Video about a Senator and an Audio about a Soil Scientist

I finished and posted "The Desperation of the Wretched Senator" last week. This week I posted audio of my writing exercise: "A Journal for a Silly Social Scientist".

"The Desperation of the Wretched Senator"

A politician tries to keep his past deeds from coming back to haunt him.

·         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isWKL7U34CI

I have been more lethargic than dynamic the last few weeks. I let this video sit idle for weeks. I finally got back to work on it last week. I made a few changes and got it posted.

 

"A Journal for a Silly Social Scientist"

A panel of Scientists are taken aback by an unexpected request.

·         https://soundcloud.com/dynamiclethargy/a-journal-for-the-silly-soil-scientist

I lollygagged on my most recent writing exercise too. But I got it done this week. I wasn't too inspired by the title, but I felt the end result wasn't too bad.

Stalled Projects

I have several projects that I have let lie over the past few weeks. I have pretty much all I need to make videos of “The Sad Lady and the Hesitant Father-in-law”, “The Dread of the Daring Rocketeer”, and “Time Enough for the Anxious Social Media Manager”. I just need to get myself back on track.

Animation Programs

After a period of procrastination, I planned to try out Unreal Engine 5 this week. Unfortunately, it turns out that it won’t run on my computer. My graphics card is too old. I think the rest of the system may be OK though. I think that if I want to run it, I'd be better off to get a new computer rather than trying to upgrade my old one. I'm not keen to do that just yet.

As a result, I decided to have another look at what I can do with Blender for animation. People have used it to do a lot of the same things as Unreal Engine. I just haven’t figured out how to do them.

I also found out about another program, iClone. I think I'll take a look at. Unlike Unreal Engine and Blender, you do have to pay for it, but it doesn’t cost very much.

None of these other programs seem as easy to use as NAWMAL.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

A New Writing Exercise, Animation, Trigger Warnings, and a Video

I posted a new writing exercise this week. I took a deeper look at Unreal Engine. I got into a discussion of trigger warnings. I procrastinated about a video I did.

"Time Enough for the Anxious Social Media Manager"

At our writer’s group we did a writing exercise based on this title. I recorded it a couple days later and then posted it on-line.

Albert meets with his social media manager. Derek is anxious about the new campaign.

·         https://soundcloud.com/dynamiclethargy/time-enough-for-the-anxious-social-media-manager

I've been posting my recordings to Soundcloud, but there is a limit to how much I can upload. So, I did some experimentation to see if I can post them on my website instead. It worked, but I don't think there is a high priority to start doing that.

NAWMAL, Blender and Unreal Engine

My plan was to stick to NAWMAL and Blender for my animations, but I saw a video about Unreal Engine that suggested that it was much easier to learn than Blender. I know how to do some things in Blender, but I find it hard to learn how to do the more sophisticated animation I want to do. So, I installed Unreal Engine on my computer. I had a quick look at it but didn’t try to do anything with it yet. I did download some of the free assets that they provide.

Trigger Warnings

At our script group meeting this week we talked a bit about trigger warnings. Apparently, the idea is controversial, since some writers feel that a warning can undercut the effect of their story. I felt that you need to be aware of your audience and avoid anything that would cause someone to 'drop out' of the story. I've dropped things from my films because of that, even though I felt they would have added to the story.

"The Desperation of the Wretched Senator"

I haven't done anything more with the video I did. Next week, for absolutely sure, definitively, I will get it polished off and posted.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

A New Writing Exercise and an Old Video – 2022 March 6

I’m a bit stumped by my next writing exercise. My last video still isn’t finished. I made some progress though. It has been a learning experience.

The Script group had their 100th meeting (I joined about meeting 24). We had a lot of discussion and so we ran out of time to do the writing exercise. The title was "The Dread of the Daring Rocketeer". I haven't done anything on it yet, other than come up with name for the rocketeer: Don Brown.

I showed the script group the first version of "The Desperation of the Wretched Senator.” They had a lot of suggestions. Mostly they felt it was too slow. I went back and electronically sped up the dialogue. Then I adjusted the pitch so that the characters didn't sound like Mickey Mouse breathing Helium. I eliminated some of the pauses in conversation. I sped up the walking as well. I can't do that in NAWMAL, so I had to do it in the video editor.

I wanted to add a final shot that I couldn't do in NAWMAL, so I used Blender instead. It is only a short shot, but it has already taken me more time than the entire rest of the video, and I'm not done yet. It is looking good. It has been a learning experience, and I've picked up a few tricks.

I removed Blender 3.0 and went back to Blender 2.79. The main reason was that the new version was slow. I had installed a software fix so it would work with my graphics card. That worked, but I think that may be why it is so slow. It may be time to look at a new computer. I read that the best choice for people doing video on their computer is to buy a gaming computer. I’m likely to procrastinate on that for a while yet.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog