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supernaturallyobsessedchic · 3 years

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The Musician Next Door

[Close enough for me, Gif credit to @jensenacklescious]

Square: Vancouver ( @supernatural-jackles tell a story bingo)

Pairing: Jensen x Reader

Summary: The reader is an extra on Supernatural, and has a musical talent. But little did she know her music attracted the attention of her neighbor.

Warnings: Nothing bad, just fluff, sweet music (I recommend searching on YouTube to listen to while reading), and some comedy.

Word Count: 1,860

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A/N: A small teaser of a possible series I have in mind thanks to Jensen’s recent Instagram post. But this is not going to be the series, it’s something similar. But still, I hope you like it. :3

She’s always wanted to come to this city. Well she’s always wanted to go to Canada, Vancouver was just the plus side.

And, an ever more plus side was the job she managed to grab. An extra on her favorite show. Supernatural.

Sure it was its last and final season and they were finishing up but with having a limited number of extras due to the pandemic she was one of the few they needed.

She drove down the towns streets, seeing it’s lights shimmer in the night. Making her smile softly at the scenery. Another reason she loved Vancouver. It was such a beautiful city.

She got to her apartment complex, the same one her friend lived in. And she learns quickly who her neighbors are.

After getting rather bored on day 3 into quarantine, she looked at her music set. She knew how to play piano and guitar.

She turns on the electric piano, picking the grand piano setting she begins to play with a few keys. Playing nonsense sounds, but a pleasant melody.

She then began leading into one of her favorites. Her favorite anime show, Inuyasha, playing his lullaby piano song.

Playing at the pace of the song, relaxing as she continued to play. After finishing one verse she began singing lightly with the music.

She began to slow the music as it came to a close. She paused for a brief second before playing more.

She began to play Beethoven’s Moonlight Sentra first movement. And blending the end of it with Supernatural’s Dean’s Family Dedication Theme song.

A tear slipping down her cheek as she remembers this is the last time the show will air. She knows how it will end. They all knew. She doesn’t like it, but she didn’t voice it.

She finished the song with a nice peaceful and gentle end. Till her phone buzzed.

“That was beautiful sweetheart, can I make a request?”

The number belonging to Jensen Ackles. Her heart fluttered in her chest. Turns out he was her neighbor. Who would have thought she had an audience of one listening.

“Sure, what would you like to listen to me play…or attempt to play?” she texts back.

She saw him read it quickly before seeing the jumping three dots, showing he’s typing something.

“I am working on a song for my second album, if I send you a sample of it, could you try to bring it to life on the piano?”

Her heart rate skyrocketed. A song that hasn’t even been released yet, but also still in the works she was going to listen to.

“Sure, let me see what you got.” She texts.

He sent her the audio file to her phone promptly, playing it on her headphones, she can hear the notes coming to her.

Giving it a few play throughs, listening intently to the notes on the guitar, his words being sung. She looked at her keys on her piano and began playing around. Until she found the right notes.

Learning the piano, she didn’t learn the traditional way. She taught herself. Just messing around on the family’s grand piano, she learned the simple twinkle little star. Then an armature Amazing Grace. She had an ear for music, she let the music flow through her like wind blowing through her hair. The way the breeze felt on her skin. Making music felt like that to her.

She began playing the song, even singing the song to help her timing with the next verse and the next verse after that.

Once finished, she noticed it had gotten late.

“It was nice playing for you Jay, but I need to head to bed.”

“Okay, goodnight. Sleep well.”

All throughout quarantine she had been playing with her instruments. Entertaining Jensen mostly, but it also relaxes her.

But on their first day on set, after being tested and gotten the okay to head on the sound stage for blocking she went to see Jensen.

Seeing him and Jared walking together to the sound stage, she couldn’t help but chuckle to herself at how much like brothers they were.

“There she is the little musician next door.” Jensen says, coming to her, wrapping an arm around her.

“He told me you play piano, do you really?” Jared asked.

“I do a little bit; it’s been a while.”

“Well, it’s like riding a bike. You never forget. You were so good.” Jensen comments.

“Aw, thanks Jay.”

“Got any new songs to play tonight or…can I make a request again?”

“You can always make a request. Besides, I was writing this song and I just need to get the notes right, the words right and then I’m posting it to my YouTube Channel.”

“Doing YouTube now, huh?”

“Yeah, I’m trying it out. I can’t seem to enjoy a single day job I get. I enjoy jobs like this. Acting, where I can tell a story. Writing, where I can create the story. Music, just creating good sounding, relaxing and calming music.”

“You are such an amazing creator; I think you’ll do great as a YouTube creator.”

��You think so?”

“Totally, right Jare?”

“For sure, hey, do vlogging, give us a behind the scenes.”

“I’m not sure about vlogging, that requires being in front of the camera. And I’m so camera shy.”

“Yet you’re an extra on Supernatural.” Jensen smirks.

“Okay, maybe…I don’t know what it is. But I just don’t want to vlog, okay.”

“It’s okay.” Jared says.

Later that day, she can’t get her thoughts together back at the apartment. She paced back and forth. From the kitchen to the balcony and back around. She was beyond distracted.

“Jay, are you available for hanging out for a little. I can’t focus.” She texts him.

A moment passes when she thought he might have been busy.

“Yeah, just had to get a pizza out of the oven. Want to come over and just chill for a bit?”

“Sure, I just can’t focus on my music right now.”

“It’s fine. Come on over.”

Putting on her shoes she walks over next door to Jensen’s apartment.

Knocking on the door she hears his dog barking.

“Quiet Icarus.” She could hear him beyond the door shushing his dog. Making her chuckle.

“Hey,” he says opening the door. “Come on in.”

She enters, taking her shoes off at his door.

“Want some pizza?”

“Sure,”

Jensen grabs two plates out, giving each two slices of pizza. And walking over to the couch. Turning on his apple tv.

He turns it onto Netflix, Orange is the new black.

But halfway through his second slice he notices she’s not paying attention to the tv. But instead is looking outside. Eating in silence.

“What’s on your mind?” he asks kindly.

“A lot. Stuff going on at home. This whole YouTube thing being real, I just don’t know what I’m doing anymore. It just seems like I’m just going with it.”

“Nothing wrong with going with the flow. But, this stuff at home, how bad is it?”

“It’s nothing bad, I can handle it. it just takes a lot of mental power to get myself past it. You know.”

“For sure.”

They sat back in silence.

“Here, how about we go for a little walk on the town. That should help relax you a bit.” Jensen suggests, as he finishes his pizza. Y/N not even halfway through her first slice.

“Where to?”

“Nowhere, just out for a little relaxing walk. Come on, and grab a jacket it’s supposed to be a little chilly.”

Jensen may not have had a destination in mind, but he knew one place that would help her relax.

The ports, anywhere where there was ocean. He noticed in her posts on Instagram, when she’s at a tropical beach she looks relaxed and at peace with everything. And she knew deep down, once she saw the sun setting by the waters and seeing what they were walking up towards, she knew that he knew.

She felt herself calm at the sight.

“See, you look relaxed already.”

“Thanks Jay, I really appreciated this.”

“It’s not a problem.” he says. Leaning kissing her atop her head with an arm wrapped around her shoulder.

“That jacket’s not warm enough, is it?”

“No, not really.”

A small shiver shook through her as she said that.

He chuckles. “Lets get you home and warm you up.” he says, leaning in, pecking a sweet kiss on her cheek. A centimeter too close to her lips.

Y/N looked up at him with a smirk.

“What was that?”

“It was a kiss, why…”

“You were a bit close to my lips Jay…are you trying to tell me something?” she gives him a playful smirk.

“Okay,” he rubs the back of his neck. “I may like you, since the first day you and I met on set. You kind of took my breath away.”

Her heart pounded in her chest as her face heated up at the comment. Making Jensen smile with a chuckle.

“I, uh…I like you too Jay. I thought it might be a crush thing but, it just wouldn’t shake. I really, really like you.”

Jensen had a smile that went from ear to ear. He brought her in a tight embrace, holding her close.

“I know what you’ve been through. And I want to be there for you, to help you through it all.” He says.

“Thank you Jay, I want to be there for you too.” She says.

She pulls away slightly to look up at him. She could see his eyes glide down from her eyes to her lips as he slowly leans in. Planting a soft kiss fully on her lips.

Their lips moving in a soft dance with each other, his tongue grazing her bottom lip silently asking for permission. She parts her lips at the right moment to allow him in and dominate her mouth in the kiss.

Just when their kiss grew hungry, and their skin began to heat up at the attraction and arousal.

“Finally!”

They pulled away, stunned at the exclamation. Seeing Jared walking down the sidewalk, facetime on revealing Misha.

“It’s about time you two got together!” Misha shouted on the phone.

Y/N’s face heated up once again, hiding against Jensen’s chest. Jensen chuckling.

“Yeah, finally you two can stop with the longing stares and the…does she like me? Does he like me?” Jared says.

“How’d you know we came down here?”

“I didn’t, I saw you and I saw her, and I couldn’t help myself.” Jared smiled.

The couple chuckling.

“You two were being such idiots.”

“Well, we can be idiots together, now, do you mind?” Jensen says.

“Oh, right, get back to making out with your girl. See you two on set, you better have hickey’s to show for it!” Jared shouts as he walks away.

Jensen and Y/N just rolling their eyes, giving each other a quick chaste kiss before walking back to the apartment.

Only he walked back with her to her apartment and sat with her as she played her music, even joining in turning it into a sweet duet.

a/n: What’d you think? Let me know, feedback is always appreciated.

Dean/Jensen Girls:

@pandazombie69, @luci-in-trenchcoats, @supernatural-jackles, @becs-bunker, @jayankles, @winchesters-favorite-girl, @mlovesstories, @akshi8278, @flamencodiva, @megzdoodle, @anotherspnfanfic, @misfit0118, @shawnie74, @missmemoire09, @racetrackheart, @spnbaby-67, @moonlight-on-her-skin, @backseat-of-deans-67chevy, @salt-n-burn-em-all, @lyarr24

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thedeaditeslayer · 4 years

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Tom Sullivan - Evil Dead (Retrospective Interview)

Below is a short interview with Tom Sullivan that covers working on The Evil Dead making props, stop motion effects and special make-up effects.

Much has been said about The Evil Dead over the years. An abundance of articles and books have covered the arduous low-budget shoot, and the creativity that came out of long cold nights in the wilderness of Tennessee. The dedicated cast and crew went to extreme lengths whilst making the classic film; including memorable instances like Ellen Sandweiss running through the woods until her feet were in pieces, Campbell having his soon to be famous chin scarred when a deadite hand grabbed him through the floor, and long nights in the cabin with no running water leaving crew to wash blood off their hands in scolding hot coffee. But just as impressive as the aggressive perseverance needed to finish the 16mm low budget opus were the imaginative and gory effects that have been etched into fans retinas for nearly forty years! The blood spewing, head-severing effects were created by Tom Sullivan, who had provided makeup for Raimi’s fund-raising short film Within The Woods. Sullivan signed up for The Evil Dead and created the numerous prosthetics and blood gags essential to dismembering a cabin of teenagers, helping bring to the screen a bloodbath of carnage that Stephen King famously called “The most ferociously original horror film of 1982.”

With only three weeks to break down Raimi’s script and create the necessary effects needed - and a further three months to create and film the stop motion blood and pus filled “Deadite Meltdown” at the end of the movie - Sullivan built a legion of makeup appliances, severed limbs, and some of the most iconic props in horror movie history. Sullivan, who tours with his Evil Dead Museum showcasing of many of the props, makeups and ghastly creations used in the Evil Dead movies, spoke with Project Louder about what went into creating such iconic pieces for 1982’s The Evil Dead.

Project Louder: Let’s start with the most famous of all Evil Dead props, The Book of the Dead. In the script it was described as being made from an animal skin. How did you design the book and what was your process of putting it together?

Tom Sullivan: My book is different than the one Sam Raimi described in his script, “Book of the Dead”. His book had some kind of animal skin with a couple of letters from an ancient alphabet on the cover. As an illustrator that didn’t read like an evil book to me. So, I proposed a book covered in human skin and a human face would make it more obvious it was human skin as opposed to just leather. I had made face molds of all the actors but Bruce Campbell. So, I coated Hal Delrich’s mold about 8 or 9 layers of mold rubber, let it dry, yanked it of the mold and glued it to a piece of corrugated cardboard. The pages were a stiff card stock that I bound together with grocery bag paper. The Illustrations were not to be seen in the original script but as an artist I had to draw on everything, so I based the drawings on DaVinci’s notebooks on anatomy. The text is all made up on the spot. I call it Bullscript.

Project Louder: What was the process for makeup design, prep and application in regard to Theresa, Betsy and Ellen?

Tom Sullivan: Sam gave me the script three weeks before shooting began. As the make up and special effects artist all I could think was, “shoot me now”. I had time to breakdown the script, figure out what effects and make up designs I needed, how I might do them and what supplies I would need. The original demon concepts were based on the Sumerian background. Not that I knew anything about Sumerians, but I had seen The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston, so I just figured maybe the Sumerians were proto ancient Egyptians. I was hoping movie audiences were as ignorant as I was, and I was correct. So, I sculpted some designs for the deadites based on a hawk, a snake, and a dog. Sam thought it was starting to look like Planet of the Apes and I agreed. So instead of stealing from John Chambers let’s steal from Dick Smith. Ellen’s, Cheryl Deadite make up was inspired by Smith’s Exorcist make up of the demon. Betsy’s make up was the first make up I did for the film. It was black veins radiating out of her darkened eyes. That design became Shelly’s make up. Don’t waste good ideas. All of the ladies’ make ups were done in 4 to 6 hours sessions. They were built up from scratch. Only Scotty’s dog make up was a latex appliance. That was left over from the Sumerian Dog design. Don’t waste anything.

Sam’s concept became the idea that the demons were mocking and revealing their victims. After discovering about the “latex point” during the making of Within the Woods, I was hesitant to use spirit gum on the actors. It tends to harm skin when actors have to wear glued on masks for long days upon days. So, I used latex rubber like contact cement. I’d put a thin layer on the contact surface of the mask and a thin layer on the contact surface of the actor. When the layers were drying but still tacky I would press them together. It’s important to clean the actor’s skin with alcohol to remove oils on their skin for longer adhesion.

Project Louder: The Kandarian dagger is another iconic design. What was the concept and build process?

Tom Sullivan: The dagger was just a dagger in the script. I wanted to make it more memorable and read as a bizarre and disturbing weapon. I loved Ridley Scott’s Alien so I took a 1 ½” piece of aluminum stock, ground it down with a sharp point, took a couple of handfuls of a ground paper mache called Celluclay added water, mashed it into a clay like substance and shaped it over the hilt of the dagger in the rough shape of the “chestburster” from Alien. I took the parts of a 12” skeleton model kit and stuck those into the Celluclay. When I ran out of kit parts, I bought a chicken, cooked it, ate it, boiled and dried the bones and stuck those into the hilt and instant horror movie prop. I got the idea for the dagger’s skull puking blood the night before we shot the Shelly Deadite death scene. I figured I could drill a hole from the skull’s mouth to the back of the dagger, stick a small, tube into the hole and have a production assistant blow blood through it for the take. I suggested the close up shot for the film when I showed up at the set. And Sam used it. He has excellent taste.

Project Louder: The Evil Dead never skimped on the blood. Would you care to share the Tom Sullivan blood recipe?

Tom Sullivan: It’s Sam Raimi’s blood recipe. He taught it to me during Within the Woods. It is one bottle of Corn Syrup, 2 to 3oz of Red Food Coloring. 1 Cup Instant Coffee mixed with water into a paste. Mix well. It stains everything but is safe and non-toxic for your actors. However, I drank so much of this coffee syrup I haven’t had a cup in coffee ever since filming Evil Dead. So be warned!!

Project Louder: The climactic stop motion sequence is masterful in is gore and execution. How did you approach such a complicated and time-consuming sequence?

Tom Sullivan: I love stop motion animation, so I was looking for an opportunity to use it in Sam’s film. Sam’s idea for the finale was for me to make some balloon versions of the Scotty and Cheryl Deadites and have them deflate while smoking. As I had been creating lots of gory effects for the film that seemed a bit lame for finale. I thought it needed an explosion of gore and as the special effects artist I wanted to throw guts into the audience’s lap. I did some storyboards of my concept for the meltdown and using George Pal’s great film, The Time Machine stop motion sequence of the Morlock decomposing via clay animation in that films finale, I sold Sam on the idea. He knew Bart Pierce, a filmmaker and stop motion animator and we met and designed the full sequence and started filming in his basement. I made the almost full-size clay models of the deadites over wooden ball and socket armatures made with large wooden beads. I made heads out of blood red dyed modeling clay sculpted into the muscles and then pressed into a mold of the deadite’s sculpture that had a more flesh colored clay. That was then removed from the mold, painted, wigged and ready to animate. To match the cabin set we used wood from the location and found out Bart’s garage’s ceiling matched the ceiling of the cabin. So, we used it. I am very proud of my work with Bart and I consider it my best artistic collaboration.

#Tom Sullivan #The Evil Dead

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fourteendoors · 4 years

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The Queen of Akzetha and the King of Crete

Image credit to Denys Tsiperko on artstation. Most modern stories about the Minotaur suck. I’m allowed to say this because I’m an Artist, and therefore objectively correct about everything. These stories suck because they focus on Theseus, a boring prettyboy whose only real talent is murder, instead of the much more interesting blend of divine retribution, personal tragedy, and general horniness that underlies the creation myth of the Minotaur. So, before we go any further, let’s have a quick refresher of the story, and then a dissection as to why I like it so much.

The Minotaur is a creature entirely born from the fuck-up of King Minos of the Isle of Crete. Upon ascending to the throne of Crete, Minos was having trouble consolidating power, and as such asked the sea-god Posideon to send him a snow-white bull to show that the gods favored him for leadership. Posideon asked Minos to sacrifice the bull to honor him, but Minos valued the bull so much that he instead sacrified another instead. Angry at this, Posideon caused Minos’ wife, Pasiphae, to become incredibly attracted to the bull, at which point she begged the inventor Daedalus to build her a bull-shaped armature so that she could have sex with it. Upon doing so, she became pregnant with the half-man, half-beast Minotaur, who, being divided between two species had no natural source of food, and so (logically) was only able to subsist off devouring human flesh. Although Pasiphae attempted to take care of it for a time, eventually Minos imprisoned it in his Labyrinth, constructed by Daedalus. There’s a ton of interesting things here. Firstly, that the Minotaur was entirely born out of hubris and spite. He’s not a monster because he was made by an evil god, he’s a monster because he was made by an incredibly petty one. The detail about the wooden cow is incredibly choice, but not really gameable (although I am begging someone to prove me wrong.) It’s interesting that Minos chose to imprison the beast, rather than kill it. If you can contain something enough to trap it in a giant maze you had your inventor friend build, surely just straight-out murdering it wouldn’t be impossible? I like to imagine that Minos felt some guilt about what he’d done to his son, and couldn’t bear to have it killed on his own orders until Theseus arrived. Anyway. Here’s a Minotaur-variant you can stick in your own games. ------ The Queen of Akzetha The Kingdom of Akzetha is a small city-state on the Sea of Silk. It’s not a Kingdom anymore- it hasn’t been for the past few decades- but the Council currently in charge of the city is absolutely resolute that Akzetha is a kingdom, and will be known as such. (They tried to issue an official motion to transition the city into the Republic of Akzetha. They had to suspend the vote because of the nightmares.) For its size, Akzetha is fairly wealthy. This is mostly due to the exploits of its founder, Vrantearn the Serpent, a legendary Yncol pirate who terrorized the Sea of Silk for nearly a century. Upon his retirement, he took the hand of a legendary songstress in marriage, and bought the island where he would found his Kingdom. Vrantearn’s hoard funded the fleets of trade ships that now ply the Sea of Silk, making the early years of the kingdom very profitable for The Serpent and his loyal crew. There is a story about his death, and the story goes like this. Vrantearn and his lover had a daughter after Azketha’s founding- a clever and bright-eyed girl named Xurah. Vrantearn truly loved his child, and spoilt her with exotic trinkets from across the known world. One night, while Xurah was being tutored in poetry by a Cvess philosopher, a bedraggled man approached Vrantearn’s throne. He claimed to be a priest of Rhulenkaath, the goddess of blood and birds and contracts, and asked after a certain artifact that had come into the Pirate King’s possession. The artifact was of grave importance to the priesthood, and if Vrantearn would turn it over they would consecrate a new temple in his honor. The Serpent simply laughed, saying he had no need for the assistance of a goddess who could not protect her own subjects, and turned the man away. Ill omens followed. Traders at port found that the touch of gold opened cuts on the skin of their palms. Vrantearn’s prized monkey died, bleeding black ink from its eyes. And Xurah grew strange and distant, keeping odd hours and odder habits. The people whispered of the wrath of the goddess, of the folly of the Pirate King. One day, Xurah entered the royal bedchambers and devoured both her parents whole. The girl hungered for blood, and although the guards fought valiantly they found that she healed from any wound they could give her. It was only through the wit of the King’s advisor that they were able to Xurah beneath the palace, in a network of secret passageways that had been built if an escape was ever needed. The entrances were sealed, but for a single accessway, watched day and night by guards to ensure the monstrous child would never escape. This is what the story tells. It less often discusses what happens next. Although Xurah is monstrous (guards report glimpses of feathers and talons and wide, dark eyes), she is intensely intelligent, charismatic, and persuasive. The art of statecraft seems like an intriguing game to her, and it is one she is very, very good at. And although the Council would never admit it, in matters of politics they still often answer to her. It goes like this. The most heinous criminals in Akzetha are sentenced to the worst fate imaginable: to be devoured by Xurah. They will not go willingly, of course, and so they’re often given a soporific beforehand. Under the soporific, a question may be tattooed on their back- ‘should we go to war,’ perhaps, or ‘how do we cure the blight.’ They are cast down into the dark, and they are not seen again. The answer will usually appear by the next morning, either in a dream, whispered on the wind, or (in one particularly unpleasant case) spelled out in animal viscera on the floor of a Councilman’s estate. This is the price for the questions of state. For questions of one’s own life- the Councilmen’s aspirations, their relationships, their future- Xurah demands flesh from one’s own body. In recent days, a change has occurred in Xurah’s behavior that terrifies the members of the Council. It’s not that she’s began to try to escape- far from it. Xurah’s entire life has been marked by escape attempts, each more elaborate and unpredictable than the last. (The Council has spent a fortune hiring wizards and engineers to try and keep up.) Rather, it’s the fact that in the past year, Xurah has not tried to break free once. The more optimistic members of the Council speculate that her will is broken, that she is now utterly resigned to her fate. The more pessimistic members say that she’s only biding her time, or even perhaps that she’s realized that staying trapped beneath the earth can inflict more cruelty upon them than her release ever could. And in the dockside inns and on the cold beaches at night, you will sometimes hear the commoners speak of a queen that speaks in dreams, a queen whose crown is wind and blood... ------ How To Use Xurah In Your Games: Xurah will take an interest in your PCs, because your PCs are likely interesting. What this interest will actually mean is entirely up to you. Perhaps she’ll want to eat them (if that’s what she’s doing), and will convince the Council to frame them for something heinous and cast them down into her lair. Perhaps they’ll end up serving her, knowingly or unknowingly, following the cryptic words on the wind and the voice in their dreams. (She can pay them well- there are caches of pirate treasure all over the island, and she knows each and every one.) Maybe she’s not even interested in escaping anymore, and is instead looking for the PCs to assist her in her newest scheme- perhaps killing the old rivals of her father, or serving the interests of the god who made her. I wrote Xurah’s followers as acting on her behalf, but I actually like it better if they’re not, instead misinterpreting random dreams as signs of divine prophecy. Of course, when Xurah tries to drive them away with nightmares, that’s just more signs that the prophecy is fulfilled. This gives Xurah, the Council, and the cultists a push-and-pull aspect, each ostensibly allied with the other, but secretly working on their own agenda.

#fantasy #osr #worldbuilding #roleplaying #minotaur #monster #i've been listening to a lot of Spencer Krug lately can u tell

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shoewave · 5 years

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Final’s New B-series: Impressions

Often synonymous with ‘niche’, Final Audio’s latest offerings have been anything but. Hot on the heels of their extremely well-received E4000 and E5000, they’ve unveiled the latest in their lineup: the B series. The multi-driver designs mark a promising new direction for the constantly innovating Japanese company, but will it keep their streak going? After a session with them at Canjam Singapore 2019, here are some first impressions.

Overview

Echoing Final’s existing MAKE series in both naming and design language, the new B1, B2, and B3 come in solid, stainless steel housings. Gold for the B1, grey for the B2, and silver for the B3 - a colour scheme that also reveals their actual price brackets. Despite the numbering, the B2 is the cheapest (est. USD200), with the B3 being the midrange model (est. USD500) and the B1 at the top (est. USD600). Do note that these prices are just estimates, and not...ahem...final. Anyways, the pricing order is no surprise once you learn what’s inside:

B1 - 1 Balanced Armature + 1 Dynamic Driver

B2 - 1 Balanced Armature

B3 - 2 Balanced Armature

What is surprising is that Final’s offering a multi-driver setup at all. Their philosophy for the longest time has been that splitting frequencies across multiple drivers introduces an unnatural sound. Unlike most companies which have been adding drivers up to the double-digits, Final has been pushing the boundaries with single-driver IEMs. This has resulted in some stunning earphones, from their legendary FI-BA-SS series (single BA) to their latest E-series (single dynamic). Though they’ve explored multi-drivers/hybrids before in their MAKE and Sonorous series, those were more niche offerings, and the B-series marks their first serious foray into multi-drivers for the general market.

Build, Comfort

Right off the bat these are impressive, all three models feel solidly built with clean surfaces, and the angled design clearly has Final’s signature blend of artisanal and industrial. The detachable cables are sturdy and supple enough, bending smoothly to fit over the ear. No complaints comfort wise, the housing sits easily in the outer ear thanks to the rounded inner surface, and despite the shallow insertion, isolates well enough even on the noisy Canjam showfloor.

Sound

Setup: Smartphone + Fiio A5 Amp, Lotoo PAW Gold Touch (on loan from the booth), Spotify 320kbps & FLAC files. Stock cables and tips.

All 3 are drivable off a phone, but I was close to maxing out the volume. I’d have loved to have the time (and budget) to try swapping out more of the audio chain, but with so much to see at Canjam I only had an hour at the Final table, split between listening to these and chatting with the reps. Definitely looking forward to a longer session, but for now these are my impressions on first brush.

B2: We start off with the sole single-driver member of the trio, which also sounded the most unique to my ears. The sound is clearly warm, and lower-mid forward, with some of the classic Final lushness. The bass decay bucks expectations however, being more drawn out than the usual speedy BA tightness. This together with a slightly hollow-sounding treble means this isn’t the clearest of IEMs. Resolution improves slightly with amplification and on the Lotoo, but highs still remain in the background. A musical, if less analytical sound. Compared to the Heaven II - the last single BA from Final prior to the B2 - there’s less left-right separation, and the highs are less sibilant. Overall presentation is intimate and dark, with the music close around you rather than airily stretching out as with the Heavens. Final’s clearly taking a different direction with the B series while still retaining their trademark uniqueness in sound signatures.

B3: With the addition of another BA the intimate presentation remains, but imaging improves noticeably, and there’s better extension in the highs and lows. The signature remains warm, but is more neutral than the B2.

B1: The hybrid model with its 6.4mm dynamic driver immediately offers more well-rounded sound than the other two. Bass decay sounds more natural, imaging is excellent, and highs have more sparkle as they emerge from under the warmth of the B2 and B3. Overall, as you might expect from the most expensive of the three, it ticks the boxes most would be looking out for, and capably handles a wider range of genres with its slight V-shape. It’s a signature that’s not quite traditional Final, but this series is all about exploration, and the execution remains solid.

Conclusions

The B-series struck me as interesting, but experimental - I can’t help but wonder where in Final’s lineup it’s meant to sit. Unlike, say, the pursuit of ‘live’ sound with single-BA engineering in the Heaven series, or the budget performance of the E-series, I couldn’t quite tell where Final is headed with these. It’s ostensibly meant to be the grade above the E-series, but sonically, it’s an elusive animal I can’t quite place. As I shared this with the rep, Kyo, he laughed and agreed wholeheartedly.

As it turns out, even Final doesn’t know for sure where it’s headed, and it’s intentional - a reflection of their changing philosophy. Kyo points to the naming of the B1, 2 and 3 - the decoupling of model numbers and pricing was a conscious choice, meant to break that conventional stifling mold where they can only add bigger numbers and more drivers. On a deeper level too, Final’s design approach is changing. Their CEO has recognised the need for future-proofing, that he can’t be Final’s sole tuner and designer forever like he’s been doing with the Heavens I’ve been bringing up and other past series. Final isn’t simply on a hot streak here, they’re looking at the long game. As a result, they’ve been shifting toward a scientific, psychological research-based tuning approach which you can read more about here. Having seen the success of this approach in their E-series especially with the general market, they’ve now carried that over to their B-series. Between their research-based approach and this being their first few forays into multi-driver setups, it certainly explains the unique signature this new trio has, and the open-endedness of their place in the lineup. Final’s looking for feedback, to gauge preferences and take it back to the drawing board as they tune future iterations.

This is a Final that’s in flux - from a house sound largely based around an individual’s tuning ideals, to a company now turning more towards research and their listeners. Final’s taking that same convention-defying, innovative spirit it’s always had since their FI-BA-SS and Piano Forte days, and bringing it in new directions. Inwards, as they explore new grounds they once avoided, and outwards, as they reach toward getting to know everyday listener. Maybe I’m waxing lyrical a bit too much, but it’s undeniably a very exciting time for Final. Come year-end, Kyo says, we can expect a brick-and-mortar Final shop in Akihabara (!). The space will be used to hold events like their MAKE workshops, but also to simply let them to get to know their customers and let that interaction shape their future models. On that note, hints were also dropped about a new (A?) series which may or may not have a massive 10mm dynamic driver, and another new model maybe next spring, but after that the reps clammed up, so we’ll just have to wait and see. Overall, while the B-series didn’t quite rock my socks off, it was an interesting glimpse of what’s in store. Even as Final evolves, it never stops being full of surprises. “Anything can happen,” Kyo laughs, and I can’t help but agree and wait in anticipation.

#final audio #canjamsingapore #canjam #headfi

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starcunning · 5 years

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Completely Normal New Year

IT’S STILL JANUARY 1ST WHERE I AM IT STILL COUNTS

This is set between “Completely Normal Afternoon” (approximately October 2018) and our current session of CNRPG (March 2019).

Completely Normal RPG is the creation of @lordcaliginous, who is intent on giving me all killer, no filler, so here’s a holiday episode.

PS the photo seen below is via instagram user imizuki.1978.

It was crisp and cool on the first morning of the new year, and Miyumi had to take small, shuffling steps as she approached the shrine. She felt her phone buzz against her chest, indicating another message. Its case was a dark plum color, and its plum blossom design matched the print on her kimono. She glanced at the notification and slipped her phone back into the folds of fabric. Better to hurry now rather than send a response and make him wait longer.

Even with the crowds of families milling about the shrine, Shoji was easy to pick out. His highlights were a bright red, freshly dyed for the new year. Miyumi tried not to take that as an omen—she had been happier when they had been faded, as though he was growing them out. It was difficult not to see their renewal as presaging the circumstances which had resulted in his decision to dye his hair in the first place. But he smiled when he saw her, waving her over.

“Happy new year,” he said. “Happy new year,” she replied, smiling back at him. “Sorry. They closed the streets down, so I had to walk, and the stairs are difficult.” “It’s alright,” Shoji said, offering her his hand. She took it, his sleeve brushing the back of her palm. He had worn a kimono, too, dyed an indigo so deep it was almost black. “It suits you,” she told him after a moment. “You look … really cute, too,” he said. She felt her cheeks grow hot in the cool morning air and glanced away. “The chozuya is over there,” she said. Shoji gave her hand a squeeze and they set off in that direction, flowing through the crowd.

The water was cold on her hands as she washed, and she could not help but shiver as she brought it to her lips, rinsing her mouth once more. “Oh,” she said, as though shocked into remembrance. “Did you remember your omamori from last year?” Shoji nodded, slipping a faded charm from up his sleeve and handing it to one of the priests. “Let’s get new ones before we leave,” he suggested. “Why don’t I choose one for you, and you can choose one for something you think I need this year?” Miyumi blinked at him. “A-alright,” she managed, seeming surprised by the notion, but her acquiescence made him smile, and she found herself smiling in turn.

Then they rejoined the crowds, and were swept along until they stood together before the main building of the shrine. Shoji reached out and rang the bell, they made their offerings, coins clattering in the box, and clapped their hands together, bowing.

What should she pray for? To see the sunrise of another year, perhaps; she had not thought to pray for such a thing last year, but things were no longer nearly so settled. To maintain her class rank, to keep Shoji by her side … to get along with her sister, when she moved back from Tokyo in a few weeks.

She would have to be careful, she realized as she bowed once more. It was becoming easy to keep one secret from Shoji, and none of the household staff were that interested in her comings and goings outside of the house. Reika would be different—at least on the days she wasn’t attending class in the city. Miyumi wondered if it weren’t some sort of reaction to the dip in her grades a few months before, but she had worked hard to recover her standing.

Perhaps she should have prayed for better test scores a bit harder, she couldn’t help but think as she lifted her head. Shoji looked over at her, smiling. “Are you finally done?” he teased. “Let’s go see the ocean.” “What do you mean, ‘finally?’” “I only prayed for one thing,” he said simply. “You’re so …” Miyumi laughed. “What?” “Uncomplicated.” “I don’t know about that,” he said, offering her his hand. He descended the stairs one step ahead of her all the while, facing backward so that he could keep his eyes on her in case she stumbled. To her credit, she didn’t, and they trundled off together over the pebble-strewn beach.

She had missed her chance of an ocean sunrise; the hour was well-past. Still, daylight had burned off the early clouds, and the sun shone brilliant and gold upon the waves of the Pacific. They weren’t the only ones who had gone down to look at the torii set into the stone promontory, but the crowds were thinner there. Miyumi and Shoji stood on the beach together, listening to the rush and trickle of the waves, watching them break over the stone, white froth pooling at the foot of the torii. The droplets that flew off seemed almost gilded; with the wind, Miyumi could feel them on her cheek from time to time. Despite the many layers of her kimono and the padding she wore underneath to attain the ideal shape, the morning chill still reached her, and she shivered. Shoji shifted his weight. “You’re always cold, huh?” he murmured, pulling her in against his side. His arm settled around her, his fingers curled about her shoulder, and she leaned her head against the side of his chest. “Well, not now,” she said, smiling to herself. She took a deep breath of the briny air. “If you only prayed for one thing, it must be pretty important to you.” He turned his head to look at her, his bangs falling into his face. “It is,” he said. “Are you going to tell me what it was?” “You have so many secrets,” he said, tone teasing. “Can’t I have one?” She didn’t answer him, only turned her head to bury her face against the indigo dark of his kimono and sighed. “Miyumi,” he murmured softly. “I’m sorry. I was only trying to make a joke.” “I know,” she replied. She lifted her head after a moment. “I suppose it’s not fair of me to ask, is it? You’re right, after all.” “I don’t mind,” he said, hugging her against him. “Let’s head back. You don’t need to catch another cold.”

She could climb the stairs no faster than she descended them, but she got to lean against Shoji all the way, their shadows stretching before them on the walkways. They passed the rows of ema, most of them still decorated with anime characters and Panzer tanks—the particular work of one devotee, she’d been told. But they continued on until they found the omamori, and only then did Shoji lift his arm from about her shoulders. Immediately she missed the warmth of him; the feeling of safety. That was foolish, she told herself—were there any real danger, it would be her responsibility to protect him. Nevertheless, it was nice, in his presence, to feel cared for. “Don’t look,” she told him, laughing, as she scanned the selection of charms.

They were all pretty in their own ways, she had to admit, though as her gaze drifted over the amulets she returned again and again to a plump little bag with a wish for protection from evil. She ran a finger over the gold thread stitched into red felt, then plucked it up by the cord, stepping back. Shoji was waiting for her already—ever more decisive than she, it seemed, and he offered up a small tag of lavender fabric brocaded with white blossoms. It had a long, slender loop of cord, and was small enough to attach as a phone charm.

“A happiness charm?” she mused aloud. “I want you to be happy, Miyumi,” he said. “Oh, Shoji,” she sighed. “I am happy when we’re together.” At least she could truthfully say that to him, even if that statement was keeping vanishingly slender company of late. She offered up her talisman in turn. “Protection against evil, huh?” He seemed bemused, but turned back toward the shopkeeper with a shrug. Then, casually, he said, “Hey. Should we get these?”

Miyumi followed the line of his arm to see he was pointing at a matched set of omamori—red and blue enamel frogs, clearly crafted in the likeness of the guardian statues set before the shrine. They were clearly a couples’ item—and an obvious tell. She almost balked, and then she looked at his face. He was so earnest, so openly hopeful. “Yes,” she said, before she could ask where she would put such a thing where she wouldn’t get caught with it. Shoji smiled, the enamel charms rattling against each other softly as he picked up the card they were fixed to. He gave some money to the priest, and Miyumi pulled her phone out to attach her happiness omamori to it, leaning up to kiss his cheek. When he handed her the red frog amulet, she tucked it into the folds of her kimono, against her heart, feeling the metal backing the enamel begin to warm. Her pencil-case, maybe. Somewhere she’d see it often at school, where it was safe.

The last thing to do was collect their omikuji, and they followed the sound of rattling til they found the right place. Miyumi pulled hers first, then Shoji, and they stood together beneath a tree as they unfolded them. The day has cleared up, and the shadow of wild cherry blossoms falls on the ground. “Dai-kichi!” she cried, smiling broadly, and continued to read. You’ll be able to realize any wish. But never be arrogant, or you’ll lose everything. Be honest and faithful and take care of yourself. Faithful was easy. Honest was harder. She looked up at Shoji, whose expression was not so bright. “Congratulations,” he said. “Oh no,” Miyumi replied. “Is it bad?” “Not so terrible. Sue-kyo. So maybe it’s a good thing you chose that omamori after all. Do you know something I don’t?” “A few things,” she teased. “Let’s go tie that one up so it doesn’t follow you home.”

As his deft fingers creased the paper, folding it over the wire armature already feathery with white fortune papers, he said, “There was one bright point. It said that something I wished for would come late, but would be enough.” “But you only wished for one thing.” “And I knew it would be late when I asked for it,” he said, flicking the ends of his knotted paper to be sure it wouldn’t fall. “Are you going to tell me?” she asked. He settled his arm around her shoulder, leading her back toward the outermost torii. “Maybe it is uncomplicated,” he admitted. “I just wanted us to watch the first sunrise of the new year together in Tokyo next year.” Miyumi smiled, reaching up to lay her hand over his own. “I want that, too,” she said. She clutched her fortune closer with her other hand. Excellent luck—she would need that on her side, and him beside her.

It was going to be a good year. She was determined to make it so.

#Completely Normal RPG #miyumi #shoji and miyumi need a cute ship name obviously #special thanks to #seraphicrose #for facilitating my fake LINE screenshot needs #original content #starcunning writes

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willow-salix · 5 years

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Mistakes Novice Writers Make - Day 5 Writing and Prose

Hi guys, and welcome back to our last day of common mistakes that novice writers make. Today we’re gonna talk about general writing mistakes and problems with prose.

The biggest thing that novice writers are guilty of is trying too hard. They might feel like their plain, everyday way of talking and writing isn’t good enough, isn’t clever enough or isn’t literary enough.

And so, they will try to be something they are not. This almost always shows to the reader and makes the writer look like an amateur.

A lack of clear and concise prose will turn off all but the hardiest of readers. Writing styles, much like language evolve over time. The days of big words and flouncy, poetic prose went out with Dickens. And while it’s nice to go back and read them sometimes, they are very much of their time and not to most modern tastes.

That’s not to say there is anything wrong with this style of writing, it has its place and can still be used today if it’s done right, but it’s a skill that takes practice and more practice to get it right. Often if you are writing a book in the style of someone else, you can market it as such and that’s fine, your readers will know exactly what they are buying, but for a modern, contemporary novel, it doesn’t work at all.

Not matching your writing style to the type of book you are writing. For example, if you have a rather old-fashioned style, with very proper sentence construction and a love of bigger words, you might be better suited to a historical novel where it will work better. Older writers who attended school in a different era tend to find this works for them. An historical novel doesn’t have to be set hundreds of years ago, it just has to be a time that is not now. So, if you grew up in the 60’s, were taught in those times and still have those kind of speech patterns to your writing, then maybe think about doing a novel set during that time period, where your langue and style will be able to flow and work to its full potential.

If you have a more modern style, then set your novel in modern times that reflect it. it would really jar with your readers if you used modern langue in a novel set in the 1940’s for example.

On the subject of historicals, let me add in a little warning about another problem that was brought up by another writer is asked about common mistakes. And that is lack of research.

Armature writers often get too caught up in the story and have an overly romanticised view of the time period they are writing about.

I’m a member of a few active writing forums and one observation someone made was how they were having to re-write almost all of their novel because their editor had said they had overly romantic, TV drama style descriptions. And because of this they had now learnt that the streets of 1850’s New Orleans would have been covered in horse shit as well as human waste, people would be pissing on the street without a care in the world, it was filthy, it stank and was not really a nice place to be.

Trying to write a book when all you know about the area or time period has come from Movies or TV shows will scream novice and showcase your lac of effort. Research is your friend.

This doesn’t just mean in the physical descriptions of the area itself, but includes the dialogue they would have used, the accents and slang words they would have used, the legal system of the time, how the country worked, and basically researching all aspects of the book, not just the obvious.

Another prose problem would be making your writing overly complex, again this is related to the type of book that you are writing.

Going into massive details about how a computer works and how they are built is fine if you are writing an article for a computer magazine, but not in a novel or gods forbid, a short story. Readers will have a hard time following it and will likely skip ahead or give up on the story entirely. It’s the same with science or physics, keep things as basic as you can while still giving the information that is needed. Don’t treat your reader like they are stupid and need to be spoon fed the ABC, but also keep the large, complicated scientific explanations in their place such as magazines, academic journals and dissertations.

Choppy prose is another example of amateurish writing. Choppy prose can make your writing feel disjoined, like it lacks flow (because it does) and construction.

While this will work in small does, for an action scene or a scary scene, too much will make it feel like a race, exhausting your reader and making it harder to read.

There are a number of culprits that result in choppy prose, the most common two being fragmented or run on style sentences.

Run on writing is when two or more scene points are joined without proper conjunction- like the use of and, but, or type of words- or without punctuation. It has an almost hurried pace and that isn’t always the pace you are trying to create. For example:

“Mona arrived at the bank only 3 minutes late she ran up the steps she banged on the door screamed at the people still inside she had to get inside to talk to them.”

Fragmented writing seems incomplete, lacking a real purpose, flow or structure. It can make the writer look uneducated, it can read in a really confusing way and give an image you don’t want. For example:

“Mona gave up and stopped. Cried. What would happen now? Ruined. All was ruined. She sat down on the steps. Because her legs gave out. maybe someone would help her? The next bank. Take pity on her.”

That was actually hard for me to write, because it goes against almost everything I know as a writer. But you’d be surprise how often I see it while beta reading, in online stories or in independently published books.

See how badly those examples read? But don’t despair, because both can be fixed with a little practice and work. Separate your run-on sentences with correct clauses, or into sentences of their own, adding more details when needed. Smooth out your fragmented writing with proper punctuation and build them into full sentences.

Here is an example of how to fix some of the structural problems.

“Mona missed the bank by 3 minutes, finding the doors locked. Desperate, she banged on the door, calling to the people inside to let her in. She needed to talk to them, to fix it. they ignored her, deaf to her yells. Giving up she stopped, bursting into tears as the reality of the situation hit home. Ruined, it was all ruined.

Her legs felt wobbly, incapable of holding her up and she sat down heavily on the steps before she fell down. Maybe someone else would help her, maybe another bank would take pity on her? she couldn’t give up now.”

That flows so much better, it explains the situation in brief detail and shows her mood, but also her determination to keep trying.

Check your word choices. Nothing screams amateur more than writing the wrong word or spelling.

Here is a brief example of this, I’ll give you a moment to read it. (show purple picture.)

Using the wrong word choice can make you look uneducated, like you are trying too hard and using words you don’t understand in an effort to look clever. When in fact it has the opposite effect.

If you are using a word that has more than one meaning, check its definition, check the spelling and make sure you are using it in the correct way. For example: bare and bear One, spelt BARE- means that something is naked, not covered, to bare all, or to be bare, something that is basic, the bare essential, without decoration or fancy features. Bear spelt BEAR has more than one meaning, it means a bear as in the animal that lives in the woods and likes to steal picnic baskets, other meanings include not being able to bear something, its unbearable, I cannot bear it. you can also bear something, as in, he was bearing a tray of snacks.

The same goes for any words that you do not use or hear in everyday conversation, check them, because you can quite easily misunderstand the meaning of a word or misspell it to turn it into something it shouldn’t be. If you are wanting to use a word that you have never checked before, check it. A thirty second google could be the difference between looking educated or stupid.

So many people think they know the meaning of a word only to confuse it with another that sounds very similar, for example, Synonym buns, and cinnamon buns. Most definitely not the same thing, and yes, I’ve seen this one on the internet, it’s a real thing.

Another thing to always check is a common saying. By that I mean when someone thinks they know what a common saying is, but they actually misheard it themselves and now just keep saying it wrong. One example I’ve seen of this is someone that wished everyone could just “barry the hatchet” I don’t know who barry is or why he’s a hatchet or what they are trying to do with him.

All of these little slip ups are sure fire ways of making yourself look bad when they turn up in your writing work.

If I read a comment or post by someone that uses the wrong words while trying to look clever, usually when someone is ranting or trying to make an offensive point, I will notice it, I can’t help it. and much as I would love to say that I don’t judge them, lets be real here, I do. I do judge, because I believe in education, and in continuing to educate yourself, to better yourself, for as long as you have left on this planet. By not looking up the correct words, using tools like spell check or even bothering to use the right spelling for a word, well that’s often just laziness in my eyes. Harsh but true. I can’t take someone seriously if they are trying to make a point when they write like that. And if I saw that in a novel, it would likely make me stop reading. If you want to be taken seriously with your writing you have to start taking it seriously yourself, and that means lots of time and effort.

Bad use of punctuation, or the complete lack of it, is also something that many will judge you on. It can also throw off the whole rhythm and flow of your writing. I’m not going to go deep into this as I’m planning to do a video on this subject. But what I will say now as a quick tip is to either read your work out loud or better yet, get a reading app to do it for you if you have trouble with knowing how punctuation works within your work. The difference between a full stop and a comma is huge, but many treat them as the same thing, almost interchangeable, but the misuse of them will change the whole structure of your sentence.

Repetitive words are another thing that novice writers may do. Now I’m not saying that you need to pull a Joey and use a thesaurus for every word you use, but you can mix it up a bit.

If you are describing something and you will need to make a point more than once, try to find a different descriptive word to use. I have a personal rule of never using the same descriptive word twice for the same thing in the same paragraph.

Obviously, there are exceptions to this rule, some things you can’t branch out on without looking like you are trying too hard.

A book is a book, sure technically you could say novel, opus, tome, volume, paper back etc, they all mean the same thing, but it would get pretty ridiculous if you used them all. In this case I would describe the book itself, “A paperback romance sat on the bedside table,” and then just refer to it as the book after that. “She picked up the book, studying the cover,” “she flicked through the book, starting to read at random,” “She threw the book at his head.” That is an example of keeping things simple.

When not to use repetitive words would be when describing something important, like a baby. You could use new-born, the baby, his son, her child, the infant, etc.

Picture the scene, there had just been a traumatic birth and now the baby is safely here and it’s the aftermath or even during the birth itself, just saying the baby all the time would become boring and repetitive.

If something is important it needs to be kept at the forefront of the action and that means that it needs more than one descriptive word.

Another example of this would be action words or ‘doing’ words if you prefer to call them that.

Here’s an example of one descriptive word getting overused and boring. “The crystals were placed in a circle, their pattern very specific, with a candle placed in the centre. Next, she took out a shell and placed that in the west of the circle, then came an incense cone which she placed in the east.”

Placed, placed, placed all the same descriptive word. Other words could and probably should be used to keep the writing feeling fresh.

“The crystals were arranged in a circle, their pattern looking to be very specific, a candle was then placed in the centre (our first and only placed) next she took out a shall, laying it carefully in the west of the circle and an incense cone in the east.”

Different words make the writing more interesting.

Another problem which I will just touch on as I did a bit about this in one of the previous videos and I plan on doing a more in-depth talk on them in the future, is POV, i.e. 1st, 2nd or 3rd person writing. Books are almost always in either 1st or 3rd person POV, 2nd is mostly ignored and unused, personally I hate that point of view.

Most novice writers fall into writing 1st person because they find it easier to relate to the character and to tell the story, but this can come with problems. It can be harder to create a more complex storyline as you are limited as to what information you can give and what you can show to the reader due to how much you character will actually know, see and experience.

You will often end up in the realm of telling instead of showing as a way of explaining, which isn’t that great.

Another problem can be lack of character voice as you might not have had time to develop your authors voice and style, therefore all your characters run the risk of sounding the same.

Lastly your characters can come off as whining, self-centred and a bit dumb as it’s all too easy to fall into the trap of too much information feeding.

As always everything with writing is takes time and practice. Read lots of tips, keep watching videos like this and keep writing.

Upcoming videos include dialogue, exploring the various POV’s in depth, how to edit your work and more talk on romance novels.

Until then, blessed be and happy writing.

#willowsalixauthor #paranormalromance #witch #bookseries #books #vampires #writer #writingcommunity #writing time #writingtips #writing #how to write #how to make it

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meandmyechoes · 2 years

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Progress report

Haha where did I left off last time. Um, I don’t think I ever really started documenting it. So, my body donor arrived after the LNY and waited for another month, I finally beheaded her mid-March. I hadn’t done anything since except buying two more pieces of green at the most I’ve spent on doll clothing so far. A few days ago, I drafted and mocked the base dress for her. It was a simple mid-sleeve A-line dress. I did modify the pattern five times but it is easy to sew with few seams. I enjoyed the experiment process so I can get it right and I don’t want to waste the actual fabric.

1. Babysoka

I did all of these thinking before I purchased the jointed 18″, however, I still want to further modify it. One thing is her thighs are a bit loo long and less cute in proportion. It would be fairly straightforward just to remove a section of it and reattach. The scar would be covered by leggings/skirt anyway. But I can live with that and it’s more an aesthetic choice than practicality, so I’m still debating if it’s worth it. I think we can decide that after we finish the base colouring and outfit. Secondly, the hands. They are not removable but fortunately not entirely glued shut. I should be able to separate the palm from the ring in the wrist joint that refuses to unplug. The outspread fingers made it difficult to dress and the sleeves would need to be widened in consideration, which deducts points in accuracy. At first I thought I’d just made it removable but It came to me that I might as well give it fingers articulation? I’m not sure how yet, but I sure can find resources on that. I wonder if I could just buy a pair of bjd hands in the right scale? On top of my head I could try the traditional armature + foam/clay. I can imagine it working like HTka’s seamless arm but I’m not sure I can stand the hands being a different material and texture with the rest of the body... But before all that, I think maybe the palm could be pushed together a little with a couple of hot water dunk. I’ll try that next time.

The lack of ankle articulation bothers me too but it’s not that essential really. I’ve just been spoiled by mtm/ht 😅

Babysoka is a little overshadowed by August arriving and overloading school work made me forgot about her for more than a month. I, actually don’t have a deadline to finish her... I guess I’ve been seeing a lot of people also making their own Ahsoka 18″ doll (but AG or human) I feel like I could slack and take the time to perfect it. Especially the dress. Because I want her to be glam. Eh, glam is probably not the right word but I want to give her a better dress than the one layer printed painted on shift she had in the show. At this point this project has deviated so far from the original vision of “Animator replica” I might as well to give her the best. I guess it’d be a really thoughtful sentiment to finish her in time for my (hypothetical) graduation ceremony? I bet she’d be cuter than what everyone else has. I don’t actually want to take as long as til November, but finishing her in June seems a bit ambitious. I mean I could do it if I had my June weekends cleared but I don’t want to promise anything. It could maybe bleed a little into July but I prefer not what with the handover holiday and I want to reserve my birthday month to FODka whom I’ve been neglecting for nearly a year. We still have to finish that photoshoot from last birthday, bottom line. We need to remake some part of the rex sailor and hopefully make another two? in the series (fives and wolffe).

2. August

Then August is, for August, definitely, and it’s definitely a two-months minimum project, may even bleed into October. I guess that’s alright. Fall feels like a right season too. I already thought of the staircase and balcony where I want to take the photos (in TST). It looks SO good in my head right now and I’m really excited for it. The thing is as much as I have the energy to throw myself headfirst into a project now after a long time, a lot of IRL logistics is preventing me from working on it including but not limited to the NECESSITY to move out, or at least a MASSIVE rehaul of my current living arrangement and of course, career. Having a job is only going to boost my creative input because then I’d have a rigid schedule plus sense of security with an active income. (It would also unironically encourage me to splurge on fabrics and accessories but)

All that aside, let’s get back to the exciting part! The base dolls for August has arrived and I’ve been playing with them for the past two weeks. I had SO much fun. I can’t believe my first barbie is, this. I’m not sure I own an authentic barbie when I was a child but I must’ve had a few hand-me-downs. I was bit of a ‘girl toys are stupid!’ kid but I really wanted a styling head. I like the more ‘practical’ toys like doll house, closet and cook sets. Anyway, it’s also hilariously ironic my first hair play doll is a Ken doll. His hair was so soft I’m honestly surprised.

It was a delightful experience unboxing the dolls. Not the plastic part but, the joy and excitement of a new toy and to marvel at a thing of beauty. Looks #8 is gorgeous, even without the Ventress inspiration I would love to own one and I do NOT regret buying doubles (I want a third one). I’m honoured to have her as my first official barbie. Her eye makeup steals my heart and that hairstyle and platinum blonde is everything. She is so cool I love her. I lol at her box hair because I didn’t expect that much gel lol. I made sure to research twice for the flocking before washing it out. It’s not all out yet but you can try flipping the hair and this is where I want a third because I was suddenly very inspired to give her a Marilyn/50s inspired look🤣? I immediately want to order extra fashion even if I have more urgent matters. It’s kind of hard to imagine her outside of a black-and-white palette right now, but I’ll see what happen. I think I might unbox the other one after I finish August but I’m already overwhelmed with how many toys that’s fighting for my attention now😂

#9, has such a himbo energy I can’t stop laughing the moment I lay eyes on him. Those horrible silver pants (quality’s fine but the COLOUR) need to go but I don’t have replacements so he’s still wearing that right now. I really like the sculpt, that some say is indigenous inspired. He’s like the perfect base with the chin and cheekbones and hair and just a bit darker. I’m so excited to do his hair. I just line up two braids in front of him and the vibe was already there. Technically I CAN just do his hair and leave everything later but I’m gonna delay that satisfaction for myself.

The other surprise was the MTM body deserves more credit than I gave it. It was so fun to twist it and turn it and not having to be mindful for damage like an HT. It’s an unfair comparison and it’s probably my fault, but Andra IS posing a lot better than HTka lol. It’d be interesting to compare HT’s male body with #9.

Naturally, the official plastic feels so much smoother and sturdier than the knock-off that’s 1/10 its price. However, in terms of articulation, the knock-off is only slightly behind. If you’re using them as clothes hangers, a knock-off is an alright substitute. I’d have less worries in dyeing them as well. That would leave me more budget for hunting a better headsculpt, that’s all that’s important.

Finally, not a complaint but a MAJOR problem I’m not sure how to solve yet: height difference. And it’s honestly, only important to me looking at them in person because I could’ve let him stand on a box or photoshop it somehow. but... #8 and #9 are exactly the same height and Vos needs to be taller than Ventress by 13cm, a little more than 2cm in doll form. And it’s not their problem, Vos is just extra tall at 191, Ventress is accurate. I don’t want to go out and buy a new male body just for this (time cost), but it’s lowkey driving me crazy if one of the cutest thing between these two doesn’t exist. I think I might give him surgery in the thighs not unlike Babysoka 😅😣 (and Vos’s height need to be solved for fit and proportion is crucial for a white tie event!)

Actual Progress: Well, I haven’t sourced the fabric yet, but at least I’ve figure out how to do the skirt. I will make two layers. The top black semi-sheer chiffon (for screen accuracy) slightly gathered and the under layer shiny (possibly gauze or a soft netting) - with beading/sequins/glitter/silver thread - haven’t decided for ~glam~. I don’t think they need to be sewn together, despite the unfortunate fact the look will never walk down the runway :( I am a bit worried about how the edges should be finished, but I’m sure I will learn in time. I tried draping a corset once so I should be able to do it again. It’s sourcing the snakeskin leather that’s hard right now. Also the book’s description and the concept art is a little bit different. The book said the bodice has ‘a subtle swirling pattern of dark-purple embroidery’ and I took it to mean the fabric is purple flocking + black velvet background but the concept art shows a scaly with specific placements that it is clearly product of manipulation instead of just a natural piece of leather. What the book says was a miniskirt thingy sandwiched between the corset and the main skirt train. I still want to use velvet/flocking for it instead of embroidery because I like the contrast it gives with the hard leather. But there’s still room for it because the decoration on the gloves is 99% embroidery-required. It would probably be more mismatched if silk is used for the gloves, but leather gloves doesn’t seem as flexible... Yeah, that was the major obstacle to the bodice besides a well-constructed corset. I want to use a glossy leather but I’m afraid of the inherent thickness of the material and how badly it shall translate into doll form. Lastly, the CORSET – the lacing. I’m gonna be crazy if I have to actually lace it every time I put on/take off the outfit (no that I expect to change outfit a lot, given how many pieces of armour there is in the bounty hunter outfit). So it was already kind of begging why BOTH front and back is laced in the design instead of the one side clasped norm. Like, do you UNDERSTAND it begs WHO lace it up boy. Anyway my conclusion is the back is going to be a faux/pre-laced and become the top of the Velcro* piece. After another count, the 11 dots are not grommets but… button cores the lace go around? Can it really be secured this way?? What about the lace itself? Literally a lace? a ribbon? a string? embroidery thread?

That’s a lot on my plate, but mostly the sourcing of fabric. I shall make another trip but the last two hasn’t been inspiring. I’d rather buy fabrics in person just to support local sellers unless it’s something so specific I can only find with a keyword search.

For Vos, “black trousers, comfortable leather boots and a white tunic with bold golden stripes” is all that there is. I scratched my head how that could be formal enough for a gala. It, isn’t even three pieces? Anyway, it’s Star Wars so I really shouldn’t think about it in normal fashion terms. That said, the shirt + pants combo seem too Earthlike and modern compared to the robes and gowns of the gffa. Either way, it falls to me to accesorise him and what do I know of menswear. I tried to search for runway looks from the late 90s (both centuries) and McQueen for inspiration. In the end, I decide to go with my original vision of a poet/pirate shirt. Exaggerated bell sleeves but tight cuffs, low neckline for sluttiness, and a contrast of material in the shirt (stiff) and sleeves (short), symmetric. The trousers can just be kept sleek and crisp like described, with traditional, or maybe more expensive wool/suit. I hope I don’t ended up over designing it, because my brain is telling me either the top or bottom should have a subtle pattern. I might be holding out on a double gold chain cape just now even though it’d be delicious to lean into the vader/dooku imagery, but GLOVES IS A MUST. Not sure how to fit it on without mittenized but I will save the thought for now.

oh the other thing I found was I was hoping Ken shoes could fit Ahsoka but his foot is longer than hers by 1cm ☹

Yeah, but for August I guess it’s this just now. I have the base dolls and I’m ready to do the hairstyles, so repaint and skintone is ready as that is. In the meantime, I must source the fabric and hopefully produce a drawing of Vos’s outfit. They have suitable plastic shoes for now and we can decide later whether to make fabric/leather shoes. Lightsabers and power source can be helped with gundam sabers and photoshop magic so that’s taken care of. If the result turns out really really good and I wan tto take the extra step of accuracy I could always find a 3D file online and print them in school. Oh Jewelery! The snakc necklace is kind of important so I do want to make it metallic. I hope a snake ring work in scale, otherwise I might have to sculpt it from silver clay.

Now that’s done, I think it’s kind of, interesting, to think it’s only natural to turn #7 into Rhayme. I think it’s an interesting idea, and I certainly would love to take inspiration from Tamika’s layered hair colour and baby hairs, but I think I prefer Rhayme to be taller (she should be able to share Ventress’s clothes remember), and a pale doll is probably better for dyeing. Nevertheless, a petite pirate captain is super adorable!

That’s it for now. I realize I just left my first custom experiment halfway hehe. The Visions project is still on. I have all the materials set, and I’m ready to retry that mess of a faceup haha. It IS really hard to draw anime eyes but I will afford to be patient this time. Just that with all these projects lined up seems like I won’t allocate time to it until Visions S2 airs lol. Well, maybe it can be a background distraction project. All these the most difficult thing is filming it. I need to get back the small camera and setup and that but I don’t even have a reasonable workspace 😂 (remember what I said about living arrangements) Not expecting to launch a youtube career but I owe as much to document the process. 🤷‍♀️

3. Toys

Yeah, I bought so much I could make a haul. I lowkey want to do it, a low-stake video just rant about what I like. That said, probably can’t be around to film it until after the 20th. And then HT releases Ahsoka and Anakin pretty close for me, just two weeks apart. I was two hours behind on Ahsoka and had to wait for an entire month, but I was a day late for Anakin, and I got him the next day! Which means not much people ordered Anakin. Can’t say that’s a good thing for the future of the CW line, and can’t say it’s the wisest of the people if CW flashbacks ended up real in Kenobi. I have only unboxed both figures for checking and left their lightsabers untouched so far. Last Thursday morning, I thought I could finally catch a breath with the exams and pose Ahsoka and Rex in the Kotobukiya stance, and then the Amazon orders arrived, just after noon, I got the message Anakin has arrived. And I have to pick the busiest time to go to the store🙄. Anakin was really fun, and his outfit was done so much better than Ahsoka’s 🙄 (It’s lined, and of a much softer polyester than Ahsoka’s single-layer plastic). Even though it’s $100 more but minus rolling eyeballs, it’s well worth it with an extra cape and light-up saber. The armour piece being extendable to allow movement took me by surprise. I guess hot toys is just better at making male figures than female ones. I don’t know when I’ll have time to play with them with so much projects in the wait.

#echoesdiary

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atthevogue · 6 years

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“Tony de Peltrie” (1985)

The basics: Wikipedia

Opened: A landmark piece of computer animation, the Canadian short was part of the 19th Annual Tournee of Animation anthology that showed at the Vogue Theater in March and April of 1986.

Also on the bill: At least one Saturday in April, it was programmed in the 9:00 slot after Chris Marker’s Akira Kurosawa documentary A.K. and Woody Allen’s Sleeper, and before a midnight showing of Night of the Living Dead, which sounds to me like a very good eight-hour day at the movies. Otherwise, you could have had a less perfect day seeing it play after Haskell Wexler’s forgotten Nicaragua war movie Latino and the equally forgotten Gene Hackman/Ann-Margaret romantic drama Twice in a Lifetime.

What did the paper say? ★★★1/2 from the Courier-Journal film critic Dudley Saunders. Saunders described the Tournee as “a specialized event that shows signs of moving into the movie mainstream,” correctly presaging the renaissance in feature-length animation in the 1990s generally and Pixar specifically, whose Luxo, Jr. short was released that same year. Of Tony, Saunders singles it out as “one of the most technologically advanced,” and that it featured “some delightful music from Marie Bastien.” He then throws his hands up: "Computers were used in this Canadian entry. Don’t ask how.” Saunders was long-time film critic for the C-J’s afternoon counterpart, the Louisville Times, throughout the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s. In the late 1980s, he would co-found Louisville’s free alternative weekly, the Louisville Eccentric Observer.

What was I doing? I was six and hypothetically could have seen an unrated animation festival, though I'd have been a little bit too young to have fully appreciated it. Although, who knows, I’m sure I was watching four hours of cartoons a day at the time, so maybe my taste was really catholic.

How do I see it in 2018? It’s on YouTube.

youtube

A four-hour-a-day diet of cartoons was probably on the lower end for most of my peers. I grew up during what I believe is commonly known as the Garbage Age of Animation, which you can trace roughly from The Aristocrats in 1970 to The Little Mermaid (or The Simpsons) in 1989. The quantity of animation was high, and the quality was low. Those twenty years were a wasteland for Disney, and even though I have fond memories of a lot of those movies, like The Black Cauldron, they’re a pretty bleak bunch compared to what was sitting in those legendary Disney vaults, waiting patiently to be released on home video.

Other than low-quality Disney releases, the 1980s were highlighted mostly by the post-’70s crap was being churned out of the Hanna-Barbera laboratories. Either that, or nutrition-free Saturday morning toy commercials like The Smurfs and G.I. Joe. Of course there’s also Don Bluth, whose work is kind of brilliant, but whose odd feature-length movies seem very out-of-step with the times. Don Bluth movies seem now like baroque Disney alternatives for weird, dispossessed kids who didn’t yet realize they were weird and dispossessed. (Something like The Secret of NIMH is like Jodorowsky compared to, say, 101 Dalmatians.) Most of the bright spots of those years were produced under the patronage of the saint of 1980s suburbia, Steven Spielberg. An American Tale or Tiny Toon Adventures aren’t regarded today as auteurist masterpieces of animation (or are they?), but they were really smart and imaginative if you were nine years old. Still, the idea that cartoons might be sophisticated enough to be enjoyed by non-stoned adults was probably very alien concept in 1985.

In the midst of all of this, though, scattered throughout the world were a bunch of programmers and animators working out the next regime. Within ten years of Tony de Peltrie, Pixar’s Toy Story would be the first feature-length CGI animated movie, and within another ten years, traditional hand-drawn animation, at least for blockbuster commercial purposes, would be effectively dead. That went for both kids and their parents. Animation, like comic books, would take on a new sophistication and levels of respectability in the coming decades.

I love it when you read an old newspaper review with the benefit of hindsight, and find that the critic has gotten it right in predicting how things may play out in years to come. That’s why I was excited to read in Saunders’ review of the Tournee that he suspected animation as an artform was showing “signs of moving into the movie mainstream.” His sense of confusion (or wonder, or some combination) at the computer-generated aspects is charming in retrospect, too.

Tony de Peltrie is a landmark in computer-generated animation, but its lineage doesn’t really travel through the Pixar line at all (even though John Lassetter himself served on the award panel for the film festival where it was first shown, and predicted it’d be regarded as a landmark piece of animation). The children of the 1970s and ‘80s grew up to revere the golden era of Pixar movies as adults, and the general consensus is that not only are they great technical accomplishments, but works of great emotional resonance.

As much of an outlier as it makes me: I just don’t know. I haven’t really thought so. I think most Pixar movies are really, really sappy in the most obvious way possible. The oldest ones look to me as creaky as all those rotoscoped Ralph Bakshi cartoons of the ‘70s. Which is fine, technology is one thing -- most silent movies look pretty creaky, too -- but the underlying of armature of refined Disney sap that supports the whole structure strains to the point of collapse after a time or two.

Film critic Emily Yoshida said it best on Twitter: she noted, when Incredibles 2 came out, she’d recently re-watched the first Incredibles and was shocked at how crude it looked. "The technoligization of animation will not do individual works favors over time,” she wrote. “The wet hair effect in INCREDIBLES, which I remember everyone being so excited about, felt like holding a first generation iPod. Which is how these movies have trained people to watch them on a visual level...as technology.” There’s something here that I think Yoshida is alluding to about Pixar movies that is very Silicon Valley-ish in the way they’re consumed, almost as status symbols, or as luxury products. This is true nearly across all sectors of the tech industry now, but it’s particularly evident with animation.

One of my favorite movie events of the year is when the Landmark theaters here in Minneapolis play the Oscar-nominated animated shorts at the beginning of the year. Every year, it’s the same: you’ll get a collection of fascinating experiments from all over the world, some digitally rendered, some hand-drawn. They don’t always work, and some of them are really bad, but there’s always such a breadth of styles, emotions and narratives that I’m always engaged and delighted. They remind you that, in animation, you can do anything you want. You can go anywhere, try everything, show anything a person can imagine. Seeing the animated shorts every year, more than anything else, gets me so excited about what movies can be.

And then, in the middle of the program, there’s invariably some big gooey, sentimental mush from Pixar. Not all of them are bad, and some are quite nicely done, but for the most part, it’s cute anthropomorphized animals or objects or kids placed in cute, emotionally manipulative situations. I usually go refill my Diet Coke or take a bathroom break during the Pixar sequence.

Yeah, yeah, I know. What kind of monster hates Pixar?

I don’t hate Pixar, and I like most of the pre-Cars 2 features just fine. The best parts of Toy Story and Up and Wall-E are as good as people say they are. But when you take the reputation that Pixar has had for innovation and developing exciting new filmmaking technology in the past 25 years, and compare it to the reality, there’s an enormous gap. And it drives me nuts, because if this is supposed to be the best American animation has to offer in terms of innovation and emotional engagement, it's not very inspiring. Especially placed alongside the sorts of animated shorts that come out of independent studios elsewhere in the U.S., or Japan, or France, or Canada.

Which brings us to Tony de Peltrie, created in Montreal by four French-Canadian animators, and supported in part by the National Film Board of Canada, who would continue to nurture and support animation projects in Canada through the twenty-first century. A huge part of the enjoyment -- and for me, there was an enormous amount of enjoyment in watching Tony de Peltrie -- is seeing this entirely new way of telling stories and conveying images appear in front of you for the first time. Maybe it’s because I have clear memories of a world without contemporary CGI, but I still find this enormous sense of wonder in what’s happening as Tony is onscreen. I still remember very clearly seeing the early landmarks of computer-aided graphics, and being almost overwhelmed with a sense of awe -- Tron, Star Trek IV, Jurassic Park. Tony feels a bit like that, even after so many superior technical accomplishments that followed.

Tony de Peltrie doesn’t have much of a plot. A washed-up French-Canadian entertainer recounts his past glories as he sits at the piano and plays, and then slowly dissolves over a few minutes into an amorphous, impressionistic void. (Part of the joke, I think, is using such cutting-edge technology to tell the story of a white leather shoe-clad artist whose work has become very unfashionable by the 1980s.) It’s really just a monologue. The content could be conveyed using a live actor, or traditional hand-drawn animation.

But Tony looks so odd, just sitting on the edge of the Uncanny Valley, dangling those white leather shoes into the void. Part of the appeal is that, while Tony’s monologue is so human and delivered in such an off-the-cuff way, you’re appreciating the challenge of having the technology match the humanity. Tony’s chin and eyes and fingers are exaggerated, like a caricature, but there’s such a sense of warmth underneath the chilliness of the computer-rendered surfaces. Though it’s wistful and charming, you wouldn’t necessarily call it a landmark in storytelling -- again, it’s just a monologue, and not an unfamiliar one -- but it is a technological landmark in showing that the computer animation could be used to humane ends. It’d be just as easy to make Tony fly through space or kill robots or whatever else. But instead, you get an old, well-worn story that slowly eases out of the ordinary into the surreal, and happens so gradually you lose yourself in a sort of trance.

As Yoshida wrote, technoligization of animation doesn’t do individual works favors over time. To that end, something like Tony can’t be de-coupled from its impressive but outdated graphics. These landmarks tend to be more admired than watched -- to the extent that it’s remembered at all, it’s as a piece of technology, and not as a piece of craft or storytelling.

Still, Tony is the ancestor of every badly rendered straight-to-Netflix animated talking-animals feature cluttering up your queue, but he’s also the ancestor of any experiment that tries to apply computer-generated imagery to ways of storytelling. In that sense, he has as much in common with Emily in World of Tomorrow as he does with Boss Baby, a common ancestor to any computer-generated human-like figure with a story. When Tony dissolves into silver fragments at the end of the short, it’s as if those pieces flew out into the world, through the copper wires that connect the world’s animation studios and personal computers, and are now present everywhere. He’s like a ghost that haunts the present. I feel that watching it now, and I imagine audiences sitting at the Vogue in 1986 might have felt a stirring of something similar.

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sanders-specs · 7 years

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Twinkling Lights

A/N: First fic for Christmas Countdown! This one is a companion fic to Can I Have This Dance? which is a human AU where Logan is a tech manager and Roman is in The Nutcracker. I decided to write one of their dates amidst their busy schedules. hope you enjoy!

{Edit} Today, kids, we learn to 1) not to try and edit drafts on Tumblr mobile because it’s confusing as anything, 2) be patient with posting fics no matter how excited you are about it when you have to go out and feeling sick, or 3) put a god forsaken title on the fanfic before you save it so you can safely post it from your phone.

Warnings: kissing

Pairing: Logince

Read on Ao3

Tag list: @irish-newzealand-idian-dutch

“Roman, where are we going?” Logan asks.

Roman looks over at his boyfriend and smirks. “I told you, it’s a surprise!”

“I do not think that the wise thing to do tonight would be to go out. You are supposed to be resting so that you will be able to perform,” Logan says matter-of-factly.

Sighing, Roman takes Logan’s hand from where he sat behind the wheel. “I know how to take care of myself Lo,” he says, squeezing his hand. “This is the first night off we’ve had in a month. I want to do something special before this performance takes over our lives.”

Logan goes quiet at that, but he entwins their fingers together. Roman smiles, not being able to help another glance at the man next to him. It had been a few weeks since they’d started dating, and they’d barely had any time together. With their schedules, it made even getting a few moments alone together hard. They always went to the small café by the theater where they both spent most of their time after work, but lately they’d both been too exhausted with the performance ahead of them.

So when Roman found out that they both had this one day off together, he was determined to make it special. They had spent all day together, cuddled up in Roman’s apartment, watching Christmas movies and munching on Christmas cookies. It had been the most relaxing day either of them had had in a while.

For their evening, however, Roman had a plan. One that Logan knew nothing about, which was probably the real reason he was currently silently sulking in his seat. Logan liked to know everything that was going on his life at all times. He didn’t become the head of an entire tech crew for nothing. The very fact that he was trusting Roman with their plans for the night was enough to make Roman feel giddy.

The light was fading by the time they pulled into a crowded parking lot. Families were getting out of their cars and children were running around excitedly, bundled up in their warmest winter coats. Logan leaned forward, a small frown on his face.

“Does that sign say something about lights?”

Roman grinned and parked, hopping out of the car, probably looking as excited as the little kids passing them. he rushed to the other side of the car before Logan could even open the door in order to open it for him and help him out. “You know we can’t do a lot of walking…”

“Logan,” Roman says, cutting his boyfriend off. “Trust me okay?”

Logan bit his lip, but he nodded. Roman smiled before ducking back into the car and grabbing their jackets, scarves, earmuffs, and gloves. “this is going to be great,” he promises, gently wrapping Logan’s scarf around his neck, not caring if his hands lingered a bit on Logan’s neck. Then he couldn’t help but press Logan against the car and kiss him, only because he could.

When they pulled away, Logan had a dazed and dreamy look in his eyes, a look he always had whenever they kissed. It was one of the many, many things Roman adored about him. It was made even better that it was Roman, of all people, who got to make Logan look that way—like his mind was scrambled and he forgot about the world for a moment.

Grinning, Roman takes Logan’s hand and starts dragging him to the entrance. Logan, smiling at his boyfriend’s enthusiasm, follows.

The main area was filled with families, mostly those with young kids. Booths were set up for selling ginger bread, Christmas cookies, hot chocolate, and other goodies. There was a huge section roped off with a big throne-like chair in the middle of it. Children and their parents waited in a long line, clearly waiting for Santa to make an appearance. Further away there was a stage, where performers were singing Christmas songs or were acting out different Christmas stories.

All around them the booths were starting to light up with their decorations. Candy cane lights lit up the paths and multicolored lights shone on the signs pointing to each event.

Logan and Roman walked slowly down the path, hand in hand. It was a cold night, though neither of them seemed to mind. All around them families laughed with each other, children cried out in delight when they saw a new attraction come to light.

Roman smiled at it all, at the happy atmosphere. He held sympathy for the workers, who were probably freezing, though they all smiled through it.

“Roman, what is all of this? This seems more like a family event,” Logan says curiously.

“Perhaps, my dear,” Roman says, pulling him a little closer both for the warmth and because he just liked Logan being close. “However the night is still young.”

Logan gave him a suspicious look that Roman pretended not to see. They walked around for a while, looking at all the different things going on. They both rather enjoyed the slight armature retelling of The Night Before Christmas. The children around them had been enraptured, though, which had been a sight to see in itself.

As the sky turned to black, Roman led Logan down a slightly less crowded path. As they walked away from the festivities, it grew quieter around them.

“Where are we going?” Logan asks, for maybe the third or fourth time.

Roman chuckles, wrapping his arm around Logan’s waist. “You’ll see soon, my dear,” he says, kissing Logan’s temple. The other boy frowned, but he let Roman lead him down the path.

As they neared the end, Roman tightened his grip on Logan’s hand, speeding up their pace. He was too excited for this, and he couldn’t wait to see the look on Logan’s face.

Logan stopped when they reached the end of the path, his jaw going slack slightly. “you…arranged for a carriage ride?” he asks.

Roman was bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Yes! A romantic carriage ride with my sweet, hot chocolate in our hands, and cuddled as we watch the show.”

Logan raises his eyebrows. “Show?”

Roman only grinned and hopped into the carriage, the driver smiling back a them. Roman extended a hand to Logan to help him up. “There are more surprises yet to come.”

Giving Roman an exasperated but loving look, he takes Roman’s hand.

Once they were on their way, Roman draped the blanket provided to them over their laps and sat back. “It is the perfect night,” he says, smiling up at the stars.

Logan chuckles and cuddles closer to him, much to Roman’s delight. They were silent for a few moments, enjoying each other’s company, until a big glowing archway appeared. Logan sat up a little, looking up at the lights.

“Christmas lights,” he says as they pass under the archway into a whole new world of color.

On either side of them were different animals portrayed doing various hobbies. Penguins throwing snowballs, polar bears sledding, monkeys decorating a tree. Multiple set ups made the animals look like they were moving, following the carriage as they passed.

Roman looked over at Logan, who was staring at the display with wide eyes. The light reflected off of his glasses, but Roman could see the wonder in Logan’s eyes. For a moment, Roman could imagine how Logan had looked as a child, first discovering his talent for lighting and coding and everything Roman couldn’t fully understand himself.

Roman smiled, pleased with himself, as he settled in to watch the story. Oh yes, there was a story, complete with music. Logan looked on in wonder, a slight bit of calculation in his eyes, no doubt trying to figure out everything that it took to put on a display like this.

Eventually, Roman couldn’t help himself. He put his arm around Logan and pulled him in close. Logan lowered his eyes to turn to Roman, that wonderment never leaving his gaze. “Merry Christmas,” Roman whispers.

Logan smiled, his hand coming up to cup Roman’s cheek. Just as he was leaning in, a new song came on, one they both knew all to well at that point. They both froze and looked over at the lights, where, sure enough, a nutcracker and a ballerina were moving and dancing together, fighting the Mice King. For a moment, they just look at each other before they both burst out laughing. Logan wrapped his arms around him and pulled Roman into a long, sweet kiss. “You’re such an overdramatic mess, you know that?” Logan says when they pull away, a teasing note to his voice.

Roman laughed at that, leaning his head on Logan’s shoulder. Logan pressed a kiss to Roman’s head before turning back to the lights.

{edit} send me prompts for more Christmas Sides fun! It’ll really help if you put a Christmas song to it, but a prompt in itself is helpful :)

#christmas countdown #sanders sides #logan sanders #roman sanders #logince #fluff #twinkling lights #my fic #fan fiction

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monarch-boo · 5 years

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i want to do a full tutorial but only when i’m totally sure i know what i’m doing, because it seems like every day i work on this stuff i learn at least something new

here’s just some tips from stuff i’ve been figuring out though:

cutscene models are inside cutsprops.img under “[game folder]>pc>anim” or under “[game folder]>[tbogt or tlad]>pc>anim”, while in-game models are inside componentpeds.img under “[game folder]>models>cdimages” or “[game folder]>[tbogt or tlad]>models>cdimages”. both in-game and cutscene versions of props like glasses and hats and such are inside pedprops.img in the cdimages folder.

while imagebatch is super helpful for flipping all of the textures at once it WILL break, in some way or another, textures with transparency in them. sometimes i think other textures can sometimes flip improperly and look reflected down the middle rather than actually flipped. it still works properly with most of them though so what i do is i back up all of the textures before flipping them with imagebatch, then anything that broke i just use the backups and flip them manually.

there’s also the option in blender to, under “mapping” (not “image mapping”) in the textures tab, to just change the Y size to -1, however while that works in blender i don’t know if it’ll stay flipped when porting to other programs, so it might be better to just flip all of the textures themselves. that should be quicker if you were using imagebatch because then you will only have to manually flip the... in my experience so far maybe like 5-ish textures per character that imagebatch breaks, rather than having to go through and flip the up to like 50, maybe even more, textures per character

it’s better to export every piece one at a time rather than exporting everything in one smd. blender will sometimes, ALWAYS it seems on peds and cutscene models, count some parts as being together when they aren’t and neither separating by material nor by loose parts will separate them. they’ll all still be attached to only one skeleton with the armature modifier anyway so hey. name them specifically what piece they are (head, hands, etc) so that way all the objects will automatically be named when they go into blender

unfortunately though every piece will still use the same material(s), as in it will not make a duplicate of “material_0_gta_ped“ (like “material_0_gta_ped.0001″ and so on) which kind of sucks because that would probably make the process of adding textures a teeny bit faster if it did

cutscene heads use some sort of transparent ghostey diffuse texture for whatever reason instead of a fully solid texture like all the in-game head textures or really just every single other diffuse texture on any type of character in general. those just go on the head the same as any texture but you have to make sure on the textures tab that the diffuse alpha is checked too under the influence dropdown, not just diffuse color like the other textures. just make sure in the materials tab under transparency that it’s either unchecked or the alpha is at 1 (which it should be by default but still).

#post #gta iv #gta eflc #model ripping #long post #that's all i can remember off the top of my head

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jurassicparkpodcast · 5 years

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Jurassic June Highlight: Mattel’s Indoraptor comes to life in this great Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom inspired stop-motion!

Hey Everyone – Tom here, and today we are highlighting another very exciting Jurassic World fan project which we think you should sink your teeth into this Jurassic June!

Anyone who knows me will be aware that I absolutely love toy photography – so when I found out about Mason’s fantastic Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom inspired stop motion I absolutely HAD to write about it! I’ve experimented with stop motion in the past and it truly is a lengthy process – so I have so much respect for anyone who pulls off a stop motion which looks good!

Check out the interview about Indomation below:

Hi Mason – thanks for taking the time to talk to us! Firstly – how did your love of Stop motion animation begin?

First off, WOW, thank you for having me. I’m a huge fan and I absolutely love the JP community we’re all a part of!

I can remember being in 5th grade making animations on sticky notes and I was drawn to the fact that I was bringing things to life through motion. I’ve always wanted to be a filmmaker but since I didn’t have fancy cameras and actors, stop-motion was the most accessible way for me to tell stories. Of course, seeing films like King Kong and The Nightmare before Christmas were huge inspirations as well.

Similarly – how did your love for Jurassic begin?

Watching the film as a child really impacted me. As most children do, I had an interest in dinosaurs, so seeing them on the big screen in such a realistic way blew my mind. It not only got me hyped about dinosaurs but JP was the first film that really got me thinking, “How’d they do that?” - a line of questioning that would lead me to searching for every Spielberg ‘behind the scenes’ or ‘making of’ VHS I could find. And so, began my love of filmmaking.

Between me and my best friend I’m certain we had every single JP toy made during the early 90s.

The film features an intricately crafted set which clearly had a lot of time and energy put into it. How did you create the set – and how long does creating a set of this scale take?

The set’s design was largely built out of necessity. I don’t have a ton of space where I can animate so a single, rotating set solves a lot of logistical problems. The set base pieces came from an 8x4 piece of MDF board which would eventually be cut out on a CNC machine. I had the concept sketched out and then had an engineer design it in Adobe InDesign. That part only took a day at a fabrication lab. It was the interior set builds that took up the better part of two months. I made mostly everything from balsa wood and hot glue. It could have been finished sooner but I was only able to work on it after my day job and during the weekends. Fortunately, I had a friend volunteer to paint everything which saved me a ton of time and energy.

On a separate note, there’s at least 15 different JP Easter Eggs in the film for eagle-eyed viewers.

For anyone who is unfamiliar with stop motion – it’s frame by frame based animation. Do you know how many frames went into the production of this film?

In total, I shot a little over 12,000 frames- but so much of that was me shooting frames I didn’t like and then reshooting. The final film though was cut down to 7,830 frames.

Obviously, the crux of Indomation is the Indoraptor. In the film – Ted Brothers provided a stunning repaint of the animal. What was it like getting to incorporate Ted’s work?

I found Ted’s work while researching different toys I could use for the film. I had seen Mattel’s Indoraptor figure on store shelves so I went on YouTube to watch some reviews before buying it. Fortunately, I found Ted’s repaint and fell in love with his work. He’s a talented guy and deserves every single view his videos get. I reached out to him on Instagram to pitch the idea of a collaboration. I was able to show him some of the concept work I had done up to that point and he agreed to repaint one of the Indoraptors. I was thrilled and to be honest, knowing that his work was going to be featured in my film really gave me a lot of inspiration during production. He was even kind enough to paint me two identical versions of it in case one were to break during the animation process.

Do you own any of the other Mattel products – and have you considered featuring any of them in animations?

I have a few toys from different franchises but none of them have enough articulation to animate the way I’d like. I was thinking about taking one of the new T-Rexes and modding it with a really articulate armature to make some cool micro-shorts for my YouTube channel but we’ll see about that. Maybe if Indomation hits 1 million views. :)

In some scenes, we see things like debris flying. How are these achieved? Do you work with things like string and then remove those in post?

Close, but not strings. I use different types of soldering wire glued to the set. For each sequence that used any type of support or wire I had to import it into Photoshop and digitally paint the wire out each frame. It was my least favourite part of the process!

How many hours went into the production, approximately? The level of detail is intricate – so I imagine a lot!

I don’t know how many total hours went into it from beginning to end. It was 7 months from the day I finished the initial storyboard to the day I uploaded it. I did keep a log of my time spent animating and that was exactly 93 hours.

What kind of advice would you give people looking to work on similar projects?

As corny as it may seem, let me quote our boy John Hammond- “Creation is an act of sheer will.” I think the best advice I can give somebody is that if you really want to work on a project than make yourself go work on it. One of the biggest challenges creative people face when creating things is that first, initial step towards doing something. For Indomation, I had to lower my standards of quality because I often want everything to be perfect. I had to make the simple act of going out in my garage and working towards an end goal the priority. If you want to make a short film, or make custom repaints, or start a podcast, or whatever, there’s nothing stopping you. Remember, “Creation is an act of sheer will.”

Lastly – what would your plan for escaping an Indoraptor be?

Obviously, all you have to do is order Pizza.

Thanks for your time, Mason!

Mason: Thank you!

So, there you have it – a look behind the scenes at another great Jurassic fan-project to mark Jurassic June. And is as if that was not enough, seeing one of Ted Brother’s figures live in a stop motion was an absolute treat!

If you haven’t checked out Indomation yet, make sure to check it out below:

Written by: Tom Fishenden

#article #indomation #indomation stop motion short #indomation mason drum #mason drumm #tom fishenden #jurassic june

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amaranormananimations · 5 years

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Weekly summary

29/04/19 - 05/05/19

This week is our first week back at uni - and we officially have 2 weeks left! It’s quite daunting, but I’m determined to get everything done.

I had my one on one with Helen on Monday to show her my personal portfolio so far, and i got some really good/useful feedback. Thankfully, I don’t need to chnage anuthig on my cover letter! I’m glad that process is over now and i don’t need to chage anything, as i did hate writing it but it was valuable experience nonetheless. I feel like the feedback i got from it gave me a little confidence boost for the future times i would need to write one.

My CV has changed for the better too, it looks more professional now and more clean. However, i do still have some changes. I need to add another sentence into my profile section, describing a skill that would be good for a particular job. I also needed to add more detail into my work experience at clapham studios. Now that i can talk about it, i can go more into detail about the sets i helped build and what materials were used, who it was directed by etc.

I also need to change my skills section, by listing my software skills and then describing in more detail my personal/general skills. My formatting is finally better! But i think i need to still make things a little tiny bit more central.

For my business card, Helen said she liked it, but it needed more work. I need to get rid of the white box and change it do a different colour maybe? But it stood out too much compared to the rest of the card and wasn’t scaled evenly. She said she liked the colours, but maybe limit them to three, as well as my armatures so there isn’t too much going on. She also liked the idea of the dots, but said maybe making the armatures more flowy/flexible would work better and then having the dots flow within them to make it more dynamic and link with movement. So I need to make those few changes and I should be good to go. I’m hoping to get that finished by the end of the week if not next.

I was also in the studio on Friday to get some more animating done for my stop motion gifs. It was going pretty well, I aimed to have a few done and finalised for this week, and I managed to get two done until I started feeling a panic attack coming along and I had to leave! But I have booked out two more sessions for next week, one half a day and the other a full day, and i’m aiming to get all my animations done and sorted to edit that weekend.

I’ve completed all the animation for the holograms this week! It went pretty well, and the rest of the group liked them. I went through them with Isa and talked about the few changes i needed to make with the speeds and wave lengths on some of the scenes, but it was only 2 of them that needed to be changed. I’m not too sure what to do with myself now that i’ve done the holograms - I was going to start animating some of the sparks for the robot and the traffic light scenes, but i think Natasha was starting on those? She is doing the texturing right now, so I thought I’d give some tests a go and showing the group later on next week. I had found a way on after effects to do them - but they do come up pretty realistic, which i don't think is what we want, but I’ll try a few on tvpaint too! We decided as a group we were going to put together a WIP of all our scenes to see what needed to be done over the next few weeks, and looking through it i had remembered i was supposed to ask Isa about the intro for the film, because I wasn’t sure if what I had animated would be used/replaced with the 3D that Josh had done - so i still need to speak to her about it!

We did our sound on Wednesday, which was really fun! We recorded pretty much all of the foley we needed and then we’re going to use a site for glitch effects which we cant particularly make. We managed to get a few people in for the voice overs for the meeting ambience, Kevin and the kitchen robot which was fun, because we managed to rope Jon in! It all went really well, and the group is really happy with what we got and how it turned out. I think next is just getting the rest done that needs to be done, I’ve told Isa whatever she needs me to do next to let me know so i can start working on it. But we’re pretty close to the end now!

For Jamie’s project he’s sent me through some pictures of his set. He’s used like a mustard/beige kind of yellow for the walls, and I think it suited the exterior pretty well. I’ve started making changes to the outside such as the trees and the colouring of the hotel. I’ve added in some mark making textures to make it look a little bit like an older/rustic building. I’ve been doing more tests for the zoom, and I’m not too sure what he wants so I’ve been doing various kinds. I’ve been looking on the internet for the kind of zooms I could do which has been helpful!

I think I’ll get his stuff done next week too, for when he’s ready to start editing. I need to start his poster too for his film, I’ve asked him for a few ideas on what he’d like me to do. I think it would be best to get a good high quality picture of his puppets rather than a 2D drawing of his characters, because it is primarily a stop motion film, and that’s what the poster should promote.

#weeklysummaries

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funtubeweb · 6 years

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Watch Bone Mother, Dale Hayward & Sylvie Trouvé’s gothic animation

Dale Hayward and Sylvie Trouvé were thinking of putting a guest bedroom in their basement — but Baba Yaga had other ideas. And what Baba wants, Baba gets.

Bowing to her formidable powers, they found themselves transforming their basement into an animation set, a miniature studio where the mythic Slavic matriarch assumed a starring role in Bone Mother, awesome stop-motion now available online.

oehttps://https://ift.tt/2yDn7IX

Together Hayward and Trouvé have amassed years of experience in commercial and independent animation — making ads for Nike and other major brands, animating TV series and features like Little Prince, and running their own company See Creature — but Bone Mother presented a whole new set of challenges and opportunities.

They sat me down at the kitchen table of the Montreal home they share with their two kids and told me how it all went down — a tale of vampires and newborns, a thousand 3D-printed heads and an enduring shared passion for stop motion.

Co-directed by Hayward and Trouvé, Bone Mother was produced by Jelena Popović and executive produced by Michael Fukushima for the NFB Animation Studio.

How did you guys get together?

Sylvie: We were both working at Cuppa Coffee Studios in Toronto, animating TV series. We’d see each other in passing, and then at one point I became his animation director and had to talk to him. No choice! We ended up getting together, something we tried to keep a secret for a year or so, which was kind of fun. Then Hothouse came along; a 3-month apprenticeship program for emerging Canadian filmmakers with the NFB’s English animation studio in Montreal. We realized that we loved filmmaking and Montréal so we decided to stay.

Dale: Moving was a whole process of re-adjustment. We’d just finished working in Toronto, where we’d been working on Celebrity Deathmatch, a MTV gorefest that got made on a crazy schedule. 16 episodes in three months. And at the same time I’d been doing tests for my hothouse film. So I was pretty pumped when I arrived at the NFB that first day, but I quickly realized that the Film Board runs at another pace.

Which edition of Hothouse was that?

Dale: It was 2007, so Hothouse 4. My film was Roy G Biv — totally abstract, working with paints. Sylvie did her own Hothouse film the following year.

Sylvie: Mine was called Orange, an abstract look at urban spaces. That film led me to working with the French animation studio, where I made another film called Reflection. My background is in photography; it was natural and exciting for me to combine animation with photography.

What was the appeal of Baba Yaga?

Dale: We’ve always liked anti-heroes and fantasy stories. I first heard Maura McHugh’s version of the Baba story on the horror podcast Pseudopod. Baba is usually portrayed as a dark character, an evil witch. But there are lessons to be learned from characters like that. She’s like that old uncle who terrifies you, but who you totally respect at the same time. It seems natural somehow that Vlad the Impaler has the audacity to walk through her door. It was fun to have a story with two villains. It gave us lots to play with.

Sylvie: For me it was the fact that she’s a woman in this world. So many mythic villains are men — Dracula, Frankenstein, and all those guys. And then there’s Baba Yaga. She’s not your typical witch. She commands respect. She meditates. I liked the idea of paying homage to powerful old ladies. Just because you’re getting old doesn’t mean you’re getting weak. And I like that she’s Dracula’s mother. We don’t think of Dracula having a mother.

Dale: Vampires are big in pop culture right now, and initially we thought it might be too commercial for the Film Board. This is not typical NFB animation. But we pitched it anyway and they went with it. Baba is the main character, but I think it’s nice bonus for audiences to learn that it’s also Dracula’s origin story.

How did end up you making the film in your basement?

Sylvie: That was our producer Jelena Popović’s idea. I was pregnant with Rémi at the time, and initially we thought we’d have the baby and then go back to the Film Board, with baby in tow, thinking, you know, that people love babies and it would be fine. But we already had a daughter and should’ve remembered that it’s not that easy. Then Jelena said, maybe you can do it at home. And the more we thought about it, the more it made sense. We thought we’d eventually go back to the Film Board, to get shots that needed more space, but once we set things up here, we realized that we could adapt and shoot pretty much everything here.

Dale: It was the only way to get it done. As tough as it was to go back and forth between filming and diapers, it allowed me to be with Rémi during his first months. He could be on set with us, and our daughter Zoé was able to get involved in the production. She liked bringing her friends over to show them the bone house and the skeletons. And we could be totally flexible with the schedule. I would set things up knowing that Sylvie would take over later, and vice versa.

Sylvie: I’m a morning person and Dale likes working at night, so he’d often work until midnight and then I’d start shooting at 5 am. It gave us a nice balance. When I had Zoé, I stayed home while Dale was out working, and I found that quite alienating. This time around it was different. And it’s nice to have an artistic project that gives you a break from baby life.

Did making it at home affect the look or feel of the film at all?

Sylvie: I don’t think so, but I laugh when I look at certain shots, knowing that I’m looking at a section of our basement ceiling or wall.

Dale: Yeah, I had to comp out the basement pot lights in some shots. But that’s what stop motion is all about, holding things up with post-it notes and duct tape, and making it all work. We used lots of simple materials – foam board, and blue, green and even pink screen that we found at the dollar store. It was essential to expanding the environment in postproduction, so you couldn’t tell it was shot in a small room.

Was 3D printing part of the plan from the get-go?

Dale: Yes, it was part of our original pitch. We knew the NFB was looking for innovation, and we’d been working with André Michaud on Little Prince, which used 3D printed faces. Stop motion is typically limited with the range of facial expression, and this was an opportunity to take it up a level, to try to create more expressive characters.

Sylvie: That’s where the 1500 faces come in. We wanted a full range of emotions in the characters – angry and mad, angry and sorrowful, and so on. We weren’t using high-end printers but in the end that kind of worked in our favour. We discovered the stepping in Baba’s face looked like wrinkles, an effect that worked well for her character, so we emphasized this as much as we could.

Dale: At the same time we wanted to keep a textured handcrafted look — to be able to see the thumbprints so to speak — so each face, each set of eyes, was painted individually. That took months to do and we were lucky to have Eve Lamoureux and Claire Brognez help us out. They were a great team. We also spent quite a bit of time researching 3D printing filaments until we finally found a part wood/part plastic blend that matched our environment and took well to watercolour paint.

In such a dark gothic story lighting is key.

Dale: The challenge was to keep it dark and have it look natural, not have that “day for night” look. Most of the interiors were lit with tiny LED lights, hot glued to armature wire. We wired them to jacks – and controlled them with DMX channels. In the original story Baba’s house speaks, and the LED lights became that voice. When they come on, you know the house is talking.

Sylvie: Fire is a major element too, and it’s Vlad who brings that into the story with his lamp. His technology invades Baba’s natural space.

Was there a clear division of labour?

Sylvie: I come from a photography so I focus on what’s under camera. Dale is better on the computer. I know my way around After Effects, Photoshop and other programs, but I’m not a tech person at heart, and he’s also better at rigging stuff. I like doing the sets and painting, thinking of the visual composition. He did the storyboard and designs. We both constantly worked on the story and the editing.

Dale: Experience has taught us to establish who’s responsible for what. Whenever we don’t, we get into trouble. But it’s still evolving, I’d say. When we look at the film now, we forget who did what shot. We were both so involved. Even if it was my hand animating the puppet, it was often her idea. People ask us, who makes the decisions? Well we both do.

Sylvie: It’s all about which idea works better and that’s a question of maturity I think. When you first start off, you think, “I made this and nobody is going to tell me otherwise.” But that attitude isn’t productive. We just listen to each other and see what works.

How did the soundtrack come together?

Above: Sylvie and Dale with composer Rebecca Foon.

Sylvie: Sacha Ratcliffe was the sound designer and she immediately got what we wanted — the house and its voice, the animal sounds, the atmosphere, everything. Her design brought everything to another level. And the NFB team was great: Geoff Mitchell, who did the recording; Karla Baumgardner, on Foley; Jean Paul Vialard, who did the mix. They all really know what they’re doing.

Dale: We had cut the film to temp music from Inception and other Hans Zimmer pieces, big momentous music, so we had a good sense of the music cues. Rebecca Foon created wonderfully atmospheric music. Recording the voices of Baba and Vlad was amazing. With Baba, we knew we wanted the rough voice an older actress, a smoker, Renée-Madeleine Le Guerrier was perfect. As soon as I heard her laugh, I knew she was Baba. And Rafael Petardi, with his deep voice like butter, was completely convincing at the vain Vlad.

Any other collaborators you want to mention?

Dale: André Michaud was a huge help with tech stuff, particularly all our 3D printing issues. We’d worked with him in Little Prince and he’s always open to trying prototypes but he knows when to say something wasn’t working.

Sylvie: Jelena Popović, our producer, really helped us get a handle on the story. She’s from Eastern Europe originally so she was familiar with the Baba legends. And Eve Lamoureux-Cyr and Claire Brognez painted all those faces, a job that took four months. Noncedo Khumalo handled the eyes and most of the Maya modelling.

Dale: Another key collaborator was Nick Fairhead, a old friend from Toronto. He’s a post-production guy who’s worked on lots of high-end features, and he really raised the production values.

Any influences? Art or artists who feed your imagination?

Dale: One influence on this particular film is the comic book artist Mike Mignola and his Hellboy character. He’s got an awesome style that took a while to become accepted in the mainstream. He’s now one of the industry’s most unique voices.

Sylvie: When it comes to animation, the people at Laika are totally inspiring. I love the work of Rachelle Lambden, one of the only women there. We worked together at Cuppa Coffee for a while. She’s a powerful character animator.

Dale: And we just finished working with Regina Pessoa in Portugal. It was really inspiring to see how she integrates work into her country life style, finding a balance between work and community. That’s something we try to apply to our own situation.

Sylvie: We both like live action too. I grew up watching horror movies with my mom – Amityville, The Thing, The Shining, all the Stephen King stuff.

What’s next?

Sylvie: Right now we’re shooting another stop motion film in our basement — a much simpler project directed by José Luis Saturno. And Dale is interested in delving into live action.

Dale: We both really enjoy live action, and I’d love to make a feature that integrates stop motion into live action somehow. Technology is evolving quickly, the lines are getting blurred, and that’s exciting.

Sylvie: Now that we’ve finished Bone Mother, we’re coming back to See Creature, pushing it in new ways. We’ve always enjoyed creating animated sequences for documentaries, and I also have a idea for a series of mini-shorts – focussing on little illuminating life moments. Likes lots of people, we’re looking for a balance and interested in working on projects that are meaningful to us.

Artwork from Bone Mother will be exhibited at Toronto’s Liberty Arts Gallery, opening November 1 and on display a month, and Dale and Sylvie are giving a masterclass on the making of Bone Mother on Nov 4 at the 2018 edition of the TAAFI Conference in Toronto.

For more making-of photos, check out the Bone Mother instagram account.

The post Watch Bone Mother, Dale Hayward & Sylvie Trouvé’s gothic animation appeared first on NFB Blog.

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