

High Dynamic Range... what beautiful words.

How coincidental it is that I am studying HDR photography and its uses in Maya as an independent study this semester, when we are talking about similar issues in class. Color, light, human eye vs. camera... all of these things being the main topics of discussion in HDR.

Now, I don't call myself a photographer (I've taken one class, and know how to make a camera take a picture) but it has always fascinated me as another art form... eventually, I'd love to have time to really experience it. Recently, the area of HDR and its applications in Maya have captured my attention. I bought a book, A World in HDR, by Trey Ratcliff, the genius behind stuckincustoms.com. The site is his HDR images blog of sorts... plus a lot more. The book is a lot of the same... he includes a ton of his images, with captions for each - tips, tricks, settings, the works. There are two chapters on HDR tutorials - how Ratcliff does it. Amazing book. Amazing artist.

I figured if I was going to do this HDR + Maya stuff right, I should learn as much as I can about HDR first. The more I read about it, the more I really want to try it for myself. So I decided to make it my semester project for Brad Swardson's class! My plan is to pick a building in Albuquerque - haven't decided which yet, open to suggestions... to model, texture, light, and render. The HDR will come in mostly in the lighting - but possibly in some textures, if I can make it work! It's a totally new world for me... bring it on!

On... Color.

2010-01-21T14:29:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite words in the english language: colorfulness. Root word is obviously "colorful"... dictionary.com's description being "Full of color; abounding in colors:colorful leaves in the fall."... colorfulness being the noun. I particularly enjoy its synonyms...

vigorous, spirited, dynamic. These synonyms describe exactly what comes to my mind when I think of color - vigorous blushing cheeks, spirited blue skies, dynamic new mexico sunsets. I am one for bright, intense, highly saturated colors... kind of an all or nothing mentality. If a photo is in color, I'd rather it REALLY be in color... or in black and white. For example, the difference between these two images, the first of which I found on google, second of which I edited in photoshop...

It's just a preference, really... but you can see the difference. The contrast between the almost unnatural blues of the sky versus the red-browns of the brush. That's color to me.

On a different note (or degree...it's not quite 180, as it's still in reference to types of color...note class reference here!) one of my favorite sites regarding color would have to be kuler... kuler.adobe.com. It's Adobe's color theme site... quite useful. If you haven't already, I suggest checking it out. I particularly enjoy creating my own themes... normally in complementary mode. It helps me visualize color schemes - web design, print media, etc. It keeps me in line, color theory wise. Whenever I'm picking colors, I run it through kuler first. It's saved me many a color fopaux...thanks, kuler! Plus, since it's made by Adobe, it works great with their software.

I find it fitting to note, as I draw this entry to a close, that I have two favorite colors which I cannot choose between (please don't ask me!).... sky blue and bright yellow/green. The same shade, in fact, that is in my blog's layout.

"I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way--things I had no words for." - Georgia O'Keeffe

To elaborate on my blog's name...

2010-01-19T14:56:00.000-08:00

I resent the fact that I am forced to name something that is not a pet, nor dear to me. Why must I name it?

Other than that small fact, this blog was set up primarily for my IFDM 210 class... for assignments, blog posts (obviously...) etc. So if you're looking for highly intellectual and poetic stories about my life, I will disappoint you. Muahaha.