Isaak’s Grand, Though Experimental, Animation Blog

[numsOic]

An easy way to avoid the problem is to censor the part with the word with some audio effect. It betrays the intention of the song and I'm generally against censorship, but it works for your particular case and it's not a very big deal.

[IsaakEquus Ludens :3]

Heh, we'd be getting into censorship alright and I'm genuinely opposed to any form of censorship I can think of.

I already decided on making it, regardless of the swear. Creative freedom and making something great comes first and foremost.

[AramekYour MRI results have shown total infection to now be approximately one fifth of the full mass of the tissue."So you're saying..."Your brain is about 20% tumor.]

Heh, we'd be getting into censorship alright and I'm genuinely opposed to any form of censorship I can think of.

I already decided on making it, regardless of the swear. Creative freedom and making something great comes first and foremost.

Remember when Pinkie Pie was all "Shame on a niggah!" That was something great.

[reidransom]

Wondering if any of you could give me a little feedback on this thing I've been working on. Here's a short clip from the middle.

Ponyrhythm rough clip

I know my rotobrushing could use some work in places, partly that's bad sources, but I'm pretty busy with research for classes and don't really have much free time to really work on it anyhow. Also I'm pretty hopeless with a lot of this software so there's probably loads of stuff I'm either doing wrong or at least in a really inefficient way. In any case, what do you guys think?

[IsaakEquus Ludens :3]

Remember when Pinkie Pie was all "Shame on a niggah!" That was something great.

I... don't get it.

Wondering if any of you could give me a little feedback on this thing I've been working on. Here's a short clip from the middle.

Ponyrhythm rough clip

I know my rotobrushing could use some work in places, partly that's bad sources, but I'm pretty busy with research for classes and don't really have much free time to really work on it anyhow. Also I'm pretty hopeless with a lot of this software so there's probably loads of stuff I'm either doing wrong or at least in a really inefficient way. In any case, what do you guys think?

Are you using 720p sources? Because it looks like you're scaling your videoclips up from a smaller resolution (480p?) while your still images, the cutiemarks, are sharp.

There's something about that outline... You could clamp down the rotobrush, duplicate the rotobrushed ponies, scale them up, put them on a new layer below, throw in a fill effect in AE and turn that pink or some other colour, maybe even switch between colours to the beat. It would look nice and you would be obscuring any wonky rotobrushing.

There are also black borders at the top and on your right, I think you accidentally moved your frame.

Overall, I like where you're going with this

[blasmeisterIt is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world.]

I think they're referring to this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVGI6mhfJyA

[Concerned ReaderI didn't inhale]

I think they're referring to this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVGI6mhfJyA

Not to mention this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJfZTr8zMsc

Youtube doesn't really seem to care about cussing ponies.

[reidransom]

Are you using 720p sources? Because it looks like you're scaling your videoclips up from a smaller resolution (480p?) while your still images, the cutiemarks, are sharp.

There's something about that outline... You could clamp down the rotobrush, duplicate the rotobrushed ponies, scale them up, put them on a new layer below, throw in a fill effect in AE and turn that pink or some other colour, maybe even switch between colours to the beat. It would look nice and you would be obscuring any wonky rotobrushing.

There are also black borders at the top and on your right, I think you accidentally moved your frame.

Overall, I like where you're going with this

Yeah, I'm using 720p sources, but I think something is happening between importing them into PP to make clips, exporting to AE to rotobrush them out, then rendering back to clips. But I also fuzzed it quite a bit trying to give it a soft focus and obscure some of the wonky rotobrushing, that may be part of it as well. I dunno. I'll give some of that stuff you said a shot, though.

[IsaakEquus Ludens :3]

Youtube doesn't really seem to care about cussing ponies.

It's not that I care about what others think, it is (was) a personal issue.

Yeah, I'm using 720p sources, but I think something is happening between importing them into PP to make clips, exporting to AE to rotobrush them out, then rendering back to clips. But I also fuzzed it quite a bit trying to give it a soft focus and obscure some of the wonky rotobrushing, that may be part of it as well. I dunno. I'll give some of that stuff you said a shot, though.

Not sure how soft focus works in AE (yet), but it doesn't make things look like that in Sony Vegas.

I'm assuming you're rendering everything in lossless avi and at its native resolution between programs, but it may be because you're rendering things at a lower resolution somewhere in your workflow.

[IsaakEquus Ludens :3]

New entry:

5: Ideas and How to Catch Them

So you’re busy at work, sitting in the loo, watching television, riding the train or bus and your mind wanders off. It goes into some unknown direction, subconsciously piecing together different bits and pieces, analyzing problems, creating new ones and coming up with solutions.
Then ‘it’ hits you! A lightning strike in your head! “Holy Guacamole, that is absolutely brilliant!”

I’ve talked a bit about ideas and my notetaking process and with me presenting my latest Pony/Star Guitar idea I thought I’d have a great subject to talk about. It isn’t just PMV related though, this is applicable to just about any idea.

Ideas are wonderful little things, appearing seemingly out of thin air, or rather, not from the conscious mind. They happen when you drift off, your mind clear of conscious thought. It happens to me when I get in the groove of my work, more than often bopping my head to some great music, or when I’m alone and let go of the world around me (also known as daydreaming).

It’s not something you can force yourself to do, but it is something you can allow yourself to do. You can practice it, become better at it and make a habit out of it.

So then you have an idea. Ideas need to get out, FAST! Having the idea in something other than your head allows yourself to build on it, rather than thinking of the same thing over and over.
The step between the idea and execution needs to be as quick and smooth as possible.
I find typing it down on the computer or my phone unnatural. It has this weird binary, machine like feel which just doesn’t fit the organic and creative state of mind I often find myself in.
So over the years I’ve been building this ‘system’ of sorts to streamline the process from idea to concept to design to finally production and it’s fairly simple.

It consists of two hardcover notebooks, no lines. A pen, my phone and Evernote.
The notebooks come in two sizes: one A4 sized which goes in my backpack, the other pocket sized which goes... err... in my pocket. The pocket sized is for the ‘lightning strikes’, which look something like this:



It’s for quick thumbnail sketches, keywords and whatnot. As I’ve been developing this system I’ve began using more durable and nicer notebooks. I particularly like the brand Paper Blanks, which has some really gorgeous designs and fancy thingamajigs. If it’s nice to look at and use, you’re more inclined to use it: a little mindhack.

The big notebook is a bit more plain as fancy A4 sized ones are expensive. I use it to flesh out ideas and it allows for bigger sketches to which I can add notes and such. It’s also great for mindmaps and writing long forumposts.
It typically looks a bit like this:



So now it’s out of my head and onto the paper and I can work on a less abstract and more practical level. This is usually the part where I jot down specific parts of the song, do some quick and dirty storyboarding et cetera, filling page after page.
Usually either of these notebooks last 5 months or less.

As I develop the project like this I now start bringing in technology. For digitizing all my notes and such I use Evernote.



This is Evernote. It’s a service which lets you store pictures, audio recordings, text, screenshots and more in the cloud. It runs on Windows & Mac and there are free apps for both Android and iOS.
I used the Android app to photograph my notes which it instantly uploaded to the cloud and synchronized with the client on both my Big Rig and laptop, meaning I can access them from pretty much anywhere. So if I ever wonder what the hell I was thinking one day, I load up Evernote on my computer or pull out my phone.

Next to notetaking Evernote allows you to create different notebooks for different purposes and lets you tag your notes so that you can easily find them. Organization!

Now I can easily build up a project file consisting of all the notes I take and move them from the analogue to the digital.

I don’t strongly adhere to this system, some times I do type things down or completely skip Evernote and move to production, but it’s a great help overall in guiding my creative outbursts and making sure nothing gets lost. Plus it’s great for capturing all those great moments I’ve had over my PMV making time.
It’s a lightweight, modular and easy guideline I can change on the fly and take anywhere any time. Importantly: it requires little maintenance.

So this is how I go from the completely abstract to the practically applicable. As I do more and more pre-production I'm going to use this a lot more, meaning I can easily share ideas here in the future.

[reidransom]

I'm assuming you're rendering everything in lossless avi and at its native resolution between programs, but it may be because you're rendering things at a lower resolution somewhere in your workflow.

There is a very strong chance of this. I'm not really sure what the difference is between all the codecs and so on and how they stack up against one another or what losses you incur moving from one to another, so yeah, I should probably pay attention to that and maybe find where I'm messing up. Or maybe I left some things at default settings or whatever.

[IsaakEquus Ludens :3]

There is a very strong chance of this. I'm not really sure what the difference is between all the codecs and so on and how they stack up against one another or what losses you incur moving from one to another, so yeah, I should probably pay attention to that and maybe find where I'm messing up. Or maybe I left some things at default settings or whatever.

When in doubt, use avi with a lossless codec.

Avi is the file format, or container, which stores the file data. Lossless means the data isn't read by compressing it. A codec is basically a translator which allows programs to render and read a file format. Different formats and codecs allow for different quality to filesize ratios, bits per second, frequencies et cetera.
Because lossless avi is uncompressed it can be read by just about anything, but since there's no compression it's huge: a 1 minute video can easily break 5 gigabytes in size. So you need lots of space.

As another example, If you have .mp3 files there's a fairly big chance they're encoded using the LAME codec. Making the fileformat .mp3 and the codec LAME. Or for instance the .ogg format using the Vorbis codec.

I'm not a wiz with this sorta thing either, though I'll be picking up some things when I reconvert all my H264 encoded .mkv files to .avi. I don't fiddle with codecs or file formats until after rendering my final render.

[Concerned ReaderI didn't inhale]

When in doubt, use avi with a lossless codec.

Avi is the file format, or container, which stores the file data. Lossless means the data isn't read by compressing it. A codec is basically a translator which allows programs to render and read a file format. Different formats and codecs allow for different quality to filesize ratios, bits per second, frequencies et cetera.
Because lossless avi is uncompressed it can be read by just about anything, but since there's no compression it's huge: a 1 minute video can easily break 5 gigabytes in size. So you need lots of space.

As another example, If you have .mp3 files there's a fairly big chance they're encoded using the LAME codec. Making the fileformat .mp3 and the codec LAME. Or for instance the .ogg format using the Vorbis codec.

I'm not a wiz with this sorta thing either, though I'll be picking up some things when I reconvert all my H264 encoded .mkv files to .avi. I don't fiddle with codecs or file formats until after rendering my final render.

Another thing useful about lossless or uncompressed is that there isn't as much of an encoder overhead taking processing power away from the render, so it will usually render faster.

[Maple LeafOne look at your plebeian atrocity and I find myself asking where in it you hid the kitchen sink.]

The current go-to lossless codec, as recommended by the SA goons, is Lagarith, just fyi.

[IsaakEquus Ludens :3]

Another thing useful about lossless or uncompressed is that there isn't as much of an encoder overhead taking processing power away from the render, so it will usually render faster.

Heh, mixed up lossless codec and uncompressed in my post
Like I said: not a wiz (yet).

The current go-to lossless codec, as recommended by the SA goons, is Lagarith, just fyi.

Hey thanks, I'll give that a spin.

[ozonethe ride never ends]

I know I'm late to this, but I just wanted to let you know that making a PMV based off the Star Guitar music video would be the best thing. The first time I saw that video, I didn't even notice that the landscape went with the music until halfway through the video. My reality was completely shattered. Such a great video and a well-made PMV based off it would be even better.

Also, you should just keep the swearing in, we're all grown up around here and Jayson Thiessen even tweeted APPLE.MOV which has plenty of swearing.

[Momar]

I'd prefer a PMV based off Denmark, but what do I know.

[IsaakEquus Ludens :3]

I know I'm late to this, but I just wanted to let you know that making a PMV based off the Star Guitar music video would be the best thing. The first time I saw that video, I didn't even notice that the landscape went with the music until halfway through the video. My reality was completely shattered. Such a great video and a well-made PMV based off it would be even better.

Any thoughts are welcome here. late or not

The way it's looking right now is that it's actually not going to be a PMV, but a completely custom animation. I may lift assets from the show (mountains, trees) but RD's going to be completely animated.
What it's going to look like exactly I don't know, how I'm going to animate it I don't know either, how to draw ponies: no idea! But I'm using the Learn How to Draw Ponies thread to learn.

Also, you should just keep the swearing in, we're all grown up around here and Jayson Thiessen even tweeted APPLE.MOV which has plenty of swearing.

I realized the other day that I love Apple.mov myself yet found it 'uncomfortable' to have swearing in my own work, hehe.

I'd prefer a PMV based off Denmark, but what do I know.

Did that have a video?

[Momar]

Did that have a video?

Nope, but it's my favourite track from the album.

[IsaakEquus Ludens :3]

Nope, but it's my favourite track from the album.

Ah, I'm not going to remake Star Guitar with ponies, but I'm going to do my own take on the thing using this song.

[ToastGhostThe smuggest damn horse.]

It's next week, where's the PMV for the best pony? I want to hurry up and lavish you with praise.

[RagnarWhat's older? Unicorns, or stars?]

Every time this thread bumps I'm like, YES oh wait no, crap.
Doubly so if it's Isaak.

I'm sure it'll be done when it's done, though.

[IsaakEquus Ludens :3]

I'm sure it'll be done when it's done, though.

How about watching me get it done tomorrow on my livestream channel?

[IsaakEquus Ludens :3]

How about watching me get it done tomorrow on my livestream channel?

Speaking of which.

Not sure if I'll be able to finish it today though, but I'll just do one tomorrow as well if that happens.

[IsaakEquus Ludens :3]

Thanks everyone for watching, that sure was some editing binge.

For those who couldn't make it, here are some screens!







I'll do the last livestream for this tomorrow after the new episode. Catch you then!

[IsaakEquus Ludens :3]

Je suis live!

Finishing it up.

[IsaakEquus Ludens :3]

Excuse me for quadruple posting:

Click here to view video.

Shine Like Rarity (Direct Link)

[GlaziusHe finds himself through the martial arts discipline of Nokando, which he says hardens the body and turns the mind inward.]

Hmm.

One of the things with kinetic typography, especially the really rapid-fire stuff, is that it's exploiting the nature of written language as a copy of the verbal sort. The words pop up in time with the pacing of the performance. Seeing a word show up that isn't following the script leads to basically an input channel mismatch along the lines of the Stroop Effect.

And the final crest before the dropoff is a little bit too... gentle? No, that's not the word. When you drop into your color bar "lull" it's from increasingly rapid cuts, and then you come out with more substantive clips. Going back into rapid cuts for the finale just feels like a weaker reprise of what you did earlier, especially since it doesn't last as long. (And I swear, the final shot with all its pinks and purples just made me go "wait, why is this ending on a shot of Twilight?" the first couple times.)

One of the things about Rarity, and something the original song reminded me of when I heard it, is that she's into fashion to make everyone look good - 'everybody's starry-eyed, and everybody glows'. I don't know if you could actually get a good composition from any of the group shots, though.

[WylieCIDER CIDER CIDER]

Now I don't miss Rarity not being in today's episode.

Isaak, that was great. I think I like using "pony" as a replacement for "body" in the text- it creates just enough cognitive dissonance to make you almost hear "pony" as it goes by. I'm not sure if that's the effect you were after, but it worked.

Well done, sir.

[IsaakEquus Ludens :3]

One of the things with kinetic typography, especially the really rapid-fire stuff, is that it's exploiting the nature of written language as a copy of the verbal sort. The words pop up in time with the pacing of the performance. Seeing a word show up that isn't following the script leads to basically an input channel mismatch along the lines of the Stroop Effect.

Ah, you mean "Every Pony's"?
I don't find it distracting, though then again I've seen it hundreds of times so I'm not exactly an expert on first time viewing with this...

Does anypo... anyone else have this problem?

And the final crest before the dropoff is a little bit too... gentle? No, that's not the word. When you drop into your color bar "lull" it's from increasingly rapid cuts, and then you come out with more substantive clips. Going back into rapid cuts for the finale just feels like a weaker reprise of what you did earlier, especially since it doesn't last as long. (And I swear, the final shot with all its pinks and purples just made me go "wait, why is this ending on a shot of Twilight?" the first couple times.)

This is the trickiest thing I've ever done and I didn't want to go overboard with too much going on there. There's the clips flying in, piano stripes, zooming, turning, the whole nine yards. I thought that if I did the same rapid cuts there it would just be a complete sensory overload.

One of the things about Rarity, and something the original song reminded me of when I heard it, is that she's into fashion to make everyone look good - 'everybody's starry-eyed, and everybody glows'. I don't know if you could actually get a good composition from any of the group shots, though.

I couldn't, no

Now I don't miss Rarity not being in today's episode.

Totally didn't see that one coming. Quite a coincidence.

Isaak, that was great. I think I like using "pony" as a replacement for "body" in the text- it creates just enough cognitive dissonance to make you almost hear "pony" as it goes by. I'm not sure if that's the effect you were after, but it worked.

Well done, sir.

It seems to be having different effects on people then.

Moooooost interesting...

Thanks for the feedback!

[Momar]

I really like the 'textured' feel of the blue-on-white in this video. It was bloody fantastic. I wasn't around for the livestreams, mostly because I didn't want this vid spoilered.

Seriously, fantastic work. I'm glad you saved the best pony for last.

[Lazy]

Haven't been following this thread, but I'm liking the editing in this a lot.
Best pony needs more PMVs.

[IsaakEquus Ludens :3]

I really like the 'textured' feel of the blue-on-white in this video. It was bloody fantastic. I wasn't around for the livestreams, mostly because I didn't want this vid spoilered.

Seriously, fantastic work. I'm glad you saved the best pony for last.

Hah, originally Fluttershy's was going to be the last and Rarity was fourth in line
Applejack's has been in my mind since... about July I think.

Unsure when it'll be finished, though like with this one I'll be documenting its development. First a break though.

Haven't been following this thread, but I'm liking the editing in this a lot.
Best pony needs more PMVs.

I'll look into that.

Thanks everyone.

[HuffyTheMagicDragonboop]

Superb. Love how it kept building up. The song was perfect, and for some reason I found it easy to imagine Rarity singing it.

Good luck finding a song that perfect for ol' AJ!

[RagnarWhat's older? Unicorns, or stars?]

Superb. Love how it kept building up. The song was perfect, and for some reason I found it easy to imagine Rarity singing it.

Good luck finding a song that perfect for ol' AJ!

Yep, perfect song.

The old country and folk songs would work great for AJ. There's plenty of stuff from the first half of the century that's interesting, well-crafted, clever and/or funny.

[ozonethe ride never ends]

I said before but I'll say it again: Amazing work, Isaak.

I love the energy in your videos and this one was no exception. It was awesome watching your livestreams and following this thread and seeing how it was all put together. Very inspirational stuff.

I can't wait to see what you have up your sleeve for Applejack (after you take a well deserved break, of course).

Isaak, that was great. I think I like using "pony" as a replacement for "body" in the text- it creates just enough cognitive dissonance to make you almost hear "pony" as it goes by. I'm not sure if that's the effect you were after, but it worked.

Count me in for also having my brain tricked by the text. The song will never sound the same to me again.

[Colton, M.D.You'll read everything I post,In this man's voice.]

Fantastic work.

[Concerned ReaderI didn't inhale]

Well, you broke youtube. You have more likes than views.

[sleverichI am a pretty pony princess and what is this?]

I absolutely love it! The character and energy you bring to the song using only silhouettes, kinetic text, and white lines, all over a light blue background is astounding. I can't quite put my finger on it, but as Momar said, there is somehow texture to the dichromatic scheme used above and beyond the darkened borders; although they bring a lot of depth to the video too, and ever so gently draw the eye center stage.

[CathulhuSometimes known as TheNopony.]

You've done it again. I remember first seeing Race like Rainbow Dash and being stunned by how good it was.
Following how you've improved over the months have been exciting.

Now if you excuse me, I'll go watch your videos again.