Did some more work on the Flash project, and while it looks great, I have to admit I'm not as enthused. I still like it and and think it's pretty good (for me), but I think when I first started it, I was so pleased to be doing something after so long, that it kind of overloaded me. Now, that sense of discovery is over and it's becoming more routine. Still fun, though.
Spent a lot of time on a silly PhotoShop thing. Always good to keep in practice.
Other than that, not much. Took some photos of a nice sunset.
See you tomorrow.
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
August 30, 2016 (Tues)
Nothing creative done today, unless you count mowing the lawn, which I don't.
But no worries. Today was a long overdue file-backup day. Once every month or so, I do a copy of important files (documents, pictures, etc) to an external drive, which I then detach and put away. I haven't done this since June, so it was needed.
I have a local backup, and an online backup account, but in the age of ransomware it pays to be over-cautious where irreplaceable files are concerned...including the Flash files I've been working on. I can rebuild a PC without a problem (though I'd rather not), but I don't want to be left adrift where creativity is concerned. I don't have the money to pay the ransom.
You can never have too many backups. It's impossible.
So, anyway, not much to report today. See you tomorrow.
But no worries. Today was a long overdue file-backup day. Once every month or so, I do a copy of important files (documents, pictures, etc) to an external drive, which I then detach and put away. I haven't done this since June, so it was needed.
I have a local backup, and an online backup account, but in the age of ransomware it pays to be over-cautious where irreplaceable files are concerned...including the Flash files I've been working on. I can rebuild a PC without a problem (though I'd rather not), but I don't want to be left adrift where creativity is concerned. I don't have the money to pay the ransom.
You can never have too many backups. It's impossible.
So, anyway, not much to report today. See you tomorrow.
Monday, August 29, 2016
August 29, 2016 (Mon)
Some paid work, always nice.
Did some more work on the Flash animation, and got a thing to "fade in"! This was pretty cool, at least for me, because mostly my work in Flash was "get something mediocre to happen and then quit."
On a bit of an off-note, I re-listened to the audio recording I'd done last week...as you might recall, the inspiration for everything happening since.
And it's kind of, well, bad. In fact, listening back made me wonder what I'd heard in it in the first place. Admittedly, I'm a terrible musician, but I generally make something of interest. This...no.
Well, I used Audacity to slather on enough reverb to make it, uh, less terrible than it was, and while it was then "okay" I still may make a different soundtrack for the Flash thing.
--which still looks great to me!
Weird. Something mediocre leads to something better, which then makes the mediocrity stand out more...this is kind of the norm when learning, but it's odd to encounter this so late in life.
Oh well, all life is a learning experience, so I'm told, and this kind of brings that home.
Thank you, phantom reader, and see you tomorrow.
Did some more work on the Flash animation, and got a thing to "fade in"! This was pretty cool, at least for me, because mostly my work in Flash was "get something mediocre to happen and then quit."
On a bit of an off-note, I re-listened to the audio recording I'd done last week...as you might recall, the inspiration for everything happening since.
And it's kind of, well, bad. In fact, listening back made me wonder what I'd heard in it in the first place. Admittedly, I'm a terrible musician, but I generally make something of interest. This...no.
Well, I used Audacity to slather on enough reverb to make it, uh, less terrible than it was, and while it was then "okay" I still may make a different soundtrack for the Flash thing.
--which still looks great to me!
Weird. Something mediocre leads to something better, which then makes the mediocrity stand out more...this is kind of the norm when learning, but it's odd to encounter this so late in life.
Oh well, all life is a learning experience, so I'm told, and this kind of brings that home.
Thank you, phantom reader, and see you tomorrow.
Sunday, August 28, 2016
August 28, 2016 (Sun)
Well, got out of the house a bit. Took some photos at the local "nature preserve" site, which like most such sites are great to get some nice natural photos without power lines, etc.
Friends are great. Wish I had more. Anyway, made the decision to take one friend to the airport at an awkward hour. I can do that!
Did some tweaking on the Flash animation I've been mentioning. Fixed the odd bits I didn't like, and added a few more. Still haven't done anything with the sound I recorded earlier last week, but I have a good feeling about this.
...which of course gives me a bad feeling about what might happen when this project is complete. Oh well.
All in all, a fairly good day. Give and take kind of evenly matched.
Friends are great. Wish I had more. Anyway, made the decision to take one friend to the airport at an awkward hour. I can do that!
Did some tweaking on the Flash animation I've been mentioning. Fixed the odd bits I didn't like, and added a few more. Still haven't done anything with the sound I recorded earlier last week, but I have a good feeling about this.
...which of course gives me a bad feeling about what might happen when this project is complete. Oh well.
All in all, a fairly good day. Give and take kind of evenly matched.
Saturday, August 27, 2016
August 27, 2016 (Sat)
Not much done today. In fact, pretty much nothing, other than paid work.
I must confess, I'm so pleased by the Flash thing I did yesterday that I spend a lot of time just watching it unfold.
Of course, I've noticed some minor motion problems, which I will at some point correct.
It's just such a nice feeling to have done something.
Anyway, all for today. See you tomorrow.
I must confess, I'm so pleased by the Flash thing I did yesterday that I spend a lot of time just watching it unfold.
Of course, I've noticed some minor motion problems, which I will at some point correct.
It's just such a nice feeling to have done something.
Anyway, all for today. See you tomorrow.
Friday, August 26, 2016
August 26, 2016 (Fri)
Thought some more about making a Flash animation to go with what I recorded the other day. In fact, I did a preliminary run in Flash, just to see how it would work, and then created some images in PhotoShop to animate.
As an aside, Flash is awful as a drawing package. Yes, it does vector-based things, but it's really difficult to get anything with any kind of realism.
Anyway, that's all so far.
Later that same day: I actually did some "real" Flash work. Imported the Photoshop graphics and made, for me, a kind of impressive starfield sequence. Not finished, of course. But a start, and looks pretty good.
Flash is still not terribly intuitive, and it's way too easy to make dumb moves, but hey, it's something.
Got a text from a friend who's not doing too well. Did my best. Hey, it's something.
Watched "Get Low." Robert Duvall is just brilliant.
And that's it for today. See you tomorrow.
As an aside, Flash is awful as a drawing package. Yes, it does vector-based things, but it's really difficult to get anything with any kind of realism.
Anyway, that's all so far.
Later that same day: I actually did some "real" Flash work. Imported the Photoshop graphics and made, for me, a kind of impressive starfield sequence. Not finished, of course. But a start, and looks pretty good.
Flash is still not terribly intuitive, and it's way too easy to make dumb moves, but hey, it's something.
Got a text from a friend who's not doing too well. Did my best. Hey, it's something.
Watched "Get Low." Robert Duvall is just brilliant.
And that's it for today. See you tomorrow.
Thursday, August 25, 2016
August 25, 2016 (Thurs)
Not much today. Some more PhotoShop trivialities. More thinking about a potential Flash animation...now that Flash is the internet pariah...but never mind that.
A bit of paid work. I should mention that "paid work" means that I get to pay my bills and so forth, so it tends to take a higher importance in the day. So, in other words, if there's a chance to explore Maya a bit more, or help a client recover some files, well...
1 helps with creativity.
2 helps with paying bills, and staying alive.
Sorry, #2 takes precedence. I kind of suspect that will be my epitaph...but then, there are worse, aren't there?
See you tomorrow.
A bit of paid work. I should mention that "paid work" means that I get to pay my bills and so forth, so it tends to take a higher importance in the day. So, in other words, if there's a chance to explore Maya a bit more, or help a client recover some files, well...
1 helps with creativity.
2 helps with paying bills, and staying alive.
Sorry, #2 takes precedence. I kind of suspect that will be my epitaph...but then, there are worse, aren't there?
See you tomorrow.
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
August 24, 2016 (Wed)
Nothing much today. I've been thinking about what I recorded on Monday...maybe work in a Flash animation. Maybe.
Took a couple more lessons in Maya. It hasn't quite fallen into the "conceptual breakthrough" category--it's way too complex for that--but it's getting a bit clearer. I need to practice the lessons a LOT before I go on.
Some PhotoShop stuff, for the group and for SoSF. And a few photos of a nice sundown.
So, thumbs slightly up for today.
Took a couple more lessons in Maya. It hasn't quite fallen into the "conceptual breakthrough" category--it's way too complex for that--but it's getting a bit clearer. I need to practice the lessons a LOT before I go on.
Some PhotoShop stuff, for the group and for SoSF. And a few photos of a nice sundown.
So, thumbs slightly up for today.
Tuesday, August 23, 2016
August 23, 2016 (Tue)
Lots of driving today, and a bunch of paid work. All of which left me rather too exhausted to do anything creative.
If it's any consolation, I did look at the recording equipment I used yesterday, and felt...a bit of fondness. Could be a break in the ice, who knows.
If it's any consolation, I did look at the recording equipment I used yesterday, and felt...a bit of fondness. Could be a break in the ice, who knows.
Monday, August 22, 2016
August 22, 2016 (Mon)
So, restarting this blog has had its first effect.
Today, around 9:30 PM or so, I decided I'd do some recording. At around 10 I stopped, with three tracks, one of saxophone and two clarinets. Since I play both badly, it's not really music but the results were interesting. Moreso than I expected.
I need to relearn how the equipment works. The first track (saxophone) is very low in volume. That can probably be fixed with Audacity or some other software I own, but it would be nice to reduce the need to rely on post production.
Interestingly, I was really angry setting up the equipment. I think my lack of motion on any projects was fighting back as I was trying to fight it. I wonder if that will get easier or more difficult.
Other than the recording, I got some photos of the sunset. Tired most of the day.
Today, around 9:30 PM or so, I decided I'd do some recording. At around 10 I stopped, with three tracks, one of saxophone and two clarinets. Since I play both badly, it's not really music but the results were interesting. Moreso than I expected.
I need to relearn how the equipment works. The first track (saxophone) is very low in volume. That can probably be fixed with Audacity or some other software I own, but it would be nice to reduce the need to rely on post production.
Interestingly, I was really angry setting up the equipment. I think my lack of motion on any projects was fighting back as I was trying to fight it. I wonder if that will get easier or more difficult.
Other than the recording, I got some photos of the sunset. Tired most of the day.
Sunday, August 21, 2016
August 21, 2016 (Sun)
Well, it's been nearly three years since I've written an entry here, and I think it's about time to restart.
I feel I've been accomplishing less and less these days, and I have practically no enthusiasm for anything.
Perhaps by forcing myself to write an entry every day, I'll push myself a bit and start getting stuff done.
Main projects right now are to learn Adobe Flash, learn Autodesk Maya, and so some recording projects (unspecified).
To the first two, I recently purchased a lifetime membership in vtc.com which has training videos for both.
Today, I went out and shot some photographs. Since I do that pretty much every weekend, it doesn't really count as a creative endeavor.
Anyway, we'll see how this goes.
I feel I've been accomplishing less and less these days, and I have practically no enthusiasm for anything.
Perhaps by forcing myself to write an entry every day, I'll push myself a bit and start getting stuff done.
Main projects right now are to learn Adobe Flash, learn Autodesk Maya, and so some recording projects (unspecified).
To the first two, I recently purchased a lifetime membership in vtc.com which has training videos for both.
Today, I went out and shot some photographs. Since I do that pretty much every weekend, it doesn't really count as a creative endeavor.
Anyway, we'll see how this goes.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)