Instrumental Anime Project

[Flint the Dwarf]

One thing that could be an inside-joke of sorts is 'Liquid Dream ProjeKct'

I like that one.

[rose4emily]

And to think that I stumbled into "Instrumentality" as a wordplay for "instrumental" and "mentality". Never saw all of those other meanings, allusions, and interperetations coming.

And then I settle upon an all-Gainax cast, and mostly Gainax sountrack, for the narration and "extras". Maybe I have some sort of bias.

Anyhow, I do plan on animating the narrators a bit, but will keep them to the side of the screen for most of the talking out of respect for the numerous people who just want to see this thing finished. While lip-synching a few phrases for the Intro and the opening of the widescreen "second movement" seems like a really good and relatively feasable idea, I don't think it's practical for the whole thing.

Actually, as I remember, there were whole conversations in Evangelion that visually consisted of nothing but an unmoving still of two characters. No panning, no moving lips, nothing. Forget Gainax's tight budget, we're working on an operational budget of Nothing. Or should I say "Rei"? Zero, in any case.

Name symbolism is fun. Though I believe the meaning most commonly attached to "Rei" as a name is "grateful". Since Rei said "arigato" all of once, to the best of my recollection, in the whole of Evangelion - and mused to herself about how strange it felt to say it - I don't think "grateful" would be the meaning they had in mind. More probably one of the less common meanings, such as "cold", "instance", or "soul".

I've also discovered that using the "news-room" setup with a large screen to the side of the narrator has the added bonus of making the narrative slides big enough to actually be seen clearly by someone at a reasonable distance from the screen. I think this is a good thing.

----

how about "Point of Emergency", while I'm prusuing now-obsolete original definitions as a naming sceme for your new project? Or "Point of Emersion" if you want it to sound less threatening and don't mind careless readers thinking you just mentioned a Transcendentalist poet and essayist.

[rose4emily]

Oh, and:

Can anyone connect to my FTP server? I've been able to use it from behind the firewall, but I'm wondering if outside access is somehow being blocked under my new ISP. I do notice, though, that some clients will connect (including Internet Explorer, of all things) and upload, while others (including the basic text-based Unix FTP client, of all things) refuse to, citing that they can't "find a path to host". I have no idea of what's up with that.

Pen-Pen: Are you trying to connect using an IP, or using the "thewired.info" domain? The IP has changed a few times since I last posted it, but I try to keep the domain pointed at the right address everytime it changes.

Perhaps you should try the domain and (I can't believe I'm suggesting this) IE. Type:

ftp://instrumentality:firstchildren@thewired.info

and it should let you in and allow you to upload. I now have 11 GB of free disk space on the partion containing the "instrumentality" FTP folder, so there should be no problems with me running out of room mid-transfer.

[pen-pen2002]

Then there's the little matter of how I didn't do all that great a job of directing the first project. Servers going down, parts of the project (many of them mine) being completed way behind schedule, trying to decide everything by referendum... hardly an efficient operation. This time, you should really have someone who has either a considerable degree of experience or a lot of free time, preferably both. I had neither, and am afraid that it shows in the fact that the first project is still incomplete.

Bah. I said it before and I'll say it again, you did a fine job with this project. It was a wild ride but we did it together, and that conts for a lot more than some artificial deadline.

As for the intervideo segments, I retract my statment of impacience. This is what is going to bring it all together and preserve the flow from video to video. This is what makes the project a project and not, say, a studio. Do the best job you can and no one will fault you for it. It will be finished when it's finished.

I can connect to the FTP (I was trying ftp(dot)thewired.info, I just took off the "ftp" part) I will try to get the huffy uploaded this afternoon. In exactly 2 weeks I will be getting home and if the project is not done I will upload a fixed version without the typo and the audio leveling error at the end.

While I'm on the confidence-boosting/self-depriciation-blasting agenda:

Otohiko- You have the credability already. In fact, if anybody has the qualifications for such a project (projeKct) then its you.

[downwithpants]

i like liquid visions

rose: yeah, i don't think lip synch is necessary for the narratives. this is an instrumental project after all, and we're trying to shift focus off vocals.
also, i can connect to your ftp, but i dont see any folders when i do. don't worry about how long this is taking. better to take extra weeks to improve quality and check for mistakes than rush things and mess it all up.

[rose4emily]

Um, yeah... there are no folders within the FTP folder.

Now that I look at it, there probably should be an inbox if anyone is going to upload anything, thanks to the way the permissions system works. My bad.

I just removed everything when I archived the old files from the project and forgot to put the "Inbox" back in. Just fixed this little issue, though, so it should no longer be a problem.

---

Otohiko's weird-ass "Assumption of Innocence" video did make me consider using the Freshmen Advisor guy from Kare Kano instead of Gendo as the male narrator. He still has the "old guy with glasses" thing going on, but is definately more likable, and won't have people thinking things like:

["Soul Education" intro] .... It's Gendoooooo!

every time he shows up on screen.

Now, for the elevator scene, I will be replacing our red-haired blue-eyed and blue-haired red-eyed friends with the two narrators, just to tie everything together. This will be done as a hand-drawn image and given a nice sepia-tone look.

---

I have now moved on to making the portion of the intro consisting of actual character images and so forth. For the moment, I'm experimenting with using a mix of image manipulation and Flash. Soon, though, I'll have to see if I have any luck exporting the Flash to video before I can finish the intro/narratives in this fashion. I also have to scan my drawings for the trumpet and timpany animation that will form the very beginning of the introduction.

[Otohiko]

I still have no idea what this narration-with-characters thing you're doing is going to look like, but from the description, it's definitely interesting. I suppose we won't see until the final draft.

And yea, don't rush with this; seeing as you're (again) trying to do something unusual there, I don't think we should interrupt. And I still haven't seen what came of 13'37", which is also something I personally look forward to (it was definitely coming together as something rather odd and interesting last I've seen it - v 1.3 I think)

[NeoQuixotic]

rose4emily When you finish this whole thing remind me to take you out for ice cream. Even better, ice cream for all ! You must be busy 24/7, meaning you are working on this project in your sleep! I thank you for all your hard work and continuing work. You are a role model for us all to get off our lazy arses and work on something constructive. If you need any help feel free to ask me ^_^.

[rose4emily]

13'37" hasn't changed much in a long time. I reached my practical limit as an editor on that one, and the only way to fix the many little issues I've noticed in it would be to redo the whole thing from scratch with all of the knowledge I've gained from working on my video editing app, writing the (still unfinished) Linux Video Editing guide, and from working with all of you. That, and using the DVD sources I couldn't afford when I made it the first time. I am trimming off a few seconds from the beginning of the version in the test renders, as the first few seconds are incredibly weak in comparison to the rest (nevermind in comparison to such freakishly pretty and well-edited videos as "The Wasteland" and "Forbidden Memories" - Helen has shown talent I never thought I'd see in a "first video", and skill I still dream of posessing), and don't add anything to the story. Sure, it'll ruin the tie between the video and its title, but I'd rather do that than put those particulary weak first cuts right after Bakadeshi's beautiful entrance.

It looks like the Flash thing is going to work. Before anyone starts worrying about the narrations looking like a typical crappy Flash animation, however, I'd like to say that I'm actually using Flash primarily as a means for conveniently manipulating raster graphics, so it is coming together as an unusually smooth handmade animation rather than anything you would see and think "Oooh, that's must have been done in Flash". What we are gaining from the whole Flash thing is mainly the ability to pan around the set and zoom in and out from the screen in something much cheaper than After Effects (at least considering I'm using the 30-day full features trial version, though I might actually buy the student licence if I like it and want to use it for any web development). I could do all of this in the GIMP as well, but it would take forever and be hard to fix if I (as I inevatably do) screwed it up the first time around.

Argh....now I have to actually use that Windows partition I've kept hanging around on my laptop. Better than waiting a year for the first version of my own suite to be done, though, and I will probably pick up some nice ideas on interface design in the process, so it's probably for the best.

---

Strange thing about installing Flash, through. I tried downloading the free 30-day trial from Macromedia, but the file I got from there wouldn't unzip and I couldn't install it. Determined to test this Flash thing out, I then resorted to doing something I haven't done in over two years, and ran a search for it on a p2p network. So I download the "cracked" version, but find that it's nothing but the trial version with a serial number for removing the 30-day restriction. Thrilled that I was able to install Flash and continue my unconditional boycot of pirated software (something about a software developer stealing software seems a bit sick, especially given the number of perfectly good applications that other friendly developers give away for free), I discarded the key and now have the same 30-day trial that I should have been able to obtain directly from Macromedia, and a perfectly clean and legal computer. Now I'm just a little curious as to why the trial version from Macromedia didn't work at all, while the second-hand copy of the same thing bundled with an external crack application worked perfectly, when I had deleted the crack without using it. Somethng doesn't quite add up, and I'm wondering if, perhaps, Macromedia has inadvertently been uploading broken trial versions (remember, it wouldn't even unzip, nevermind install or run, and I tried downloading it from them twice with the same error).

Of course, I'm also equally curious as to why one of the characters from their "Professionals" propaganda... I mean "comic" so closely resembles Spike Spiegal. Blue suit, yellow shirt, large messy mass of dark hair. Seems a bit much to be a coincidence.

---

Genius idea for the computer security and anti-piracy people, though:

Run a little routine every time the application starts up, and perhaps on other events as well, such as saving a document, that checks to see whether the computer is attached to the internet and then checks the application's key against a central registry if the computer is online to determine whether it is legitimate. Have it throw up some nasty Big-Brother style message and then uninstall itself, leaving marks all over the registry or file system to show that it was there. Then the pirates wouldn't be able to get away with just putting some serial number in a box through a "telephone registration" procedure - they'd have to stay off of the internet entirely while the program is running. Just an inconvenience, but I think it could be a very effective one. It could be made even more effective if certain key application features are tied to the internet, but this would actually inconvenience legitimate users on laptops or without internet service. I think Microsoft might have had something like that in mind when they put half of the MS Office help on some online resource rather than packaging it with the suite for local storage and access. Unfortunately, very few people actually use the help, and those who do tend to get very angry if they can't get to it when they need it. Consequently, I think my first idea is the best one, as it wouldn't hinder paying customers, and would throw a major hurdle into the path of illegal users, or else force the crackers to learn some real skills and alter the obfusticated internals of the application without breaking it (something that must be nearly impossible with the complex and already buggy applications being produced today) rather than just using decade-old password generating utilities like the programming pansies they are (awaits retribution from angry script-kiddies, too bad for them I don't use Outlook for my E-mail and randomly open .vbs files ).

---

Ice cream sounds great. I don't know about the role model part though, I've also been periodically not attending class in my sleep. Not that that has anything to do with this project, I just can't seem to develop a normal schedule. Thanks to this little bad habit, I now have to retake Differential Equations - like I'm not finding it dull and frustrating enough the first time around. Oh well, maybe I'll be able to keep up if I learn it in two passes instead of trying to get it all in one.

[NeoQuixotic]

Ice cream sounds great. I don't know about the role model part though...

Well I said that to cheer you up if you were tired of working on this project and to thank you for bringing our little group of editors together. Thinking of editing, I should go do some . Well cheers to you all!