And, as you’ll be able to tell, this guy’s not so good at walking.

But, first, this is my masterpiece (so far) of timeliness! Weighing in at just 1 second (actually 23/24th’s of a second), this is my shortest clip thus far. Great for those with short attention spans! This may become the clip length of the future, as we become ever so adjusted to needing things now, now, now!

Anyway, I was inspired by (my own) Clayman video from the other day. Instead of trying to create complex things, I could just start simpler and work my way up.

Usually, I like to jump right in and be able to make something that’s actually useful. A lot of times, just doing subpar stuff–even while learning–just feels like a waste of time.

Anyway, with my Clayman figures, they were pretty basic figures that (I think) I put together relatively quickly in order to try out my (then new) video camera.

I figured I could do the same with 3d animation. Why I didn’t have this realization months ago, I don’t know. Maybe that’s something that Joanne can figure out. (I’ve been lax in linking out to Joanne, since she’s not been blogging much lately, but I still need to keep linking so that I maintain my lead in our blog sparring, especially if she starts up again.)

Well, anyway (again), here is the creatively named “Test Figure.” Oh, I could have called him PseudoClayman, or Obesityman or some such thing, but I have lots of models called “Weird Head [insert Roman numeral here]” so why not just Test Figure, eh? Call him T.F. if you like. Pretend it stands for The Fatman or something. Don’t worry; he can’t walk so he won’t be chasing after you. Yet.

He even bounces a bit when he hits the ground. That was my idea. As if you didn’t know. Anyway, I created the model from scratch. He started out as a rectangular solid, and he still has some of the blocky shape, despite my efforts to the contrary. I also did the textures. He’s got very short pants. Maybe they’re bikini bottoms. Who knows. But he does show off a lot of leg. And toes, which you may not see well from this angle, but they’re rather long. And, he only has four fingers. Ditto for toes. I also did the rigging (simple though it is) and the animation. Walk cycles are my weak point (I loose track of what should be going where, even though I can clear envision the scene) thus he falls instead of walking very far. He slips up pretty much right away.

At any rate, maybe I can do better with my next model. But, you have to learn to crawl before you can walk. And T.F. can’t crawl yet either.

For this (almost) Wordless Wednesday, I figured I would revisit an old image. Why was the creepy underwear guy seeking the bikini model? Maybe it was because she had an interesting tattoo.

You know, I figured that trucks often have images of women on them, usually clad in swimsuits (or less), so why not vice versa?

And, for added effect, I made the underwear guy even creepier (I think) by giving him a flower tattoo on his chest.

Why he is in his underwear wandering the street is something I’ll leave to the reader’s (that would be you) imagination.

Visit Wordless Wednesday for more.

I’m not sure at what point this turned into an animation blog, but it has appeared to have done that. I really ought to get back to blogging about blogging, as that is when I had the most number of readers. And, that leads into a different topic which will (lest I forget) be a topic for another day.

Anyway, all half dozen of you still reading this blog probably saw Pete’s water burst photo yesterday. As I mentioned in the comments, that reminded me of project I had done last fall.

I was trying to do water effects with 3d animation. Posted below is my third attempt. It’s a whole two seconds long, which is good for those with short attention spans. My last animation weighed in at 5 seconds long, so this new one will be even quicker to digest.

It’s great for people on a diet too. With the 2 second length, you barely have time for one, maybe two, kernels of popcorn.

Below, I’ve posted two of my early animations from September of 1990. They were done as stop-motion animation.

Basically, you shoot a frame, move your model a tiny bit, shoot the next frame, move the model, etc. Except, on my video camera, I don’t recall that I could film just one frame. I think it was basically a matter of how quickly you could press the button to start taping and press the button again to stop taping. Thus, the motion is even more choppy than it would otherwise have been just from my learning curve.

I’m not sure if I had a tripod then either. I am pretty sure I just set the camera on the dining room table, aimed at my little stage. You’ll notice that the camera occasionally moves because I must have moved it ever so slightly (or not so slightly sometimes, as you’ll see) when pressing the start/stop button.

Anyway, enjoy the animation, which is a bit lengthier than my computer-generated animations. And, be sure to stay tuned after the first fade-out. I’ve combined “Clayman” and “Clayman II” into a single video.

SPOILER WARNING: I think that Clayman II’s body (torso) may have been formed from what was left of Clayman. It looks like his body is brown, which is the color you get when you mix Clayman’s clay parts…

Oh, and I removed the sound. You don’t need to hear the clicking of the button, or my partial voice-overs.

There are a number of websites out there that will help you re-connect with old friends. Usually for a fee, of course. Who’s looking for you? some of them even ask. Just sign up with them so your old friends can find you!

But, let’s face it. These services are largely for people looking to find someone in particular and not for people looking to be found.

After all, if you’re a blogger or have had any kind of online presence, you’re probably only a Google search away from being found. If anyone was looking for you, unless you’ve made a deliberate attempt to hide yourself online, they would have found you already.

But, instead we imagine that all these people are looking for us, and if we don’t sign up with a bunch of different websites, they’ll never find us.

It is perhaps a human tendency to view ourselves as the center of the universe. Everything revolves around us. That girl or guy you had a crush on in school, surely she or he is just sitting by the computer, waiting for your eMail. She or he hasn’t moved on; hasn’t gotten involved with anyone new; hasn’t progressed at all in life, because she or he has just been at a standstill, waiting to hear from you again. But, you’re not on the websites she or he is looking on, so you never hear a word.

Of course, the reality is that most people do move on. You may be the center of your universe, but they are the center of theirs. They’ve moved on. They’re not looking for you. They may not even remember your name.

Truth is, such websites may be good for nostalgia. They may be good to find someone and just talk about the “old days.” But, don’t delude yourself into thinking that anyone is longing for the opportunity to talk with you again. If they were, they would have found you by now.

Go ahead. Google yourself. If you haven’t heard from any old friends and you are easy to find, no one is looking for you!

Sorry.

I was so busy this weekend that I never even checked eMail. So, when I checked this morning, I had over 1,000 messages, most of which was spam.

And, it had some disturbing news.

Apparently, my PayPal account was suspended half a dozen times over the weekend due to unauthorized access from a foreign IP address. You would think that suspending it once would have been sufficient, but I guess they were playing it safe.

Worse yet, several of my bank accounts–some from banks I have never even heard of–were also compromised.

But, I didn’t receive any loan offers or win any lotteries to help me out. This is devastating.

But, I think it’s going to be okay. I’m sure I’ll be able to win it all back on these Internet casinos–some of them give you free training how to play. I’ll be back on top in no time.

And, if I’m not, some other messages tell me there’s a pill for that.

Been busy converting old video tapes to digital. Unfortunately, after a day and a half of doing so, I discovered I wasn’t saving in the highest quality mode. So, some will have to be redone.

On the plus side, I think I have a couple shorts that I will be able to post, once I get them converted.

Yesterday, I was strongly considering buying a Flip Video - Ultra Series camcorder.

The nice thing is the small size, which makes it very handy to carry around. A lot of times, we get a video camera, thinking how we’ll record everything. Then, you record a lot of stuff at the beginning but, after the novelty wears off, it becomes a pain to lug the thing around and carry it around and so on. Even with the small hand-helds, you still get to the point where it becomes more annoying than handy.

But, with the small size of the Flip Video camcorder, it’s something you can carry in your pocket. It appears to be the size of a microcassette audio recorder (circa late 1980’s/early 1990’s, which is when mine is from), but records video and audio. Just slightly larger than a cell phone, it’s something I can imagine you can easily lug around and something you’ll actually use. On top of that, it uses standard AA batteries, so you don’t have an odd battery that you’ll have to charge (or hunt down to replace when it wears out) and so on.

Then, I read some reviews on it. Many of the 1 and 2 star reviews appeared to come from Mac users. Apparently, despite being advertised as working with Macs, it’s performance (judging by the reviews) on Mac systems seems dodgy at best. Plus, I would want to be able to edit videos with Adobe Premiere Pro, and apparently there are issues there as well. The Flip comes with its own software package but, according to the reviews I read, the Mac version is not quite up to par with the Windows version.

So, that basically convinced me not to buy a Flip Video camcorder.

Today, I did some cleaning and some yard work. Afterwards, I dragged out my old video camera. I am currently taking a break from converting some of my old videos (from the tape that was in the camera) into digital form.

The bummer is that the camera doesn’t seem to work in camera mode anymore. I can use it as a tape player, but, in camera mode, the video is bad. I haven’t tried recording anything (I want to convert the video tape to digital before I attempt that), so I don’t know if it records. But, just from the camera output, it doesn’t appear as though it will record video very well anymore.

So, there goes my plans to continue putting this camera to use again. And, that means I’m back to considering the Flip again. Maybe if I hear from more Mac users successfully using the thing…

Anyway, back to conversions. Maybe later I’ll have some video to put online. Maybe.

For today’s Photo Phriday, it’s curtains for you!

Visit Wordless Wednesday for more.

I thought I’d try Pete’s photo technique, but all it seems to do is make traffic worse.

And, adding pictures to the top of your blog posts doesn’t seem to increase traffic either. Again, I think the big, big bloggers just feed us drivel to keep the rest of us all down. Seriously, does a pretty picture make you want to read a blog, or just look at the picture?

While it’s true that using images can break up long passages of text and help make the reading more relaxing and less daunting, an image in and of itself is not going to bring in the crowds. Unless, of course, the image is of some strong interest in and of itself.

For example, if you’re showing techniques, a photo is handy. If you’re talking about the image, or sharing a funny or newsworthy image, or something like that then, yes, having the actual image there is a good idea.

But, if you’re telling people how to save money or how to increase sales or whatever, do you think having a pretty picture is really going to draw people in? People aren’t going to link to your post just because you have a pretty picture at the top–they are going to link to your post because you gave them good tips on saving money, or increasing sales or whatever. Your post’s title will do more to draw in readers than a picture!

But, the most important thing is: Content. Content! Content!

So, go ahead and put pictures at the top of your posts, if you want, but don’t expect it to increase your traffic. Your time is better spent writing a quality post than hunting around for a pretty picture to post.

And, maybe that’s why the big name bloggers want us spending our time looking for pretty pictures instead of spending that time on writing a higher quality post…